‘I Had To Change’ (Special)

For years Billy Gardel made one promise to himself: He would lose weight.

“Every year,” says the comedian and ex Mike and Molly. Star “I say I start on Monday. Or the first of the month. Or New Year’s Eve. That’s always been my routine.”

Sometimes he followed, before dropping dozens of pounds at a time as they inevitably stared back at his 6-footer. frame. By 2020, when his weight began to hover around 370-380 pounds, and he developed type 2 diabetes, doctors warned him that he was putting his life at risk. And then came COVID.

“When the first wave hit, and they punched out the list of high-risk conditions, I had them all,” Gardel says. “Overweight, sleep apnea, smoking, type 2 diabetes, asthma…it was really the perfect storm. My blood numbers not going well, my blood pressure going up, type 2 diabetes and Covid — it was enough stuff to scare me, ‘Come hell or high water, I’ve made a change.'”

And he changed. On July 17, 2021, Gardel underwent bariatric surgery, the first step in a life-changing process to change his relationship with food and finally take control of his health.

“It really changed everything I thought about food,” Gardel says. “Food is fuel. It’s not a reward, it’s not soothing, it’s not medicine. I had to get beyond my emotional connection to food.”

After the surgery, through regular workouts and careful attention to his diet, Gardell, 56, lost more than 170 pounds. “I fluctuate between 210 and 215,” says the actor. “And it’s comfortable for me.” Better yet, his health problems have subsided. “My diabetes went away,” he says. “I feel stronger. I have energy. Losing weight saved my life.”

The PEOPLE Puzzler Crossword is here! How quickly can you solve it? Play now!

A self-described “fat” kid, Gardell was born in Pittsburgh but grew up spending his time between Pennsylvania and Florida after his parents’ divorce. Although he was active in sports, his relationship with food became complicated during his teenage years.

“I had a lot of responsibilities at 14 to support the family, and the second stepfather we had at home was not a kind person,” he says. “I think I put on this extra weight as some sort of protective shield.”

At the age of 17, Gardel left home to pursue his dream of becoming a stand-up comedian, playing small clubs across the country and eating his way through both success and failure.

“I was medicating my emotions and fears with food, and I was also celebrating my victories with food,” he says. “You’re eating to boost your emotions when they’re bad or to boost them when they’re good, and both of those things are poison pills.”

Over the years, gaining weight, Gardel tried numerous diets. “I tried everything, low-carb, keto, intermittent fasting — and by the way, all of those things worked — but I couldn’t be consistent with any of them. I was on yo-yo.”

And for a while it didn’t seem like a problem. His stand-up career steadily built – “Big guys are always funny,” he says – and in 2010 he landed a role opposite Melissa McCarthy in the hit CBS sitcom. Mike and Molly. The show, about a couple who fell in love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting, ran for six seasons and “changed my life,” says Gardel. “I was a romantic lead at 350 lbs.” He is amazing. “Life is very strange.”

Three years later he had more television success with comedy Bob Harts AbisholaA show about a man who fights for his nurse while recovering from a heart attack.

Inevitably, though, her extra weight began to take a toll on her health. In addition to diabetes, he developed joint and muscle pain that made it difficult to walk. “I got so big and so immobile it hurt to stand,” he says. When he reached his 50s, he worried about his wife Patty and son Will, now 22, and twice consulted doctors about weight-loss surgery.

“But I chickened out both times,” he says. Finally, after coming face-to-face with that “full bingo card” of high-risk health factors during COVID, he knew he had to take action. “The only thing I didn’t have on that list was being over 65, and I tried to achieve that,” says the actor. “I was desperate enough to change.”

Never miss a story — Sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to human interest stories.

Four years later, Gardel credits his surgeon, Dr. Philip Quilisi and nutritionist Teri Hlubic give “They are a dream team,” he says. But he is also well aware that it is up to him to make this change last. And this required a major change in his thinking about food.

“Every change you want to make in your life starts with your ears,” he says. In weekly meetings with Hlubik — “almost like therapy” — he explored his emotional relationship with food, learned to turn junk-food comfort into fuel for his body and realized that getting healthy is worth the time and effort it takes. “You have to learn to love yourself,” he says. “You have to look at why you react to food and heal it, and then love yourself enough to do something good for yourself.”

Keeping the weight off requires consistency, and Gardel maintains a strict routine: Breakfast is a turkey sausage breakfast sandwich, followed by cottage cheese and fruit in the afternoon and a light dinner free of fried and sugary foods. He also makes sure to drink 75 oz. Drink water every day, take a daily multivitamin, fish oil supplement and probiotics, and exercise three or four times a week. “It’s like living through Groundhog Day, but it’s worth every bit of it,” Gardel says.

He allows himself to splurge occasionally. “I’m able to take a bite or two if I want to,” he says. “At a birthday party I took a forkful of cake just to taste it, and that was enough. I used to eat a whole pizza. Now I can eat one slice and be satisfied.”

And he also admits that not every day is perfect—and that’s okay. “You’re never going to do it perfectly, but if you’re doing it eight times out of 10, you’re going to win the battle,” he says. “My thing is I meditate, and I pray for stability. I pray for gratitude, and I pray to remember what I’ve learned.”

In addition to dramatically improving her health – “I feel like I’ve saved my life; I really do” – losing weight has helped Gardel discover “magical” new experiences like surfing and horseback riding. “I can now fly in the middle seat on an airplane,” he says. “For a grown man, that’s a unicorn! And I know it sounds silly, but I’m able to walk into a store and buy a shirt off the rack. It gives me so much joy, I can’t even explain.”

Even better, his transformation has brought him closer to Patty and Will, who he calls a “secret force” that cheered him through the process. Although neither ever pressured her to lose weight, they gave her a reason to reclaim her health. “They want me around for a long time, God bless them,” says Gardell. “When a man knows what he’s fighting for, he’s capable of some amazing things. And those two are worth fighting for.”

Read the original article on People