No, not that one.
Commitment.
I am convinced that, unless you’re of those rare few genetically-destined to be large, your weight problems (and resultant health issues) are simply because you are committed to being one way and not the other. You can say you don’t have the energy, you don’t have the time, you don’t want to look silly in the gym, but it all comes down to your choosing to be, as I was to an extent, a fat slug. You choose to be committed to your desk, your sofa, your television, your Twinkies.
Change, corporate, personal, or otherwise, takes dedicated effort. It takes a vision of where you want to be, and a willingness to commit to getting there, no matter how hard it may seem. Even when you fall off the path, you have to get right back on it and try to do better.
Two years ago, Phill Novak weighed 387 pounds.
Reality hit in January 2006 at a Pittsburgh Steelers game. Novak had gone to smoke a cigarette.
“We were walking back up to our seats, and I started getting winded,” says Novak. “I didn’t feel right, I started sweating. I didn’t think I would make it back up. My heart [was] beating a million times a minute; I thought I was having a heart attack.”
“A lot of things went through my head, about saying goodbye to my kids,” says Novak choking back his tears. “I told my friend, ‘This is it, I’m not going to live like this no more.’ ”
Novak, who was approaching his 40th birthday, made it through the football game. As he ate two double-cheeseburgers and a milkshake, he began to think about the limitations of obesity and how it was keeping him from living a full life.
The next day, Novak devised his own game plan and started his weight-loss journey.
He began simply by walking — one mile a day and eating a low-carbohydrate diet of 15-30 grams a day.
“I walked off my first 100 pounds,” he says. “Walked it off, an hour a day. I lost 100 pounds in seven months.”
I thought my losing 20 pounds in two months was impressive, but this guy has me beat hands (and double-cheeseburgers) down.
Two years later, Novak has lost a total of 192 pounds. Today, he runs 30 to 40 miles a week, works out two to three hours a day, does yoga in the morning and squeezes in a push-up whenever he gets a chance at work.
Now maintaining his weight at 195 pounds, Novak says he’s made a lifestyle change and rarely takes a day off from exercise.
I know the feeling.
I hate if a workday schedule keeps me from getting in my planned workout, and on a long weekend I keep looking forward to being able to use the office gym. I would half chalk it up to having a somewhat addictive personality and the other half would be that I am seeing real results from my efforts. Pants I used to squeeze into now fall off of me. Looking in the mirror I see muscles that, until recently, were just the stuff of my own biological rumors. Not to be a walking cliche, but I honestly believe I have knocked years off the clock (even if it only gets me back to where I ought to be).
Doesn’t much hurt that I got hit on in the elevator the other day after working out. Hey hey, look at me, Pavlov’s dog. *Arf*
Anyway, getting here has taken focus and dedication. I’ve had to eat more carefully, abstain from as much of the tasty amber nectar of the beer gods as I might want, and push myself in the gym when I think, “Wow, I’d really rather be in a meeting about some incredibly boring business topic right about now.”
As I have begun to transform myself, a number of coworkers have asked how I am doing it.
I happily provide them the workout templates, the schedule, the ideas behind what I am doing, but they quickly fall into two classes of people: those who hope to find the time to take care of themselves (but seldom do) and those who know this is what they need to do. I can easily compare and contrast two women with whom I work - one is a professional type, looking to be healthier and knowing she should, but our very first workout together was postponed because of her schedule (apparently lunchtime was reserved for caloric intake). Another woman, one of our hourly employees, asked me for my aerobic routine and I gave it to her - and she was in the gym the next day, and today as well, busting her ass to do the hardest 20 minutes of her life. When her coworkers taking leisurely strolls on the treadmill asked her how she was doing, she confessed it was hard but she was not going to quit.
That’s commitment. Commitment in the face of your own weakness and the attempts of your friends to bring you down to their level of effort (or lack thereof).
Even though I might be ahead of her in the fitness race, seeing her effort and dedication was a huge inspiration. I made a point of approaching her afterwards and letting her know how great I thought she had done, because I sincerely did think that.
Here’s hoping she (and I) keep it up!