I recently started a diet that appears to be working, so I thought I'd share it with others, in case they want to give it a shot.

For the last five years, my weight has bounced between 320 and 330. Seldom more, seldom less. I didn't use to always be that way — but life caught up with me. In the 70s I lived Jackass the Movie – doing all kinds of stupid people tricks. I broke virtually every bone from a car accident at over 100MPH that ejected me through the windshield and had me in the hospital for months. I fell off a train I was hopping, broke an ankle jumping off a three story roof into the shallow end of a swimming pool (it was the 70s and drugs were good for you then), did the agony of defeat down a mountain while skiing and was in two motorcycle accidents involving cars. Back then I appeared to heal fast, but time and age combined with 20 + years of being a softball whore, playing basketball three mornings a week, and lifting at the Gym every weekday — had all of those broken bones and injuries becoming very arthritic. I've had three shoulder surgeries (need the right ball and socket joint replaced), and 4 knee surgeries (both needing replacement now. I have 5 degenerated discs in my back screwing up the nerves to my feet, and the arthritis being so bad in my spine that back surgeons and neurosurgeons say I'm too far gone to do anything to repair it. While this might sound like a bunch of excuses, I can't stand without leaning on something or walk far without the aid of a cane. This lack of exercise has caused me to have a metabolism (study last year) that can't burn 900 calories a day — and I've ballooned from a fit guy with a 31" waist, 56" chest, and weighing 170lbs, to a fat slob with a 48" waist weighing in around 325.

back in the late 80s when I was running 170 and in shape

About ten years ago I went from 333 to 248 with diet pills. However, those same pills gave me some very severe medical problems before we'd realized it — so the weight came back on when I was pulled off them. It isn't so much that I ate too much — but that I ate too wrong for my limited ability to burn calories since having to give up sports — which are to painful to participate in.

So two weeks ago I was again hospitalized for chest pains. Like all of my previous doctors, and everyone else giving me obvious advice, I was again told to lose 100 pounds immediately or I'm not long for this world. I refuse to have the recommended by-pass surgery, and my heart can't take the newer diet pills — plus that sure didn't work out well for me the last time. I got out of the hospital the day before the Houston race. While at the race I saw a friend Donnie Bowles — who I'd not seen in a few months. He'd lost over 50 pounds in just a couple of months, and I barely recognized him. He kinda blew it off and didn't tell me how he did it. Last Monday, another racing friend (Jimmy Ray) told me he'd lost 25 months in a month on the 17-day-diet. The two of these guys motivated me to start my diet last Monday when I was 325, and today (8 days later) I weighed 312 after breakfast. I fully realize that 13 pounds on a 325 pound man ain't nothing, and that there is no way that I can expect to maintain that initial loss on a weekly basis, but I think I did learn something in the last 8 days, and want to share what I'm doing with anyone interested.

I looked into the 17-day diet, and while it is as hot as the Adkins, and South Beach diets before it — it wasn't really for me. I want the diet to be more simple than counting days and/or calories. For years, my typical diet was a bowl of Raisin Bran in the morning; Sushi, Subway, or other fast food at lunch; and whatever dinner my wife put in front of me for dinner — which was never low calorie or low carbs. In the evening I would eat corn chips and Salsa — and polish off 2/3 bottle of red wine.

How I eat now is much different, but I'm also hungry less often. First, the foods I don't eat are:

• No Cereal

• No Bread

• No Potatoes

• No Corn

• No Fried Food

• No Pasta

• No Salt

• No Salty Snacks

• No Bananas

• No Pineapple

• No White Grapes

• No butter or dairy

• No Sodas — albeit I only use to drink sugar-free anyway

• No Fruit Juices

• No beer or grain alcohol

What I do eat is:

• I still drink my five cups of coffee in the morning — but no cream (albeit was non-fat) in it

• I have an omelet of two eggs and pico de Gallo each morning. I have avoided eating more than 2 eggs a week for years — but no more. Two eggs a day now.

• My lunch is either a 6.5oz package of White Tuna or Pink Salmon mixed with Helman's Lite Mayo made with Olive Oil. I add either chopped onions, chopped celery, or pico de gallo to make it just a little different. I also whipped up a batch of Ceveche, and I alternate that in too. However so far, it has been fish every lunch.

• Between lunch and dinner, I have one plum and one pear an hour apart.

• For dinner, I limit lean beef to no more than twice a week, and a lean pork chop no more than once a week. I mostly have chicken breasts or turkey breast cutlets that I cook on the propane grill outside. I do hammer them pretty hard with Cajun spices or garlic powder for taste. My vegetables are steamed fresh carrots, brussel sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, artichoke, or asparagus.

• For a evening snack I eat an apple or some red grapes, and later a large navel orange.