This is all going to be up to Chris.
And the question is, with his mom coming back in his life, if she's going to be the
support he needs or she's going to end up enabling him.
Hopefully both of them are serious about what they are saying and they are ready to do
what it takes to save Chris life.
Every day it gets harder to get out of bed.
My body is constantly getting more exhausted every day that I wake up.
I lose more mobility.
I get tired faster.
Everything is limited now.
And every day it gets worse.
And eventually I'm not going to be able to get up out of bed.
I'm too big to sleep in a normal bed, so I have to sleep on a mattress, one foot off the
floor and to get to my feet, I roll forward out of bed really fast, kind of like a
somersault. I lean back and then I whip my legs forward and it just pulls the rest of me
up to standing. My body weight just kind of flings me on my feet.
My weight makes it challenging to cook the kind of breakfast that I want.
Because of the weight and the fat in between my legs.
I can't stand up straight.
So they're constantly pushing apart, which makes it really uncomfortable to stand in the
kitchen for a long period of time.
So I actually have to sit on a cooler that I sit on when I cook.
I make the meal with my stomach, not with my brain.
So I have a really big meal.
And when I start eating, as soon as I hit that first bite, I eat it all.
I call it going red.
I can't stop.
When I'm eating, I don't think of anything, and it clears my mind.
The food. I mean, when I eat food, at least for the time that I'm eating it, it helps
take the lonely away.
I was born in Las Vegas, Nevada.
When I was growing up, my parents struggled financially, so I was never really sure when
my next meal would be coming.
And then when we did eat, you ate as much as you could because you got me.
My brother Tommy and my sister Crystal.
It was Taco Tuesday, and Mom happened to bring home a big bag of tacos.
If you didn't eat as much as you could eat, they weren't there when you went back later.
Growing up when I would make food or something like that, there was never a limit,
like so like when I cooked for the kids or for the family.
And when I cooked, everybody just got to serve themselves.
And now, looking back, I do think that that was a major thing because, for instance, if
their sister didn't eat all her food, I'd say, okay, we'll give it to your brother or
whoever, whichever wants it.
Well, that's something I shouldn't have done because I think that's part of the thing that
he doesn't like to throw food away.
So from an early age, I started gaining weight and I just kept getting bigger.
All right, Chris, you're 36 years old and 620.
What do you do in Oklahoma?
Right now, I don't I'm not doing anything in Oklahoma.
Any goals, any.
Oh, yes. I definitely have some goals.
I mean, my my biggest thing is I want to I want to do things with my daughter, but I
also want to a lot of things I want to do for myself.
So you have a daughter, too.
How is your relationship with your daughter?
Oh, it's great.
She's probably one of the big reasons it's kind of set in for me that I need to to
change a lot of this.
I mean, I've been heavy in the past, but we've still been able to do things, you know,
up until the last three years.
I don't do anything anymore.
And your daughter living with you?
No.
She lives two blocks away.
How often you see her?
Every weekend.
Every weekend. Okay, so right now you're not working?
Yeah, not working.
So what do you do all day?
Right now I play games and eat food when I'm bored or feel alone.
So what do you think is wrong with your eating habit?
I'm eating too much of everything.
Eating the wrong things.
So for the past 36 years, you're eating too much.
So what is the difference now?
Why did you decided to do something now?
I just want.
I want more. I don't.
I've been. I've been felt alone for a really long time.
I realized that part of the reasons why I cope with food and I enjoy eating is because
I'm alone. And the only way to not be alone is to break those habits and be able to get
out and do things. And until I can learn to control my eating habits, which is what I
want to do, I'm just going to continue to be alone.
So I haven't done anything about it so far.
I didn't think that I could.
What do you mean? I just didn't.
I didn't think I had the willpower to do it.
All right. So at this point, if you want to prove to me you're ready to change and turn
your life around, your actions need to show me that.
So we're going to give you some diet instruction that will break down a 1200
calorie, high protein, low carb diet.
It's been about a month since I've seen doctor now for my first appointment.
Coming back took us 12 hours because of traffic and the weather.
So it was a hard trip on me, but worth it because of the help I got from Dr.
now to start to turn my life around.
But how hard that trip was on me showed me even more how important it was for me to get
healthy just so I can function, you know?
So I'm working hard to up my stamina by doing the stretches and exercises that I
need. I couldn't take the trash out before when I would go out to walk.
It sounds funny, but taking the trash out feels pretty good.
Not having to have somebody else take your trash out for you is.
It's pretty nice.
It's just those things you don't really think of until you can't do it anymore.
It's something I can definitely do now.
After coming back home, my mom stayed with me for a couple more weeks, but then she had
to go back to Vegas to be with my brother.
Since he's mentally challenged, someone has to help take care of him and he lives with my
mom because of that.
So with my mom moving in with me, he's going to move in, too.
But right now, she says she has to tie up some things back home for them to make the
move. And then she plans to be here to help me.
But I'm hoping that if I lose a lot of weight soon, then I'll be the one to help
her. So I'm making sure I don't sit for long periods of time and that I find ways to stay
active. So I gave up playing any video games where I'm sitting for a long time and I got a
VR unit since they require a lot of activity, so I make sure I'm up and moving
around all day.
I read Dr. Nell's book and all the papers he gave me and I feel like I've learned the ins
and outs of his 1200 calorie a day diet.
The lettuce. But I've added some bigger steps onto it for me because every five days
I'm fasting for five days.
I didn't eat anything in that time.
An onion. I just do water and vitamins.
So I'm hoping that gives me an edge to lose weight faster.
On the days that I do eat, I only eat high protein, low carb options.
And my daughter says she's willing to eat what I eat when she's with me so I don't have
to get something else for her that may tempt me.
It's great to see my dad eat healthy stuff.
I just want ham and lettuce.
My dad eats lettuce, a bunch of other healthy food like mushrooms, and it makes me feel
happy.
All right, Chris, you're down to 566 and you lost £54.
Yep.
I've been sticking to I won't eat over 1200 calories a day, but I do mainly all protein.
But I've been fasting.
I ate for five days and then I fasted for five days.
So when you fast, you don't eat anything and you just drink water all day.
Yeah, yeah, all day.
So I do have I take vitamins.
So you say you're fasting for five days in a row, so you're going from overeating to not
eating anything?
Well, I wanted to kind of give myself a reset, so I'm kind of I wanted to get a good
bit of weight off because I want to be able to move because I've had a lot of pain with
my knees. So now that I've got that weight off, I'm much more active.
I can move faster, I can go a lot more stamina, go to the store now, you know, I can
drive again. So, I mean, there was just a lot of goals I wanted to get to really fast
to kind of help jumpstart everything.
Like once I leave here, I'm going to just constant, you know, the 1200 calories a day.
And then I do enjoy fasting.
I mean, I feel really good when I do it.
I know it helps me lose weight.
I just want to make sure that I'm doing it healthy.
Well, that's good.
But it is better to do intermittent fasting every other day.
Don't eat anything for 16 hours from the dinner.
Okay? Okay. That will be much healthier to do that.
Okay. So and make sure whatever you eat is a protein.
No carb in your diet.
Okay? Yes. So have you come up with some goals for yourself?
Absolutely. One of my biggest goals is to get out of the house and not feel so lonely all
the time. Meeting people or just being able to go somewhere with my daughter.
All right. So what are some of your other goals?
I have a long term goal right now of a two year plan.
First year is a big focus on health, getting back into working, get a good career going,
save up some money.
I have a couple. I don't know exactly what I want to do yet.
I still have a few options, but getting healthy right now is the.
Probably the biggest focus for me because I just I need I need to know that, you know, if
I get into into something, a career or something that I enjoy, that I'm not going to
fall back and end up taking it all away from myself again.
Why it took you 36 years to think about that?
I've I've done a lot of like, self-reflection over probably the last half year, and it just
kind of clicked. You know, I've barricaded myself inside of this emotional prison where
I'm by myself. So I'm lonely, I'm bored, I eat when I'm bored and I can't fix the
boredom because I don't do anything to interact with people.
And I'm not afraid of going outside.
I'm not afraid of talking to people.
I just kind of put myself in that position and I don't want to be there anymore because
I wasn't always like that.
I was a very positive, outgoing and.
Do good kind of person just went away.
All right. That's good. I'm glad you decided to change your life and make it better.
And we'll work with you to help you do that.
I'm going to approve you for weight loss surgery.
So the next step would be I want you to move down to Houston.
Okay? The drive you have to make is still a little bit long to keep making that trip.
I give you a couple of months to lose another £30.
And if you do both of those things, we will move ahead with surgery and get you down to
your ideal body weight.
Hopefully in a year or less.
Yes. £200, I that would be crazy.
You got all the ingredients to make a good focus.
You got your frame of mind in the right place and goals to help motivate you.
So you're going to succeed with that.
Just keep it up. So as soon as you move down to Houston, let me know.
I will be down.
Here as soon as I can. Pack everything in the car.
All right. As soon as you do and lose some weight, we start the process and see if we
can get you ready for weight loss surgery so you can be able to maintain healthy weight
and be productive and get back to your life and change it like you should be.
Well, I was supposed to have my surgery last week.
They ran all the tests and everything looks good and I was excited about it.
But as the day got closer, I started to realize that it's getting easier and easier
to keep losing weight on my own.
So I started to think I might not need weight loss surgery to do this.
Or maybe I was getting it too soon.
And so right before the surgery, I got to where I decided I didn't want to move ahead
with it. I called and told Dr.
Nell that. I see if we can sit up here.
Works for me.
You didn't think it was a good idea?
He warned me that if I stopped making progress, that weight loss surgery would be
off the table.
But he told me as long as I was losing that I had time to wrestle with the decision.
You should give your mom some.
I don't need any yet. Yeah.
Why? Because you look dehydrated.
Are you ready? Yeah.
We're up. All right.
Okay, hold. I have a goal to lose another £50 by the end of next month, so I'm working
hard to do that.
And my family's working hard to lose weight, too.
What do you think the weight limit on the bridge is?
Let's find out. You know, me and my whole family are eating better and working out
every day. We're taking walks together every other day and getting out in the world and
being active. And the thought of having to stop all of this for a month or so to have
surgery just feels like it's not the right move for me right now.
So I know I can keep going like I have been without anything like surgery right now.
Chris, you're down to 481 pounds.
No. Yeah, I was.
Hoping I'd be a little lower.
When losing 44 pounds in two months is not bad at this point.
So far, you have lost £139, huh?
Yep. All right.
And whole family's losing, too, so that's great.
So how is everybody in the family doing?
Good. We're doing good.
These two stick with me. They do everything we go for.
Every walk, every, every push.
Every time I push, they push.
I mean, it's.
It's great.
Well, it's a family affair. We're all going to lose weight.
Yep.
So you only needed to move down to Houston to start losing weight?
Well, it's all of it.
I mean, it makes.
It does. It actually helps.
We each help support each other.
And. And for me, I've always been one of those.
I have no problem, like, with going for walks or anything like that, except I hate to
do it by myself. And now that we're here, he'll say, Ready to go for a walk?
And I'm like, Yep, let's go.
We took a big chance coming down here financially.
It was the stupidest move we've ever made, but honestly, it was probably the best move
we could have all made ever.
Okay, well, that's good.
You have been sticking with diet and losing weight, but the question is how long are you
going to be able to maintain that on your own?
As long as you do? I don't have any problem for you.
Keep doing what you're doing.
But I thought the only reason you want to do my program was that you need a tool like
weight loss surgery.
Yeah. So initially I came.
My whole goal when I started this was to come out here and to.
Get the tools I needed to lose weight.
I thought that surgery was the only thing that was going to help me do this.
You know, my mindset that that was it.
You know, surgery was the tool that I needed.
Well, once I came out here and I started going through this process, you know, you
provided me with tools, pre surgery.
You know, these are the things you need to do.
I went over the book.
I started applying these techniques.
I started applying the eating habits, the exercise.
And I continued with that day after day after day.
And then we moved out here and I was ready for surgery.
But then I realized I was doing this and it's getting easier.
And I'm like, Well. I'm losing this weight.
I've overcome a lot and I didn't relapse or I've always relapsed in the past.
And I don't feel at this point that I need to go through getting a surgery when I'm
absolutely confident that I can do this now.
Well, that's good, and I think that's great.
But in the long term, that may be not feasible to do that to the rest of your life
without the surgery.
And that was the surgery is a tool that will give you a better control of your eating
habits long term.
I think you're going to do well for a while, but you will never be able to get to your
goal weight and maintain it for long term, even with the surgery.
The failure is there 5 or 10 years after people have a surgery.
So there's going to be a challenge for you.
But right now, you feel confident that you can do it without surgery.
Want to see you every month and make sure you're keeping up with your weight loss and
stay on track. So keep it up and we work with you.
As long as you can do that, we support you and see how are you doing with this plan
going forward.
Okay. In the meantime, if you have any issues or anything, let me know.
I will. Thanks, Doctor.
All right. We'll see you then.