Getting to the point

I've given you my back story, and told you that I'm working out now on the Total Gym, but that is not the reason for starting this blog. It is because I have regained my health by changing my lifestyle and want to encourage older people like me to do the same. Old age does not have to be a time of illness and disipation. As I stated previously my top weight was 386 pounds. At that weight, I suffered from high blood pressure, type II diabetes, high cholesterol, high triglycerides, edema of both legs, arthritis of the spine, and a partial paralysis of my left leg. I was unable to stand for more than three or four minutes without excruciating pain. I was also suffering from depression as a result of my wife's sudden death. To say that I was in poor physical condition at the time is a gross understatement. Being forced to do all the things that I counted on my wife, Judy, to do like grocery shopping, cooking, and cleaning the house all fell on me. This was the second time in my life that this had happened. The first was when my wife, Sue, died of cancer in 1996. At that time, my only child, Karen, was living at home and commuting to college. She was able to help with some of the things that needed to be done. This time was different, as I was alone. I knew I had to do something to improve my health, and I remembered seeing presentations on PBS by doctors talking about ways to do so. I particularly noticed Dr. Joel Fuhrman and his presentation on the end of diabetes. I took notes while watching and began putting into the practice what he was preaching. As I was very unsure of what my financial situation was going to be, I was reluctant to order Dr. Fuhrman's course through my local PBS station, but ultimately, I did. Following his program, I began losing significant amounts of weight, and as I did so my health improved, eventually, to the point where I am now taking no medications and I have reversed or vastly diminished all the problems I catalogued above. This metamorphosis came about by only changing my diet and not my exercise habits, which I was to find later, was a mistake. I now know that exercise is a vital ingredient and improving one's overall well-being. To prove the point, I, who could not stand for more than a few minutes at a time, today pushed a grocery cart around a local supermarket for nearly an hour. This was possible because of the weight loss that has occurred and my belated increase in exercise. More on that later