INDIANAPOLIS – Nearly 250 pounds and 1,500 miles. It’s been one incredible ride for Eddie Miller.Miller, a resident of McCordsville on Indianapolis’ far northeast side, battled weight his entire life. An athlete in high school, he started gaining weight after getting married. Diets didn’t work. The pounds added up, and at one point he pushed the scales at 430.
“When you are 400 pounds, everyday stuff like tying your shoes is hard, and people take stuff for granted,” he said. “I was actually ready to fold my business because it was too hard to do the work. Too hard to get new work. Too much energy. It was just going to be easier to close it down.”
Instead, he followed the footsteps of his wife, four sisters and mother, all of whom had bariatric surgery. “I was familiar and comfortable with the process, so I decided to give it a try,” he said.
He called the St. Francis Weight Loss Center.
“The weeks leading up to the surgery were sheer excitement,” he said. “I was just really ready to start my new life. Ready to get up out of that bed and start walking again. I wasn’t scared; I had faith in my doctors and felt like I was prepared and had done everything right.
“There’s a real comfort knowing that they’re behind you. As long as I did what I was supposed to, they were with me all the way.”
Losing pounds, gaining miles
Miller’s biggest fear of bariatric surgery was having loose skin that can occur after rapid weight loss. He quickly turned to exercise as a solution.
“I started out walking, and then after a while I couldn’t get my heart rate high enough, so I started running,” he said. “I was running two, three, four miles on the treadmill or outside, but I don’t love to run. So, some buddies of mine were into cycling and invited me to join them. I bought a bike and went to town.”
He was hooked. Last summer, 18 months after surgery and nearly 250 pounds lighter, Miller participated in Ride Across Indiana (RAIN), a grueling 163-mile bike ride across Indiana.
In late October, he’ll ride in the annual “Hilly Hundred” in Bloomington with 5,000 other cyclists, and he plans to participating in the Biking Across Kansas ride in 2010.
Miller still coordinates care with his physicians and dietitian at the Weight Loss Center.
“Surgery’s not a magic wand – it’s all on you, and it certainly is a tool that works, if you use it properly,” he said. “Right now, my BMI is perfect, and my doctor mandated that I don’t lose any more weight. I have learned since having the surgery that I don’t get hungry unless I’m sitting, so I always try to keep busy – coaching, playing with my dogs. I’ve always been a happy, active guy, even when I was overweight. But now the weight loss has created a new animal.”
To learn more about services offered at the St. Francis Weight Loss Center, go to http://www.stfrancishospitals.org/weightloss.
