A Loing Battle: Scaling down
Two-a-day football workouts help push Morgan to 200-pound loss

By ROBERT MORGAN

It's somewhat funny to think back 14 months when I finally decided to risk my life and undergo bariatric weight loss surgery. At 509 pounds, I was afraid I'd die on the operating table.

If I had not made the decision, however, I may not have lived to see my youngest son Brad play his first season of flag football this fall because I was on the fast road to an early death.

I made the decision that was in the best interest of me and my family, and on Sept. 20, 2006, my life changed forever when I had the surgery. I was the largest patient that Presbyterian Hospital of Denton ever got approved for the Lap-Band procedure.

My main goal was to lose 100 pounds. I figured I could live another 10 years and see both of my boys through high school if I could get down to 400 pounds.

I lost that 100 pounds in just five months. The success I had losing weight and changing my eating habits made the rest of the year just as easy - and fun - while I worked to lose the 144 pounds Dr. Curtis Mosier said I could expect in my first 12 months.

It's not always a good thing when a doctor is a little off in his assessment, but this is one of those times I was happy he missed the mark. By late August I had accomplished what very few people have ever done in this country.

I had my monthly weigh-in on Sept. 1 and was floored by the reading - 309. I lost exactly 200 pounds in a little more than 11 months. My one-year "band-iversary" was still three weeks away and I had lost the equivalent of a grown man.

Nothing has changed in my daily routine all summer. I eat one cup of food four times a day and do my best to get in 64 ounces of water.

I have not had bread, pasta, carbonated drinks or milk since my surgery, and I still get chest pains eating eggs and fruits. I do miss my pigs-in-a-blanket for breakfast and quarter-pounders with cheese from McDonald's, but the reward from looking the other way has paid off many times over.

Since my average monthly weight loss dropped significantly from the 18 pounds earlier this year, I was amazed that the summer was good to me. I often caught myself walking more and clothes got looser by the week, but I also did plenty of vacationing in Laguna Beach that did not include a perfect diet.

Though I left my heart in Laguna Beach in August, my determination to win the war on obesity remained strong. In fact, for the first time since 2002 I actually looked forward to the start of two-a-day football practices.

Those workouts started just five days after we returned to Texas soil. After missing the gym the last 10 days of July because of our trip to the basketball nationals in California, I went four times the week before football started so I could make sure I was ready.

You bet I was, and I didn't need those 75-degree high Laguna Beach temperatures. Those cool afternoon breezes were replaced by Wise County's hot, steamy and humid weather.

I loved it. I visited six of our seven high school practices on the first day of workouts, and I made return stops to some before the end of the first week.

While watching workouts, talking to coaches and just strolling the sidelines, I remembered the good ol' days. I remembered being a part of the practices in high school and college, and I reflected back even five years ago when I was in good enough health to visit all the workouts on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis.

The best part of workouts was something that had never crossed my mind. There were coaches, players and even parents who have not seen me since last spring, and to some, it could had been as long as last football season.

Their reaction to my physical change in such a short time was priceless. Because I still see myself as a 509-pound man when I look into a mirror, the response from those outside my family meant more than any of them can know.

Paradise coach Kevin Pitman and Decatur coach Chuck Greever were two of the most vocal about the new and improved Robert Morgan. It was somewhat embarrassing for all of about five seconds, and then it was just a little ego boost.

Pitman was in the weight room while the football team was pumping iron when he saw me from across the way. He shouted, "Who is that little guy standing by the door?" Of course half the room looked to see who he was referring too, but it was all good.

There was no shame in Greever's game either. I was standing beside a light pole next to the fieldhouse when he ran off the practice field with the football team and said, "Who is that hiding behind the pole?"

Many thoughts ran through my head before I could respond to him. I suddenly felt skinny and accepted, which are two things I know nothing about, so I was at a loss for a funny rebuttal.

Decatur coach David Park and I have an ongoing joke that just adds a little humor to the my story. Anyone who talks to me on a regular basis is probably greeted with a "What's uuuuuuuup?"

Park, however, is the only coach I work with that throws the same question back at me. With it being cross country season, we generally talk at least once or twice week, three times if he is lucky.

Now he greets me with a "What's going down?", a reference to how much I have lost since we last spoke. It's all good.

Unless those three read my current weight loss update, none of them know how much the smallest of remarks mean to me. A lot has changed for me in just 11 months, and it's a whole lot more than just my weight.

I have lost more than 12 inches on my waist, gone through three shoe-size reductions and I enjoy mingling in public again. Best of all, my weekends have gone from laying on the couch at home to wandering the Metroplex with my wife and kids.

As embarrassed as I get when I get compliments in public, I had my true test coming up on Sept. 20, the one-year date from my surgery. Our monthly weight-loss support group meeting was scheduled for the same day as my "band-iversary," and I was nervous.

I didn't want to come show off my success in front of those who had lost significantly less than me - even as little as 40 pounds - in a matter of years. My wife, however, refused to miss it and demanded our family be there.

What happened that day surprised me, my wife and everyone in the room.