Wednesday, October 11, 2006

A St. Louis man loses pounds as he walks across America

Evelyn Cronce El Defensor Chieftain Reporter

Gary Long is walking across America to save his life and to draw national attention to the health problems obesity across the country causes.

The path he started in St. Louis on Feb. 15, weighing 380 pounds found him in Socorro on Tuesday, walking east from Los Angeles weighing 255 pounds.

Long said he had never been fat until he retired from the U.S. Army and became a truck driver. During nine years driving a truck, his weight rose to about 400 pounds.

He said he hadn't actually weighed himself at that point.

"Five or six years ago, I had a heart attack," Long said. "I was a 51-year-old, 380-pound man who was suffering from diabetes, congestive heart failure, enlarged heart, high blood pressure and acid reflux."

He tried unsuccessfully to lose weight.

"I was a binge eater. At night, I would go into a feeding frenzy," he said.

After reading the story of another obese man who had lost weight by walking across the county, Long decided to do the same. Feb. 15, he left St. Louis with a 60 pound backpack to walk to New York City. Then he flew to Los Angeles and began the second leg of his walk back to St. Louis.

On the way to New York, doctors Burt and Judi Herring contacted Long and interested him in their Fast-5 weight loss program. Long said he needed a plan to keep the weight off after his walk.

He has been following their program since and is a great proponent of it.

Judi Herring joined Long on his walk. Her mother drives the support vehicle and plots the trek.

"This is not a task for the light hearted," Long said about his walk. "It's the hardest thing that I've ever done in my life."

Long has nearly frozen to death on more than one occasion; baked in the Mohave Desert, where his walk landed him in August in 126 degree heat; been forced off the road by a tractor trailer; fallen; and found himself at times just too tired or sore to go on. When he was in Socorro, his back was too sore for him to carry his backpack, so it had been relegated to the support vehicle.

In spite of the hardships, he said he would do it again.

He talks to people, especially individuals along the route who look to him to be over 400 pounds themselves.

He talks fondly about a 400-pound 18-year-old he met at a fast food place. He said after they talked, the young man e-mailed him to thank him for putting him on the right track and to let him know he had joined a gym and lost 25 pounds

Long also spoke of people who had come to his rescue. One such encounter happened about 30 miles east of Columbus, Ohio.

"The weather was cool, like it is now (about 50 degrees and foggy early Tuesday morning in Socorro)," he said. "I had walked about 15 miles, and it started to rain hard. There was nowhere to pitch my tent because the road dropped off to one side and was hilly and rocky on the other. I was cold and drenched. My left side went numb from the hypothermia. I prayed, 'God, I can't go on.'

"No more than a couple of minutes later, a car pulled up beside me. A man and a woman about 50 years old rolled the window down just a crack and handed me a key. They told me that I could use their cabin, just up the hill for the night. They saved my life."

After Long finishes his walk, he plans to go into schools and teach young people about the dangers of obesity, hoping to save them from obesity-related health problems later in their lives.

Long said he is much healthier having lost so much weight. He said he has gone from a 60-inch waist to a 40-inch waist comfortably.

He is particularly pleased that his diabetes is under control without medication.

Long maintains a journal of his travels on his website, www.afatmansjourney.com, and can be reached by e-mail at the address gary@afatmansjourney.com.

He encourages anyone interested in keeping track of his journey to visit his website.

ecronce@dchieftain.com

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