Story:Lose weight and keep it off
By Jean Hansen Advertorial writer Sioux City Journal
Posted: Thursday, October 21, 2010 12:00 am
Charlie Miles of Sioux City has been overweight most of his life. It started when he was a child.
His mother, the youngest of nine children, grew up in the Great Depression. Because of her experience, it was important to her that her children be fed well. She encouraged Charlie to finish his plate, have seconds and eat the "little bit" that was left.
During his childhood, Charlie went up and down in weight, depending on the amount of physical activity he performed. After he got married in 1982, he tried a popular weight loss program, and lost 50 pounds. He slowly returned to his former eating habits and gained back the 50 pounds, plus, weighing in at 302 pounds in 1990.
Wanting to slim down to be a healthy, responsible father for his children, he went back to his former diet program and again lost some weight. This time he went down to 183 pounds. He even participated in the maintenance program to keep it off longer. But as soon as the novelty wore off and he felt he was no longer receiving the positive reinforcement from other people, he resumed his old eating habits.
In late December 1994, his mother died at age 70 after a long two-year battle with breast cancer. Charlie, who was 35 at the time, gained half of his weight back from his loss in the 1990s. Within six months, he was diagnosed with Type 2 diabetes. High blood pressure, acid reflux and clinical depression followed soon after.
Seven years later, on his 20th anniversary with his wife, he was admitted into the hospital for pericarditis, a condition in which the sac-like covering around the heart becomes inflamed. He had open heart surgery to drain fluid from the sac and was hospitalized for three weeks. His weight crept up to 305 pounds.
He returned to his former weight loss program three more times between 2002 and 2007, and went up and down in weight, then he decided, why try? Tired of feeling like a failure and being embarrassed for putting weight back on after everyone had seen him thin, he decided not to do anything about his weight anymore.
After a rough year emotionally through 2008 and early 2009, Charlie hovered just under 350 pounds. Due to his stress, he had no interest in losing weight. Then his doctor who had been taking care of him for 20 years suggested he go to the Mercy Weight Loss Center, a physician-supervised nonsurgical weight loss program for people who want to lose anywhere from 10 to more than 200 pounds.
