The way to deal with the devil of obesity and diabetes is literally one day at a time.
Stephen Furst
The magic is you can change more things than you could ever dream of.
I've become a representative of the American Diabetes Association, and then I just became national spokesman for the American Heart Association for a campaign called The Heart of Diabetes, which brings the awareness of cardio-vascular disease to diabetics.
I also have a degree in marriage, family and child counseling - I'm a therapist.
I finally admitted that obesity and diabetes were part of a life-threatening legacy - and I had to deal with that reality or die.
When my parents died, they both were 47, and they died of complications of different diseases, one being diabetes. I became a diabetic at 17 and went on this road of kind of self-destruction, eating-wise, until I was 40.
When my parents died they both were 47, and they died of complications of different diseases; one being diabetes.
I tell people I'm on a diet. If somebody sees me with a muffin, they'll think I'm off my diet. It's like secret little police that I've made for myself.
The first thing I did on my diet was take the batteries out of the remote control and make myself get up and change the channel. That's probably the hardest exercise I did.
When I auditioned for 'Animal House,' I had only done some plays at a local dinner theater in Virginia.
I had a great childhood, a very close-knit family. We were all overweight, and we had good times eating together, I imagine.
I didn't get a Bachelor's degree - I got a Bachelor's of Fine Arts, which means I didn't have to take humanities, math, and stuff like that. I think I had to take Art History, which I failed a few times.
Like most severely overweight people, I had to hit a rock-hard bottom before I'd take responsibility for the consequences of neglecting my own health.
I remember I made $22 a week doing dinner theater in Norfolk, Virginia. Back then, in the '70s, that was pretty good for a teenager, for a part-time job.
The first time I ever did a play, in junior high school, I said to myself, 'Hey, people like me doing this. I'm making them laugh.'
I'm one of the most insecure people in the world, always have been, and when you're a fat kid, you try to make the fat jokes before other people make them.
I went to high school in Virginia Beach, Va., and we had these guys - they were surfers. They didn't like me, never talked to me. And if they didn't like you, they threw toothpicks at you. After I did a play, it was different. I found out I was pretty good at something.
When you left this one theater in Norfolk, the actors had to walk through the lobby to get out to the street. People would see you and say nice things, tell you that you were good. So, pretty soon I'm pretending to forget things backstage, going through the lobby a couple of times.
I'll make a diet cheesecake, but I'll put it in a Sara Lee box. Or I'll have a huge bowl of pasta, but it's actually just a cup of pasta - the rest is vegetables. It makes me feel less deprived.
I felt different from everyone else - like an alien. The looks I received when I was 320 pounds were ones usually reserved for three-eyed monsters, half-man half-woman reptiles, creatures with hideous rolls of skin that sweated profusely and jiggled when they walked. That last one really was me.
You can eat a lot more vegetables than you can cotton candy. Bring on the veggies. Stay away from the fluffy carbs.
One of the key things I did to stay on my diet is I never allowed myself to get hungry. As soon as I got hungry, I'd eat healthy foods.
When I was a child, I used to eat sugar Frosted Flakes with chocolate milk, but I digest, I mean digress.
