rhpierce79

I am an addict.
 
Food has been everything to me my entire life. Sad? Let's eat! Happy? Let's go out and celebrate with pizza and wings! Promotion? Sweet, favorite [insert place of the week here]. Watching television, playing on the computer, working... it has always involved food.
 
I had a scare a few years ago. Now, mind you, my ticker is in fairly good shape considering my lifestyle and weight, but the signs are all there. I had a bout of chest pain, turned out to be strained chest muscles, and all images showed that my heart was ever so slightly enlarged. Not enough to hurt for now but within five years I'd be in deep trouble. That was strike #1.
 
Strike #2 came when my son wanted to play football for his school. I thought it would be good for him - leadership, brotherhood, toughen up the tenderhearted kid a bit. Plus it meant I could live vicariously through him for at least a season ( haha! ). Yeah, right. I couldn't even get out and practice with him, run with him, show him technique that I remembered from my playing days.
 
A third blood pressure medicine. Weekly migraines. Constant charliehorses and backaches. That was all strike three. I was tired of hurting. Tired of not being able to play with my kids or enjoy a normal sex life with my wife. I didn't want to die
 
Did I mention I was 36?
 
So I started researching the options I had. Dieting never worked for me. I don't know but I would always celebrate my weight loss with a huge meal out. Fail. That's me, outside my career I've succeeded at very little. I struggled as a husband, as a father, and it took thirteen years to become the man on the inside I want to be on the outside.
 
I don't have another thirteen years to make that happen.
 
So, the sleeve it is! No re-routing of organs or messing around with the natural order of things. Just a tool to help limit my intake and force me to make better choices. To learn how to eat. Again. From scratch. The right way this time.