All throughout school, I was in perfect health, and a good size. I never imagined that I could be at risk for weight gain. I was one of those kids that could just eat and eat and never show it. In grade 10 I was 6 foot 3 and weighed 180 pounds -- mostly muscle. In high school I never fluctuated any in my weight, I just stayed around the same size, which was good for my athletic career. But then it came time to go off to college, and my parents got me a car. That was a big mistake. In college I started driving everywhere that I needed to go. No more walking. It was kind of a pride thing. I also started making use of, of course, the drive-thru restaurants for quick meals. I really believed there was nothing that could touch me, that I'd be young and thin and healthy forever. It never dawned on my that I might be taking a dive with my new lifestyle.

I gained weight hard and fast though. I didn't want to believe it, but it was happening right in front of me. I was not having as much success with the ladies as I used to. And before I knew it, I had to quit the basketball team because I just couldn't pull my weight anymore. Oh and that's not a pun. That kind of crushed me, because I've always loved basketball. It was one of my favourite parts of school life. I knew I needed to do something, and fast. I felt like my mental health was at risk more than anything else.

I began looking into dieting, and the different kinds of diets people go on. They all looked dumb to me though. I mean, I'm a pretty intelligent guy, and I'm not very impressionable. You really have to prove something to me if you want me to go with it. And I didn't see any diet that could possibly prove its worth. And I didn't know anyone who had struggled with weight loss and succeeded. So I decided to take a different plan of action. One day I was talking about dieting with a friend of mine who is into nutrition, and she recommended to me that I try something called Nutrisystem. I didn't like the idea of taking diets, but the thing about Nutrisystem that sounded promising to me was that it wasn't a quick fix, and it didn't promise results -- it just was a tool to help me as I work off the weight. I was excited about trying it.

I started Nutrisystem in December of 2002. Of course everyone knew I was taking it because I was quite open about it. I even joked about it, not imagining that I would be able to acheieve much with it. Not everyone I knew supported the idea. They said that I wasn't doing things the "natural" way or whatever. But, I mean, what is "natural" anyways? Nutrisystem doesn't do anything crazy, it just lowers the appetite, and that's what I tried to explain. Some of my friends were really ignorant and thought it was some kind of miracle diet program.

The first results I saw were within a month of taking a program. That quickly! I noticed that I had already lost 11 pounds. That's no small potatoes for not having done a whole lot of work. I needed more though, I needed to do something proactive. That's when I did the hardest thing I had to do -- put the car in the garage and leave it there. I let my roommates use it, but I gave them strict instructions not to give me the keys and not to give me rides. They loved the idea of bossing me around, and had fun with it. But they knew it was for the best. Now with the inconvenience of being so far from the fast food places and not having a car, I found it pretty easy to lay off the junk food.

Now, after 6 more months of my new lifestyle, I have lost another 36 pounds! I'm back down to a pretty sensible weight, and I have even begun practicing ball again. I think I may be ready to join the team next year.