cleonard
I graduated from high school in 1978 at 215 pounds. I have always been very active and my hobbies include snow skiing, water skiing, scuba diving, hiking and travel. Everything except travel is now past-tense. My weight gain started when I was actually trying to bulk up playing semi-pro football. I weighed 275 lbs when I met my wife but I was in great shape (for 275 lbs) as I was very muscular. I then blew out my knee and started to spiral up in weight. Other than a couple of yo-yo diets, I have slowly gained more weight each year. i was shocked to weigh 320 in 2001 so I went on Adkins and lost 35 pounds. If you are reading this, then you know what happened next. At this time I also started to notice that my left hip was hurting sometimes. Of course, I was not about to have a doctor look at it regardless of my wifes wishes. It turns out that I have severe ostio-arthritis and will need to have the hip replaced. We will talk about that later as it will probably be replaced in March 2007. The main problem with the hip is that it has become so painful that I can do very little. Walking even a short distance is very hard. As I have become less active, my weight has jumped. Last January, I decided I had to do something as it had been two years since I had skied and my work requires me to travel about two weeks a month and I was barely fitting in the airplane seats. In fact, United would offer to upgrade me to first class all of the time and I was turning it down because the seats are wider but the seatbelts aren't. I am also in New York City a lot and I feel stupid taking a cab instead of walking eight blocks. I have always been very healthy for a heavy guy and the fact that I had moderately high blood pressure this year also scared me. I have four children, Jason 26, Josh 24, Aleena 15 and CJ 14. Jason is getting married in July and I want to be on the path to health for that milestone and I am taking my two teenagers to China in May 2007 for 12 days and I want to make sure that I do not limit what they can experience. I am completely ready for this journey.
