Harlow Blum:  

My 50th year has been rather interesting. On New Years (2008) I set a personal goal to lose 50 pounds in my 50th year. I went on a diet, only 1200 calories per day. I didn't think I could make it, but if you eat several small meals (5/day) and drink lots of water, you never really feel that hungry. I joined 24 Hr. Fitness and now work out 3-4 times per week. I found a nutritionist Dr. that helped me with diet plans & workout regiments. He also provided me with monthly B12 shots and a prescription diet pill. Well, the combination of all these things produced amazing results. By the time of my 50th birthday (6/24/08) I had lost about 60 pounds (from 275 to 215). I cannot begin to tell you how much better I feel not carrying around so much extra weight. Even now that the holidays are here, I've only put on about 5 pounds and have stabilized at 220 (which is a good BMI weight for me, so says the Dr.). Well enough about the weightloss, now for where I've been and where I am now. I had a long and prosperous career at IBM (20 years) until I got laid off just after 9/11/01. It took quite a while to find another job, but did find one eventually working for a facilities maintenance company (Fluor) that maintained the IBM facilities in San Jose. At this point IBM is now my client. I did this for about 3 y...Expand for more