33 weeks in (290.4 pounds)

Well, I am 33 weeks in to my bodily life change and I am down 144.6 pounds altogether.  I am losing on average an amazing 4.38 pounds per week and I am in awe!  To be expected, my average weight loss per week has gone down a bit in recent weeks, but If I can stay around 2.5 -3.0  pounds per week I could lose a staggering 200 pounds in one year and be under 250 pounds in January of 2012.

I have chronicled a bit in prior posts about my lack of belief that I could ever lose weight.  There is however no way that I could ever detail in print my dark feeling of defeat when it comes to my weight.  I guess you could say that I believed that God could do miracles, but there was this one thing that I thought was too big (no pun intended) even for God.  I truly felt my weight was a lost cause. 

I am a very sociable person and my eyes have been opened to a lot of people like me.  I remember going to a few open casting calls for the show The Biggest Loser.  One casting call in particular stands out to me that we went to in Chicago.  My friend Clint and I got a hotel room across the street from the TV studio where the open casting call was in preparation of getting up early the next morning to get in line for the call.  We had a view from our room at the Embassy Suites of where the line would form.  We went to sleep around 1 a.m. and there was no line at all, but when we woke to our alarm at 3 a.m. and looked out our window there was a line a half of a block long of people waiting to have their chance at the open casting that would start at 9 a.m.   We quickly got ready and dressed and headed out to get in line on a cold and snowy day in Chicago.  By the time we got in line, we were the 565th and 566th people in line.  As the day wore on, it was expressed to everyone in line that there were well over 10,000 obese people that showed up for this open casting call in Chicago.  In a similar situation, My friends Clint, Jon and I went to the open casting call in Columbus, OH.  This time we were determined not to be as far back in line as we were in Chicago, so we took out chairs and headed out to get in line at 11 p.m.  We were people 12, 13 and 14 if I remember correctly.  While standing in line, I had hope.  I believed I would have been a good fit for the show and I believed I would get on to a TV show that would change my life as we have seen over and over again on the phenomenon that is The Biggest Loser.  As time passed without a phone call that they wanted to interview me further, I was discouraged and settled back into the belief that I would just always be a morbidly obese person.

There are countless people within my own zip code that doubtlessly feel defeated in the same way I did.  There is good news though and that is that I know from experience that there is hope!  Everyone has different life experiences that God can use to help them show others that there is hope.  One of my life experiences is with my weight, yours may be with alcoholism or drug addiction, divorce, fear of aging, struggles with children, financial ruin, struggles with immorality, anxiety in sharing your testimony with other, the list could go on and on.  The point is that you have the ability to choose to positively impact others or just sit back and waste your talents.  I encourage you today to use your  story to help others.  After all, the only reason that I am in the program that I am in is because my friend Jon who I love and respect has also struggled with his weight most of his life and he had success with the program I am in and he came along side of me, loved me and encouraged me even when I did not know that I was not ready to change.  Who do you have in your life that loves and respects you that you could use your talents to help?  Think about it!