Like many others, trying to lose weight has been a lifelong struggle that I have attempted with numerous fixes. Each of these fixes were meant to be long term, none of them ever panned out to be that way. I have tried all the newest fads and hoopla. Have you ever heard of Slim Fast, Richard Simmons Sweating to the Oldies, Deal A Meal, sexy pineapple diet, the grapefruit diet, the wine and eggs diet (yes, it really was a thing!), the cabbage soup diet, grapefruit diet, cottage cheese diet, The Beverly Hills Diet, The Scarsdale Diet, Ayds Candies (yes it was a thing as well), Jenny Craig, Nutra-System and even Phen-Phen (oh what a drug, now illegal)? However even with all the money spent I still was unable to maintain any weight loss that I did achieve. It was failure after failure.
After many years of failed attempts and the recognition that I was getting older (being in my late 40’s), I truly started to reflect on how I wanted live and what I wanted for myself on a long-term basis. By this time, I also had a grandson with whom I could not keep up with, my wife and I were traveling, and it was becoming increasingly embarrassing not fitting into a booth at a diner and not fitting on rides at amusement parks / carnivals, or even the seat belts on planes. In short, life was becoming increasingly more difficult, and I needed to do something about it.
At 345 pounds and sitting on my favorite couch with my favorite butt print, I was scrolling Facebook and stated, “this is it; this is the time, the last time and I am going to do it”. With that statement of determination, I joined Weight Watchers and got down to 275 pounds in 7 months. I started to walk and was feeling good, but Weight Watchers switched their plan and I once again found myself floundering with trying to adapt, so I stopped. My plan was to continue my journey on my own. I was ready, I had lost seventy pounds and was walking. Over the next year I went back up to 358 pounds, heavier than I was when I started! I never admitted it, until now I have always told people my max weight was 345. So, with renewed determination, I started to walk again and began to see a decrease in weight, but I also noticed that my eating was not getting better. So, I rejoined Weight Watchers and got down to 327 with no problem but felt that something was still missing. Even though I was losing weight, I was not “getting healthy”. I was not building muscle, I was not able to go for long walks, I was still feeling ill-at-ease about my body.
So, I did what I was familiar with and at 4:00 AM I had a snack and while watching reruns of Will and Grace I started looking on Facebook for “a gym” or a “weight loss” program. I took note of 4 or 5 of them and decided to write to each. I heard back from two and met with both owners. Then Covid happened and being an emergency room nurse, I got busy and had to focus on my job (immense amount of overtime). Everything else hit the back burner. Throughout the next 15 months or so I got an occasional message from a Brian Zimmerman who would ask me “How are you” or “was checking in to see how you are”. I thought it was nice but brushed it off because I was not ready. Eventually it hit me that this was the time. I contacted Brian back and from there started a journey I would never EVER believe could have happened and still cannot believe that it did.
Read PART 2 to find out what happened next…
