COUPLES UP CLOSE-Randy and Regina Jones

 andy and Regina have been married for 22 years. They have two daughters, twenty-year-old Jessica,  who’s  away at college, and fifteen-year-old Amanda. Randy works as a quality manager for a furni- ture manufacturer. His job requires him to travel frequently and spend many evenings dining with clients. Regina works full-time as a traffic spe- cialist for a health care manufacturer. Although her job doesn’t require her to travel as much as Randy’s job, she does work long hours.

Randy feels that all his life he has been on the heavy side, but he never thought  of himself as overweight. “In  high school I  started playing soccer and really slimmed down. During my college years, I was in terrific

shape because  I went to a U.S. Merchant Marine Academy and we worked out all the time.”  Randy believes that he started putting on weight and noticing it after getting married and having children. “I was really starting to slow down, and I found myself getting short of breath from simple things like climbing stairs. Being heavy didn’t bother me that much, but it really bothered  Regina. She started making me go for annual physicals with a doctor.” After his first exam, Randy discovered that his weight had skyrocketed to 316 pounds and that his blood pressure and cholesterol were high. His doctor put him on medications and encouraged him to lose weight.

Regina never had a weight problem until after the birth of their second daughter. “I tried several times to lose the extra thirty pounds  I had put on from carrying Amanda. Once I came very close to my prepregnancy weight, but I eventually gained back all the weight.” Regina said she was always self-conscious about her weight.