Something happened! I can lose weight, but a few years ago I could not.

The first time I remember being overweight is in fifth or sixth grade. I'm a bit taller than average for a man, 6' 1" (1.85m) and weighed about 200 lbs (90.7kg) out of high school. We had moved during high school, three times, and schools didn't allow first year students to participate in competitive sports; thus, I wasn't allowed to play ball. That suited me, because I was an abused child and a loner.

From that time, when I realized I was overweight, I hated my body and wanted to be thinner. I tried, again and again, for around 30 years to lose weight, and failed again and again. Of course, I gained weight during that 30 years, and weighed around 300 lbs by the time I was age 50. The turn of the century, in 2000, I had a heart attack and back surgery. My doctor said it was probably due to my diet (curse the extra weight, again) causing plaque to develop in my blood vessels, which restricts flow to all the bodies organs, which tends to permanently damage our organs, and reduce life span. Though I knew what was happening inside, I could not change my eating habits for another dozen or more years. My body continued to get worse.

Shortly after my back operation, pain began in my left foot, the three little toes, that was almost as bad as the back operation itself. On a 0-10 scale, if back surgery is 10 pain, my toe pain was 8 and sometimes 9. Diagnosis: neuropathy. Six pain specialists later, I concluded there was nothing modern medicine could do to lessen the pain. I had to live with it. It lasted more than five years. I gained weight until I weighed around 450 pounds (204 kg). These were among the worst days of my life.

Of course, things can always get worse. I'd developed lymphedema, which wasn't caused by cancer treatments; thus, must be genetic and/or associated with being overweight. My right thigh has a mass of ten or twenty pounds (5-10 kg) of lymph vessels and fluid, which was even larger when it started oozing lymph fluid through my skin. It caused a wound between my thighs the size of both my hands. The left leg was similar but not as bad. I got a systemic infection and spent 8 weeks in the hospital with an antibiotic IV drip for six weeks. They said that my kidneys had been damaged a little.

For three months prior to my hospital stay, I'd finally managed change my eating habits to plant-based whole-foods (vegan of sorts). My foot pain had gone away and the hospital doctor took me off blood pressure medication. "What the?" As far back as I can remember, being overweight caused high blood pressure, yet I was 450 lbs. Diet reduced my blood pressure, and eliminated my foot pain. That was as close to a miracle as I've ever experienced; it was also an epiphany. I became wed to the plant-based whole-food diet. Then I joined Battling Obesity, and met Dot, who said posting her eating amounts every day, a diet diary, helped her meet her diet goals. It also worked for me, which resulted in another epiphany. Writing my diet results, telling all of you, gave me the courage to actually lose weight. Practicing the skill of eating less gave me experience with controlling my hunger.

At this time, I've been losing weight for a couple of years, I've lost at least 125 lbs, about half of my goal. The practice of successfully dieting to lose weight has increased my confidence, and without Dot's suggestion to keep a diet diary, I'm pretty sure I would have failed again. Thanks to BO and Dot; I'm on my way to 200 lbs or less.

AFAIK the plant-based whole-food lifestyle is as good as it gets. I recently had an angeogram in which the doctor ran a camera through my blood vessels from the elbow of my left arm through my heart and down into my left leg till she could see about half way down my left calf. She said there was no plaque. In 2000 there was plaque that caused my heart attack. I have two stints in my heart. Plant-based whole-foods cleared the plaque! My organs are now getting fresh blood.

I know other diets can work. It really depends on one's motivation whether dieting will work or not. Any way one can lose weight is a good method.

I suppose the success of plant-based whole-foods lowering my blood pressure and removing my foot pain, and clearing my vessels of plaque has convinced me it is a great thing. In addition, eating plants is much easier on the environment than eating meat. Perhaps the best thing is that eating plant-based I don't get very hungry, as I did when I ate meat.

The plant-based whole-food lifestyle is similar to other natural lifestyles with more older healthy working people, including the Mediterranean diet and the traditional Japanese diet.