'Half the man he used to be'

Man shares about his battle with obesity

By KURT NESBITT

Journal Staff Writer

NEW ULM - Larry Peterson is half the man he once was, and these days, he's glad to be that way.

As someone who once weighed 600 pounds, he was once unable to work or get out of the house without the help of a wheelchair or a cane. He couldn't pull his socks up without special pullers or breathe without the help of a sleep apnea machine.

His Iowa real estate business failed because prospective clients would take one look at him and assume the worst.

He used to put up barriers in relationships and would shun people before they had a chance to shun him.

These days, all of those things are mere reminders of his past that he often puts on display whenever and wherever he shares his story. Beginning this week, he will bring his story, as well as some interesting visual aids, to New Ulm, Redwood Falls, Montevideo and Watertown, S.D.

"People interfered when I didn't want them to, and now I want to interfere with as many people's lives as possible," he said.

Today, Peterson still eats out and doesn't deny himself anything. He tried three diets until he found the magic bullet -- willpower. He said a diet succeeds as long as a person has the will to follow it. But once that will starts to fade, the diet fails. Now, he takes parts of many different diets and uses them as his own personal weapons in the battle of the bulge.

"The battlefield is in between their ears," Peterson said. "I really want to help people fight obesity but I think they need the right weapons to fight it. Everyone has different weapons and what I try to do is show them how to find their weapons and show them how to use them."

He said many people who are fighting obesity don't see the forest for the trees, since solutions are often closer that people think. The key, Peterson said, is behavior modification. He said he doesn't believe in forbidden foods; he just believes in controlling the amount of food he eats.

Peterson, 56, grew up in Iowa, a heavy child. The kids he went to school with berated him about his size and, as he grew up, he found that while people didn't say as much about his weight with their mouths, their actions still spoke pretty loudly.

When he was 19, Peterson decided to try and emulate his brother, who was a football star in the Navy. He and a friend signed up for the U.S. Marine Corps, a decision that took both to battlefields in Vietnam. Peterson received a Purple Heart during his combat service with the First Marine Division.

"I've fought two major battles in my life. One was in a country far away for a reason that I'm not even sure of to find that my country didn't appreciate it," Peterson said from his home in Arnolds Falls, Iowa. "I got a medal but it meant nothing. The second is the battle of obesity. Now, it represents all the people that have sacrificed their lives, so that medal means something."

Whenever he found himself in an unhappy relationship, Peterson would put up barriers. He came to a point where he gave up and his weight started escalating rapidly. He gained 100 pounds within a year, and within two years, his weight was rapidly increasing. As he grew older, he got less work and found he couldn't go to movies or fly on airplanes. He started pulling away from the people in his life. He is currently on his third marriage.

"I always felt I wasn't good enough, so I divorced them before they had a chance to divorce me," he said.

Peterson lost both his parents to causes related to obesity. At one point in his life, he thought that eating himself to death would be an acceptable suicide.

"People could say 'Oh well, Peterson, he was a nice guy but his weight got him'. That way, they couldn't blame me and say I committed suicide," he said.

The turning point in his life came after problems with celulitus landed him in the Minneapolis Veterans Administration hospital. One of his legs had split open and the wound had become infected, raising Peterson's body temperature to 105 degrees. While he was a patient, the hospital's dietitian tried to convince him to join its in-patient weight loss program; Peterson agreed just to get the woman out of his room. He didn't actually decide to commit to the program until his wife, brother and a friend came up to see him and that was just so they wouldn't try to put him away for being suicidal.

His wife, Pam, was home waiting for six months for him to get into the V.A. weight loss program. She gave him some nudging with the help of Peterson's brother and a friend and together, they convinced him to go to the program in Minneapolis. He stayed in the V.A. hospital for two weeks. He still makes the four-hour drive back to the Minneapolis V.A. for doctors visits once a month

One of the factors that led to his turnaround was the realization that he was essentially turning his wife into a caretaker. He also realized that many of the people he felt were judging him by his size were actually trying to help him.

Peterson said he started making changes to his life by looking at the things he could give up and the things he couldn't give up. He said he had to "look and see behind it. That's one thing I had to do."

Peterson said he decided to join the seminars because of his experience in Vietnam. He wanted nothing to do with the U.S. government or veterans because of his experiences in that war, but said the V.A. weight loss program "gave back the brotherhood of Vietnam." He started the weight loss program because he wanted to help veterans and others and also wanted it to be a 'thank you' to the V.A.

"The only gift I could give was my time," he said. "They had contacted me and asked me if I would mind sharing my experiences."

Peterson has been a part of seminars with therapists and doctors all around the country. He tries to share his story in places where there are organizations, like hospitals and weight-loss clinics, that will carry on his message.

"People don't realize that self-esteem is an issue whether or not you're 20 pounds overweight or 300 pounds overweight," Peterson said.

Peterson will speak Monday night at 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. at the American Legion in New Ulm. Cost is $20 for the public and $10 for students and veterans.