#91 A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

My very good friend recently lost a lot of weight. He'd been carrying these extra pounds around for some time, and although it bothered him, he was unable to lose it all, and when he did lose some, he was unable to keep it off. Somehow, somewhere he dug deep down and got back on the "I want to be healthy wagon". Below, he shares his personal journey.

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words... and more than a few pounds!

After I attended a Halloween party this past October, I experienced one of my more embarrassing moments of recent times. As is often the case, my wonderful hosts circulated amongst their guests, camera in hand, snapping away to memorialize the evening's festivities. Seeing as I was fair game, a few choice photos were taken of me having a great ole time. The trouble came afterwards, when much to my shock and dismay their photos were, like so many photos are these days, posted on Facebook for the world to see. Oh My God! To say I looked awful would be an understatement! Not only did I look bad, I looked HUGE! No, I WAS huge -- distorted, bloated, and unhealthy looking! Sadly, it wasn't an unflattering angle or bad lighting that could be blamed.

I was, for the first time in a good long while, being slapped in the face with a reality I had been aware of, but had chosen to avoid, ignore, minimize and downplay. Because of this photo, I had to admit to myself that I could no longer pretend I looked or felt o.k. I finally had to admit how acutely aware of being FAT I really was. I also had to admit just how damned tired of it I was as well. This extra weight had been screaming at me from my waistline, tight shirts, bad back and wobbly knees for a good long while, but now there was a bull horn in my face announcing full tilt from the pixels of my computer monitor... You are FAT!

I hated that moment, I really, really hated it. I felt the "weight" of acknowledgment come down on me like the infamous anvil falling from the sky to crush the coyote. I had a palpable sense of anger -- at myself -- for allowing my body to go from its normal 153 pounds to a whopping 224 pounds. Did I actually do that? Did I gain 71 pounds? How could this have happened? How?

I know the answer. We all know the answer! I ate, and I ate, and then I ate some more. I won't go into detail about what or when or why. That's a whole other story. What I will say is this: It was fun while it lasted, but not fun enough to be worth this harsh reality.

As is true with many things in life, irony was afoot. While at the same time I was experiencing the frustration, embarrassment and anger of this reality, I was simultaneously having an epiphany. Now I don't know about you, but I love a good epiphany. This doesn't happen very often, but what a wonderful thing when it does. And so it was, that within seconds of feeling so dark, down, overwhelmed and just plain lousy with myself and my situation, I was given the wonderful gift of resolve. Seeing myself in that place, knowing that I did not have to be there and feeling an overwhelming sense of being sick and tired of being overweight, crystallized within me the desire, determination and motivation to make a u-turn right then and there to get myself on track to lose the weight. I found that by eating very, very low carbs and mostly protein, I was able to stop the cravings and slowly [like over the last 4 months] lose the weight.

And that is exactly what I did and continue to do. As of this writing I have lost exactly 30 pounds, which I find totally amazing and am so grateful for! The weight loss and the way I feel are both wonderful motivators, just in themselves, to keep me on track to my goal. So, no matter what it is that motivates you, find it, hold on to it, and use it to force you to do what it is that you really want to accomplish. I hate the weight loss process, but I hated being exposed as a great big fatty on Facebook even more! Thank G-d for vanity!

Quote of the Day: “If you don't know where you are going, any road will get you there.” Lewis Carroll