motd Tuesday Sept 6, 2011

[Guest guest]

I'LL NEVER

GET TO...

Tuesday, 06 September 2011

Here's

a story that's sad but true. And, I'm sure, many of you

can relate to it. I've experienced this story thousands

of times over the years I've worked to help people lose

weight. It's just so familiar. Today, I'm going to

talk about nne.

The first time I met nne, a coworker brought her

along to workout with us at Slimmons. I got to talk

with her after class and, back then, she weighed 181

pounds. She confessed to being an emotional eater

and having problems dealing with a lot of personal

issues in her life. (Can you relate to her story?)

But

nne told me, beginning that day, she was

going to work hard losing the 50 pounds she needed to

lose. She was really tired of weighing so much and said

she was determined to never reach 200

pounds. Well, those were nne's words. But, I'm

sorry to say, apparently she wasn't ready to back those

words up.

Oh yes, she did start coming to class regularly but it

wasn't long before her visits became less and less

frequent. In the meantime, I found out later, she was

staying home, depressed about her life and using food to

feed her depression.

Several

months later, nne did return to Slimmons. And from

the minute I saw her, it was obvious she'd gained quite

a bit of weight since the last time I'd seen her. In

fact, she was brave enough to share the numbers with me

after weighing herself at the club. nne was now up

to 210 pounds. She could hardly get the words

out of her mouth as she shared the news with me. (And

it's tough to understand someone when you have to filter

the words through their tears.) She was crying so

hard as she said to me, "Oh, . I swore I'd

never get to 200 pounds and yet...here I am now, at 210

pounds!"

I told nne that she shouldn't cry over the pounds

she'd gained. I told her that she had to concentrate on

the now and stay focused on her weight loss

mission. She began attending class faithfully

again...for a few weeks. But it wasn't long before she

disappeared on us again. This time she was gone for

over half-a-year. Well by now, we were really worried.

And when we don't see someone in class for that long, we

like to call and see how they are. Slimmons is just

that kind of place...we care!

Well, we left messages for nne but she never

returned our calls. And then one day, she returned.

And while I was happy to see her again, I was not so

happy to see that she'd gained even more

weight. She told that she was now up to 243 pounds.

She went on to say, "I can't believe what I've done

to my body, . I'm now taking antidepressants

and they make me very hungry. My doctor also put me

on steroids because I've been experiencing such

terrible back pain. But I'll tell you this, in spite

of everything, I'm not going to ever let my

weight reach 300 pounds!"

Oh, nne's story. May I tell you something? I've

seen people go from the 200s, to the 300s, to the 400+

pounds range and more. And you know what?

Each of their stories often begin the same as

nne's: I'm never gonna let myself get to...

You get the picture, don't you? Everyone of those

people made the same pledge nne used to make. See,

we keep moving the bar. Well, isn't time to

stop? Haven't you allowed the skin on your body to

stretch enough with all of those extra calories? Today,

I want you to get on your scale and look at what you

weigh. And I want you, today, to get on a

healthy eating and exercise program that'll help you

move those numbers on your scale down...down to

where they should be. If you don't, then you'll

end up resetting the bar following the same scenario

that got nne into so much trouble with her weight.

And whatever happened with nne? Well, I see her in

class occasionally. When I do, I always give her a hug

and plant a big kiss on her face. I only hope that one

day, she loves herself enough to get back below 200

pounds and succeeds in reaching her goal weight.

Love,