It's January 1, 2007,
I work with the diabetes intervention program, and they sent us some literature and tapes on diet and exercise. One of the tapes was of Oprah Winfrey, (Making The Connection). This was a tape that was required for our participants to look over and see what would help them to do better in order to lose the weight. As my supervisor, Tracy and Yvonne and I, sat watching the tape, we looked it over and the tape was very, very rewarding. There were some very, very touching moments there that were what really got me started to lose the weight because I had been on a diet for quite a while.
I went to Weight-Watchers, and I had lost weight four or five times, but it all came back. I was getting to the place just as Oprah was; I was getting very tired of being on a diet. When it came to making the connection, it sort of put things together, in order to make a lifestyle change. So, I put it altogether and that’s what I have been working on. I heard what she said – the best way to lose your weight and keep it off, is to have a physiologist and a personal trainer to help you with your diet and exercise program.
I started January 19, 2007 eating better and exercising with my trainer Kenneth Reed. So far I have lost 65 pounds as of June 15, 2007. From 293 pounds down to 228 pounds in only 5 months. By watching Oprah Winfrey’s tape, Making The Connection, I feel that I have made the connection and the willingness to change my lifestyle also the way I have been living and eating. Through making the connection, I now understand what my body is going through. My body is still going through a transitional lifestyle change. My personal trainer (Kenny) suggested that I try something different in my life, it’s called “Transitions”.
This is just what I needed, it has taught me about the glycemic index, what it is and how it affects the body. It talks about foods, carbohydrates, fats and protein, which is good and which is bad for the body. I learned about the carbohydrates, that gives us that strong urge to eat more. Even though we go through these transitional changes, it is our willingness to really stick to it, but once we get the sugar under control that gives us that craving to eat and drives us just like an alcoholic or drug addict or anything that you like and you can’t get control over. That is why the connection is the willingness to change. But you have to be willing to do it, and understand what is happening to your body and think about what is going on with you.
Once you find out what is going on with you, you need to have some direction. Oprah used ten steps to make her connection, so I decided to give it a try. These are the steps that you have to do along with willingness!
- Exercise seven days a week.
- Exercise within your zone which is pushing yourself to the fullest.
- Exercise at least 20-60 minutes each session.
- Eat a low fat balanced diet every day.
- Eat at least two fruits a day and three vegetables a day.
- Eat three meals a day and two snacks a day.
- Limit alcohol or eliminate it completely.
- Drink 6-8 glasses of water each day. This water will give you fullness, if you are really hungry, drink some more water. That helps to keep you from being too hungry until mealtime.
- Stop eating two or three hours before bedtime. This is really an excellent part because during the time of sleeping, that is when the fat is burning.
- Renew your commitment to healthy living each day. When you get up in the morning always make that commitment to what you are going to do that day, and how you are going to plan the day, mainly for your meals, and how to stick to it.
Because there are a lot of temptations out there and that is where Oprah says the willingness and making the connection come into play. If you can do those ten things, you will make the connection, and you would lose the weight and stick with your physiologist and personal trainer, and you will keep it off. When you follow these ten steps, and if you follow through it, you will lose the weight, and you will come to find out that you are healthier, you feel happier, you have more energy, and stamina to do more things. You will not lose out on this. Give it a try.
There are times when you get out of control over food, this is what makes you eat, and you gain weight.
With the transitional lifestyle diet now, it has given me the power as a man, to control my eating habits.
So as said, you can’t get time back, but that’s time wasted as I have gone for maybe 10, 12, 15 years or more, time wasted that I can never ever get back. Now at the age of 64, it’s a new day, it’s a new time, it’s a new hour. After the transitional lifestyle diet and working with my special trainer, Kenneth Reed of Fit for Life, he has given me a new a day, a new life, and now through the diet, that he has taught me, I’m on my way. I cannot get the time back, but it’s a new day and new time. So, I am going to start it. I won’t get back the time, but as I go on through life, I will see a new day, everyday as I go by.
After you get so heavy and your body feels so tight and overweight by being in a body of 293 pounds, I felt like I just couldn’t do my daily hygiene like bathing myself, I couldn’t reach my feet as I should have. Reaching to wash my back, I just felt so tight, like I couldn’t stretch to wash my back. It was so hard in the shower, bending and everything. You are just trapped into a body that seemed like it was being squeezed so tight. Through the diet and losing the weight, now I feel like I am back to myself again. I do have a lot of flexibility and all.
The part on Oprah’s tape when this really told us what she said, “Girl, this is it. You’ve got to make a change”. She said, “This is it”. So, you’ve got to make a change. So right then, I think this is what really touched all of us here to say this is what we had to do, make a change. So when I went to the physiologist to make a change with exercise and diet, she said, “It’s your will to do it, or you will be fat the rest of your life”. So I made the choice to give it one more try.
This was my last final try. If this doesn’t work, I’m giving it up for good. I’m 64 years old. I will give it a try and see if I can do it. So far, it has worked. But you must follow the meal plan and the exercise because without the new eating plan and exercise, it won’t work. As of today, I have been very good with the meal plan. I haven’t gone off the eating plan. I have stuck with the meal plan. I think I have lost weight everyday so far. Every time I weigh in, I am showing that I have made a loss, but in order to lose the weight, you must to be willing to stick to the diet and exercise.
Even though you lose the weight, you can’t go back and treat yourself with food. You should treat yourself with things. Because if you go back to food, you are gonna get right back in the same old habits. As she said that she had lost 63 pounds, and she had dieted for a long time, for many months, and all of a sudden, she was going to treat herself, and she went right back to the same thing, and she started putting the weight back on. But as we go on with diet and exercise, I think this would help her better because she didn’t have a trainer. As we watch what we eat, what we put in our bodies, and I am sure that we can maintain to keep the weight off.
As of today, I have no desire for candy or sweets, but I do think a lot this comes from the transitional lifestyle because it taught us how to eat certain things and how to detox our bodies and get out the impurities and things that make us crave for food. If we should stray away from the transitional lifestyle and start eating without eating out of the realm of what they have told us to eat, we will have to go back to that detox again in order to get it out of our systems. As of today, I haven’t gone back to do a detox because I have been sticking to the foods, but I have had the desires to go back and just cleanse my system again just to give it a try to see what it would do but so far, I am still losing, and I haven’t gained any, and I want to continue to stick to it until I see where I may be dropping no weight at all. Then, I will go back but as of today, I am holding at my weight now. I am now down to 230 pounds and today is June, 5th 2007.
More to come ...
