Believe it or not, I use to weigh 317 lbs. Ask anyone who attended Texas A&M University-Kingsville as a music major from 1992-1997 and they will tell you I was indeed fat.

My waistline stretched at 52 inches. My problem was eating.

My only exercise in college was playing in the Band Football League, which I now call the “Slowest Game on Earth.”

Once I graduated TAMUK, I never exercised during my first couple of years in the workforce.

But I will say that I could eat like a champion. Two whoppers with fries and a large soda, no problem. An entire pizza, don’t make me laugh.

Six to seven pieces of fried chicken in one sitting, watch me. You know those big bags of nacho cheese tortilla chips that are said to have three to four servings per bag, I only saw one and had no problem proving it.

I still love to eat, but back then I lived to eat. Back then I didn’t eat, I feasted.

Plus, I was what you called a stress eater. I always reached for something edible whenever I became stressed.

Then, during my late twenties, I realized it was starting to catch up to me.

Walking up a flight of stairs easily exhausted me. I was too young to feel that tired.

So I decided to make some changes. I ate smaller meals, drank lots of water and began working out.

It took me two years, but eventually I got my weight down to 226. One of the biggest things I did to lose weight was stick to my routine of diet and exercise.

Eating right and working out have no affect if you only try it out for a little while.

People who are trying to lose weight often want a magic little pill that they can take tonight and wake up tomorrow weighing 100 pounds less. It doesn’t work that way and shouldn’t.

So about five years ago, I read this little contest announcement in Men’s Health Magazine about coming out in a book called the “Belly Off Program.”

At that time I weighed 96 pounds less than when I first started working out. A reporter for the magazine called me and said I was one of about 50 finalists who were being screened for 16 stories in the book. A week later, Men’s Health called and said I had won a spot and that a professional camera crew was coming out to do a photo shoot.

I posed for three hours and changed wardrobe five times for the cameras. Six weeks later, I received my copy of the book and found another at a Barnes and Noble in San Antonio.

(Rey Sifuentes Jr. can be reached at rataman2@yahoo.com)