Well put @christianzane! I'm still struggling to mentally get past the original diagnosis from June, but I've dropped from 250 to 228lbs, I jog/walk 2 miles a day, take a statin and aspirin (with some muscle spasms during long drives) and eating a med. based diet. I'm still needing guidance from a nutritionist as there are many perspectives on how we should be eating, but so far low carb and low fat is getting the weight off and I'm starting to come off blood pressure meds too. I think it isn't stated enough that your risk is greatly reduced if you follow the 7 things you state in your post. Really, your risk is very close to that of the general population if not better because you will be in such great physical shape and other causes of disease and death will also be greatly reduced.