For those who didn’t read my original column, Choose to Lose, I have a confession to make: I’m fat. Not hefty. Not chunky. Not big boned. Not portly. Not plump.
 
F-A-T. Fat.
 
This blog and others to follow will chronicle my experience as well as others who have sought out ways to battle the bulge. This isn’t designed to be an all-knowing weight loss management guide.
 
Far from it. I am not the poster boy for fitness. I’m a regular guy who, like you, works long hours, enjoys good food and just plain doesn’t take as good care of myself as I should.
 
It is my hope that from the series of blogs you’ll draw some inspiration and some ideas and will offer your own advice or personal stories of success and challenges.
 
At one point, I weighed in at 421 pounds. I suspect I was at a time heavier than that, but I often shied away from scales.
 
Thanks to a Jan. 9 gastric sleeve procedure at the University of Texas Medical Branch’s Center for Obesity and Metabolic Surgery, I am down to 361 pounds and still dropping.
 
I had been thinking about weight loss surgery for years. Did plenty of research and came close to pulling the trigger several times, but allowed outside circumstances — including money — to force delay after delay.
 
I would have never gotten to the point to the major lifestyle change had it not been for people I have come across in my life who have offered advice, support and, in general, busted my chops a lot.
 
Of course, it goes without saying that my family has played a huge role. Having a strong family support system — even if it is someone to go get you bottled water when you are too sore to get out of bed after surgery — is a huge difference maker.
 
My father, Jerry Aulds, stepped up with a daddy loan to pay for most of the medical costs when insurance said it wouldn’t pay for the procedure.
 
In one way or another, I drew inspiration from other folks and look to them as I take my journey.

More than a decade ago my friend Kevin Yackly, owner of Grand Prize Barbecue in Texas City, underwent gastric bypass. While he lost a lot of weight, he also had serious problems and — in his own words — nearly died on the operating table. Luckily, he survived. And, as I said, he lost a lot of weight.
 
It was done at a time when gastric bypass was a rare surgery — not as common as these days.
 
Kevin would often talk to me about what he went through. Not to scare me or anything, but he always said he wanted me to be informed so that one day I would make my own decision.
 
Then there’s Rosalind Richard. She’s a New Orleans native who moved to Galveston after Hurricane Katrina. I interviewed Roz in 2009 about her weight loss surgery, which was performed at UTMB as well. In fact, it was her advice that convinced me to give the medical branch a shot at helping me.
 
Roz and I have since become friends. She would often check on me and ask when I was going to get my surgery. As the date neared for my surgery another friend, Peggy Davenport, co-owner of Domac in Texas City, offered advice and has been one of my biggest cheerleaders.
 
Last year, Davenport underwent gastric bypass surgery and has lost a lot of weight and looks great. She has been a constant positive force in my life and often says it was the best thing she’s ever done. She also talked to me a lot about will power.
 
“If I had will power, I wouldn’t need to be getting the surgery,” she told me as a response to a doctor’s question of why she didn’t try to just diet to lose the weight.
 
When she first saw me after my surgery made sure she gave me a big hug.
 
Now maybe the biggest motivators I’ve had are my cigar-smoking buddies. For years, those guys have employed an old fashion motivational tool to get me to make the life change — ball busting. There were times the jokes and chop busting went overboard and I had my feelings hurt, but it was always in good fun and out of genuine concern.
 
Along the way, several of my buds have done their own weight loss programs. Space engineer Troy Hedman has lost 100 pounds in less than a year using Medifast. Trey Boring of League City just started eating better and working out and dropped a lot of weight.
 
They too have been inspiring and have offered me encouragement, just not in front of the other guys. After all, we all have to keep up appearances of being tough guys.
 
All joking aside, this experience is made better by the help from my friends.

It’s been a long time coming, but the new auditorium at Santa Fe High School will make its public debut tonight. The christening of the auditorium happens somewhere over the rainbow as well.

Students from across the school district are members of the cast of The Wizard of Oz, which takes to the stage tonight. The production, directed by Theater Arts Director Peter Kinse includes cast members from third grade to high school seniors.

The first showing of “The Wizard of Oz” comes at 8 p.m. tonight with another show Saturday night. After a week of sneak peek performances for students, the public can catch the show as well next weekend including a Sunday matinee.

Tickets are $8 for adults and $5 for students with their school ID. Below is a photo of Dorothy, played by freshman Haley Tucker, 14; senior Sammie Ford as the Cowardly Lion; the Scarecrow portrayed by senior Paul Henderson and sophomore Jerod Hopkins as the Tin Man.

Oh and don't forget about Toto, played by Lexi, whose owner Jessica Pickett is Tucker's aunt.



I got a sneak peak of the show Friday and was impressed by the new auditorium, which is state of the art as well as the job the cast and crew did. I’ll have more on the show in Monday’s edition of The Daily News.

For all the attention her husband gets with such deals as buying Morton's Steakhouses or buying out a casino once owned by Donald Trump in Atlantic City and remodeling it as a Golden Nugget or for spending $60 million to bring back the splendor of Galveston Island's Historic Pleasure Pier, Paige Fertitta does a lot of stuff too.

She's active in dozens of causes across the region, including raising funds for the Children's Cancer Center at M.D. Anderson and in a couple of weeks will co-host the San Luis Salute which raises funds for the University of Texas Medical Branch departments.


Paige and Tilman Fertitta during the 2011 San Luis Salute. Photo Courtesy of Culture Map Houston.

This week she was named one of the best-dressed ladies in Houston. Rocking a white and off-white Brunello Cucinelli outfit, Fertitta along with nine other women were named by the Houston Chronicle as the newspaper's 10 Best Dressed for 2012.

The luncheon where the honors were announced was a fundraiser for the March of Dimes. She'll also be part of a fashion show next month.

So, once again Paige is helping out a good cause fashionably.

You can read more and see pics of Fertitta and the other Best Dressed women here.

By the way, this isn't the first time the big Houston newspaper has given Fertitta kudos for her fashion sense. She was also named one of the best dressed in 2008.

If you think she looks good in front of the camera, may I suggest you take a look at some of her photography work. I've known the Fertitta's for years and don't recall too many times that I didn't see Paige snapping pics.

She even had a camera in hand taking photos at her husband's big pleasure pier announcement earlier this week.

A tradition that began thanks to the mis-print of a phone number in 1955, was setting records Saturday as volunteers at NORAD tracked the progress of Santa.



From the Associated Press:

Volunteers at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado were fielding 4,000 calls an hour Saturday morning, on pace to break a record. Also, Santa's NORAD Facebook page exceeded 840,000 "likes" by midmorning. Last year, Santa had 716,000 "likes." Volunteers at NORAD Tracks Santa said kids started calling at 4 a.m. Saturday to find out where Santa was.

The North American Aerospace Defense Command has been telling anxious children about Santa's whereabouts ever year since 1955. That was the year a Colorado Springs newspaper ad invited kids to call Santa on a hotline, but the number had a typo, and dozens of kids wound up talking to the Continental Aerospace Defense Command, NORAD's predecessor.

The officers on duty played along and began sharing reports on Santa's progress. It's now a deep-rooted tradition at NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canada command that monitors the North American skies and seas from a control center at Peterson.

And now you can monitor Santa online, your mobile phone, via Facebook, Twitter and GooglePlus: and by phone (877) 446-6723.

A substitute teacher in Santa Fe won't be working on campus anymore after she failed to assist a junior high student who had broken his leg on Thursday, according to a report from KTRK-TV in Houston.

This is what reporter Sonia Azad reported during KTRK's 5 p.m. newscast on Friday:

The student says he was injured on school grounds, but had to use his own cell phone to get any medical help at all because a teacher didn't believe he was hurt. Dakota Hall, 12, was playing games outside Santa Fe Junior High after lunch Thursday when another boy tackled him and he went down.

See and read the full story here: KTRK report.

For one day a year for the past 55 years, Texas City High School students are given control of city government. The Youth in Government Day, sponsored by the Rotary Club of Texas City, provides access for students to get an up close look at how city government works.

Some students act as city commissioners, others as heads of key departments such as police chief, fire chief, city attorney, city secretary and head of the municipal golf course.

On Wednesday students returned to city hall and would you know it a Doyle was mayor. Shannon Doyle, daughter of County Commissioner Patrick Doyle, the niece of Texas Mayor Matt Doyle and granddaughter of former mayor Chuck Doyle, had the gavel for the session.

She had a couple of rough spots following the agenda, but all in all she managed the meeting even better than her uncle. In fact the student's commission session was over is less time than most city commission meetings.

The younger Mayor Doyle called the day "stressful."

"There's a lot of work behind the scenes that I don't think people realize (Mayor Matt Doyle) does not get credit for," Shannon Doyle said.

An interesting part of this year's Youth in Government was that girls who participated way outnumbered the number of guys. Of the city commission, six members were female and only one male.

Of the department heads, 15 girls and six guys. That's a far cry from the actual balance where men, even in the more diverse city employment of Texas City, still outnumber the women.

"That's because women are going to rule the world," Shannon Doyle said.

On the agenda, the youth government reviewed plans for the $3 million family aquatic center that the city plans on building on site of the Nessler Center pool next year. I'll have a story on that in the coming weeks.

The students did take formal action on planning to bury a time capsule marking the city's 100th anniversary. The capsule which will contain the city's official centennial book, will be buried at Centennial Park and not opened until Sept. 16, 2116, Youth in Government Housing Director Destiny Whitley said.

So, did spending a day walking in the shoes of her grandfather and uncle, plus having her dad as a county commissioner, convince Shannon Doyle of entering politics?

"I've thought about it," she said. "I haven't given it a lot of thought, but I have given it consideration."

Incidentally, I too was a Youth in Government participant when I was a senior at Texas City High School. I was elected dogcatcher.

The local chapter of the Anti-Defamation League says that Rep. Larry Taylor, R-Friendswood, sent an apology for using the term "Jew them down," during a Texas windstorm hearing on Thursday.

After noting that he was wrong to use that term and later apologizing publicly for its use, Taylor sent a letter to the ADL.

“Anti-Semitism and intolerance have no place in our society and in our government," the letter read in part, according to a press release from the Anti-Defamation League. "I understand the impact of my comments and am deeply sorry for the message that was sent. I have a deep respect for the Jewish people and their history, and hope to work to strengthen that relationship in the future.”

Dena Marks, the Southwest region associate director for the Anti-Defamation League, said Taylor's apology was accepted.

“Representative Taylor called us this morning and told us he made a mistake yesterday and did not mean to offend anyone," Marks said in a statement. "He also sent us a letter so that we would have his apology in writing. After our conversation with Representative Taylor, we believe he understands that the phrase 'Jew them down' comes from an age-old anti-Semitic stereotype, that he realizes it offends people, that he won’t use it again. We recognize and appreciate he took quick action to correct himself and apologize.”