What do you get when you combine running a stressful business with a nerdy background and a burning love for pizza?

A trip to the emergency room, that’s what you get.

I first heard about fatty liver in 2011, after an ER visit, a bunch of blood tests and a few hospital tests, when my gastroenterologist sat me down and told me that if I didn’t change my ways, I was on the way to an early grave. My first reaction was to pooh-pooh him, “embrace my curves” and go on with life.

He knew that was coming, so he got detailed about fatty liver disease and what it can do to a human being, especially one like me, that spends a lot of time in front of one’s computer.

I got scared.

So I started the business of saving my life. I joined a gym that had Les Mills classes, started drinking protein shakes (hey, they’re delicious) and saw a slow, but sure, drop in my weight. I started running (thanks to Jeff Galloway — we’ll get to that amazingness in a bit!) and eventually could do an eight-mile trip without my life flashing before my eyes. I had this! I lost 100 pounds — going from 320lbs to 220lbs — in a little over a year.

Then, everything changed.

In October 2015, I cracked my head on a cabinet while putting dishes away in my kitchen and received a severe concussion. I was bedridden for over a month. I was so dizzy I could hardly stand. I had trouble putting sentences together. My freelance video editing business failed. My habits deteriorated. I stopped going to the gym. I started eating comfort food. You probably know what happened next: the pounds came right back, like bad pennies or that cat from that old kids’ song (you know, the one we thought was a goner).

Look, I’m not here to criticize anyone else’s choices — or life — but my own. This blog is for those of us who are like me — for whom weight loss is less about aesthetics and more about survival. I’m here to fight a disease. I’m here to use food as medicine. I’m here to find a way to replace Chipotle with bok choi and not break down into bitter, bitter tears. I’m here to stop sugar, punt preservatives, flush fat and get strong, and learn how to do it right, without any woo-woo, any corporate sponsorships or pills that aren’t prescribed by my awesome, smart gastro doc.

I don’t want to die.

I’m here to lose it and live.

Come along with me!