Why is obesity defined as a disease - and when does it really endanger us?/Walla system
Here he is before me.
Drew Curry in a less thin period/GettyImages
When Drew Curry shed close to 40 pounds in 2010, the loss was mostly due to fear.
"I would go out to dinner, have a plate of pasta, a cupcake and iced tea with lots of lemons," he tells PEOPLE in the weekly issue.
"So I'd go home, eat Doritos and drink a couple of Pepsis, and take an Ambien to go to sleep. It was misery living like that."
Carey's doctor gave him the wake-up call he needed, telling him, "'If you don't do something, your life will be shorter, and you'll have bad things to look forward to.'"
The comedian took those words to heart, cut carbs and made sure to do 45 minutes of cardio several times a week.
Now Curry, who says he's lost "over 450 pounds in my entire life."
Following the decrease, he also no longer suffers from type 2 diabetes.
And here it is after losing nearly 40 kilograms/GettyImages
"It's better to be like this and have my blood sugar at these levels, and I love myself enough now to want that for myself and want that for myself," he continues, adding, "It's a whole kind of mindset change that you have that you have for your whole life... But once you do, it's so liberating."
And while Curry, 65, still mostly avoids carbs, he sometimes goes off the menu.
"I eat cake and stuff every once in a while," he explains.
"I'm not crazy, but I don't eat the whole cake like I used to."
Being thinner has other benefits as well, Curry admits.
He feels good looking in the mirror and no longer has to worry that the store doesn't have something in his size.
Plus, "I love the energy I have now, I love the way I feel, and I love the clarity I have in my thoughts," he says.
No more apologies
"It's just a better approach all the way around," he continues.
"That's part of my happiness now, is being able to look in the mirror and say, 'Oh, I like my haircut, I like my face, I like the way I'm dressed, and I look good in it. I don't have to sit in the corner or apologize to myself in my head. When I talk to someone, you know what I mean? All those things you do when you're overweight or you think there's something wrong with you."
Reflecting on his weight loss journey now, Curry says it was actually the first step that was the hardest.
"The idea of loving yourself is the hardest part when someone wants to lose weight," he says.
"The first thing you have to do is realize that you are worth it."
More on the same topic:
diet
Drew Carey
Weight
obesity