By: Jerry Nix | Freewavemaker, LLC                                          Date Published: 06/03/2024

Is this gonna be what America looks like in 2030? God, I hope not. However, if Americans continue to depend on the government and their doctors for much longer … I’m afraid many, many in America will look this way.

It does not have to happen to you; but it will if you continue to listen to those that are supposed to know and who are sworn to protect you. The politician takes an oath to protect Americans at all costs and the doctors take an oath to “DO NO HARM.” Both are lies that we’ve been dealing with for ages.

Before getting too deep into this piece allow me to forewarn you, I am not a politician nor a medical doctor. I would not make it as a politician because I tell the truth as I see the truth. It’s not always the correct things I say – but I’ll never leave a person guessing as to what I meant to say. I could never be a medical doctor under the terrible “Obama Care Rules” they must follow. It’s impossible for them to live up to their Oath to “DO NO HARM” when you have non-medical people telling them what they must and must not do to keep their licenses. If the medical profession would simply fight back as one entity, they would be able to do their jobs and maintain their license – but like most American’s … they are simply too lazy or too Pollyanna.

The War on Obesity in America:

The war on obesity in America has been a long-standing and multifaceted effort. Let’s delve into some key aspects:

The war on obesity gained momentum in the late 20th century, with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) officially declaring obesity a disease in 1998.

Media campaigns, commercial diet plans, and reality TV shows reinforced the message that thinness equated to health and desirability.

Recently, there have been troubling signs of backsliding:

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) controversially recommended bariatric surgery for teens as young as 13 and weight loss medication for children as young as eight.

Celebrity endorsements led to widespread use of the prescription drug Ozempic for weight loss, causing a national shortage for those with type 2 diabetes.

Social media wellness routines sometimes promote unhealthy practices like extreme fasting and restrictive diets.

Despite progress in separating health from weight, weight bias persists, and the idea that a fat body can be healthy remains contentious.

The war on obesity affected individuals profoundly. As a middle-aged businessman who had little time for anything but work (behind a desk) I suffered from Obesity and High Blood Pressure that caused other health issues.

The fear that “if I wasn’t thin, I wasn’t healthy” could have led to harmful behaviors, including eating disorders, depression, anxiety, and shame – if I would have let it.

Like the war against drugs, the war against obesity has seen limited success despite policy efforts.

A new study examines why policy interventions have had little effect in combating obesity.

According to a Pentagon study, 77% of young Americans do not qualify for military service due to factors including obesity.

The obesity epidemic disproportionately impacts certain segments of the US population. But overall, to say it simply, many Americans are just too FAT!

In 1998, the prevalence of obesity (defined as a body mass index (BMI) ≥ 30 kg/m²) was 17.9% among adults. This means that approximately 1 in 5 adults were considered obese at that time. As of 2022, the overall prevalence of obesity in the U.S. has increased significantly. Nearly 40% of all adults over the age of 20 are currently obese, which translates to approximately 93.3 million people. Every state in the U.S. now has more than 20% of adults with obesity.

The prevalence of obesity varies across different regions:

• The Midwest (35.8%) and South (35.6%) have the highest prevalence, followed by the Northeast (30.5%) and West (29.5%).
• Washington, D.C., falls between 20% and less than 25%.

In summary, the percentage of the American population considered obese has significantly increased since 1998, with nearly 40% of adults currently falling into the obese category. The ongoing efforts to combat obesity remain crucial for public health.

My Story:

I was not always FAT. When I got out of the Army on January 27, 1972, I was 6 feet tall and weighed about 185 pounds. When I went into the Army on July 16, 1969, I was 6 feet tall and weighed only 145 pounds. My friends told me I could stand sideways, stick out my tongue and I’d look like a zipper. So, I was able to put on about 40 pounds in the two years 6 months and 11 days that I was in the military (yea I got an early out) but that weight was all muscle. After getting out of the military I worked as a “carman” for the Burlington Northern Railroad for about 4 years so I was able to maintain low weight and good muscle mass.

Then, in 1976, I entered the financial services industry as a salesperson who (through a lot of study and education) became a financial planner and was tied to a desk or the clients kitchen table for the next 42 years. The muscle turned to fat and the fat made even more fat.

When I retired at age 67 in 2018, I’d been suffering from “Hypertension” so my Cardiologist told me. He immediately put me on high blood pressure medicine in an effort to – I guess – ward off any potential heart or stroke condition (this was actually four years before I retired in 2014). I weighed about 280 pounds at the time and he told me, “You really need to lose some weight.” He did not bother to tell me how or how much. Just that I really needed to lose some weight.

Over the years he tried me on various Blood Pressure Medicines and finally decided that I needed to take 1 Valsartan pill (320 MG) per day. What he did not tell me – and men read this clearly – is that one of the side effects of many Blood Pressure Medicines is Erectile Disfunction (ED). Of course, the drug industry likes this to happen then they can also sell other drugs to combat this like Viagra, Cialis, Levitra and Stendra. More money for the doctors and the pharmaceutical industry.

In my opinion, my cardiologist was doing nothing but treating the symptom of a health problem (high blood pressure) and not the cause of the health problem. Take these pills and lose some weight but don’t ask me how to lose the weight or how much because you will no longer need my miracle drug – was probably his thoughts at the time (in my opinion). I continue to say “In my opinion” to lower the chances of being sued due to this article.

Here are the facts (in my opinion folks):

• The auto mechanic wants your car to be broke,
• The plumber wants your toilets to be stopped up,
• The exterminator wants your house to be overran with cock roaches,
• The accountant wants hard to understand tax laws,
• The lawyer wants you to have some legal misfortune, and
• The damned doctors want you to be sick.

Why, it’s only through misfortune or lack of your personal knowledge do these people make any money. They may care about you personally but they want you to have problems. Notice this article is coming to you free. I care and don’t want you to have any problems … especially those that you can take care of yourself.

The reason I started to see this cardiologist to begin with in 2014 is because I had legs that were swelling around the calf of the leg. Naturally, the first thing he did was check me for “congestive heart failure” since I had father and brother who both had heart issues – even though I told the doctor I had no heart problems. I may have been fat … but I always listened to what my body was telling me. He found no issues with the heart – but said that it was probably caused by my “smoking” cigarettes. Yea right. If you can’t blame weight then blame smoking.

I had a client at the time by the name of Clyde (and I won’t give his last name even though he has since died). Clyde was about 92 at the time and had retired as a family physician that actually believed in making house calls in the small town in south Mississippi in which he lived. I told him my story and he said stand up and let me see your legs. I did.

After a closer examination he said, “Son, go back to that city doctor and tell him the only problem with you is that you are getting ‘old and way to fat’.” He then said some words I’m glad I never forgot … “All you need, Son, is less intake and more output to solve all your health issues.” This from a 92-year-old country doctor!

I love a doctor who tells it like it is. I told my cardiologist and he just laughed – and continued to treat my High Blood Pressure Symptom.

By December 2023 I was fed up with my weight. It was to the point that doctors thought I had COPD because I could not breath very well, was a smoker who could not complete 18 holes of golf (in a cart) and had to withdraw from tournaments on the 13^th or 14^th hole of 18 holes. I was lightheaded and dizzy, falling all over the place. I weighed about 270 at that time.

The drug I was on for COPD (and thankfully I have both Medicare and a good Medicare Supplement plan) has a retail cost of $800 for 30 puffs of Trelegy Ellipta that I pay between $44 and $200 for (depending on if I’m in the infamous “donut hole” set up by Obama Care, or not). At $800 per prescription that’s about $26.67 per puff – and people think smoking is costly!

It was then that I asked my primary physician if there were a pill that would speed up metabolism in Old Fat Men. I was amazed that he said there was. It’s called Phentermine. It is the PHEN in the drug with controversy behind it … Fen-Phen.

As you may or may not know; Fen-Phen, a combination of two drugs, fenfluramine and phentermine, was an anti-obesity treatment in the early 1990s. Let’s delve into the details:

• Fenfluramine: Marketed as Pondimin, fenfluramine acted as a serotonin releasing agent.
• Phentermine: This drug primarily increased levels of norepinephrine and also induced the release of serotonin and dopamine, albeit to a lesser extent than norepinephrine.

Fenfluramine was initially introduced as a single drug in the 1970s but gained limited popularity due to its temporary weight reduction effects. In the 1990s, it was combined with phentermine and heavily marketed as fen-phen.

Unfortunately, fenfluramine was associated with potentially fatal pulmonary hypertension and heart valve problems. Due to these serious side effects, fen-phen was withdrawn from the market in 1997, resulting in legal damages exceeding $13 billion.

Unlike fenfluramine, phentermine was not shown to have harmful effects. Notice that sentence … Not Shown to Have Harmful Effects? My doctor explained that this drug was heavily regulated and that he could only prescribe it for 3 months (1 month at a time) due to state law (Mississippi). It seems that to prescribe more he’d have to register as a “weight loss specialist” which would double his “mal-practice” insurance rates. What nonsense! A doctor that probably would not have to register as a weight loss specialist would probably be a cardiologist … but mine never recommended the drug.

I took one pill per day for 89 days (yea I have the last one left as a reminder).

What did this drug do for me?

It did lessen my appetite a little. I was able to go from two servings of food to one – and it cut down the need for snacks in-between meals and at night while being a couch potato and watching TV. But the most it did for me was to give me an energy kick in the ass. I was not only able … but looked forward to exercising and burning off some of the energy … not realizing that I was also burning off a lot of calories at the same time.

On January 15, 2024, after being on the drug for about a month I weighed in at 260 pounds. I decided then that I’d set a goal of 210 pounds by the end of this year. I’d be happy (as would my doctors, I thought) that I could drop 50 pounds in 12 months. I ordered me a “Fitbit” watch from Google and began my journey. I needed to have some way to track everything. The watch seemed like the ideal answer – and it was.

I started to walk about a half mile a day in January. My watch came in on February 4^th and I wasted no time in setting it up. I thought that half mile per day was enough since it was killing me.

Today is June 3, 2024 and I need to tell you that half mile per day, as of yesterday, has turned into 7 miles per day. Wow! I still have a lot of energy – not from the pills since I no longer take them – but from the loss of weight I am experiencing.

It seems to me that ole Doctor Clyde was right all along … “Son, less in-take and more output!” Oh, I’d give almost anything for doctors who really cared about the patients and less about the income from visits and pharmaceutical rebates in one form or another (my opinion again).

Last week I visited my Cardiologist and he said, “Wow, you’ve dropped over 35 pounds since your last visit. That’s great.” He took my blood pressure (which when I started seeing him was about 160/90) and it was 110/60.

I said, “Okay how about lowering my Blood Pressure Medicine from the 320 mg to the 160 mg tablet?”

He said, “No we are not going to do that yet. I need you to come in, in one month and again in six months to have your blood pressure checked and then we may make a decision to do something else.”

I said, “Doc, I can check my own blood pressure from home. You had me do this for 18 months and the results were sent to you daily and I never heard anything until you wanted to charge me $800 per year for this service. Furthermore, I can cut the 320 mg tablets in half and have my 160 mg tablet.” Needless to say, he did not have much to say. I went home and sent him a letter firing him.

In my opinion it does no good to have a doctor, who for ten years, has done nothing more than doctor a symptom rather than the problem. This very doctor could have helped attacked the High Blood Pressure problem with a few months supply of Phentermine – especially after I’d asked him over ten years (at least one time per year) about a medication that would speed up one’s metabolism and all he said was, “There is not a medication that will do that.”

Well to make a very long story short … with my primary physician’s help (who incidentally is a lot younger than the cardiologist) and the few months of Phentermine he could subscribe to get me started … the results speak for themselves:

This chart you see below is from my watch program that was taken this morning. It starts on February 4, 2024, and goes through this morning.

You can see that in February I weighed 254.2 pounds and my goal was 210 pounds. As of this morning I was down to 222.8 pounds.

This means that I’ve literally dropped 31.4 pounds since February 4^th. Remember in January I weighed 260 so the actual weight loss since January has been 37.2 pounds.

My BMI has dropped from about 37.0 to 30.2 – therefore I’m still considered Obese since my BMI is above 30.

According to my “Lose It” program, where I log my weight each morning, I should reach my goal of 210 pounds by Saturday, August 3, 2024 which is well ahead of my goal to drop 50 pounds in one year.

I think I will be able to achieve my goal sooner than this since my daily walking has recently picked up.

Between February 4^th and June 2^nd, I’ve walked a total of 1,603,500 steps. Since a mile for me is about 2,345 steps in a normal walk for exercise that means I’ve walked about 683.8 miles since February 4^th. Folks, that will help you burn some calories.

For example: Yesterday I walked 7.82 miles and burned 3,763 calories. The total food in-take yesterday was only 1,058 calories and I ate pretty good. From exercise alone (a 7 mile walk yesterday) I burned 2,705 calories which means I burned 1,647 more than I took in. I was allowed to take in 2,051 calories based on my plan and took in far less so I was actually under-budget by 3,699 calories yesterday. It has been this way day after day and I am not hungry or dying waiting for my next meal. It’s just something I’ve grown used to.

It’s like ole Dr. Clyde told me years ago, “Son, less in-take and more output!” that’s the real secret to weight loss.

In Closing:

All the diet plans in the world will not work … unless you make them work. It’s important to add that this is not a journey you should (though you could) do on your own. You may need some support.

First, you need an HONEST doctor to prescribe a booster to help you get off your butt and on to the exercise mat, gym, or track.

Second, you may need a person to support you from outside the situation. I had a wife, children and a friend or two that provided encouragement and support when needed. My wife, who loves to bake cakes, is still baking the cakes but she knows how to stop me from eating the whole cake at one time and just take small pieces occasionally.

Third, like Nike always said … make the decision and …

Do not depend on money hungry doctors who will rob you blind and treat symptoms and not problems.

Do not rely on the government who’s in bed with the pharmaceutical industry to help with the war on obesity or battle of the bulge. They’ve already proven that they cannot do anything right.

Rely only on your self and your support system. And always remember this phrase:

“If it’s to be … It’s up to me!”

Have a good day and enjoy your weight loss plan!

Jerry Nix | Freewavemaker, LLC