I am a 47-year old business executive who has struggled with obesity for 28 years. I have never in my adult life been not obese or morbidly obese. I reached 400 lbs in August of 2000, and began to somewhat serious about exercise and diet. I lost about 30 pounds on my own, but then suddenly lost 40 pounds with almost no effort, although I was very tired and thirsty all the time (you guessed it, Type II Diabetes).Since the time of my diagnosis I have been through many, many diet routines, and have lost between 40 and 60 pounds each time, but nothing ever really changed on the inside. This especially drove me crazy because, as a business executive, I focus often on breaking out the spreadsheet, figuring out the problems, and rationally coming to solutions.
I attended a seminar from Dr. Pennings in Post Falls, Idaho and heard two things I had never heard before, which were the real clinchers for me. The first was a discussion of the hormone grehlin and the stomach's role in producing it, what it is supposed to do, and what happens when that gets out of whack. This really spoke to me because I had always felt that there was some kind of overpowering urge to eat in ways that could not possibly be good for me. A true addiction. The 2nd thing I heard that night was that a person with my current co-morbitities had the same mortality rate as an otherwise normally healthy 47-year old man with no other co-morbidities who had just been diagnosed with Stage II colon cancer. When I asked the doctor what the requirements were for a person with Stage II colon cancer, he said, "Surgery."
This was all on the heals of my parents both having very severe health problems in their early seventies, Suddenly I could see that the path I was on was surely a pathway to pain, worse health, a loss of time with my wife and children and early death.
All of this together made me face the fact that I had to have surgery, and use it as a tool to achieve my goals, instead of viewing it as the final option for those who had failed in every other way.
I am only two days out from VSG surgery, but am very hopeful and confident in the future.
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I am a 47-year old business executive who has struggled with obesity for 28 years. I have never in my adult life been not obese or morbidly obese. I reached 400 lbs in August of 2000, and began to somewhat serious about exercise and diet. I lost about 30 pounds on my own, but then suddenly lost 40 pounds with almost no effort, although I was very tired and thirsty all the time (you guessed it, Type II Diabetes).Since the time of my diagnosis I have been through many, many diet routines, and have lost between 40 and 60 pounds each time, but nothing ever really changed on the inside. This especially drove me crazy because, as a business executive, I focus often on breaking out the spreadsheet, figuring out the problems, and rationally coming to solutions.
I attended a seminar from Dr. Pennings in Post Falls, Idaho and heard two things I had never heard before, which were the real clinchers for me. The first was a discussion of the hormone grehlin and the stomach's role in producing it, what it is supposed to do, and what happens when that gets out of whack. This really spoke to me because I had always felt that there was some kind of overpowering urge to eat in ways that could not possibly be good for me. A true addiction. The 2nd thing I heard that night was that a person with my current co-morbitities had the same mortality rate as an otherwise normally healthy 47-year old man with no other co-morbidities who had just been diagnosed with Stage II colon cancer. When I asked the doctor what the requirements were for a person with Stage II colon cancer, he said, "Surgery."
This was all on the heals of my parents both having very severe health problems in their early seventies, Suddenly I could see that the path I was on was surely a pathway to pain, worse health, a loss of time with my wife and children and early death.
All of this together made me face the fact that I had to have surgery, and use it as a tool to achieve my goals, instead of viewing it as the final option for those who had failed in every other way.
I am only two days out from VSG surgery, but am very hopeful and confident in the future.