[BILLY D.]

now heres a guy with the opposite problem. i had a very sickly childhood. by the time i was 6 i had contracted rheumatic fever and polio. and then came measles, chicken pox and mumps. consequently by the time i was nine i looked like an escapee from dachau. i always wanted to be big. never happened. i'm 5'11 and weigh 150#. i was always the runt.

i can get on a scale, get weighed, get off, eat two pounds of food, get back on the scale and weigh less than i did when i started.

i guess my mom had a lot to do with my eating habits. when you figure it took two dinning room tables to feed the family you might get the idea. we ate to live not lived to eat.

i can't begin to think what it would be like to go on a diet, shucks, i can't even quit smoking. even though i've done it a number of times.

i guess the point i'm trying to get to is to just eat less. instead of three or four pork chops eat just two, instead of a big scoop of taters get a smaller scoop. course thats easy for me, i'm not the one cutting back on portions. and yes i do feel your pain. it's the same for me when i decide to quit smoking.

sure i can sit here and speak words of wisdom about dieting but dieting to me is something totally different. some folks are just big. but there is a happy medium. you just have to find it for your self.

when i was in grade school they used to have what we called health class. food was a big part of it. at this time in history the diet consisted of about 3000 calories a day. i see now the dieticians are saying 2000 calories a day. thats because back in the days of yore people walked a lot more, worked harder etc. now we drive everywhere, don't do nearly the amount of physical labor.

theres only one way to stop weight gain, slow down on the eating. and portion your food. a friend of mine once said, the best way for him to eat was leave everything in the kitchen, fill his plate and go eat in another room and not refill his plate no matter what. it sure helped him.

if i were you on the bike i would star with a mile and add a tenth every other day. as far as the food goes don't try to cut everthing you in half in one fell swoop, moderation is the key here. do it in small steps. that way it isn't a crash.

good luck bud.