Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, we must get rid of every weight and the sin that clings so closely, and run with endurance the race set out for us…
Hebrews 12.1 (NET)
I’ve had enough number crunching posts that I’ve bored one of my most favorite readers, and I can’t afford to lose her and cut my numbers in half! So I’m going to write on something else that has been extremely helpful to my race. A cheering section.
Admittedly, there is one person I credit towards getting me off the starting line, my wife Angie. Last year she started WeightWatchers, and she needed my support. She told me if she was going to be successful, she needed to know that I was in it with her. I joined WeightWatchers and started logging my points and began to see progress without much of a feeling of starvation.
But there are several others that had an influence in me as I started down the track. I am an avid consumer of the social media, at present I have connections to my family, high school friends, church family and a great host of online friends that share my passion for LOST and other quality television shows. Some of those friends had shared their successes and challenges with getting in shape and losing weight with their community of friends, and I was blessed to be a witness to some very encouraging stories.
| Social Network | Connections |
| 570 | |
| 1552 | |
| Lose It | 109 |
The table to the right shows my connections to date, and I do not post those to brag, but as a reminder and encouragement to myself that I have a great number of friends that are watching and encouraging me in my race. I also use two other sites, RunKeeper and DailyMile to track my exercise and have found more friends and partners on those sites.
Their commitment and motivation to their races, only fuels my motivation to keep on trucking in my race. It always so encouraging and humbling when I have a good day, or good weigh-in to have many of my friends comment and congratulate my progress. It’s heartening and welcome to get friendly reminders from my contacts when I struggle or have an off day. Their mere presence sometimes makes me want to shed the “stuff” that can easily clog my mind and thoughts and let them drop aside as I continue my progress.
There is a chapter in the Lose It! book entitled Do These Friends Make Me Look Fat? that examines the importance of the social network around us. It cites studies that show a correlation between our relationships and our waistline. That doesn’t mean I need to drop all my fat friends and go find some healthy thin friends. The encouragement is this: When you start to lose weight, and share it with your friends, they start to examine themselves and they start to change. By taking control of our lives, and sharing it openly, a butterfly effect kicks off with those around us, and we might not even consciously know it.
Online social media sites are so prevalent and such a interesting tool to use, so I’ve begun to remind my self that even though I might think that I’m insignificant (self-worth is one of those things I struggle with) I have a lot of people watching me. I’m thankful to all my friends (online and offline) that share their interests in music, movies, pop-culture, religion, faith, nutrition, exercise and a genuine joi de vive! that I only hope I can influence them a fraction of the impact they had on me.
So, the weight-loss key for today, and the challenge to you, is to share. Share where you are now, and share where you want to be. Whether it is your neighbor, a relative, or just randomly tweet it or facebook post it. Share your goals, and then start working to make them a reality.
For me, I still have a ways to go, so this is my reminder. One-hundred and five pounds left to go! Thanks for giving me the daily pushes I need to know that isn’t impossible.
Hey Jon! It’s Michelle H. from lose it. Before I actually type the response that brought me to the comment, I just want to say you have a fantastic writing style. This post flowed really well, read intelligently and looked well edited. I look forward to following more.
That being said, this is what stood out the most in the post for me: “The encouragement is this: When you start to lose weight, and share it with your friends, they start to examine themselves and they start to change,” perhaps because this has been exactly my experience!
My friend and I were both very overweight, I was definitely obese (not just by medical definition) and she was bordering on dangerously obese (no health problems but working her way there). We didn’t do it “together” the first time, but we both lost an extraordinary amount of weight around the same time (I went from a size 20 to a size 6 and she went from the same to a size 2!! I’m not sure exactly how much she lost but she lost more than I did and I lost 110) and we both did it the healthy way, the way loseit suggests. We also both gained some weight back within the past year or two (although she has only gained 20 back and I 50ish, so we’re still doing ok!).
I started working out again a few months ago and she would say how it was inspirational. Then I joined LoseIt and kept telling her how much I loved the site and it’s app. I was telling her the delicious meals I was cooking up and how the tracking system was helping me find my empty calories and swap them for healthy ones. Next thing I know she is calling me to tell me she joined as well and now, even though we are 3000 miles away, we are doing this together.
And, as someone who HAS lost 110 lbs, I can assure you Jon, that by sticking to it, you WILL do it. And you will have much greater success at keeping it off than any other way (same with WW, because as you know from doing WW AND LoseIt, you know they are essentially the same thing). Thanks for being there to support me, as well! Already down almost 5lbs! 🙂
Michelle, I need to add a Like button to my comments. Thanks so much for sharing! You got exactly what I was talking about. 5lbs! way to go!