My Story

I am not a Medical Professional.

My name is Richard Phillips. This is my story. I was obese for many years. After losing a substantial amount of weight, and keeping it off, many acquaintances and friends suggested that I write a book. This is a novel, pardon the pun, approach to weight management, and does not promote a specific diet. It is a process, not a diet. I refer to it as "The Daily Routine" &/or "Eating For Effect."

"The Daily Routine", which plays a large role in managing my weight, glucose, and blood pressure, will be described, soon. But, before I address that process, I want to provide some background information.

History

In the Trenches is a story of many failures, before success. It is a story about a personal war with myself. It is a story about a person who fought obesity for about 25 years (and lost most of the time) and then diabetes, type 2 for about (7) years, before discovering something that would have a life changing effect. I call it answered prayer.

Years ago, in the seventies, weight began to accumulate. I had weighed about 185 pounds in 1973. I was 31 and had become a manufacturing supervisor, specializing in manufacturing administration and industrial engineering-(MTM). I had been at 185 pounds for several years, with minor fluctuations. This was my normal weight. As I rose through the ranks of management, I spent more time planning, and less time directing. Consequently, my physical activity on the job lessened. I decided to supplement my lack of activity with a weekly regimen at the local YMCA, three times a week. This went on for a few years.

As I continued to rise in management, to the position of 'Plant Manager', my responsibilities increased. As a result, I spent more time on the job. I became less physically active, and finally scheduled no time for the YMCA. In my forties, I began to get too heavy, and would go through the process of fighting weight control with radical steps, trying to overcome the excess weight. These were not recommended steps, but were things that I did to lose weight that were absolutely wrong. I had limited success, but was not really addressing the true problem. The real problem remained masked for years.

Metabolism

Some of the radical steps included skipping meals. This happened before I was discovered with type 2 diabetes. After I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes and after I took medication for diabetes, sometimes, I would eat only once a day, in order to get my glucose levels to a safe value. If that didn't work I would skip a day and then decide to eat. If that still did not work, I would skip two days. At the very end of this process, I actually skipped a total of 4 days. At that time, we were looking at the year 2005. I was battling type 2 diabetes as well as obesity, and losing most of the battles.

It is my belief, even though I am not a medical professional, that metabolism is the process the body uses to convert food into energy. Energy equals glucose. The body appears to have a wonderful management system to control a variety of very complex activities. Endocrine glands play a major role in this activity. When we, as human beings, fail to listen to medical professionals who almost always say "eat several small meals a day", we can create a nightmare for ourselves. That is exactly what I did. When we make sudden changes in behavior, such as skipping meals, there appears to be a reaction to those specific changes. It is definitely not favorable. I was guilty of making bad decisions, thinking I was going to achieve my goals, without realizing I was creating the foundation for significant trouble.

After reducing the frequency of eating by skipping meals, in some cases for days and days, the body just seemed to conserve fat at a much higher level and/or degree, and just did not convert food into energy very quickly. Things just seemed to slow down. The end result was, I simply did not lose much weight and other things may have stopped occurring that should have been happening in order to metabolize food adequately.

If you love food and have found yourself rationalizing and thinking about trying to find a way to avoid eating several small meals a day, think about the dilemma that I created.

Yet, there is Hope!

Diabetes Discovered

Let's go back in time, just a bit.

In 1995, I weighed over three hundred pounds. The analog scales, which were not too accurate, actually showed I weighed 344 pounds. I was so large that I could not be seated at a restaurant that had fixed chairs-to-table arrangements. It was also a tight arrangement for the steering wheel in my car and my stomach. I finally began to take more drastic steps to curb the weight problem and did drop to about 275 pounds. Remember, this was the first war. It was the war against obesity, which had lasted for decades. Those drastic steps included skipping meals.

Three years later, it was 1998. It was then that I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. This was an accidental discovery through an insurance examination. My glucose was reported at over 580. My doctor was emphatic about dieting, losing weight, and exercising. He was a good man. A couple of hours prior to the blood test, I had eaten a huge breakfast with sausage, eggs, and pancakes. I knew that probably caused the numbers to be high. I asked him to give me two additional weeks to diet and exercise to see if that would make a difference. He agreed. I took the time, and then took another test. The numbers were lower, but I was still diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. As I grappled with this problem, there were several things I really needed to know. How would I react to medication? Would I have to take medication forever? What effects would diabetes have upon me and what could I do about it? What was diabetes?

Why did I become a person with diabetes? Could this problem be reversed?

This is one of those things in life that I would describe as a major change. My life would not be the same, and there was a certain amount of apprehension. A lot of that was caused by not anticipating the fact that I would become a person with diabetes and not know a thing about diabetes.

Even though this was such an undesired event, it may have been something that ultimately resulted in a positive outcome. This may sound strange, and I did not know it at the time, but, suddenly having diabetes could have been a blessing!

Research

One of the good things that I did was take training in nutrition and diabetes at a local hospital. There was training for several hours over a two week period in each discipline. This was very helpful. Yet, there was a tremendous amount of information that I needed to know in order to get a real understanding of both nutrition and diabetes. I did a lot of research. When I researched diabetes, I would look for definitions and for terms that I did not understand. There were many. Research led me to various new words that I had never heard of or had not previously known. I checked computer encyclopedias like Wikipedia, and searched to understand diabetes. I began to form opinions about such items as Neural Transmitters, the Hypothalamus, the Pancreas, Polypeptide Hormones, and other terms, and the relationships between these components.

After collecting some information, I made some good decisions, but I also made some very bad decisions. Here was a really bad one! For years, prior to being discovered with type 2 diabetes, I had skipped meals, and then, when I did eat, I over-ate. The truth is, eating became an obsessive pleasure. Once I had routinely eaten for pleasure, I looked forward to the experience and actually over ate almost every day! In retrospect, that was an abuse of my system. There were numerous bad effects from years of skipping meals. Yet, at the time, I had no idea what I was doing. I did not know that what I did could cause so many problems. Did skipping meals cause diabetes? It probably did.

Did obesity cause diabetes? It probably did. Did eating giant meals cause diabetes? It probably did. If there was something that people did or could do to cause diabetes, I probably did it. Do I know for certain that these things caused diabetes? No.

As I said before, most medical professionals had stressed moderation, eating frequently, and eating small meals. This advice was not something new, however, I did it my way. That was the wrong way. I did not listen. Furthermore, even though I heard their words, I absolutely did not understand the consequences of doing it my way.

It is one thing to hear something, and quite another to understand it. With me, understanding usually occurs when the "why" is part of the explanation. If I understand the mechanics of what happens, I have a better chance to understand it. If I understand it, there is a better chance that logic will prevail. There is no question that I did not understand the "Why" or the "How" when it came to eating small meals several times a day.

That is not an excuse, but it is a simple or complex fact, depending on one's point of view.

After researching diabetes, a mental picture began to form, and I took certain steps, which did bring my glucose under control. The real problem was, I failed to listen to the professionals and attempted to handle this my own way. I rationalized that if I ate once a day, I could still enjoy many of the foods that I enjoyed at the quantity to which I was accustomed. I said this earlier and repeated it again and will likely keep repeating it. Why? I am sure the reader has a brain and can retain information, but the fact is, I had a war going on and I was losing. Why? The opponent was very powerful. More of the why will be explained later, but just understand this. Part of my obesity was caused simply by loving food, eating food, enjoying food, and focusing on food. But, there is more to it.

So, if I repeat the idea about eating giant sized meals, most of which were the last meal of the day, it is because of a near addiction to the powerful sensations that go along with eating the wrong foods. Bear with me. If you are fighting obesity, my guess is that you will have been fighting the same battles I did, and, you will have suffered losses just like me.

There is Hope.

System Overload

The fact is, I could consume about the same amount of food or more at one time as I would if I had eaten several times a day. At least, that was my (incorrect) thinking. With that line of thinking, there was no thought of how much unnecessary stress that I would place upon my body by eating that much food at one time. In my defense, there was little explanation about overloading the system. What I mean by that is simple. By eating way too much at one time, in order to handle higher levels of glucose, I would have to produce more insulin than I would if I had only eaten a small amount of food. The end result is what I call "System Overload".

The doctors were and are right about eating small amounts of food several times a day. That is absolutely good advice and there are several reasons for why that works. At that time, however, there was little explanation about why. Why should I eat small meals and why should I eat several times a day and why should I eat at the same times of day? I do not know if that has changed (giving the explanation of why), but the fact is, eating large meals creates "System Overload". The more food I eat, the more glucose that is created and the more insulin and other polypeptide hormones that are required to keep the system in balance. That is the main selling point regarding eating small meals. Small meals require less support and large meals require more support. That boils down to the fact that the body is going to have to work harder in order to provide balance for large meals. There are other factors that will be discussed such as predictable eating habits and system programming that all help achieve system balance. None the less, I probably would have done it my way anyway. Remember, a lot of this is what I think. For example, I think that our systems, glucose, weight, blood pressure, and others, follow an internal program. The body expects to create so many hormones to perform so many functions, under certain conditions. When we abuse our systems, we likely help change the programs to our disadvantage. This may not be right, but it is the way that I look at it.

We have to remember the term balance, which is discussed later in this book.

From 1998 through the end of 2002, I maintained reasonably good glucose control, but I remained too heavy and I developed some problems with high blood pressure. Over time, the control of glucose became worse, medicine was added, and finally 2005 arrived, with significant problems.

Although I stepped up the exercise (another good decision), and reduced my intake, (also another good choice), it was not enough. I had to take more oral medication, including more dieting and exercise. For a while, that worked, but, over a 3 year period (2002-2005), control was lost. Even though I had dropped to about 260 pounds, I still weighed way too much and had trouble controlling my glucose.

Since a normal weight for me had been, in the distant past, 185 pounds, two hundred and sixty pounds was still terribly over weight. It was easy to look at it from the point of view that I had lost about 84 pounds. That resulted in a mental position of saying, good for me. That's great! I failed to really understand I needed to reach a normal weight level. I also did not realize what the extra 75 pounds was doing to me, my knees and hip joints, and my system.

I did not understand, yet, there was Hope.

The Trip

In 2005, something happened. My wife and I took a trip across the US that resulted in a dramatic and potentially permanent change in our lives. In fact, several changes were made as a result of that trip.

As we traveled, by car (from Indiana to Oregon), across our great land, I had time to reflect upon many issues. One of the things I re- discovered is we have a big and beautiful country. I discovered something else. When I was home, I was so busy, that I had not taken time to face obesity squarely in the face. I had not really gotten on my knees and asked GOD for help. I didn't take the time to address a lot of things that needed attention. I had forgotten how beautiful America was, because I was too busy with work or too busy doing benevolent things, such as serving the local church, the local Lions Club, the United Way, the Cub Scouts, the Local JayCees, the Chamber of Commerce, &/or the Mexico Community Fact Finding Committee activity. Several local residents volunteered numerous hours to help unravel a long standing problem relating to the discharge of raw sewage into the Eel River, in Mexico, Indiana. The MCFFC was a two year project by itself, and I was the chairman.