“About ten years ago I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. I was 435 lbs., and way out of shape with little to no exercise and my eating habits were atrocious. Most people said they ‘eat to live’ but I ‘lived to eat.’ I was so sick in my desire for what I thought was decent nourishment that I’d order a bucket of chicken at KFC, gobble it all down fast, discard the trash and air out the car by driving on the freeway in the opposite direction from home for a while so that by the time I got home my wife wouldn’t tell what had occurred. I didn’t care how serious my diabetes was until I developed neuropathy and it became too difficult for me to walk. My wife was in major tears and could only see her husband throwing way his life at an early age. She remarked that she could see her husband with amputated legs and knocking on deaths door.”

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Depression. Obesity. Heart Disease. Fibromyalgia. Alcohol. Drugs. These are just a few of the things I’ve had to deal with. I lived in that long, dark tunnel with no light at the end. The doctors said, “This is your life, get used to it.” I was so sick with pain, anger, and hopelessness. I used to beg God, night after night, “Please, let me go to sleep and die!” Yet, at the same time, I still had a kernel of hope. Maybe, just maybe, something would change. For over 10 yrs. I lived with unrelenting pain and couldn’t care for my children.

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I am originally from the Bay area of California. As a child my home was beyond broken! I started recreational drugs, drinking, and smoking to numb myself throughout my lifetime. As an adult I developed fibromyalgia and traded recreational drugs for prescription drugs. I could always quit the alcohol for years at a time, only to pick up where I left off. I never quit smoking cigarettes. I smoked for 37 years.

I was diagnosed with osteoarthritis. Due to the prescription drugs and alcohol I was never “clear and present”. I was very unhappy and went into a severe depression. I have always had problems sleeping but my insomnia was now off the charts. My average night’s sleep was two to three hours usually drug and alcohol induced. I was in a viscous cycle and getting nowhere. After dropping 12 more pounds I could barely look at myself. With my family’s support I decided I needed to get help. I knew there was a way to do it — even get off the medications I was taking from so called medical doctors. I knew I was going to need help to do it all.

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“My doctors said I would never recover… five months later I proved them wrong.” —Dr. Gnanamuthu S. Wilson

A major stroke put him in hospital for weeks. He is making a full recovery after 5 months on the NEWSTART® Lifestyle Program at Weimar Institute.

“In April I came to Weimar in a wheelchair with no motor control on the right side of my body. Doctors gave me no hope for recovering from a major stroke. They predicted I would be confined to bed rest and would only be able to get around in a wheelchair or with a quad-cane. Five months later, not only am I walking three-plus miles a day, but my life has made a complete turn-around and it’s all because of NEWSTART.”

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At the age of 61 we were moving into our new home when all of a sudden I felt very weak and out of breath. I felt a sharp pain in my throat and neck, and I could barely walk. My wife, Rose, said I was looking gray, and that we were heading straight to the doctor’s office.

It was all I could do to get from the car to the doctor’s office. From my appearance and symptoms, he did an EKG and I heard him whisper to my wife, “He’s going into coronary failure.” He called for an ambulance and at the hospital Coronary Intensive Care Unit, I was given emergency services, including a heart catheterization which revealed 9 coronary artery blockages of 95%, with an order that I be prepared for bypass surgery that day. I was visited by the Director of Nurses at Pueblo Norte facility, whose husband had faced a similar emergency and had gone to Weimar Institute with good success. I called Weimar to find out if I could come.

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