Inspiration...

I know that the television show The Biggest Loser can be pretty polarizing. People generally either love it or hate it. They love to see people tranform their lives and bodies and find it incredibly inspiring, or they hate to see people exploited and undertake what seems to be a drastic and possibly unsafe diet and exercise regimen. However, I'm somewhere in the middle, I DO find the show to be somewhat inspiring at times, but I also worry about the safety of some of the diet and exercise activities.

So, while watching the 9th season premiere a couple nights ago, imagine my surprise when I found myself unexpectedly reduced to tears by a show that I typically don't get so emotionally involved in. Ok... well, maybe reduced to tears is a bit of an exaggeration. But, I did get teary and emotional and it most certainly did take me by surprise.

The scene that did it for me was when during one of the interview portions of the program. One of the contestants on the "white team" (I don't remember his name but I DO remember that he weighed 526 pounds) was talking about his weight and about losing weight, and while fighting back tears of his own said, "I just have SO far to go... even if I lose 200 pounds I would STILL be overweight..."

The obvious pain in his voice as he said that really struck a chord with me. I KNOW what it means to feel completely hopeless and think that there is no way I can accomplish the seemingly monstrous task of losing all the weight I need to lose. I know what it feels like to think that there can't possibly be an "end" in sight, that true significant weight loss will never be acheived due to the sheer amount of weight that needs to be shed.

But, I have determined that NO amount of weight is going to stop me from trying. I need to KNOW that I am doing everything I can to get healthy. Somedays, that will mean eating fruit when I really want cake. Other days that will mean going straight to the gym on the way home from work, even though I really just want to go home and crawl in the bed. My new motto needs to be: Whatever It Takes. Whatever it takes to ensure that I make my very best effort. Whatever it takes to be the person I know I am on the inside (that sounds cliche, but it's true).

I've gone back and forth about posting my "starting weight" here, but I've decided that I will NOT post my starting weight until I reach my "maintenance" phase. However, I will post the amount of weight lost, along with progress pictures. So far, I've lost about 3 pounds (according to the scale at the gym). I'll post a "starting" pic soon.