Learning The Ropes

I had been approaching this as a challenge of keeping myself motivated and keeping my head into this.  I still believe that is a big part of it for me.  I also just realized is is also largely about learning as well.  So in addition to reading and applying some of the lessons learned I also searched out a T.V. program called "Heavy" on A&E.  It is amazing what is out there when you look for it.  Reading the description of the show it seems to be exactly about what I am trying to accomplish.

The first message on the first show was that nearly 100 million Americans suffer from debilitating obesity.  Obviously I knew their were a lot but that is an astounding number.  Whoa.

Wow this was pretty eye opening for me.  The first dude was named Tom Arnold. (No not the big mouth actor)  He was 37 years old and 638 pounds.  I would guess about 6'0".  I started at 6'1" 525.  So this guy is someone I could look to for an example of where I would be headed if I do not take action.  He was almost completely immobile.  I also have major limitations that are due to 3 ruptured discs in my back.  Until that injury I still got around OK.  This is great for me to see.

The other person on the show was a 36 year old woman named Jodi who was 368 pounds and had recently suffered what she called a mini stroke.  The doctor called it a stroke.  Not really sure what the difference is.

Each episode is about two people making a large weight loss attempt over a 6 month period.  The first 30 days they are in a rehab facility.

This guy Tom is a really sweet dude.  As I watched the show I was absolutely pulling for him to be successful.  I am smart enough to know you can't judge someone by a 48 minute edited TV show but Jodi came off as a real nasty person .  I was pretty surprised by how strenuously they were pushed from an exercise stand point.  Makes me think I need to push myself more in that regard.  Tom lost 51 pounds the first month and Jody lost 30.  I certainly do not want this to be an advertisement for the TV show.  I just think it helps me to talk things out and this works perfectly to do that.

So 18 days later they met to weigh in and Tom has gained 22 pounds back.  I was not expecting that at all.  Seeing Jody react to his failure made me feel different about her.  She was genuinely concerned and fighting for him to succeed.  He ended up going back to the rehab place for more treatment.  He immediately started losing a large amount of weight.  Jodi seemed to lose steady throughout the six months.

Jodi lost 77 pounds over the six month period.  Pretty impressive.   Tom lost 155 pounds to get down to 483.  What is pretty interesting to me at least is that put him almost exactly at the weight I am at right now.

Very interesting program.  I can say that it definitely makes me feel like I am doing some things correctly and I am headed in the right direction.  That feels good.