My name is Andre Thomas and I personally know what it feels like to be overweight and out of control! When I was a kid, my nickname was “Fat Boy”. I had gotten so use to the name, that it didn’t even hurt my feelings. It was my badge of honor almost, so I felt like I had to live up to the

As a teenager I had ballooned to 230 pounds and used food to determine my happiness.

I got expelled from school when I was in the sixth grade for setting a girls hair on fire (that damn jheri curl) and spent most of adolescence hanging out selling drugs and getting high. I loved fast food and since I was always running the streets, I would have McDonalds for breakfast, a steak & cheese bomb for lunch and another steak & cheese for dinner (extra mayo, of course). Not to mention my in-between snacks of Hunny Buns, Funions and Reese Peanut Butter Cups.

These ridiculous choices were always washed down by my favorite choice of drink, Hawaiian Punch or a 40 ounce of Private Stock. I never played sports as a kid, never learned how to swim (still can’t swim) and hated walking anywhere. The most you would get out of me is when the police came on the block, I was always the one to get caught cause I was so slow! They’d always yell “don’t even run Fat Boy, you know we’ll catch you”. I would try to run anyway and then get smacked around for making their asses run. I was one of the most inactive kids you would ever meet and I looked like it!

I’m not totally sure when it happen but there was a point where I finally got tired of being a fat ass. I’m pretty confident it had something to do with a girl rejecting me. I also came to the conclusion that I was tired of running the streets…too many close friends were dying and I knew I was close after a few incidents. As a young adults these few years were even worse! I tried every diet, cleanse, detox and pill I could find and I would make some change here and there but always ended up back with the weight on or more. I even tried joining a gym and running on the treadmill for hours at a time and still, not much change

What was I doing wrong? Why is this shit so difficult? Will I ever look like “that”?

I could not answer those questions but I was determined to find the answers.

The next few years, I read every book and magazine about weight loss, I could get my hands on! Comparing philosophies, testing strategies and confirming truths and fallacies about the subje