In the beginning...
I have been overweight and obese my entire life. There was a short time, pre-puberty, when I was somewhat "normal" (I have a few pictures that seem to indicate that this was true), but I really don't remember not being overweight. It was part of my identity. It was just the way things were. Over the years, my weight has fluctuated drastically. When I graduated from high school, I was around 200 pounds. I remember being 315 pounds at one point in my career because it was "the highest I had ever been". I went back down to about 215 pounds when I got married in 2003, but the weight slowly started inching up. At one point, I weighed 365 pounds and this was "the highest I had ever been". I worked hard and lost about 100 pounds and all was better. Unfortunately, the weight started creeping up again and I hit 426 pounds, which truly is the "highest I have ever been". Over the years, I have tried every weight loss program you can think of, a...