In my life I have had three "medical events" spread over the last 25 years, each of which has been associated with medication related complications of weight gain for a year or two, then stabilization and or some weight loss, but never back to my previous "pre-event" weight. I graduated high school at 6'5" and 175 pounds, ballooned to 225 lbs due to medication side effectsover a two year period right around my 30th birthday. At around 40 another medical issue, a new medicine that slowed my heart rate to the point that I could not burn off fat, so another balloon from 220 to 255 lbs. Stable at 250 til 5 years ago (age 46), another new medicine that basically took away any sensation of feeling full at the end of a meal (lack of satiety so I just kept on eating) and I ballooned to 289.5 lbs (never broke 290). Off that med now but only able to drop back down to 270 or so and feeling very fat, with a newly found non-beer beer gut. Through each of these periods I went through the obvious size changes in pants waist and jacket sizes (30 waist to now 42 inches, jacket from a 40 long to a 50 extra long, shoes from a 12 to a 13+ sometimes), but for the past five years I have been pretty stable or losing a little bit at a time, with winters obviously worse than summers. My kilt size, however, over the last couple years has varied little, although the fit of each changes thoughout the year.

For any that care the medical issues that brought about the above series of catastrophic acute weight gain are either no longer a problem or are managed very well for the last five years, and I am for the most part healthy. My biggest problem now is finding time, with a demanding two year old in the house, to get out and get in some real quality exercise time on the bike, etc... Whoever said they keep you young was blowing smoke up our skirts, because my boy at the end of the day makes me feel more tired and old than I was ever imagining when we set out to have him. But I love him dearly and am doing my best to keep up with him. Hopefully he will be out of diapers long before I need to be in them.

jeff