for your
health
No more
Mr. Fat Guy
HOWARD SCHEIMAN (www.
DoItYourWeigh.com) used to be a
different person. His story is one
of loss. But, in that loss, he
gained—himself.
Scheiman, a Costco member in San Francisco, always
battled being overweight. In
2006, on a visit to his doctor
After for a complete physical, he was
mortified to discover his weight
had hit 427 pounds.
It was all the motivation he
needed. Rather than use an organized diet program, Scheiman
immediately threw out the bad
food in his kitchen and went to
Costco to stock up on the
good. “I bought salad stuff,
the Costco homemade
chicken noodle soup, salad,
marinated chicken breasts
GERRY COURTNEY and salmon fillets and fresh
fruit, and had the beginnings of a
healthy eating program,” he says.
Fearing immediate exercise might literally
kill him, Scheiman waited a week before starting a simple walking program. Over time it
evolved, and, with common sense and determination, he shed more than 150 pounds.
Now that he weighs a relatively svelte 276
(for his 6-foot-5-inch
frame), his health benefits have been equally
dramatic: “My cholesterol went from 289 to
137. My blood pressure
went from 140/110 to
115/70.” His doctor took
him off medications for
those conditions and
also discontinued his
stomach medication.
Before “My doctor said I
should be the poster child
for weight loss,” says
Scheiman. He has kept the weight off for
two years.
Perhaps the biggest change was to
Scheiman’s social life. “My life went from
people trying to avoid me to people wanting
to be around me,” he proudly reports. “I
started dating and now have a great girlfriend. I buy her two dozen roses from
Costco every week.”
Scheiman cautions, “Begin a program
like this only if you are really ready to make
big changes in your life. Nothing is worse
than jumping in all excited, then six weeks
later you lose steam, go back to your old
habits and gain back even more weight.”
—Steve Fisher
WILL KING
