Food Fight!

Winning the Weight Loss War

Ronald K. Theel

Copyright 2011 by Ronald K. Theel

Cover Design by Jeremy Taylor http://www.jeremytaylor.eu

Smashwords Edition

Introduction

Flashback: April 2009

My weight had ballooned to 277 pounds on my six foot frame. Standing on the scale in my doctor’s office was downright painful! I had known that I was overweight, but now it was clear that I was definitely in the obese range. I was 56 years old and often complained about how difficult it was to lose weight as we get older. I guess that was my excuse: the aging process.

One month earlier, I had been diagnosed with epilepsy. I was certain that the two powerful medications I was taking had contributed to decreasing my body’s metabolism. I was lethargic and tired most of the time. In addition, I developed sleep apnea, a disorder that causes pauses in breathing or shallow breathing while asleep, due to the increased circumference of my neck.

I was advised by my doctor that I needed to exercise more and eat less. I thought, “Sure, doc. But how?” I knew that I was headed down the slippery slope to poor health.

Fast Forward: November 2009

Standing on the same scale in the same doctor’s office, the physician’s assistant recorded my weight as 216 pounds, a drop of 61 pounds since my last visit in April. She asked me if I saw the same numbers as she did: 216. I replied “Yes, that’s correct” and went into the examination room to await the doctor. When the doctor arrived, he started flipping through my folder and remarked that someone else’s records must be mixed in with mine because the weight was way off. He even went out to the scale in the hall and weighed himself to make certain that the scale was working properly. The doctor then asked me my birth date to verify that the folder was indeed mine and then said, “Wow, you’ve really lost weight!”