This is the beginning of my journey to health. My name is Robert Fluegel, I live in St. George Utah, and I am obese. In fact the doctors and the BMI scale would say morbidly obese. The purpose of this blog is to act as a journal for my journey through the process of getting healthy. Only a part of that journey is losing weight. I truly want to look back on this day as the day it all started. The day I began the process of adding years to my life. Right now, at the rate I am going, I doubt I have more than ten years left.

First, a little background. I grew up in Freeport and Rockford IL loving all things sports. On a humid summer day it would not be ridiculous to see me playing basketball in the morning, baseball in the afternoon and tennis in the early evening with my uncle. My parents got me a swim pass several summers which I would use almost everyday. I played baseball in little league, football and basketball for church teams from 12 on. Yet I began developing a belly when I was in high school. Even with all the sports I was playing and with working out I always had a belly and was overweight from my sophomore year forward.

After school I left for two years on a church mission and although I rode bikes and worked out when I could I put on about 30 pounds. I came home weighing about 225 which was the largest I'd ever been. I remember feeling so fat and out of shape. I immediately began playing sports when I got him, I took up downhill snow skiing, I played racquetball and really immersed myself in lifting and basketball, sometimes playing as many as 6 days a week. Up to that point though I had never dieted or tried curtailing what I ate. At the age of 23 I married my sweetheart and embarked on a new phase of my life. I remained active but not as much before when our first set of twins came along a year later. I began that year working behind a desk 8 hours a day for the first time. The weight began inching up a little here and there during those years until I passed 250 and then 275 only a few years later. I was now playing basketball only once a week or two and again not worrying about what I ate. We moved back to Illinois in 1996 and I was as large as I'd ever been topping the scales at 290 pounds. It was then that I tried the diet drug phen-fen. Suddenly my appetite was gone. My metabolism kicked into high gear and I was losing weight, easily, without trying or dieting. I finally leveled off at 215 and felt terrific. I was back in pants sizes I hadn't worn since high school. The cost of the drugs began to be onerous so I weaned off the drugs and set out on my own figuring I could always go back on if I put any significant weight back on. Unfortunately when that did happen phen-fen was removed from the market so that option was gone. I tried just phentermine but it didn't work for me. A few years later I began to travel as part of my job, leaving on Sunday night and returning home Thursday 3 weeks a month. This did not help my situation. I was now eating out every meal most of the week and not making healthy choices, most often supper was a delivered pizza to my room. I was more sedentary than ever and the weight returned with a vengeance. It was then that I first decided to try changing my eating habits. The first diet I tried was the Carboholics Anonymous diet which essentially consisted of low carbing two meals a day and then a reward meal of any food I wanted but kept with a 60 minute period. I know that is a very bad description of it but that is what I did and crazy enough it worked. I lost 40 pounds back down to 250 and felt really good. I wanted to lose another 50 though and when I plateaued my weight loss ended for good. I eventually became tired of trying and not losing so I began eating "normal" again. This time my weight passed the 300 pound mark for the first time. All the way up to 320. In 2008 I heard about a new weight loss drug being tested and got accepted into the trial. It was a drug combining phentermine and topiramate, an anti-seizure drug. Well again the drugs worked on me. I went from 320 down to 265 and not only that I felt more focused and able to get on and stay on task better than any period of my life. The only problem was the trial ended and I was back on my own. Again the weight came back even despite my efforts at low carbing and other diets. Nothing seemed to work for long.

So skip forward to today and I am bigger than I have ever been. My starting weight is 367 pounds. I can't believe I've let it get this high and yet I'm not shocked. I no longer play sports, my back kills me if I stand too long. I eat large portions of carb-loaded foods and drink sugar filled vitamin waters 3 or 4 times per day. I am 46 and know that if I don't change things I will never see 66. In fact I may not see 56. It is time to make some big changes to my life so that the age I am now is the middle, not the end.

Here is my plan:

1) A strict low carb, low calorie diet of mostly white meats like chicken, turkey and fish along with safe vegetables until I get within 20 pounds of my desired weight which is 200 pounds. 2) Some form of low impact exercise every day until I lose enough that my knees and joints can handle more high impact exercise. 3) Weight lifting to boost my metabolism and replace lose muscle mass as I lose weight. 4) I would like to start or join a support group for others struggling with their weight. I think I need to explore the emotional aspects of this problem as well and learn how others are coping. 5) I will map out my meal plans a week ahead so I am not wondering what I will eat for the day. I think this will be a key component to my success or failure. 6) I will find the right supplements to boost my metabolism and vitamins to keep me healthy throughout and after this process. 7.) Write on this blog daily about my experiences, my highs and lows, my meal plans, my losses and gains, my successes and failures.

This blog is for me. If any others happen to wonder over and see it that is fine. If not, that is also fine. My diet starts on Monday. In between now and then I will be posting what I hope is a before picture and my first meal plan for the week. My goal this year is to lose 100 pounds. I know it is possible to lose more but I think that is a significant enough goal for now.