At 5-foot-2, I once weighed 340 pounds. I used food as a tool to numb a painful and traumatic childhood. I also struggled with alcoholism and smoked two packs of cigarettes a day. I suffered from high blood pressure, severe heart palpitations, a few bouts of atrial fibrillation, gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), and several autoimmune […]
I’ve always been athletic. In college, I played a few years of football and then joined the competitive cycling teams. But proper nutrition was a missing piece for me. I grew up on a typical Southern diet, with lots of pork, chicken, and veggies cooked in fat, and I continued to eat that way as […]
What Is Obesity? Obesity is defined by a body mass index (BMI) of greater than 30. BMI is a simple metric that calculates your weight-to-height ratio (kg/m2). Though BMI has its limitations (it doesn’t measure body fat or consider weight distribution), it offers a frame of reference for estimating whether you are underweight, normal weight, […]
James William Booth had given up on dieting and given in to sugar and cheese addiction. But when weight gain and diabetes threatened his life, he decided to again try changing his lifestyle. I never had problems with my weight or health in general as a young adult in my 20s, even though I smoked, […]
