W.I.N. Newsletter Special - No, I am not sick.

Published: Fri, 05/03/13

When I joined the Calgary Police Service in 1979 I was running an average of 30 miles a week and weighed 185 pounds. By July 2004 my weight had ballooned to 275 pounds. By the time I retired in November of 2004 I was down to 235. I am now back to 185 pounds. I feel great at this weight and am confident that I will maintain this weight from now on.

What I did not anticipate with the weight loss was the number of people who saw me and were concerned I was sick. Some of them did not want to say anything to me about the weight loss as they did not know how to broach the health issue. 

Those that did mention it often asked two questions:

1. Was the weight loss intentional?

2. What did you do?

The answer to question #1 is - Yes, it was intentional.

The answer to #2 is - I made some changes to my workouts, I got smarter about eating healthy on the road, and focused on portion control (I was eating too much healthy stuff at home). 

Some of the tools that helped me were Dr. Daniel Amen's books to get my mind focused on the right things (they really helped me get clear about my 'why'), my resistance bands for training on the road (they are easy to pack and provide a great workout in a hotel room) and my use of Vega nutritional products. 

The keys for me:

  1. Get clear on your 'why'. Why is being healthy important to YOU? If we all ate healthy and exercised because all the research supports how great it is for us there would not be an obesity epidemic in North America and we would reduce illness and disease dramatically. There has to be a personal reason, your own WHY.  
  2. Find a system that works for you. Everyone has an opinion. Everyone has a solution. Do what works for you. I basically follow the Paleo way of eating (no grains, no dairy, no legumes). That works for me, not for everyone. 
  3. Celebrate the little successes. Too many people wait until they have achieved their fitness or weight loss goals. Celebrate along the way with small victories. Feel good about the healthy choices you make each day. If you make a less desirable choice, acknowledge it and move on. Make a more desirable choice next time. We are human. We are not perfect. We will fail, we will make mistakes, we will make less desirable choices. Learn from the experience and move on. 
  4. Become aware of the story you tell yourself (I am a bad eater. I am always going to be heavy. I am lazy. I hate to exercise. Eating healthy is too hard. I don't have time to work out.) Change the stories that are holding you back. 
What's Important Now? - Find your why and get started. 

Take care and always remember Life's Most Powerful Question - What's Important Now?

Brian Willis