Good evening! Please call me “Phil”. One year ago, I was sitting where you are and wearing these pants (put on size 60 pants) and this belt (put on size 62 belt). [The audience really reacted to the visuals of me standing in those now too huge clothes.] Do I have your attention?

I will try to allow a few minutes at the end of my remarks for some AMA time (Ask Me Anything). If your question is not too embarrassing, I will do my best to answer it.

I underwent a sleeve gastrectomy on Nov. 6, 2013. This month marks 6 months post-op for me. Since surgery, I have lost 93 pounds. My surgery date isn’t where this journey began.

In January, 2013, I had my first appointment with my new primary care physician. At the end of the appointment, he asked if there was anything else I wanted to discuss. I responded, “Not unless you know of some way for me to magically shed weight.” He replied, “You are not losing weight because it isn’t a priority for you.” Internally, I got angry. Outwardly, I chuckled and said, “I guess you’re right.”

As time went by, I came to understand that what he was saying to me was, “Phil, you are addicted to overeating, and you are not yet ready to take responsibility for your addiction.” I had to admit that he was right about me; food was my drug of choice, and I wasn’t ready to do whatever it took to beat my addiction. My belly was my god, and I sacrificed burnt offerings to it, frequently.

I've struggled with being overweight since I was a child. I like to say that I am a world-class professional at losing weight, but an atrocious amateur at keeping it off.

In elementary school, middle school, and high school, I played football, basketball, and track and field. I was a decent athlete. I was active, training most of the year for each of the various sports I played, but I opted not to play organized sports after high school. I opted to continue eating like I was still an athlete.

When I was 21, my weight had crept up to 276 pounds. Through dieting, I got down to 252. A few years later, my weight got up to 325. Through diet and exercise (via something “behavior modification” training), I lost weight again. By 1999, I weighed 350 pounds and was diagnosed as pre-diabetic, type 2 (my first major health scare). My doctor at the time explained the bad effects of refined carbohydrates and simple sugars and introduced me to a diet called SugarBusters. By following the diet and exercising, I lost almost 80 pounds over the course of two years. By the mid-2000s, I was back up over 350 and was full-blown type 2 diabetic, also diagnosed with high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and sleep apnea. I had to start taking oral medications for the diabetes, the high blood pressure, and the high cholesterol. I was treated with BiPAP for the apnea.

In 2006, my wife and I investigated weight loss surgery at a hospital where we lived at the time (not this facility; this was in southern Indiana). We knew the procedure would not be covered by my insurance at the time, but at the seminar we attended, we were lead to believe to that procedure would cost under $6,000. We later found out that the actual, full cost would be over $35,000. I couldn’t afford that and was crushed, utterly crushed.

Immediately after this disappointment, I purposed to try to eat like I had actually had weight loss surgery, a tactic that was effective, but not something that I was able to do for any real length of time, because… hunger! In this attempt, plus another one, I did lose some weight, but by 2008, I regained it all, plus I went on to end up at 390 pounds.

My diabetes could no longer be controlled with oral meds only, and I had to start taking insulin shots daily. By January, 2013, I was taking 6 shots of insulin a day to control my blood sugar.

Since that visit with my doctor, where he said, “You’re not losing weight because it isn’t a priority for you”, I was burning to prove him wrong. So, in April, 2013, I took advantage of my company’s health club reimbursement program and joined Planet Fitness. I worked out sporadically over the next few weeks. I would do about 10 minutes on an elliptical, going about a half mile. I started taking serious responsibility for my addiction.

Around the same time, we looked at my current employer’s insurance coverage. Lo and behold, weight loss surgery was covered, and we got really excited. Some quick web searches and we ended up at seminar just like the one you’re attending this evening.

My insurance carrier required me to follow a medically supervised diet for 3 months before it would approve surgery. When I learned this, I got an appointment with my doctor the very next day to get the ball rolling (this was May 21). He put me on a 1,500 calorie a day diet. I expressed concern to my wife about being able to stick with the diet so that I could get approved. She told to me not to sweat it and just do the diet halfway. I love my wife and usually take her advice, but this hardened my resolve. I would continue taking responsibility for my addiction and work my butt off to follow the diet. From May 22 to the date of my surgery, I lost 66 pounds.

Weight loss surgery was a tool for me. That is all it can be for you too, nothing more than that. The Lutheran folks here tonight will tell you this; believe them. It is the ultimate tool, but you will still have to wield it. You won’t be cutting down the tree of weight loss with a dull hatchet any longer; you’ll be using the world’s biggest, best chainsaw, but you will still have to cut that tree down.

Food! Your relationship with food is going to change. Run with that. If you undergo a gastric sleeve like me, you are not going to experience hunger like you used to. Really run with that. The staff here will give you excellent information, counseling, and a program to follow. Listen to them, do what they say, ask about what you don’t understand, and follow the program.

Since May 22, 2013, I have lost a total of 159 pounds. I’ve gone down 11 sizes in pants and 3.5 sizes in rings. I am off all diabetic and blood pressure medications, and my bad cholesterol couldn’t be measured by April, 2014.

Before I give my next bit of advice, let me provide you with my qualifications to give it. In April, 2013, I worked out an average of 2 to 3 times a week, going an average of a half mile in 10 minutes on an elliptical. The night before my surgery, I went 8 miles in 87 minutes on an elliptical. After my surgery, on the same day, I walked 2 miles around the hospital floor. The nurse who accompanied me had to stop after a few laps and get back to his job, and the staff told me later that I set the record for walking after surgery. My personal best on an elliptical is 9.63 miles in 65 minutes. Since May, 2013, I’ve worked out over 215 hours and put in over 800 miles an elliptical. Since my surgery, I work harder now than I did before. I now workout 6 days a week, doing such things as lifting weights, ellipticals, racquetball, treadmills, walking, stability balls, snow shoveling, and yard work. What I tell you next, please know that I “walk the talk”.

If you are not already, you are going to have to get active. It will be hard first. It won’t be pretty. But it will pay off. Every time I start something new, it isn’t pretty and isn’t perfect at first, but it gets better. Do what you can, how you can. And then the next day do just a little bit more.

Lift weights. As you lose weight, you’re going to lose some muscle mass too. There’s no way to avoid it, especially if you do cardio workouts. Muscle cells burn energy, even when at rest. Fat cells burn no energy; they are stored energy. The less muscle cells you have, the less energy your body can burn. The more you have, the more energy you burn, the more fat you will pull off your body.

The staff here has told me I work too hard and caution me about burning out. Maybe I do; it certainly seems to fit what I know about my personality. I told you about my activity level for 3 reasons. #1 – As I said - to show you that I “walk the talk”. #2 – I wanted you to know what it took for me to lose 159 pounds in 12 months; diet alone would not have accomplished this. #3 – I needed to emphasize that you will need to get active, and to give you hope that you will be able to do more than you can imagine right now. If someone had told me a year ago that I’d be doing what I am today, I would have laughed at them.

Finally, I feel I need to talk about “motivation”. Motivations can be great; they can get you doing something you don’t ordinarily do. But I’m not into “motivations”. Why? They depend on feelings, and I find that feelings, at least mine, inherently wax and wane; they go up and down, and with them, so does my response to whatever motivations I’m pursing. I’m all about “perseverance”. I just plod through with a determination to persist and a refusal to give up because perseverance overcomes everything. Calvin Coolidge said the following: "Nothing in the world can take the place of Persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination alone are omnipotent. The slogan 'Press On' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race."

Thank you! I wish you all the best and I will now be glad to take any questions you might have.