Foreword

 

One month shy of my 30^th birthday, I stepped on a scale and it changed my life! Unfortunately, it took another 6 years for the change to fully take place. For it was not this event alone that would be necessary to affect this change; but looking back now, I realize that it was, in fact, the ultimate catalyst in creating the man that I have become today. 

  I immediately realized two things when I stepped on that scale in the employee bathroom at my place of work. Firstly, I had let myself become oblivious to the consequences of my choices. It is significant that this was maybe the first time in five years that I had bothered to weigh myself, although it was visibly obvious that my weight had become an issue, even to the point of adversely affecting my health. Secondly, that I had somehow, quietly and progressively, become nothing more than a consumer. For though the digital display on the chrome accented glass scale was the only immediate indicator, I knew what the scale could not read…that my whole life was dictated by absorbing all pleasure, sustenance and amusement that I was able to avail myself of.

  The idea of being a consumer may not be alarming to some, but for me I knew it to be a pursuit ending only in misery. My upbringing had taught me that the loftiest ideal was that of helping my fellow man whenever the need or opportunity presented itself. The fact that I had allowed myself to slip so far down the scale to become nothing more than a vehicle of consumption scared the living daylights out of me. It could ultimately mean illness, loneliness, and if the house of cards were to fall in just the right direction, even death.

  Now before you, the reader, and ultimate partner in the fight against excess, begin to think me over dramatic, allow me to explain a thing or two. First of all, I did not believe that just because I was overweight my life and habits had become unmanageable. This was only a representation of the total inability that I had demonstrated to turn away anything at all that presented itself for consumption. My eating habits had become a reflection of my lack of will power, and will power was integral to the process of making the necessary changes that would provide the opportunity to live a better and more fulfilling life; or so I thought.

  Therefore, I soon afterward, after a series of other dramatic indicators, determined to develop a method of change; a way to address a problem that was unique in my estimation, but I now know that it is a solution that could benefit many ind