Ben Rogers Checks-In With Special Guest Nate Newton

By admin on April 2, 2012 at 8:07 am

Ben checks in to give us a status report on his progress after gastric sleeve surgery with Dr. David Kim and even introduces a special guest who served as 1 of the sources of his weight loss inspiration.

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Ben Roger’s Weight Loss Surgery Progress

By admin on February 2, 2012 at 2:07 pm

Ben Rodgers of ESPN shares his results with gastric sleeve weight loss surgery, performed by Dr. David D. Kim.

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Studio Video with Ben Rogers and Nate Newton

By Ben Rogers on December 6, 2010 at 4:23 pm

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Posted in Ben Rogers, Gastric Sleeve, Uncategorized

Choosing the Right Path

By Ben Rogers on October 24, 2010 at 2:17 pm

When you’ve got it to lose, losing weight is such a wonderful transformation for a person. The way down the scale is far more glorious than the way up. The way up is filled with concern, stress and shame. The way down is filled with hope, happiness and loose-fitting clothes.

My weight loss journey began with being inspired by someone else’s. Watching 396-pound Nate Newton shrink, day-by-day, right before my very eyes made me realize that the same outcome was possible for me. Watching his brilliant weight loss success unfold was like witnessing an absolute miracle.

After watching from the sidelines for long enough, I finally had to get in the game by asking for directions to the “miracle shop” for myself.

Nate’s success inspired me to take action and set up an appointment with his weight loss surgeon, Dr. David Kim. While Nate’s success definitely motivated and inspired me to find out more about Dr. Kim and the Sleeve Procedure, it was Dr. Kim himself who inspired me to change my life during my free consultation.

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of emails from listeners who have heard me talking about Dr. Kim on the radio. I love it. I love to hear from folks who find themselves in the same boat that I was in. Do you know why? Because I can help — and it’s so easy.

Like Nate inspired me, I’m now seeing that my own weight loss of roughly 70 pounds is motivating others — and now they too want to find out how to get their hands on the “miracle”.

But there is no miracle. There is only the reality that weight loss surgery was right for me. And it was right for Nate. And it’s been right for many, many others. Is it right for you? I don’t know, but you won’t either unless you’re inspired to the point that you decide to take action and investigate it for yourself.

Remember that help I mentioned? Remember how easy I said it was for me to provide? That’s because all I have to do encourage you to go visit Dr. Kim and see what’s right for you.

If you’re reading this and you’re battling your weight, I know where you are. I know what you’re feeling. I was there too. It’s tough living the way we’ve been living. In fact, it’s so tough that it will take years off of our lives if we continue to go down that path.

So choose the other path. The one full of hope, happiness and loose- fitting clothes. I did, and it’s changed my life forever. But it’s not a miracle, it’s a surgery. And I’m so grateful that Dr. Kim performed mine. If you go in for that initial consultation with him, I think you’ll understand very quickly why I am such a big fan.

No matter what you do, I want to wish you the best of luck. And please feel free to email me any time: Ben@benandskin.com. Please consider me an ally in the fight to get your life back!

Hope to see you on my path soon!

Posted in Ben Rogers

Dr. Kim and Ben Rogers Pursue Weight Loss Success in Dallas

By admin on October 22, 2010 at 9:20 am

Following the extremely successful weight loss journey of former Dallas Cowboys star Nate Newton, another ESPN commentator is teaming up with Dallas weight loss surgeon Dr. David Kim. Big Ben Rogers, co-host of the Ben and Skin Show on 103.3 FM, ESPN in Dallas, has undergone the vertical sleeve gastrectomy as he begins his own weight loss experience.

Dr. Kim Teams up with ESPN Commentator in Dallas

Big Ben has lost a total of 60 pounds, down from his beginning weight of 346 pounds. While he was initially apprehensive about the entire process, Big Ben says he immediately connected with Dr. Kim at the initial consultation: “I felt remarkably comfortable with him in a very short duration.” After a great deal of research and emotional preparation, Big Ben decided to undergo the vertical sleeve procedure to begin the next chapter of his life.
Follow Big Ben’s journey and track his overall weight loss on Dr. Kim’s Dallas bariatric surgery website, then call Dr. Kim’s office to schedule your initial consultation.

Posted in Ben Rogers, Gastric Sleeve, In the media

Looking Better, Feeling Better

By Ben Rogers on September 26, 2010 at 6:59 pm

Life is good, my friends. Life is good.  Since I was first motivated by the remarkable weight loss progress of my friend and co-worker Nate Newton, and mustered the courage to set up my own free consultation with Dr. Kim, my life has done a complete 180.  Instead of being in the worst shape of my life as I turn 40 years old, I’m suddenly on my way back to what I weighed 15 years ago.  I’m already closing in on being 60 pounds lighter than I was when my marvelous Dr. Kim adventure began, and in case I’ve failed to mention it, life is good.

Depending on what I’m wearing when you see me, you may or may not be able to tell how far I’ve come.  For that matter you’d also have to know how out of control I was at my worst.  But most days I’m wearing clothes that are so baggy that it’s hard to get a handle on my progress.

I’m in an interesting situation with regard to my wardrobe because like I said, everything I have is too big — and everything I’d like to go out and purchase at this point will soon be too big as well.  So for now, I’m going baggy unless I stumble across something that is either on sale or from my extremely limited — and dust-covered — “Skinny Ben Collection”.  Trust me, it’s all relative –that collection is not for anyone who is flirting with being skinny.

My waste is down six plus inches and counting, and my shirts are no longer a Big and Tall store ONLY proposition.  This weekend, I had the pleasure to perusing the thread offerings of the masses for the first time in several years as I now find myself back in the 2X shirt size market — as opposed to the 3XLT area I’ve been camped out in for some time.

Funny, but I browsed with zero anxiety this weekend.  I didn’t realize it til I was halfway through.  At one point I noticed that something was very different as I looked around, but I wasn’t sure what it was.  Then it hit me.  The reason I never liked shopping for clothes before is that it was always quite stressful.  Few things fit me, so my selection pool was minimal.  On top of that, I felt guilty for being in that situation.

Every time I shopped in the Big and Tall department I wanted to get in and out as quickly as possible like it was a bank robbery and my get away driver was anxiously awaiting my exit from the store.  I made little eye contact. I didn’t want to see another soul.  Worst of all was finding something I liked and then having to roll the dice on whether or not it would fit.  Most times it wouldn’t.  My confidence was shot.

That’s what was different.  I’m not bogged down by any of that guilt/shame drama anymore.  I feel good, I feel different.  I feel like myself.  I’m not burdened with a lot of the overweight anxiety that used to weigh me down even more than the extra weight did.  I’ve now realized that Sleeve procedure is not only helping me lose unwanted pounds, it’s helping unload unnecessary mental baggage as well.

Don’t get me wrong — I have a long way to go on my weight loss journey, yet.  There’s no question about that.  I’m roughly half way to my goal weight range.  But in terms of how I feel right now… all I can say is… life is good, life is good.

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Recently some people have reached out to me with questions about the Gastric Sleeve procedure.  I’m no expert on this by any means, but I’m happy to share with you what I’ve experienced — and try to answer any of your questions that I can.  I highly encourage anyone who is considering this procedure to come in for a free consultation with Dr. Kim.  He’s a great guy and I assure you that you’ll instantly feel comfortable with him.  But if you’d like to fire some questions at me before you go down that route, please feel free to email me your questions to ben@benandskin.com.  I’ll post questions anonymously and do my best to answer them in an email grab-bag blog entry soon.

Thanks for reading this… oh, and by the way, if I didn’t make myself clear – getting the gastric sleeve procedure from Dr. Kim is one of the best decisions I’ve ever made for myself.

Posted in Ben Rogers

The Embarrassment I Felt is Gone, The Gloom I Felt is Gone

By Ben Rogers on September 16, 2010 at 9:30 am

You know that feeling you get at the beginning of a vacation?  Or maybe how you feel when you get off of work on the Friday of a three- day weekend?  That’s how I feel when I wake up every day.

It’s what you might call “sleeve-induced cheerfulness”.

I compare it to the beginning of a vacation because my weight loss journey has only just begun.   I’m extremely happy right now of course
– but even happier about what lies ahead for me.

My entire world is changing for the better.  In the now, my clothes no longer fit.  They’re all too big! What’s even more fantastic is that it doesn’t make sense for me to buy new clothes that do fit right now because I’m about to lose so much more weight that any news clothes I might buy won’t fit in the near future.  Don’t go throwing me a pity party for my wardrobe troubles – I couldn’t be happier about it!

My heaviest weigh-in was 346. I’m already 45+ pounds lighter than that.

Each day, a coworker or friend looks at my new, slimmed-down face in semi-astonishment and compliments my progress.  It’s such a wonderful feeling.

When I think back to what was going through my mind when I first visited Dr. Kim’s office for my initial consultation, I now realize that I’ve gone through a mental transformation of sorts as well.  In hindsight, I recognize that I was lugging around a suitcase of negative energy with me.  Being so overweight was just bad mojo for me, mentally. Beneath the surface, I was consistently brewing up a fresh pot of gloom. It wasn’t just the stress of being too big, it was also the realization that all of the diets and workout regimes that I had tried over the years had all eventually failed.  I had failed.

Closing in on the age of 40, having unsuccessfully managed my weight for several years, it was hard for me to admit that I needed help of any kind to get it under control.

Frankly, I was kind of embarrassed to be in the waiting room of Dr. Kim’s office.  I kept my head down. I didn’t make eye contact with anyone. I didn’t generate any conversation with his staff. I just stared at the ground as my mind raced. Thoughts of bolting for the door kept creeping into my mind as I waited for my name to be called.  Finally, they called my name and I reluctantly took what at the time I mistakenly considered to be my walk of shame.

My mind was pummeling me. “Hi, my name is Embarassment, and I’ve failed miserably at getting my diet/weight under control. Speaking of control, because I have no self control or self discipline, I need the help of a surgeon to turn my life around.” Man, I was really down on myself.  As I waited for Dr. Kim to arrive in my room, I texted my wife nervously, wondering if I was doing the right thing. Part of me wanted her to text back, “Get out of there! Run!” Luckily, she didn’t. She supported me like a champion as she always does. So I nervously waited…

Finally, I was in a room moments away from meeting Dr. Kim. What would he be like?  Would he judge me?  I mean, beneath the surface, would I detect it?  Will he have people skills?  Will I be comfortable?   Is he an evil robot?   Is there a window I can climb out of?

Five minutes after meeting Dr. Kim I knew that my life was about to change forever.

I felt so comfortable with him right off the bat.  He seemed to know everything that I was dealing with.  Somehow, I went from being ashamed to optimistic in about the time it takes a racecar to go from zero to sixty. If you’re 50 or more pounds overweight, I hope you get the opportunity to have a meeting like that with Dr. Kim someday.  It will turn your dread to hope very quickly – no matter what route you opt to take to get your weight under control.

He wasn’t selling me on a procedure. We just talked.  No matter the direction I would choose to take following that meeting, I felt that he truly wanted the best for me, nothing more.  For years my weight was a forbidden topic for me. Yet somehow I was immediately comfortable talking to him about it.  I left not knowing exactly how I’d proceed in my battle vs. my weight, but I left that office with some serious pep in my step after what was a very liberating discussion.

I called my wife on my way home and raved about the experience.  She heard the excitement in my voice and we both knew at that moment that my life was about to change.

My enthusiasm during that phone call was fueled by hope.  My enthusiasm now is fueled by reality.  Going in for my consultation with Dr. Kim is one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made.

The embarrassment I felt is gone.   The gloom I felt is gone.  The weight I’ve been unable to successfully shed and keep off for years will soon be gone too!

Now when I walk into Dr. Kim’s office for a routine check-up, I might as well be skipping. I hang out with his incredibly friendly staff – some of which, like Shelley, have had the procedure too.  I crack jokes with Dr. Kim’s on-site dietician David Kellenberger as we discuss my diet plan.  I hug Pam.  I hug Dr. Kim.  I hug strangers.  I’m a runaway hug machine.  To think back on the anxiety I felt the first time I was there is downright funny to me now.  It was all in my head.

What fills my head now is hope and happiness.  Both for the present… and the future.  First day of vacation, baby.  Gotta love it.

Posted in Ben Rogers

Ben Rogers on the Ben and Skin Show

By Ben Rogers on September 13, 2010 at 8:21 am

Listen to Ben’s Commercial from the Ben and Skin Show

Play Audio :: Ben Roger’s talks about his weight loss journey

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Big Ben’s Weight Loss Journey Week 2

By Ben Rogers on August 31, 2010 at 6:03 pm

It’s been two weeks since my gastric sleeve surgery and my new adventure just gets better and better every day.

My heaviest pre-surgery weigh-in with the great Dr. Kim was a whopping – and embarrassing – 346 lbs.  Yikes.  That number even shocked some of my closest friends and family.  At 6’3” with a closet full of baggy threads, I guess I was able to obscure my sizeable girth fairly well.  But trust me, chairs shuddered in my presence as recently as a month ago.

I’m happy to announce that I’m already 30 lbs lighter and counting.  No, I didn’t lose 30 lbs in two weeks.  For me, the loss process started 3 weeks prior to my surgery as I started an all-liquid diet to prepare for the procedure.

Losing weight is a glorious thing for someone who has battled their weight for years.  When you’re losing weight every day, and working towards an amazing yet very attainable goal, you wake up happy every day.

It’s such a great feeling when you realize that there is no denying that your clothes are getting too big.  I’ve dieted before with some success, but this is different.  In the past, I might have relaxed after losing 30 pounds.  But with the sleeve, I know that this is just the beginning.  Losing 120+ lbs is exceedingly attainable for me with the sleeve if I hold up my end of the bargain by exercising regularly.  But back to how it feels to be heading in the right direction… losing weight on a daily basis is a liberating process to say the least.

I can’t help but get ahead of myself and wonder how much weight I’ll ultimately lose in this process.  I don’t really have a number in mind – I just want to be happy and healthy. Recently, I’ve been doing some thinking about all of the things that I’ll soon be able to do without thinking twice.  Here’s a quick list:

• Air travel. As a big man, catching a simple flight comes with major league anxiety.  Squeezing into a tiny seat, hoping the seat belt click happens without much fanfare and worrying about the poor soul next to me who is folded up into the fetal position have all been flight concerns for me in the past. Soon, that won’t be the case. I can’t wait.  I might even become a Southwest Airlines junkie who flies around for sport.
• Water parks with the kiddos.  My kids love to swim and would love to get their water park on… but truthfully, I just haven’t felt comfortable going. You got the troubling swimshirt decision and the unease that accompanies onlookers pondering your bizarre male pregnancy.  It just hasn’t been a consideration for me.  We swim as a family at home, but not in public.  I can’t wait to hit the water park with my little sea monkeys.  They’re going to love it!
• Playing basketball. I’m not particularly good at it, but I love, love, love to play.  It’s really the only exercise I’ve ever really enjoyed in adulthood.  Unfortunately, I just got too heavy to play at some point.  At 40 years old, I’m not exactly trying to put on a show, get in a competitive league or play with college kids or something.  But I’d really love to be able to get out and run full court with a bunch of fellow 40-year olds for some good, old-fashioned Saturday afternoon roundball cartio. Very soon, that will be a reality for me. I’m stoked!

Those are just a few of the things I’m looking forward to.  For most people, they are just common every day things that folks might even take for granted.  For me, they represent a magnificent light at the end of a tunnel.  Based on the poor direction of my health before my sleeve procedure, that light might as well have been an oncoming freight train.  Now with my sleeve, that light represents a wonderful future that I can’t get to fast enough!  Thanks, Dr. Kim!

Posted in Ben Rogers, Gastric Sleeve

What Made Me Believe in The Sleeve?

By Ben Rogers on August 23, 2010 at 11:18 am

Two things:

1.   The incredible shrinking Nate Newton

2.   The incredibly impressive Dr. David Kim

I’ve battled weight my entire life. In Peewee football, I was an offensive lineman.  Seriously, that’s where they typically place the pudgiest kids who merely take up space and the disoriented kids who try to look out of their helmet’s ear hole. Early on, I was a biggun.

In little league baseball, I played the roll of the chubby catcher.  My plump little frame was a perfect target for pitchers trying to learn how to aim and throw at something.

I was always slow.  For the most part I was always “big boned”.  Being more insulated than my peers was just a part of my childhood.  It was a part of my adolescence. It’s been an even bigger part of adulthood for me.

I’ve tried many different diets… the pound-of-bacon per day diet, the teaspoon of shark meat for every meal diet, the diet of the week.  I’m making jokes, but I’ve tried them all.  I even experienced some moderate success on some of them in the initial stages.

But inevitably, each time I would quickly reunite with my lost weight.  It was as if that weight had hidden a LoJack on me somewhere.  It always knew exactly where to find me.

And so I floated along. A personal trainer here and there.  A prolonged attempt to eat healthy here and there.  Years adding up here and there.  Mostly I worked hard at my job, did a horrible job of planning my meals and ended up eating only the unhealthiest options.  I behaved as if I was making a run at the career cheeseburger consumption record.

Because of my terrible eating decisions and inconsistent workout habits I’ve dealt with high blood pressure, over-sweating, too-big-for-my-seatism and all of the anxiety that comes with being a BIG.  Chest pain that could be caused by just about anything always put the worst thoughts in my mind.

To complicate matters, in the past few years I’ve added some foot and knee issues to the mix that have hampered my exercise options to some extent as well.  It’s been a long, downhill fall and in the back of my mind I suppose I’ve always tricked myself into thinking that I’ll be able to miraculously self-rescue myself before the you-know-what hits the fan.

When I learned that I was going to be a father for the first time, I promised myself that I would get my health in check before my first son’s arrival.  I then made a similar promise when my second son was on the way.  My oldest son is about to turn five and I have yet to fulfill any form of that promise to myself.

I turn 40 years old in November.  In December, my wife and I are expecting our third kiddo, a baby girl.  At 40!

I keep getting older, my health keeps getting further from target and my responsibilities to the people I love the most in this world continue to grow – as they naturally do for all fathers.

As I floated along knowing that I needed to do something I continued to do nothing.

Then one day at work I was blindsided by an NFL lineman.  Three-time Super Bowl champion Nate Newton didn’t have to make physical contact with me to get my attention.  All he had to do was walk by.

The first time I saw him after he returned from having Dr. Kim perform his gastric sleeve surgery, I was blown away by the transformation.  He looked like a different person.  The weight was falling off of him.  It was all we could talk about at work.  We all watched in complete awe.

Then as the weeks went by I watched his amazing progress continue like a stalker or something.  I’d catch up with him the break room at work like a groupie and I’d pepper him with questions about his amazing physical makeover.

He was losing weight.  He was happy.  He was mobile.  He was active.  He was confident.  He was doing it in a very healthy way.  He was born again.

One day I had seen enough.  I believe I said something like… “Ah, Nate… ah, can you, ah, please give me Dr. Kim’s phone number?”

But I wasn’t home free.  I was still full of questions.  Full of doubt.  Full of guilt.  Embarrassed that I let my health get so far out of control that weight loss surgery was even a consideration.  Nate Newton gave me all the hope and inspiration I needed to make it to Dr. Kim’s office.  But that only got me half way.  One bad vibe of any kind from his office would’ve sent me scurrying into the woods like scared deer at the sound of a leaf falling.

That’s when something extremely significant in my journey happened.  I immediately connected with Dr. Kim.  I felt remarkably comfortable with him in a very short duration.  I felt no pressure to do anything at all, but I knew very quickly that if I elected to proceed down the route that Nate did, that I would be in extremely capable hands with Dr. Kim.

In the weeks that followed I had some deep, meaningful, heartfelt talks with him.  Some long.  Some short.  Some about me.  Some about fatherhood.  Some about life in general.

I researched.  I talked to Nate.  I talked to Dr. Kim.  I talked to my wife.  I soul searched.

After all of my data gathering and emotional exploration efforts, I came to the conclusion that this procedure was right for me.  On Monday, I had the procedure.  Today, I’m back at work.

It’s a victory for my health.  It’s a victory for my family.  It’s a victory for my life.  I guess you could call it my “new” life.  I have far to go and much hard work to put in to keep my side of the bargain (exercise-and-diet-wise). But I believe I’m equipped with the tools, the plan, the motivation and the doctor I need to help me achieve all of my health-oriented goals.

Here’s to the next chapter of my life. May it be healthy, happy and full of wonderful memory-making moments with my sweet family!

Posted in Ben Rogers