Losing Weight Doubled My Business and Changed My Life
There is an audio version at the end of the post.
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For 12 years, I delivered bread to groceries during odd hours—I woke up at midnight. When I woke up, it felt like my “morning” so the first thing I did was grab breakfast. Since it was midnight, the only places open were fast food restaurants.
My breakfast consisted of a super-sized family meal from McDonald’s or Taco Bell. I would then wash it down with a 44oz of Mountain Dew from a gas station. It didn’t take long for the pounds to start piling on.
In 2008, my brother asked me to be the best man at his wedding. When the pictures were posted, I was horrified to see how big I had gotten—I was 132 pounds over what I wanted to weigh, 200 pounds.
After the wedding, I went on a crazy diet where I only ate 1,200 calories a day and exercised at least four hours a day. I lost the 132 pounds in six months. No Joke.
Since I didn’t learn what it meant to live a healthy lifestyle, I gained the weight back the following year, plus 38 pounds. I let my weight go until 2013.
In 2012, I started getting serious about my writing and speaking. I wrote for 50 different blogs, and was a guest on 80 different podcasts. I spoke 36 times that year, all over the world.
When I travelled to speak, I was reminded of my out-of-control weight. I couldn’t fit into the airplanes seats—stupid airlines! People laughed and stared. When I was speaking on stage, people would tweet about how big I was—it hurt seeing those tweets.
In 2013, I realized I needed to lose weight for my business and my sanity. This time around, I realized I needed to figure out what it meant to live a healthy lifestyle.
It took over a year of eating right and running, but I lost 170 pounds. I have kept it off for six months now. I feel so much better. I have more energy and perspective.
Our health is important
I could give you study after study listing how important our health is, but I’m guessing you already know. What we eat affects how we feel in our bodies and about our self. There is a lot of information that can help you with what’s healthy to eat.
What I’m thinking about is how you’re perceived. If you are in the public eye—I’m guessing you are if you’re reading this. Some people make decisions based off of how you look—I’m not talking about attractiveness.
However, if you write and speak about personal development or self-help, there will be a disconnect if you’re not practicing what you preach with your health. Our health can affect our business.
Losing the weight opened new doors in my business. More people connect with what I was writing because I used it, and lived it in my life. It isn’t just talk, I proved it can and does work.
My haters were very quick to point out the fact that I hadn’t accomplished what I wrote about in my book, Are You Living or Existing? 9 Steps to Change Your Life. I wrote the book as my public declaration, but they saw it as an opportunity to call me a liar.
I have since lost 170 pounds, quit a job I hated, and moved our family to Maui, Hawaii. I did everything I wrote about in the book. They seem to be quiet these days… That book now has 101 reviews (74 five-star) and is a Publishers Weekly best-selling book.
Besides business, we want to live a long life and be there for our family. While none of us is guaranteed a tomorrow, living a healthy lifestyle can help us get there. I know this personally, my father died at 54 from heart disease from being overweight.
Living a healthy lifestyle isn’t easy, and there are going to be times when you stumble, that’s life. If you take this one-day at a time, and determine to persevere, you can reach your health goals.
Get honest with what you want for your life and health. Set goals and make them public. Set benchmarks. Don’t let the haters discourage you on this journey.
Audio version:
Has weight affect your life or business?
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Flickr/ Jannino :p
