From fat to fit

Just over a year ago, Jeff Mines was devoted to junk food and TV. “I had a nice list of shows that I watched from Monday to Friday,” he says. “I would sit down after dinner with a bag of chips and a bowl of ice cream, and watch sitcoms, and ‘Law and Order,’ and ‘CSI’, living vicariously through those characters.”

He’s not doing that anymore
In February 2007, Jeff, 53, married and the father of a 16-year-old son, learned that he was pre-diabetic. A project manager for an insurance company, he led a busy life, commuting an hour each way from his home in Hazlet, N.J., to his office in New York City. He was seriously overweight and was taking medication for high cholesterol and high blood pressure.

Jeff had a lifelong weight problem: “I would have to call myself a food addict. I would eat, ravenously, whatever smelled good or looked good—sausage-and-pepper sandwiches or pizza, I could put away three slices with pepperoni with no problem.” And then there were the M&Ms and handfuls of sweetened cereal right out of the box without benefit of milk or a bowl.

Exercise? No way. Jeff didn’t participate in organized sports as a child, and apart from a few short-lived attempts at weight loss, he didn’t get much physical activity as an adult either.

Facing facts
Jeff’s doctor sent him to a diabetes educator, a cardiologist, an ophthalmologist, and a podiatrist. “Fortunately, my pre-diabetic condition hadn’t damaged my heart or circulatory system, my eyes, or my feet,” he says. He credits his diabetes educator with helping him understand just how serious his diagnosis was: “Although I am pre-diabetic, she kept treating me like a diabetic, as if I were already type 2. I had to keep clarifying that I am not diabetic ... merely pre-diabetic.

She finally said that I am technically diabetic and that, hopefully, if I did my part, I would not need insulin.” Reluctantly, in March 2007, Jeff faced the hard facts: “If I stayed on my current path, I was looking at a possible heart attack or stroke, and insulin injections within five years.

“Like most people, I was resistant to change. I liked all that bad food,” Jeff says. But slowly, he started to follow her advice: “I bought a carbohydrate counter and began keeping a daily food journal, recording everything I ate. I started to make small increases in my physical activity, climbing two or three flights of stairs instead of taking the elevator or parking at the far end of the lot when I was doing errands.”

His wife, Barbara, and son, Justin, are slim and healthy, so Jeff had to make changes on his own. He began to take exercise seriously. “I got reacquainted with my bike and started riding around town on the weekends. I also returned to the gym after years of absence for weight training [to tone and build muscles] and to use the treadmill and elliptical machine [for aerobic exercise].”

Racing ahead
“I found that I really enjoyed cycling and started riding longer distances. I even entered a few organized riding events, including the American Diabetes Association’s (ADA) Tour de Cure fund-raiser. I rode 50 miles for that event, and in September 2007, I rode my first 100-mile event,” he says proudly. He’s looking forward to a 208-mile ride from the northern tip of New Jersey to its southernmost point in one day.

He also began to jog and has completed two 5-kilometer runs, with more planned.

With all this activity, plus healthy eating, Jeff’s weight started to tumble. From a high of 243, it has dropped to 165. His waist size shrank from 44 inches to a trim 33 inches. His blood sugar returned to normal. So did his blood pressure and cholesterol levels. He no longer needs the medications he was taking.

A new look
Jeff has been following the American Diabetes Association diet, which he recommends to astonished friends who keep asking, “What did you do?” to lose all that weight. “I try to keep my carbohydrate intake between 75 and 100 grams per day, and because I’m trying to improve my muscle mass, I make sure to eat as much protein as I can. His favorites are grilled chicken (with no coating of any kind) and canned tuna.

He feels and looks great. “When I was heavy, getting out of the shower and seeing my body in the mirror was a painful experience,” he recalls. Now he looks so good that he has become something of a clotheshorse: “Slacks look so much better on a thin person. I’m wearing slim jeans!” Jeff is so thrilled with his new body and so enthusiastic about his wardrobe possibilities that when he goes shopping, Barbara has to remind him that “there is a budget!”

Lifting weights, not forks
From time to time, Jeff succumbs, briefly, to the temptation of his formerly favorite foods, but not very often. “Since I work out a lot, my stomach has to be somewhat empty, so my gym schedule really controls the infrequent binges,” he explains. He spends two hours in the gym three evenings a week after work and first thing Saturday and Sunday mornings.

Still, he worries that just a forkful of his “trigger” foods could someday throw him off course. When his coworkers celebrated his boss’ birthday with a gourmet chocolate fudge layer cake, Jeff didn’t even taste it. “In my mind, I can’t stop at a forkful. I’m afraid it would send me to M&Ms. I wouldn’t stop,” he explains.

Of course, he is proud of what he has accomplished and says that no food, however delicious, is worth giving up his trim appearance, those slim jeans, his newfound energy, and the positive change in his health.

Bad diagnosis, good life
Overall, Jeff figures that his biggest sacrifice has been his couch potato time: “None of the TV shows I used to watch is important to me anymore. The only television I see is at the gym when I’m on the treadmill or the elliptical machine.”

Clearly Jeff’s new life and the changes he has made agree with him. “In so many ways, this has been the best thing that could have happened to me. I know that sounds weird, but if it weren’t for this diagnosis, who knows how heavy I would be, or what else may have happened to me? It turned my life around.”

Barbara and Justin are thrilled with the changes Jeff has made. “My son is always cheering me on,” says Jeff. He points to a photo taken of the two of them in February 2007—it shows that Justin can’t reach his arms around his dad’s bulk.

He can do that easily now!