I use this photo of myself on Facebook and almost anywhere that a picture of me is needed. When I first posted it in 2015, my daughter Ashley saw it and said, “Dad you are Catfishing everyone!” I had no idea what she was talking about until she explained that the picture was from around 2006 and I certainly weighed a lot more now than I did then. Well duh, that’s why I used it! I was not thin in the “catfish picture” but since then, well I had not gotten on the scales in some time. I was a big boy!
Fast forward to March 8, 2017, when I mustered the courage to get on the scales, 304 pounds!! What!!! I am a 300 pounder!! That’s crazy.
Then I saw the picture of my wife Angie and I at a company function in Atlanta a few days after my 304 pounds reading on the scales.
I looked at that picture and thought, “Oh my God, that’s a 304 pounds man if I ever saw one.” It was me, there was no denying it.
Years and years of one more bite, one more taste, and one too many mouths full of whatever tasted good to me had led me here. Honestly I knew that I had to do something but I had tried almost everything, what would work?
First it hit me that even though I had been blessed with amazingly good health, despite my obesity, I was living on borrowed time. As a life insurance agent to the senior market, that’s the 50-85 year old community, I could not recall ever meeting any man 5’11” that weighed over 300 pounds and was 65 years old or older. That’s only 10 years away. My obesity could and probably would kill me. Literally every time that I took an extra bite and over ate, was like me taking poison.
I know no one is promised tomorrow, but I certainly would like to live. I have a beautiful wife, 4 amazing children, and I have much more to do.
The thought that I would be known as Angie’s first husband shook me.
I was then ready to do whatever it took to get the weight off, and I mean whatever it took.
A few months before I had a conversation with a close friend that is a health coach, John Davisson. John had personally lost 65 pounds and had kept it off for over 10 years.
I had tried dozens of weight loss programs, including John’s, only to stop 5, 10, 20 pounds or more into them and start my weight gain again.
I remember our conversation, what if I created accountability that was so strong that I wouldn’t cheat or quit until I lost all of my weight? What if I weighed in front of all my friends from grammar school all the way through college, people that I work with, go to church with, family friends, everyone? What if I weighed in front of them every day? I bet I could muster the willpower to stick to any weight loss program and finally change forever. So I decided to post my weight to Facebook, I would put myself out there for “my” world to hold me accountable.
I will do that tomorrow, I said.
Yeah right!
Well weeks went by, no posting, no proclamation online.
Then the scale reading above.
Then the picture.
Then after returning from Atlanta, I remembered weeks before enrolling in an online weeklong coaching program, with Nick Unsworth, and Life on Fire. It was called the Life on Fire Challenge.
“Oh brother,” I thought, “I’ve got to catch up after being out of town for 3 days, I don’t have time for this. Well I guess I’ll do it since I’ve already paid for it.”
That Monday we started and I didn’t realize that I would be paired with a
personal coach for one 10 minute session each day.
My coach was Hyo Kim, we hit it off immediately and on Wednesday March 15, 2017, Hyo asked me, “What did I feel was holding me back?” I answered, “My weight.”
Hyo then asked if I had any ideas on how to close that gap and get healthy. That’s when I told him about my idea a few months before of posting my scales daily to Facebook for accountability. Without taking a breath, he replied, “well post now.”
I replied, “Now?” I couldn’t do it now, I didn’t take a picture of my scales this morning, I need to get it right. He said again, “Post now, do it!”
I told him it was like standing on the edge of a cliff and not being able to see where I was jumping.
But I jumped anyway.
That morning I posted my weight and at the time I was down to 296.5, I had been cutting back since the horrendous 304 pounds reading the week before. It’s easy to drop 5 to 10 pounds when you are over 300 pounds. Sticking to it, well that’s another matter.
As I write this, I’m still on the journey, 173 days in and down 95.6 pounds.
Jumping over that metaphorical cliff worked.