I've had a major weight problem for my whole life. I would have to call it an obesity problem. It's been severely affecting my health for a number of years, and recently became life threatening.

As a child, I was always chubby. I was born with a predisposition to weight gain. Everyone in my family was larger, many of them overweight. My parents told me I had big bones, but I didn't buy it. I asked them why we were so fat, and they didn't know how to answer. They told me that everyone is different, and that I just had to be happy the way I was. That would have been fine, if I could have been only slightly overweight for my whole life, but that changed eventually.

When I was in high school my appetite increased in a very big way. It happens to a lot of growing teenage boys, but me especially. I was always eating, no matter what was going on. My parents noticed. Even though I'd always been big, it was hard not to notice that I was getting even bigger. My clothes no longer fit me, and my parents were having a lot of trouble finding clothes that were my size, but also fashionable. We eventually had to go shopping at the second hand stores and specialty stores, and they could only get me clothing that I didn't like. I was really embarrassed, and ashamed.

I got over that part though. When I went to college, I was filled with all kinds of energy and made a lot of friends. I had the time of my life. Unfortunately I also had a worse diet than any other time in my life. I ate too much greasy fast food, ate junk food for snacks, and had a lot of late night binges. I started gaining weight in a big way, and my friends were worried about me. The change was relatively gradual for me, because I saw myself everyday. So I didn't know what they were talking about. But things went from bad to worse when I hit the 400 pound mark. I became extremely depressed, I no longer wanted to face the world, and I dropped out of school. I didn't know what happened, I didn't understand how I could have gained so much weight. All I knew was that I had to drop it fast.

My doctor told me that all the weight I was carrying was putting me at risk for diabetes and heart disease, and that if I didn't drop it soon I would be in serious trouble. I was scared, and my family was scared for me. They wanted to help me though.

I went on a vegetarian diet. I didn't take it lightly though, I wanted to know what I was doing. I researched it thoroughly and made sure I knew enough to get the proper vitamins and minerals I needed. I got the right supplements, and scoured the internet for healthy vegetarian recipes that were simple enough that I could use.

I wanted to do some exercise too, but I was so big that there was no way I could do it the conventional way. I wasn't going to go to a gym and risk not fitting properly into machines. I wasn't going to run around the neighbourhood and get laughed at. I decided to do it all at home. I had nothing else going on, so I devoted my life to exercise and diet. I had a workout room where I would do an hour every day of simple exercises. I started with situps and squat-thrusts - things I could handle. As I got more and more energy, and lost more weight, I went harder into it and did more advanced exercises, like running on the treadmill and light weight training.

I've only been at it for 5 months now, but I've already lost 130 pounds. I'm still overweight and I know I have a long way to go, but my doctor tells me that my risk of dying prematurely has decreased substantially, and at this rate I'll be the picture of health in no time.