| In 2010, I weighed 282 at my highest, I had high blood pressure and bad labs. Initially, I did calorie counting, and got down to 167 pounds, but was hungry all the time. The hospital nutritionist reported that I was deficient in fats. So I increased fats such as peanut butter and my weight subsequently increased. In 2013, I attended the McDougall Program in Santa Rosa and only did a partial implementation of the recommendations and my weight increased year after year. In September 2020, I signed up for the 12-Day McDougall Program as a refresher. I thought the online program wouldn’t be as good as the in-person one but I was wrong. The online program was actually better and it cost less! At this time during the COVID pandemic, there was no vaccine available. I was concerned since the effects of COVID were worse with the combination of age and comorbidities such as high blood pressure, diabetes, cholesterol, etc. My high blood pressure and worsening labs had me worried. My primary objective was to eliminate or decrease my comorbidities in order to decrease the risk of serious effects from COVID and in addition lose weight. I thought the weight loss would be a slow process but it was not once I implemented the full McDougall Program recommendations. | 
