Begin at the Beginning

Most of you know that I've been a big guy all my life. As a HS wrestler at my fittest, I weighed 220 lbs. I've been up and down many times, but mostly up.

Fortunately, I'm in pretty good shape for a guy my size. I mean, I don't have heart problems, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, or diabetes. I can hike around campus with a 20-lb backpack and do it while having a conversation with my 20-something classmates. I can grind out 30 minutes of cardio on the elliptical without feeling like I'm going to die.

But I just can't lose weight and keep it off. And believe me, I've tried. I did Weight Watchers and Nutrisystem back in the 80s. More recently, I did Atkins, South Beach, and even a medically supervised diet a couple of years ago. Everything worked... for a while.