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So it’s been a while since I’ve written about my weight.
Not because I was skipping out on the “accountability,” that I’ve talked about in the past, but because I just haven’t been concerned with it.
Life events were happening, and being fat didn’t bother me.
Boy did I mess that up.
On July 30, I got married. On Aug. 2, I started having mild chest pains.
After testing and many doctor’s appointments, I went in for a “minor” heart surgery Jan. 10.
I say minor, because that’s what it’s medically considered, but I’m also decades younger than most people when they have this done.
During the procedure, a heart catheterization, we found out that I had a 100 percent blockage in one artery in my heart.
The good news, we caught it early, and from the second the stent was put in, I’ve felt perfectly fine.
The bad news, at 37 years old, I’m now a heart patient.
And it’s my fault.
This isn’t a genetic thing, or a freak accident. It’s from my poor diet and not exercising enough over the course of my lifetime.
Even when I was an athlete, I ate poorly.
When I stopped being an athlete, the weight piled on, up to 450 pounds at my heaviest.
In 2019, when I got sick with a different illness, I decided to lose weight. Starting at around 390 lbs, then, I got down to 295 lbs by March of 2020. I had been writing a monthly column about it as well, keeping our readers updated and holding myself accountable.
We all know what happened then.
And it caused some depression. Depression lead to not exercising, and eating more.
I stopped writing the column.
I stopped counting calories.
I stopped losing weight.
I have few bad habits. I’ve never smoked (more than a handful of cigarettes when I was a teen that is), done illicit drugs or much anything else. When I’d started fighting back on the diabetes, I quit drinking alcohol cold turkey. Food has always been my crutch – and my comfort.
Boy did I need comfort.
The days turned to weeks, turned to months.
As of January, I had gained back almost all of the losses from 2019-2020, and weighed in at 365 lbs.
My diabetes is out of control, mostly because they had taken me off most of my meds when I was doing well, and didn’t put me back on them when I wasn’t. But that’s also on me, I moved and never bothered to find a new doctor.
So now dear readers. I’m putting myself back on notice.
I’m going to make better choices. I’m going to lose weight, fix the diabetes again, and stay heart healthy.
That’s a promise.
Dave Herndon is a multimedia journalist with MediaNews Group, covering the Dearborn area for The Press and Guide. He started with the company in 2009, and has worked at several of their publications, covering everything from high school sports to government, and just about everything in between. He’s been a journalist since 2001, and also has worked in radio and television. In his spare time, he has authored comic books and works on various anthology books both fiction and non-fiction.
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