Determined To Succeed

It always feels good to know there are others out there like you. It could be that you’re a certain height. Or have weight issues. Or like Kermit the Frog green. It doesn’t matter. We all want to feel connected and we all hate the feeling of being alone. Which is part of why yesterday’s 6ABC webchat about weight loss was so cool. It allowed three of us to tell the world-at-large “you are not alone.”

Here’s a short who’s-who of the other wonderful people I met yesterday. Tim, a businessman who flies often, used to top 500 pounds. Asa was 200 pounds. Asa and Tim (and yours truly) lost weight (Tim, over 250 pounds and Asa, 60) the time-tested way – by eating less and exercising more. (For more on our story you can watch the ABC Action News piece on the right side of this very page. Just click play)

As I sat yesterday answering questions and downed the sweet nectar that was my Dunkin’ Donuts coffee I knew I wanted to put fingers-to-keyboard and make today’s blog all about questions and answers. It’s also about not feeling so alone out there in the real world of weight loss challenges. Yesterday, I described the story I’d heard about a young man going through his own weight battles and challenges whose only 12-years-old.  His story touched my heart because I could totally relate to his personal experiences both in feeling fat but also suffering the barbs of other kids point that out on a constant basis.  But as we “fat kids” grow up some of us, like me, get worse and are always looking for answers and a sense of connection. Today (and every day) I hope to provide both.

It’s not often I get to take questions in real-time about weight loss. Usually I receive e-mails asking me the “hows,” whens,”and “whats” of weight loss but not in the fast and furious world of live TV or a live audience. Below are some of the questions we received yesterday and the answers we gave. I do hope they help.

Sometimes the best things come in simple packages.

I am asked all the time, “Bill. What’s your secret? How did you lose all that weight?” Each question asked like the answer is going to be like the wave of a magic wand – quick and easy. When I give the answer you can almost see the person deflate, as if I had just told her she or he would never be happy again.

“Watching what I eat and exercise.”

Bah! Who wants to hear that? But it get’s better. The next question I’m asked is the one that really separates the adults from the children.

Q: “Bill, how long did it take?”

If you follow my blog (and I hope you do kind of like the old Prell commercials. I’d love for you to tell two friends, and they tell two friends, and so on, and so on…) then you’ll know there is no magic pill. There is no “oh you can do this by next week (or even next month). My answer is simple:

A: “It took me three-and-a-half years.”

Again, if the person wasn’t deflating before this really put the pin in the balloon.

Q: “You mean to tell me I actually have to exercise and it might take that long?”

A: “Yup.”

Response: “Sigh.”

I get these questions a lot and I really do not mind answering them at all. I have always been a person who tries to set an expectation so that anyone else attempting what I did isn’t going into it with blinders on. But I heard a question yesterday I hadn’t heard before and the simple yet beautiful answer shocked even me.

I was talking to a new weight loss buddy of mine and she shared with me the story of her conversation with a personal trainer. I can’t remember whether it was she who asked this question or the trainer relayed it to her as part of an overall answer but the question was justified and the answer simply incredible.

Q: “What is the best exercise to do if you want to lose weight?”

A: “The one you will keep doing for the rest of your life.”

For some reason that hit me like a ton of dumbbells. I was expecting something like “Well, you could do 100 abdominal crunches followed by 25 ABC and then 25 XYZ.” But no, the answer was simply “whatever you’ll do for the rest of your life.” And that is so true.

It took me a while to find out what exercises I like doing. The elliptical intimidate dthe crap out of me the first time I even looked at the bloody thing. I had heard such stories about it. “Oh man, that thing kicked my ass.” Or “I can only do ten minutes on it before I’m ready to fall over.” But I ended up loving the elliptical and now I can do half-an-hour on it (maybe more) each time. And today, I am visiting a personal trainer for the first of two trial sessions to try to learn new exercises to further break up my exercise routine, tone up and lose the last 12 pounds I need to lose to reach my goal weight. And you bet your butt I’ll be blogging about that tomorrow.

So as you get ready to start (or even continue exercising) do the exercises that excite you. Do the exercises you get into and want to keep doing. That you miss when you don’t do them. The exercises that kick your butt but in a good way. Everyone’s exercise m.o. will be different but you really should enjoy exercising or else you won’t be able to keep it up as part of a lifestyle for the rest of your life.

The answer to that question really put the classic “good things come in small packages” spin on the age-old question. Except this time the phrase should be “the best answers come in simple packages.”

Q: “Do I really believe that?”

A: “Yup.”

My friends, good morning. I am just showered from a wonderful forty-minute workout in the gym and I’m sitting at my computer ready to begin today.

What is cool to me is how many of you guys out there have said “hello” to me on my new Facebook page, sent me a note to my e-mail address, etc. That is awesome, and also a powerful motivator for me and I thank you all so very much.

Losing weight is sometimes the easy part. Keeping it off is a struggle It is a constant thing we are doing, this weight loss journey. The part about losing and the part about keeping it off.

What continues to motivate me are my friends and loved ones and the new friends I am meet through the column and through this blog. You are all inspirations to me to continue the Battle of (what is now) the three-and-a-half. Yes, my battle to finally lose my grief weight is going very well thanks to my re-commitment to working out and eating better (i.e. laying off my personal crack of fried rice. Ice-cold Cokes are a slightly different story though).

It is the process that I will be doing for the rest of my life. It is the show that never ends. But the rewards are wonderful. Pants that always zip up. Clothes that fit better. Better health all the way around. A new outlook on life.

If that is a never ending show, it truly is the greatest show on earth.