I long thought of myself as a healthy fat person. I was active, able to do physical labour — one of my hobbies has been blacksmithing, and was not physically limited by my obesity. My blood pressure was normal and I had no problems with a cardiac stress test.
But in the year following my 50th birthday, things started changing rapidly. My knees started complaining as I went down stairs. I developed high blood pressure. The edema in my legs caused open sores. I developed type II diabetes, and my sleep apnea, once controlled by surgery, came back.
I was not pleased with these developments. I was no longer a healthy fat person. I was a person with a great number of health problems tied to my obesity.
In 1967, at 5'6", I graduated from high school at 180 pounds. I knew I was fat then. Four years later, I was at 220. When I married in 1983, I weighed 275. In September 2001, I weighed 335.
In January 2002, I had a new sleep study that confirmed the return of my sleep apnea. Later in the month, on a Friday I received an electronic newsletter from the American Diabetes Association reporting on a study that showed the effectiveness of weight loss surgery for morbidly obese folks that had Diabetes II. The following day, the respiratory therapist brought me my new CPAP. As he was leaving, a rather fit looking individual, he said that I might like to explore http://pacificsurgery.com He had lost over 100 pounds in six months and did not look like he had ever been fat..