In late January 1999, My wife’s mom passed away at age 60, due to a heart attack, which was caused by living for many years with Diabetes. Brenda and I had been next door neighbors throughout our childhood and our families were very close. Her mom was like a second mom to me and her death was very difficult, as a result, I became very interested in learning about Diabetes.
By the start of the year 2000, I was about 5’9” tall and weighed 195 pounds. I was dangerously obese. I had spent the previous year reading everything I could find about diabetes. I had learned that some of the leading causes of Diabetes were believed to be inactivity and Obesity. Obesity and Diabetes are both diseases that are basically BEHAVIOR related. At the time, I also read that the rate of the diagnosis of Diabetes was increasing dramatically. Many experts blamed the dramatic increase in Diabetes on the dramatic increase in Obesity. I also learned that the rates of Obesity and Diabetes were dramatically increasing for children. Many of these same experts claim that because of the epidemic levels of childhood Obesity and Diabetes, today’s children will be the first generation to average a shorter life expectancy than their parents. Today’s parents will be the first generation of parents likely to bury their own children. Genetics were also listed as a common cause of Diabetes. At the time, my 6 year old son was fairly chunky, not yet, quite as overweight as his dad, but when I looked around it was easy to see that overweight adults commonly have overweight children, I was certain that if I continued my lifestyle at the time, I would be leading my son to a life of Obesity and a greater likelihood of Diabetes. I realized that I could not do anything about his genetic risk of Diabetes except pray, but I also knew that if either of my children contracted Diabetes as a result of Obesity, I would feel very directly responsible. I would feel that my lack of control over my BEHAVIOR had inflicted my child with a very serious disease. I was certain that if I wanted to help my children avoid obesity and all the unhealthy side effects, I needed to change the BEHAVIOR of the man in the mirror.
Over the years, I have gotten motivation to lose weight from many things. From saving money, to God's displeasure with gluttony. I would have to say though that my biggest inspiration has always been and still is my wife and kids. I wanted my BEHAVIOR to be a good example for my family.
To learn more about how and why I was able to lose and keep off 55 pounds for over 20 years, you might check out the rest of my Web Site.
The story above is an excerpt from the LOSING WEIGHT PAGE of my Web Site. The LOSING WEIGHT PAGE of this Web Site is my overall story of my journey to a healthier lifestyle.
Thank you for visiting my Web Site. May God Bless you and your family.