Seven Habits of Highly Successful Losers...

In no particular order, here are seven habits of successful "losers":

1. Successful losers avoid sugar. Sugar does all sorts of things to sabotage weight loss, from adding calories to messing with your pancreas.

2. Successful losers avoid salt/sodium. The average person needs about 1200 mg of sodium per day;  you can get your entire day's worth in one Big Mac. There is a dish at P.F. Changs restaurant with nearly 8,000 mg. (Note: don't order the Double Pan Fried Noodles.)

3. Successful losers drink plenty of water. There are many reasons for drinking water, including improving liver function, reducing water retention, and eliminating excess sodium. (Divide your weight in pounds by 2 to determine how many ounces of water you should drink per day. A 200 pound person should drink 100 ounces per day.).

4. Successful losers exercise. There is a chart at the weight loss center that I went to that lists reasons to exercise... there must be a hundred, at least. Weight loss is aided by getting your heart rate up to about 75% of your max (220 minus your age is your max heart rate; roughly 75% of that number is where you want to be to burn fat).

5. Successful losers know what they eat, and how it affects their body. People who write down what they eat and track their calories are MUCH more successful at weight loss than those who don't. There are so many tools available with which to do this, from reading labels to the latest technology. I have become a huge fan of the website fatsecret.com and their very well-done phone app, Calorie Counter. You can simply scan the bar code on a product package, and it will automatically enter it into your food log. It will track your calories, fat, sodium, and all those other numbers that are so important. One button-click will sync it up with the website, from which you can print out your daily or weekly food journal. If you have a food that is not in their extensive database, you can add it.

6. Successful losers know how much they weigh. Some people weigh daily; some weigh weekly or bi-weekly. I've never seen a Biggest Loser contestant get on that scale for their starting weigh-in and say, "oh, I'm not as heavy as I thought I was." Unless they KNOW already, they are almost always shocked by how high the number has gotten.

7. Successful losers embrace a life-change, not a "diet". From shopping the perimeter of the grocery store, to just having that mental awareness that it takes to be committed, successful losers are in it for the long haul.

To those of you who are beginning (or resuming) a weight-loss journey, I am available anytime for advice, encouragement, tips, etc. I am willing to share with you what I learned during my own journey. I have promised PHC that I will not give away their weight loss plans, but they have no problem with me sharing the principles that I have learned from them (and that are freely available on the internet to anyone who does the research).

I hope 2011 brings you the change that you are looking for... be healthy!!!

Ed
 

Last Supper, And Looking Straight Ahead

Well, I normally recommend against "last suppers" before starting a weight loss regimen; why give yourself even more of a disadvantage before you start getting serious? But I did exactly that, because we had planned a chili dinner last night at a friend's house, and I decided that would be my last splurge before getting back into a strict routine. Chili, cheese, corn chips, sour cream, and hot dogs were on the menu, and I gave it one last "hurrah" before a serious weight-loss effort. It could have been done with a quasi-healthier twist (turkey instead of beef, low-fat cheese and sour cream, etc.), but I wasn't doing the cooking. So we ate, and I indulged in seconds, plus some chocolate afterward.

In spite of a really late bedtime last night (watched/listened to the Falcons lose their game), I set the alarm so that I was in the gym by 5:15 this morning. I was pleased to discover that after a half-mile warm-up, I was still able to crank out several minutes of running without too much effort. Running intervals and 15-degree incline walking made up my workout this morning.

As I write this, I am literally six inches away from a third of a chocolate pecan pie, and half of an apple cake, as well as assorted cookies, candies, etc. We set up a table in the dining room to handle all the desserts Brenda made, plus various candies, nuts, etc. that were gifts from other people. It sort of looks like a shrine to the "fat gods". But I'm done with them. I ate, I weighed, and I repented! I wrote my buddy Skip and told him about my holiday damage - he just wrote back and said that at least we know what to do about it.

The battle really does start with putting "blinders" on... I haven't looked it up, but I wonder how many times in scripture God told various people to turn "neither to the right nor to the left". There's a reason for that - to the right and to the left are temptations that will get us off track and cause us to stumble.

To all of you who are planning on starting after the first of the year - I'm not going to be critical. It's better to have a specific start date in mind than to NOT have one in mind, even if it means a couple of extra days of indulgence. But on the other hand, if you need to lose 40 pounds, why push it up to 45 before you start?

I'd love to hear what your plans are regarding your weight in the coming new year - drop me a line on facebook, or comment on this post. I will be posting more frequently, and will be refreshing some of the things I posted last year regarding diet, exercise, and motivation.

Do NOT Open email from me (besides this one)

Many of you may have received an email from me with weird subject lines. Someone sent me a suspicious email that I accidentally opened on my phone, and it may have emailed you. Just delete it without opening it, please. Hopefully there won't be any more!!!!

RE:thanks for the regular customer suport,free gift for you

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Uh oh...

It's not been a good week since the end of my weekly visits at PHC. It's been a week of hot dogs, cookies, hot chocolate, and fast food on the run. Our outdoor Christmas spanned last Friday through Sunday, and the same schedule happens this weekend, as well. I haven't had to invest the long hours associated with our Christmas cantata, since we did not do one this year, but as always, there is more than enough work to fill (and exceed) the available time. The weight is up, the clothes are snug... those old, fat feelings are creeping back in on me.

 

I saw an online article on the Today Show's website called, "Where Are They Now"? They went through each season of The Biggest Loser, and, for those who would fess up, posted their starting weight, their finale weight, and their current weight. A few of them were within 10-12 pounds of their finale weight (some within 3 pounds), but on average, the men from seasons one through nine are up about 30 pounds. Very few are less than that away from their finale weight. I have been hovering around 12 pounds over my goal weight - 12 pounds that I desperately need to shed.

 

I start my days out ok, most of the time. My usual breakfast is a couple of eggs, a little cheese, and two strips of turkey bacon on a whole wheat 100-calorie bun. Sometimes I will add a piece of fruit to it, but that's how I start. Lunch is usually tuna, or a light sandwich, or salad. But I'm not eating frequently enough, or drinking enough right now, and without the pressure of the competition to keep me focused, I'm finding the holiday season this year much tougher to deal with. I guess the one difference is, I didn't really feel fat at 340 pounds; I feel wretched now at 220.

 

There's three weeks left in the holiday season... we shall see what happens. Stay tuned...

Another Milestone...

Today was my last weekly visit at PHC for weigh-ins. I am somewhat "off the leash" now - I only have to go once every two weeks to check my status.

 

I had them look up my stats today. When I started on my maintenance plan, I weighed 215 pounds on their scale (that's fully clothed, including shoes). During most of the summer, I held my weight at a very consistent 216 pounds. I recently regressed upwards, but all in all, I'm only about 6 pounds heavier than I was six months ago, and I'm currently on the way down again. My goal is to hit 208 on the PHC scale - that will put me right at my lowest reasonable weight, which is what I weighed before that insane push to the end of the competition, when I lost 9 pounds in 11 days just for the privilege of being able to say I broke the 200 pound barrier.

 

There was a fair amount of external pressure to get below 200, and I suppose it fueled my inner desire to do it, as well. But with a penultimate weigh-in of 208 pounds, I would have still won the competition - my closest competitor was 18 pounds away. I guess now the motivation to get back down to that 208 number is the fit of my clothes and the shape I see in the mirror. It won't happen by next weigh-in, because that would be a pound a day, and those days are long gone. Besides, I don't want to do it the way we finished. The push of the contest drove most of us to near-starving diets and excessive workouts (we're talking THE Biggest Loser-style workouts - 4-5 hours a day is what we were being encouraged to do, for the final 11 days, and those workouts would consist of the highest calorie-burning exercises our trainer could find). No, not going there again. It will come, though, in time.

Confessional, and Thoughts On Getting Back On Track

Well, I'm back to blogging.
 

I have officially hit the point on my weight loss journey where it's time to REALLY get serious. I looked in the mirror; I looked at the scale. I know, I know... "I'm up." My friends have heard it all before. But I am officially higher, MUCH higher, than I want to be.
 

I know where I got derailed. Before I lost weight, my thing was fast food and starches. I wasn't really too big (pun intended) on sugar and candy, particularly chocolate. But with the onset of our Awana children's ministry year, we began keeping chocolate and sodas in the Awana office as a respite for our Awana workers on Wednesday nights. Some of them are convinced that enough chocolate and caffeine will help them keep up with the stress, I think. Well, I would come through the office, or near the office, during the week, and stop by and grab a small handful of little chocolate candies. After all, they're really little - mostly those little bite-sized Hershey milk chocolate, dark chocolate, Mr. Goodbar, and Krackle bars. Sometimes bite-sized Snickers, Milky Way, and Three Musketeers. I'd scarf that handful down, and later on, I'd do it again. Two or three times a day I would do this. I wasn't stealing them, because I paid for them out of my own pocket... and I always made sure that there was plenty for the workers on Wednesday night.
 

I'd inch up a little on the scale, and would tell the PHC folks, "It's just water - it will come right back off." And more often than not, I was exactly right. I held my weight very well between 215 and 217 throughout the summer, at one point holding it dead on 216 for 6 weeks in a row. But Awana started up, the candy became easier to get to, and I began seeing the scale inch up. We went to Florida in early November, and I have to confess that I pretty much ate a whole bag of them on the way there (I was driving, and trying to stay alert). On the way back, I bought another bag, and ate some of those. I bravely put the rest in the Awana office when we got back.... and ate on them the week after.
 

"Facts are our friends", Johnny Hunt likes to say, and so I finally looked on a bag of those little chocolates to see what kind of calories I had been casually tossing back. THREE of those little bite-sized bars are a serving, and they range from 40 to about 70 calories PER PIECE. Ten or twelve of those bars, and I was unwittingly (or deliberately ignorantly) consuming an entire day's worth of calories when compared to what I was eating during the competition (about 900 calories a day). Then breakfast, lunch, and dinner on top of all that, plus a couple of snacks, and I came to the stark realization that I was consuming upwards of 2000 calories a day. Note: you cannot lose weight on 2000 calories per day. For someone my size, that will be a slow, steady gain.
 

Wednesday night I watched, "Where Are They Now?", a Biggest Loser special. I watched as the former winners from seasons 1-9 (minus Michelle from season 6) came into a room for a healthy Thanksgiving meal. With the exception of Danny Cahill, every man had gained a pretty significant amount of weight. Ryan from season 1 had lost 122 pounds en route to his win, but has regained all but 10 pounds of his weight. They are not happy with him, needless to say. Matt from season 2 regained a lot, but continues to be quite athletic in spite of his weight. Season 3's Erik had regained most of his last year, but has taken 162 of it back off, with probably about 40 or so left to lose. Season 4's Bill Germanakos looks "okay", but I doubt he is much below 200 (his finale loss was 170 pounds down). Next was Ali from season 5, who is within 2 pounds of her finale weight. Helen looks "okay"; Danny looks terrific, and Michael still looks like he has a ways to go. I knew most of these results already, but it really brought home to me that if those guys who had all that time on the ranch, all that training, all that knowledge, and all that motivation could stumble, I was certainly not immune. Watching that particular episode has helped to fuel the fire again.
 

I didn't do TOO bad on Thanksgiving for lunch... I made sure I ate only white meat off the turkey, only one bite of ham, loaded up on veggies, and I did try to limit my desserts and starches. That was lunch - dinner was another story altogether. We went out to some friends' house around 7:30 PM, where we had been invited to get "a bite of supper". I ate more than "a bite"... and indulged in desserts. Cornflake candy (2 pc.), white macadamia nut cookies (2), half a chocolate chip cookie, and some kind of chewy bar that was very good - two bites of that.
 

I had a not-so-good meeting with my scale this morning. But I am pleased to report that today, I ate absolutely perfectly. In spite of us having tons of ham, macaroni & cheese, two pies and a cake, I did not cheat a single time today. My total calorie intake was right at where it was during the competition, and with the exception of having to do the workouts on my own, I am in full-blown contest mode. I had two eggs for breakfast, a white-meat-only turkey sandwich on a 100-calorie wheat bun with a slice of low-fat cheese for lunch, and a dinner consisting of 6 ounces of chicken and a cup of steamed broccoli, carrots, cauliflower, etc.
 

To those of you who are still telling me that I look great.... I love you all, and I will politely and humbly accept your compliments. But I'm not going to pay you any attention!

Starting Over...

Well, I had to take an out-of-town trip... and as my wife pointed out to me, I ate too much chocolate, chicken and dumplings, biscuits, etc. on the trip and at my mother-in-law's house. I had not been there in a year and a half, so no one down there had seen "the new me". Took a few copies of CSRA Active to show the family, and also took my Biggest Loser scrapbook. It was fun re-living the experience of a whole bunch of people who had not seen me, but I knew that even as I was talking about losing weight, I was putting the pounds back on. I did make some attempts to eat right at meals, but I ate a LOT of chocolate trying to stay awake and alert. We stopped at Cracker Barrel, and while everyone was eating pancakes, I had a yogurt, and only a few bites of the HUGE muffin that accompanied it. We hit Steak and Shake about 7 PM Sunday night, and I had a decision to make. And of course, I made the wrong one. I ate what I wanted to, telling myself that I had not eaten at a Steak and Shake in over a year and a half, and I "deserved" it.

 

Got home late Sunday evening and crawled into bed; this morning, I decided to come face to face with the number on the scale... I was hoping against hope that it was not as bad as I thought. It wasn't... it was WORSE. Much worse. Could not wrap my brain around the number being so HIGH!! But I made a conscious decision to not beat myself up... and that I was not going to do the 4-day cleanse that frequently marks our attempts to get back on track. I just decided I was going to do it - get some serious exercise, get the food plan into gear, and do all I knew to do.

 

Fortunately, a big chunk of that number was water retention, which can happen not only with poor eating, but with the sedentary nature of traveling. My horrible number didn't last very long, as I dropped over eight pounds of water weight today; really, just in a matter of a few hours. I got myself back to the gym this morning, and did some serious treadmill sprints, step mill, and other cardio work. I ate absolutely perfectly today - zero cheats, more protein than anything else, and all of my carbs from vegetables and a protein bar. The only thing I missed today was the pedometer, but I will start tomorrow.

 

I know what to do; it's just a matter of doing it. And because it won't "get done" before Thursday, I will have some explaining to do when I show up at PHC Thursday for my weigh-in. And I will "deserve" that, as well!

Closure...

I must admit it's getting harder and harder to keep thinking of new things to write in this blog, particularly concerning weight loss. Up a little, down a little, up a lot, back down... I was grousing to my wife today how tiring it is to try and keep my weight within that little 2-pound window that PHC set for me. One can be up two pounds after a decent meal. She reminded me that this year I have with PHC will fly by, and then it will be all up to me to maintain my weight, without that external accountability. After all, we are already coming up on the one-year anniversary of our selection to participate in the contest, which is only about 7 weeks away.

 

I was also grousing about how my kids never really got on board with what I was doing - neither one of them has looked at a copy of the magazine featuring the Augusta's Biggest Loser competition. Brenda said, "They're probably sick of hearing about it..." So I have come to the conclusion that it's probably time to stop writing about the journey. My entire body of work regarding the competition will remain online - the blog, the photos, etc. are all available on facebook, as well as on my website, http://edchavis.net. I have uploaded a short video of my journey onto youtube, in the hopes that someone who is searching for "weight loss" or "biggest loser" will find some hope and some help. The last bit of publicity is over with - Liz Hill spoke briefly about the magazine on the news Friday morning - but there are no more commercial shoots, interviews, or photo sessions. In my visits to PHC, I see the photos from our contest scattered around the lobby, and I remember every moment when each picture was taken. We have hopes of being involved in the next season of Augusta's Biggest Loser, and when a decision is finally made about the future of the program, I will either be up to my elbows in ABL all over again, or it will be relegated to the memories of the 32 of us who were privileged enough to be given the opportunity of a lifetime. There is the possibility that I will be featured on a national news program, but that will take some months to unfold, if it does happen. We shall see.

 

To those of you who are currently on your own journey, I will continue to stay in touch with you through facebook, your blogs, and email. If there is something noteworthy to report, I will post a new blog entry, or put something on facebook. I remain available any day, anytime you need me.

 

To those of you who simply followed my journey through the past 10 months, I thank you for reading along. Many of you prayed for me, cheered me on, and offered words of encouragement that kept me accountable and moving forward. I am convinced that losing weight is one of the hardest things to undertake in life, and overeating is one of the hardest addictions to break. You can live without cigarettes, alcohol, drugs, and an immoral lifestyle, but you can't live without food. One cannot simply divorce themselves from it; one must master it.

 

I want to take one more opportunity to thank those who were directly involved in my journey, many of whom will never read this, but they deserve to be thanked anyway.

 

*NBC Augusta for sponsoring the Augusta's Biggest Loser contest; Jay Jefferies, who handled nearly all the TV interviews and made us feel welcome; Liz Hill, who ALWAYS had something encouraging and positive to say every time I came to the studio, even when she was busy; and Mariah Gardner, for working so hard on the contest as the promotions manager.

 

*Omni Club for their part in sponsoring the contest; Johnnie Hughes for his guidance, encouragement, and counsel as he trained our team; Barry Allison for his diligence in running the weigh-ins and his encouragement to all of us. We didn't always want to hear what he had to say in his post-weigh-in speeches, but if you listened closely, there was always something you could take away from it.

 

*PHC, also for their part in sponsoring the contest. Mark, Donna, Savannah, Pricilla, and Pat - you people are brilliant, caring, and effective. Savannah did most of our counseling; Mark and Donna did our off-the-record counseling when they came to work out at the gym. These people are like family to me, and I look forward to continuing my relationship with them in the future. Also a big thanks to Rob Baker, who manages the location that the blue team worked with. Rob was a constant encouragement even to those of us who weren't on his team, because he understood that ultimately, this wasn't about the teams, it was about the life change that he wanted for all of us.

 

*The Red Team for an amazing 7 months of shared experiences. We usually saw each other about 15 minutes after we dragged ourselves out of bed at 5 AM. Jokes, frustrations, pains, drama, highs, and lows - we experienced all of that, and more, as we worked out together and met at PHC every other week for a group session that usually turned into two hours of counseling. I was closest to Nandy and Charles (Nandy being the co-leader, and Charles being the only other male our our lopsided team), but I will always love and respect all of them. Nandy, Tammy, Bronnie, Lisa, and Charles - if you guys happen to read this, you are the best! Although I never get to see or talk to any of you, there are pictures of you guys in my office, and I think of you all constantly.

 

*The Blue Team - wish we had had more opportunities to do stuff together besides watch each other stand on the scale every Monday. But I learned to really appreciate all that you guys were doing, and in some ways, you guys had a tougher road to travel than we did. Thanks for hanging in there during some hard times. Colin, Tim, Tanner, Ashlee, and Laycee - you guys will always be a part of my experience and memories, as well.

 

Thanks also to my Lumpkin Road Baptist Church family for their encouragement and support. Some of them still tell me that I'm "too skinny" - I know better, but appreciate the advice!

 

This is not the last you will hear from me, but now that everything is over and done, I just wanted to bring a little closure to my experience as an Augusta's Biggest Loser competitor. I got everything I wanted out of the experience, and much, much more.

Uh-Oh....

I wrote last time that I am in my first prolonged struggle with my weight - I'm still there. Many of the obstacles that hinder weight loss (and cause weight gain) all ganged up on me this past weekend. They are the same enemies that prevent many of you from seeing the change on the scales that you want, and I want to write briefly about each factor.

 

1. Lack of proper rest. If you are not getting adequate amounts of rest and sleep, two things occur. One, in order to keep moving and functioning, you substitute food for sleep. Of course, food is not an adequate replacement for sleep, but for many of us, food can produce a small burst of energy or alertness simply because we are participating in an activity that we enjoy. Less sleep = more food. The other negative impact is that a lack of rest pushes your body into survival mode, during which it holds onto fat stores and fails to release excess fluids. More food plus less burn equals weight gain.

 

2. Busyness. When we are busy, it's easier to rationalize eating poorly and not getting any exercise. This may partially explain why, although people are busier than ever, obesity is rampant.

 

3. Lack of accountability. Accountability doesn't have to be in the form of a partner, or a support group. It can be as simple as frequent meetings with the bathroom scale. I read arguments for and against weighing in often; I have found that for me, if I know exactly what the number on the scale is, it directly affects my food choices. The most dangerous place for me is "comfortable", because if my weight is on the low end, I tend to work harder to push it down; if it's up "just a little", I'm not quite as careful with my diet ("one more won't do any more damage"). I have found for me that if I don't weigh every single day, I get more careless. Only one time have I skipped daily weigh-ins and been pleasantly surprised.

 

There are many other reasons for being stuck, but these are the ones that are affecting me right now. The question is, how do I fix it? I just do what I know to do, and stay motivated to change. I subtract out of my diet some of the things I had let back in; I increase my exercise; I increase my fluid intake; and I keep regular (daily, at least) appointments with the scale. For me, it's almost always about the fluid. Yesterday at PHC I was up 5 pounds; that will just about be gone by tomorrow morning.

 

(Insert a 24-hour pause here...)

 

It is now Thursday; Tuesday I was up 5 pounds at PHC; today, I was back down by the same 5 pounds. These spikes don't ever last very long with me, but they have to be dealt with right away.

 

In totally different news, I blogged a while back about a photo shoot and a three-hour interview with Nandy and me. It was announced via facebook yesterday that the new issue was out. Two Kroger stores and PHC did not have them yet, but I hit the jackpot at Kroger in Evans. I grabbed about eight copies off the newsstand, and, after lunch with my bride, I took a few of them over to PHC. They were closed for lunch, but I caught Mark outside, and he, Donna, and I looked through the issue. If you haven't heard or seen by now, Nandy and I are on the cover, and there's about 8 pages in this issue dedicated to the Augusta's Biggest Loser competition. For my out-of-town friends, I'm hoping they will have it posted online before too long.

 

 

My First Prolonged Struggle...

One of the things I read in "The Biggest Loser: Success Secrets" that stuck with me was this: you will always either be losing, gaining, or maintaining weight, and the people that can shift seamlessly (and often) from one phase to the other are those that are going to experience the most success with long-term maintenance. (By the way, if you are trying to lose weight, the book I just mentioned is a terrific resource - I've mentioned it in my writings before, probably in my healthyagain2010 blog. You can pick it up nearly anywhere - from the bookstores, amazon.com, walmart.com, or whatever your preferred shopping outlet is.)

 

It would be negligent and unfair of me to get online and tout my success without acknowledging my shortcomings, as well. This week has been a struggle for me. I haven't eaten particularly badly; I have had weeks where I have eaten worse, and weighed less. But old habits can creep back in, and old patterns of eating are not that far removed from me. I have been extremely tired since around the third week in July, and one of my old eating patterns was to fill in the gaps in my rest with food. I find myself eating to keep going, and while my food choices aren't bad, the constant eating is. After a few consecutive mornings of weighing more than I was comfortable with, I have shifted back into biggest loser mode. Now is the time I get to practice what I preach to others - finding the motivation to do right without the pressure of the competition.

 

If you are wondering how "bad" my weight has gotten, I'm up about 6 pounds from where I want to be. Not much, compared to the 143 I dropped from November to May. Not even much compared to the nearly 9 pounds I dropped in the last 11 days of the competition. But way too much for all the work I've done. I am back on the wagon with a vengence - no carbs, no fast food, little fat, lots of chicken, eggs, veggies, and fruits. I'll report on my progress, of course. I'm still trying to learn how to walk on this balance beam called "maintenance".

Maintenance... (the blog, not me!)

For anyone stumbling across my blog and noticing something missing, NBC Augusta has changed over to a new hosting company, and thus, all the videos that I had linked to in my blog are no longer available. Most of them I have managed to save, and I will go back and change the links so that my online record of my journey is complete, without the holes! Meanwhile, you can see my videos on the "media" page at http://www.edchavis.net.

 

Three Months...

Three months ago I stepped on a scale and posted a ridiculously low (for me) weight of 199.4 pounds, sealing a win in the Augusta's Biggest Loser competition. I can't say that I have kept every single pound off, because that weigh-in was the result of 11 days' worth of working out an average of 3 hours per day and consuming very few calories. As soon as I got some food in me, and got properly hydrated, my weight settled back up to about 208 pounds. In the ensuing three months, it has been up and down some, but on average, I have stayed right around 211-212 pounds. I immediately shift into weight loss mode when it creeps up over 215, because I don't want to have to return to writing down everything I eat! When it creeps up, it's usually because of sodium in pre-prepared foods; when I work on getting the water off, the weight comes right back down. Because I know what to do, I have actually seen the number on the scale drop 5-6 pounds in a day. Note: this has only been my experience during maintenance - if you are trying to lose, don't think I have some quick weight-loss program to drop that much. Because I continue to eat mostly healthy foods, and use extreme moderation in "cheat" areas, my weight gains have not usually been due to excess calories, but excess water retention.

 

I have added a lot of foods back to my diet, but I eat them in different ways now. If there is something sweet, or something laden with calories, that I just HAVE to have, I fill up on something healthy first, and then take just a bite of the food I thought I had to have. One thing that PHC taught me is that the satisfaction of food lasts only as long as it stays in your mouth - once it goes down, food is food (not nutritionally, of course, but as far as the whole eating experience is concerned, the pleasure stops at your taste buds).

 

One thing that has struck me three months later is that I have sort of lost the feeling of "I feel better". I know mentally that I am better, and I do feel good, but it has been 9 months since I started my life change, and I've just about completely forgotten what "before" felt like. Anytime I carry something heavy, I try to remind myself that I lived for years carrying that weight around, and more. When I look in the mirror, I still see the fat guy - I wrote about this in an earlier blog entry, and actually had a brief discussion with Liz Hill about it earlier this week. But I have all this evidence of my success, and I continue to surround myself with it. When I run, I listen to the audio track from our finale show. I listen to myself describing my goals, and how I hoped to inspire a change in others. I hear my before and after weights read aloud, and I listen to the experiences of my fellow contestants. I try not to talk about it quite so much anymore, especially to those who were around me during the entire six month process. The video archives, my pictures, my blog entries, the publicity stuff I've collected - I keep them all around me, as reminders that I am still on this journey.

 

To those of you who are still in your own weight loss struggles, you can do this, and there is a light at the end of the tunnel. My prayers are for you every day - Eric, Peter, Linda, Valerie - and several within my own church family, who continue to battle on.

...And in the Tribune...

How Ed Chavis Became Augusta's Biggest Loser

This is the last in a three-part series of articles I wrote about my weight loss experience, in the hopes of helping others know that there is a way out of the sedentary lifestyle and poor eating habits that are so prevalent among those in the ministry...

In the Yellow Pages...

Exit Interview...

Thursday evening around 5:00 PM, I sat down with Nandy Cordova, my Augusta's Biggest Loser teammate, co-winner, and friend, and a reporter from CSRA Active magazine, to do the interview that goes with the photo shoot we did last Friday. Bill (the reporter) had shown up back on November 18 to get our basic information for the first issue that mentioned Augusta's Biggest Loser; he made a return visit in May, when we were nearly done; this interview was the final part of the story.

 

Up until now, all the press stuff has been "stand here, say this, smile pretty" type stuff. This was different - very different. Bill took us all the way back to the beginning, back to the application/selection process, and we got the chance to rehearse the entire period of time from then until now, step by step, in roughly chronological order. He asked each of us the same questions, with Nandy providing her answer first, and then me. Many of the questions we answered with matching answers; some revealed two completely different perspectives. The most notable differences in our experiences mainly centered on two areas: 1) I had a little bit better idea of what to expect going in; and 2) my battle for first place was nowhere near as intense as hers. He also asked us some questions about our friendship with each other, forged through not only the shared experience of leading the competition for so long and being on the same team, but also having a lot in common, such as both of us having lived in Amarillo, Texas, and similar likes/dislikes.

 

We also had an opportunity to talk about some of the ugly side of the process, which will never make it into print. Some of our more - shall we say - negative experiences, we haven't discussed with anyone except those involved, our spouses, and each other. As thorough as my blog was during the competition, there were incidents and experiences that I did not write about. At times during our interview, Bill turned off the recorder, laid down his pen, and let us talk freely. I know the first rule of interviews is to never trust the reporter, but Bill has done an excellent job covering us thus far; our photo session with the magazine's photographer had been extremely enjoyable; and he has a vested interest in presenting us in the very best light possible, as the companies that sponsored the competition also are heavy advertisers with the magazine.

 

A question that struck me as odd had to do with the reaction of other people to our new selves; he wanted to know if our spouses were jealous of the new-found attention we are getting from the opposite gender now that we aren't heavy anymore. Nandy instantly answered yes - she's 33, a very pretty lady, and garners a lot of unwanted attention from guys. I told Bill that I had not experienced anything like that, and, if anyone was looking, I had not noticed it. He didn't buy my answer, and appealed to my position as a minister to 'fess up! I'm 46, still a little pudgy, and going gray; I have crooked teeth, I wear inexpensive clothes - I'm not going to get much attention, which is fine with me.

 

After the questions about the contest, the process, and our lives since then, he did a word-association drill with us, and gave us the chance to talk about Omni, PHC, and NBC. We both expressed the sentiment that we had been given our lives back, and are forever grateful for the experience. Before we left, Bill asked if we had any desire to be involved with the competition in the future, and we both said yes - we had often talked about wishing we had had some of the previous winners around (I talked with Kristy Youngblood frequently, but we never had the opportunity to see any prior contestants during the competition). I thought he was speaking in general terms, but he then asked me if I would be interested in covering the next season of ABL for the magazine as a special correspondent. I hope it works out - that would be a lot of fun, and I think the things I have learned in my experience could be valuable if I had the opportunity to talk to future contestants.

 

The final question of the day was "Complete this sentence: If you're thinking about applying for Augusta's Biggest Loser......" Nandy said, "...don't put it off - do it!" (or something to that effect). I measured my words carefully, and I said, "... don't bother if you are not prepared to completely give your life over to it, and give it 100%." I told him I didn't mean that in a negative sense, just that I knew what kind of effort it took to get to the top of the heap and accomplish my goals, and it was all-day, every-day, all I thought about, a constantly-consuming process.

 

I looked at my cell phone as we got up to leave - three hours had passed since I had arrived at Starbucks. We guiltily noted that we had taken up one of their tables for three hours without buying anything, but I'm sure no one in the shop took it personally. All in all, it was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, and I can't wait till the magazine hits the newsstands.

 

Final Photo Shoot...

Wow... I didn't realize that it has been almost two weeks since I wrote anything in my blog! That is partially due to rather extreme busyness on my part, and partially due to the fact that nothing has really changed that much with my weight loss journey in the last two weeks. I can't even remember if my weight was up or down last week at PHC; all I know is that I keep hovering around the 211-pound mark, and I really want to get down a little lower than that. This entire battle has basically come down to two main things: managing water, and managing carbohydrates.

 

I have gotten back into a little more regularity at the gym, and I am seriously considering joining the group power class that meets at Walton Way at 5:45 AM on Tuesdays and Thursdays. It's a very small class, from the looks of it. I've not yet gotten the nerve up to speak to anyone there that is working out; some of them seem to know each other casually, but none of them have identified me as Augusta's Biggest Loser. The managers there know who I am, but no one else does. I've gotten back into my treadmill routine, and this past week, started learning how to use some of the machines.

 

As I've mentioned on facebook, we had a photo shoot on Friday, July 16. It's probably the last one Nandy and I will be doing together as winners. We've done all the Omni stuff and all the PHC stuff that we have to do, and this last one was for the final installment of our story in CSRA Active magazine, a great local fitness magazine that launched shortly before we started season three of ABL. We met at the photographer's nearly-impossible-to-find studio and dragged our wardrobes inside. (He had asked us to bring a variety of clothing, so that all the shots would not be of us wearing one outfit, and so that our colors could be coordinated.) Nandy had a black and yellow top that she was bringing, and so I brought a yellow shirt and black slacks to coordinate with that. Everything else was a wash - she had orange, I had red. She had purple, I had blue. At least the yellow/black thing went together well enough to get us in a nice shot for the cover. Rob Forbes probably took 40 pictures of us in one pose, then turned us back-to-back and shot another 40 pictures of us like that - closeups, distance, elevated, different lenses, etc. Then he shot me alone with my now-way-oversized suit coat and my way-oversized Biggest Loser t-shirt. Nandy had to leave and get her "before" pictures, which she had forgotten at home. She arrived back at the studio, and then I had to leave, because I had forgotten mine, as well! Rob was pretty amazed at the difference between our before pics and our current weights. When I got back, Nandy showed me her "before" shirt, which was the green "tent" she had worn on the night we found out that we were in the competition. I don't remember her being that big, just like she doesn't remember me being as large as I was. I guess seeing each other almost every day for nearly 7 months does that. Unlike previous photo/video shoots, this one was simply pictures - no interviews. It was very relaxed and a lot of fun. He promised us that we would get copies of the pictures he took, so when those are available, Nandy and I will put those up for everyone to see. The ones he showed us in the camera were really good.

 

More importantly than the pictures or the fun, Nandy and I had some time to talk. We are both struggling right now with self-image issues - concerned about looking fat, still seeing our old selves in the mirror (and storefront reflections, car window reflections, etc.) It's really almost like we've done all this work, but still feeling fat. Obviously we are both very different, but the mental pictures are not so easily changed. I'm beginning to see how an anorexic or bulimic person who weighs 85 pounds can look in the mirror and not see what everyone else sees, and that's not something that a person of normal (or at least consistent) size can understand. It was good to be back with my ABL partner again - there is something in shared suffering and experience that makes the path a little easier.

 

Hopefully it won't be two weeks before I post another update!

 

Eight Months In, The Training Wheels Come Off...

I have now made it through the six-week stabilization process without my weight at PHC ever going past the "danger weight" they set for me. Looking over the past six weeks, my weight has fluctuated between 211 and 215 on their scales. I still want to get down a little more, so we have gone back to the 4-day flush - the process that we began Biggest Loser with. My weigh-ins are down to once per week now, and until I mess up and cross that danger point, I don't have to turn in a weekly food log anymore. I will continue to weigh myself daily at home, and I will continue tracking my food intake at fitday.com. If you are reading this and trying to lose weight, you really need to set yourself up a free account at fitday.com. Best tool I've found for tracking your weight loss, your progress towards your goal, and your food's nutritional content.

 

My weigh-in today was something of an accomplishment - Friday was our wedding anniversary, and on Tuesday, my friend Ashley brought us a huge cake for our anniversary, which was frosted and then covered in fondant. We ate on it for a few days - I ate too much - and then decided we needed to quit. We also ate out Friday night at Red Lobster, and I ate all sorts of stuff I would not have normally eaten, like a Caesar salad (don't let anyone fool you into thinking a Caesar salad is a good choice - LOADED with calories), fried mozzarella cheese sticks, garlic biscuits (which tasted really salty to me), fried popcorn shrimp, mashed potatoes, and then a little cake when we got home. If you are thinking I've fallen off the wagon, or lost my mind, I assure you that I haven't. I've done the work; I've learned what it takes to counter the effects of one bad meal, and I've learned to plan ahead so that I budget my calories. What did the folks at PHC say about my splurge? They weren't concerned because my weight was right in the range where it needed to be, and besides, everyone deserves to celebrate every now and then. Priscilla reassured me today that if I could keep my weight off successfully for a year, I would never have a weight problem again. I'm sure everyone that loses has the potential to fall back into the old habits, and I know some who have, but I will always remember where I came from and what it took to get here.

 

Exactly eight months ago today, we started our first day on the food plan and our first day in the gym. I just looked back in my blog and read the things I wrote about on the night before. The topics were things like being grateful for the opportunity; the need for a good support group; my first statement of a goal, which was to break 200 by the last weigh-in; and my best wishes for all the other 11 contestants. I wonder where they all are today. Some of them, I know where they are. I keep in touch with Charles and Nandy fairly regularly; I see Lisa and Bronnie posting every now and then on facebook. I talk to Laycee every now and then, and still see either her or her husband David in Walmart. I hope everyone is doing well; we worked too hard from November to May to go back to the old lifestyle. The one thing I need to do is kick it back into high gear with my exercise. I'm getting some, but not enough. (I had to laugh today - Donna at PHC told me I looked like I had tanned a little bit, and I told her that I had been out playing disc golf a couple of times. She asked if it was hard, and I found out that she was wanting to know what level of intensity it was physically. One of their clients has apparently told them that it was like working out.... what a joke. It's like a walk in the park.... well, actually it IS a walk in the park!)

 

Besides the food thing, we had a good anniversary weekend. We bought a new grill and cooked out Sunday night - burgers, hot dogs, and a couple of pieces of chicken breast for me. We went downtown for the fireworks, and I spent my time enjoying the show instead of trying to take a ton of pictures.  Monday, my sister came into town, and she didn't recognize me for a second. She had not seen me since I started my journey (except in pictures), and I guess it was a bit of a shock. It's still fun to surprise people who haven't seen me!

 

 

Back In The Groove...

We all get lazy from time to time when it comes to diet and fitness. Busyness, lethargy, overconfidence, poor time management - all these things, and others, get in the way of our goals sometimes. I have a goal weight that I want to be at, and I'm not quite there. If you tell yourself enough times, "just once won't hurt me", those instances will start piling up, the clothes will start getting tighter, and the scale will start creeping up. Eating strict 5 days a week and not-so-strict 2 days a week will devolve into 4 1/2 and 2 1/2; then 4 and 3; and if you're not careful, the old behaviors will slip back into becoming habits.

 

I am reminded of a verse which has nothing to do with weight loss, but everything to do with slipping back into old habits: "Therefore we ought to give the more earnest heed to the things which we have heard, lest at any time we should let them slip." (Hebrews 2:1). When I was in Augusta's Biggest Loser, I gave over nearly every waking second of my time, thoughts, and energy to the process of trying to lose weight. I am finding that maintenance requires that same diligence, and I also find myself not wanting to apply it all the time. But I keep reminding myself of where I've been, what I've done, and the consequences of going back; looking through my before and after pictures in my ABL scrapbook keeps me focused on the goal. I have the broadcast of our finale downloaded onto my mp3/video player, and I relive that experience at least once a week while I am walking, running, or working out. I have faithfully kept my appointments at PHC so they can help me monitor my weight. Mostly it's gone well, but today, I feel fat. I look fat. It's definitely one of those times to tighten up the belt, or, as the King James Bible says, time to "gird up your loins".

 

One old habit I have fallen back into is the habit of staying up too late. Daris, one of the finalists on The Biggest Loser, said during the finale that he learned that if you eat supper at 5 PM, and then stay up until 3:30 in the morning, you're going to get hungry, and you're going to eat. I don't stay up THAT late, but midnight - 1 AM is about normal for me. But if the alarm is going to go off at 4:30 so I can be at the gym by 5:00, a midnight bedtime isn't going to be conducive to achieving what I want to achieve.

 

So often we know what to do; actually DOING it is another thing altogether, isn't it?

Fear of Failure...

There may be some heavy folks out there who are as brave as can be, but my experience has been one of "I can't". Not being athletic, talented, or "cool", I was always afraid to try new things. I think having a history of failures creates a fear of adding to that history and reinforcing that poor self-image. When you are used to living like that, it is very difficult to get out of that mindset.

 

Saturday morning, I was brought face to face with that old pattern of behavior, and it was over something silly. It wasn't football, baseball, running, or biking; it wasn't even anything particularly athletic.

 

It was disc golf. I was invited to go play a round of disc golf with some of the guys from church. Here's all the instructions you need to get started: Stand here and throw this round thing. Walk over to it, pick it up, and throw it again. Repeat this sequence until you land the disc in the basket at the end of the hole. I had all the necessary qualifications - I can see, I can walk, I can bend over, and I can throw a frisbee. I was on a roll of doing things I'd never done before (like strap myself into insanely-nauseating roller coasters, running for fun, losing 140 lbs., etc.), and so I willingly accepted the invitation.

 

I left for the park at the appointed time...

 

I almost drove past the park. On purpose. My fear of adding to my legacy of failure had nearly paralyzed me, and I came this close to simply driving on by and running some errands. I actually had to have a conversation with myself, and force myself to go play. Everyone I went to play with was athletic to some degree or another (although, I repeat, this sport takes little athletic prowess). I was the only first-timer in the bunch, and I did not do very well. But it did not matter - I forgot all about trying to be "good", and just focused on having fun, enjoying the fellowship, and getting outside and enjoying a beautiful Saturday morning.

 

Old mental habits and attitudes are extremely hard to break - when we rehearse them, we strengthen them, and deal a serious blow to the likelihood that we will ever do anything to change them. You can change them with time, but studies tell us that it takes many, many positive affirmations to counter the effects of one negative thought. And when that thought has been reinforced over and over through experiences, thoughts, and fears, it can be crippling.

 

After many failures, Thomas Edison said, "If I find 10,000 ways something won't work, I haven't failed. I am not discouraged, because every wrong attempt discarded is another step forward".

 

Weight loss has stopped; the media circus has ended; but I continue to grow and change in ways I never could have imagined.

 

Man, this is fun!

Augusta Chronicle Article

Because there are some people following my blog who aren't on facebook, I am posting the link to the article from The Augusta Chronicle that includes a section about my weight loss. This article ran on the front page of the religion section, and took up nearly the entire page, save for an article by a gay minister (boy, THERE'S an oxymoron), and a small article about religious iPhone apps.

 

http://chronicle.augusta.com/life/your-faith/2010-06-25/many-ministers-struggle-obesity?v=1277495605

The Struggle Continues...

It has now been almost six weeks since the final weigh-in of Augusta's Biggest Loser, and I have been on a schedule of mostly maintenance, with some stricter days thrown in. My weight has fluctuated up and down, which has taken some getting used to after six months of almost steady decline. Since November of last year, any slight gain has thrown me (and the fine folks at PHC) into a minor panic. Now it's just, "I'm up a couple... oh well. It'll come back off." During the competition, I was so focused on trying to drop the weight that I never gave a lot of thought as to how I would keep it off once the pressure of the contest was off of me. So far, it's not been too bad. There have been days I have eaten some things I wanted to - cake on birthdays, a little bite of sweets here and there, and a couple of trips to all-you-can-eat buffets. During the competition they told us to stay away from those places, but now during maintenance, they are telling me that buffets are good choices IF you go in with the right mindset.

 

It really is largely about the mindset in all areas of this journey. I can remember past attempts at weight loss, and I remember what it felt like mentally when I quit. I definitely noticed a difference in my thinking when I was "in gear", and when I just let everything slide back into neutral. Thus far, there has been no regression into neutral thinking. Although my family is sick of it, I still pull up reruns of The Biggest Loser online. I look at my Biggest Loser notebook - my written compilation of my weight loss journey - at least once a week. I watch Jillian Michaels' new show, "Losing It With Jillian". The refrigerator still is full of sugar-free jello, low-fat cheeses, and other, better choices. I guess the closest biblical analogy I can think of is to notice how many times the Bible commands us to "take heed", meaning to give constant attention to what is to follow.

 

One of the comments that was made to me online during the finale of The Biggest Loser was that I had done better than a lot of the people on the show. The other day, I went online and looked up all their statistics. For the season that just ended, there were 22 competitors, and if I had been on the show, and lost exactly the same as I did "at home", I would have done better than 16 of the 22. The only people who had a higher percentage of weight loss than I did were the final four, plus two at-home players. When you consider all the resources available to those who make it onto the show, that's mind-blowing. I cannot say enough about PHC and our trainer, Johnnie Hughes, at The Omni. Several of my friends have tried to do PHC's program in the past, and I don't know what caused their experience to be less than successful, but as far as I am concerned, those people are THE best at what they do. Are they perfect? No - no one program is perfect for everyone; we expressed a lot of frustration at times during the competition, but this "speed weight-loss" process that we went through means there's much less time for course correction. It wasn't a matter of "let's try this for a week and see what happens" - it was often literally a day-to-day change, with lots of experimenting. If something didn't work, they re-wrote the plan, or threw it out and started over. So anyway, that's my PHC commercial for the week.

 

Speaking of which... new PHC commercials should begin airing in the next few days. I will put a couple of them online later on; if you follow me on facebook, they will be up there (I do this not for vanity's sake, but because of the many friends and family that do not live in the Augusta area, and would not see them otherwise). In other media, there will be an article in the Augusta Chronicle "Your Faith" section about pastors, the church, and obesity, for which they photographed and interviewed me extensively. Hopefully something I said will make it into the article, as he interviewed several other pastors, as well. I think the last little bit of media will be CSRA Active Magazine, which said they would profile the winners in the next issue, but I have not heard from them yet. The commercials will air for the next year, I'm sure, but all the "new" will be off of them long before then. I wrote my final article for the Baptist Bible Tribune last night and fired it off to the editor. Hopefully the experience I've had and the journey I'm on will inspire someone who needs a little push and a little hope.

 

P.S. - Put on 3 pounds over Father's Day weekend / fish fry; lost all of them plus one extra for good measure. Current weight at PHC is 212, five pounds below my "danger weight". I'm small enough now that I can tell when I'm up 3 pounds, and it didn't feel very good at all. Would like to drop another four or five soon.

 

 

Weight Loss vs. Maintenance

Just a few thoughts on the topic of weight loss vs. maintenance: which is harder?

I keep going back and forth on which one is more difficult. Obviously I have had great success during the weight loss phase, and maintenance thus far has not been difficult. But in the last few days, I have let out a little more slack in the line, so to speak, and I think I have hit a spot that may turn out to be tougher to navigate than I originally anticipated. I have discovered a few tendencies that I need give more attention as I go through this stabilization process:

1. I have discovered that if I put on an unusually high amount of weight in a very short period of time, it's usually sodium and water retention issues, not fat. I can usually fix this by making sure I get extra water.

2. For me, the discipline of saying "no" is easier than the discipline of saying, "yes, with limits". Refusing to eat certain foods takes a set of blinders, but it's pretty easy to shut that stuff out. Limiting portion sizes, or knowing when to say "when", requires much more focus and discipline. I've mostly done OK with this; this past weekend brought several occasions of eating "freestyle" - a couple of birthdays, an out-of-town trip, and a couple of fast-food meals. I've not made "horrible" choices; but I can notice the cumulative effects of eating some things I have not been eating. Now it's time to see if I can get the train back on track, as I am pushing against the upper limits of where I should be pounds-wise.

3. I have not been burning calories like I was previously - last week we were at camp all week, and then out of town yesterday, and today was pretty ugly as I only got about three hours of sleep last night. So I have not been to the gym in about 12 days, and I can tell it. My energy level is down a little, and my running has lost a little (although I ran in the Six Flags parking lot yesterday, and didn't do too badly, considering I had been walking through the park for 9 hours before that, and it was brutally hot). So tomorrow morning, my schedule will be undergoing an adjustment - up at 4:45, in the gym by 5:30, an hour of work there, then a dash home to get ready for work, take my daughter to her job, and then back to the church to begin my day of work, hopefully by 8:00 AM, or shortly thereafter.

4. The standard has changed a little bit - during ABL, the only scale that mattered was the digital scale we weighed on every Monday night. Now, the only scale that matters is the one scale I totally ignored for six months - the scale at PHC, the weight loss center. I still don't really track that one too closely, because if I keep my scale at home well within my safe weight range, I will be okay at PHC. There was a little panic for me this morning, as my scale got up to around 216, up from 209 just 48 hours earlier. But seven pounds in 2 days is water weight, mostly, and it should come off fairly easily as I up my water intake and tighten the reins back on my diet.

Today, four of us "losers" had to go to a media production studio to shoot video and record a few sound bites for TV and radio spots for PHC. Nandy and I were on the call sheet, of course, as were Lisa and her son Tanner. I hope it went okay... the production people noted that I had "done this before", as my calling as a minister of the gospel frequently puts me in the position of speaking publicly. I also have done some amateur production work of my own, recording narration, voiceovers, and other bits of audio and video for various reasons. I hate hearing my own voice (who doesn't?), but hopefully my efforts were adequate for their purposes. Nandy is so bubbly, and that really comes across well on camera; Lisa is very well spoken, and does very well on TV also. I basically did it all through a walking coma, as I have a total of approximately 6 hours of sleep since Saturday night (it's currently Tuesday). But I was happy to help PHC any way I could; even if I were not contractually obligated to do appearances such as these sessions, I would still do them. These folks gave up a lot of time and attention to make sure that we losers were taken care of, and gave us the knowledge and tools to change our lives. I will be doing some work for them in the future - website updates, probably some graphics work, and hopefully, some opportunities to help some of their clients.

The Ups And Downs Of New Clothes...

One of our speakers at camp this week asked me, "What have you done for clothes during your weight loss? Obviously your sizes changed frequently..." I told him that I had to shop cheaply - Walmart, Kmart, Goodwill, etc. Now that my size has settled off and stopped changing every month, I have collected a few more articles of clothing than I had during the contest. I have tons of workout t-shirts, a few pairs of shorts, enough shirts and slacks to get me through a week at work... but one area is, sadly, rather skimpy.

 

Suits. The uniform of the ministry. Well, in our church, and in most like-minded churches, anyway... one of my facebook friends posted pictures of himself preaching in blue jeans and an untucked, button-down shirt - we at our church probably couldn't get away with doing that. I guess there are advantages to starting your own church - you can set the "rules" (or at least, the expectations) as you go. Regardless, coats and ties are what those of us in leadership at our church do, and I'm okay with that. I would personally feel uncomfortable preaching a Sunday morning service in less formal attire, but I'm not here to throw stones at anyone for how they choose to dress on the platform or in the pulpit. I suppose there could be a stewardship argument made for simpler dress - the apostle Paul might have chosen a $15 shirt and a $20 pair of slacks over the indulgences of expensive suits that cost hundreds of dollars. But anyway...

 

I purchased a new suit last month in preparation for our Biggest Loser finale. It was a pretty big expenditure for me - but a lavish change from the sport coats and casual slacks I had been wearing for the previous six months. However, it has become painfully obvious that I have exactly one suit, and it makes an appearance every other week. Now, our church takes good care of us, and I have no complaints whatsoever. A complete wardrobe change, however, is not part of our usual monthly expenses, and I feel guilty about purchasing clothing when the van needs repairs, the air conditioner is on its last leg, as well as all the other expenses that we all have from time to time.

 

This evening my wife asked me, "I'm going to Goodwill... wanna go?" Frequently I don't want to go... the women's clothing section takes approximately five times as long to go through as the men's section. But I said I'd go (I haven't seen her since Monday, except for Wednesday night), and so we climbed in the car and made the trek to Evans (about 12 miles away) to go to the "good" Goodwill. I went to the men's section to look through the single rack of suits and jackets they had. A lot of the items looked familiar - I have seen the same items on many trips to this store. Seeing as how I already have a navy blue blazer, I don't need a tuxedo, and double-breasted suits refuse to make a complete comeback, there wasn't much left to browse through. A solid gray jacket caught my eye, and I picked up the hanger - 42 long, the label said. My size. I slipped on the jacket, and it fit pretty well. I pulled it off, looked carefully at the coat and the pants that accompanied it. No flaws, no wear patterns, no nothing. Just a suit, in excellent condition. I nearly ran to the dressing room to try on the slacks - bingo! I had gone hunting, and had found my prey.

 

Excitement got the best of me, and I returned to the rack to see what else might be available. I knew the odds were pretty slim of lightning striking twice in the same place, but it did. A black suit, this time - a 4-button black suit by some Italian brand, in perfect condition. The pants had been taken in, and were snug at the waist, but closer inspection proved that they could be restored to their original size by an average tailor.

 

For the massive sum of $30, plus dry cleaning and a little alteration work, I have two more complete suits in my closet. God is good!

 

A Week of Temptation...

I have just arrived back home after a week at youth camp. Phone service was very sporadic; rather than continually frustrate myself over a non-existent signal, I decided to not write anything until I returned home.

 

My new relationship with food was cast into a stark light this week. Our camp always has the most amazing meals, for a camp. I've been to camps where breakfast is cereal and toast; we serve, on various days, pancakes (not the frozen kind, but straight off the griddle), grits, biscuits and gravy, sausage, eggs, bacon, cereal, muffins, and other treats. For lunch, there's a hamburger day, a taco day, a spaghetti day, and a sandwich day (first day of camp - an easy meal). Dinners were beef stew, barbeque chicken, ham, and chicken casserole.

 

Almost none of these items have made their way back into my food choices yet.

 

Before camp, I went back and forth between "I'm going to take all my own food and be very strict", and "I'm going to eat whatever they serve, just in reasonable quantities". I'm still early in the stabilization  phase at the weight loss center, so I didn't want to stray too far from that. Bottom line, I went without much of a plan at all, except to pack a few cans of tuna and a bag of apples. I had actually not really been aware of two things in years past  - one, I can stroll into the kitchen at any time and get anything I want to eat; and two, we have a pretty well-stocked kitchen. One of our counselors had her husband pick up a couple packages of those thin 100-calorie wheat buns, and a bagful of Carbmaster yogurt cups. I was able to eat a lot of salads, turkey sandwiches, baked chicken, and veggies when available. I splurged a couple of times during the week - had to grab a couple of homemade chocolate chip cookies (okay, they were from pre-fab cookie dough, but still); I passed over ice cream dessert, cake, and anything that was sold in the canteen besides lowfat yogurt and diet Coke. Contrary to what I anticipated, I didn't spend my week looking longingly at all the foods I "can't" have. It was more like "ya'll can eat that, but I'm not interested." I sent our nutritionists an email midway through the week, thanking them for changing the way I look at food.

 

I have to let things kind of settle out for a couple of days, but I think I did lose some of that extra weight at camp this week. I had intended to run and work out; I did run Tuesday morning, but two miles in, I realized that if I got hurt, I would be useless for the rest of the week. I strapped on a pedometer, and logged over 12 miles of walking per day just in the normal course of a day at camp. One of our speakers wanted me to help him get started on his weight loss journey, and for exercise, I suggested he start by walking. You won't lose as quickly by JUST walking, but you can still lose if your nutrition is on point.

 

Some of you may be thinking, "Augusta's Biggest Loser is over; why are you still writing about food and weight loss?" Well, I will be writing about other topics, but there are a lot of people who are on their own weight loss journey, and when you are in the beginning or middle stages of the process, it can seem like there is no light at the end of the tunnel. I continue writing to let those folks know that they can come out on the other side successfully.

 

At The Walmart Photo Counter...

Once or twice I have mentioned that all of my postings, pictures, magazine articles, etc., are going into a notebook that I will keep as a constant reminder of where I've been and what I've accomplished over the last six months. I had everything up through about the end of April, but had not printed or inserted anything after that point. I sent some digital before/after pictures, as well as some finale snapshots, over to the one-hour photo lab at Walmart. I've done this a couple of times during Augusta's Biggest Loser, without incident. I sent the pictures early this morning over the internet, and received confirmation that they would be ready by 10:00 AM. I walked into the store, went to the photo counter, and waited for someone to man their post. A lady came from the electronics area of the store, and instead of "may I help you?", she just said, "Hi!". Struck me as a little odd... but I said hello back. She didn't even ask me if she could help me - she walked over to the pictures that had been processed, pulled out my envelope, came OUT from behind the counter, and shook my hand as she said, "Congratulations! I saw your pictures when I went to cut your 5 by 7's... you look great!" She asked me a few questions about the contest - how much did I lose, how did I do it, etc.

 

Everybody wants to know how I did it, until I tell them. Yes, I did it faster than the average dieter, but in a nutshell, the answer is "diet and exercise". It was just at a pace that very few people are willing to keep. There are plenty of people at the gym that can work circles around me; there are people at PHC who are better at sticking to their food plan than I am. But by and large, the dieters won't exercise with any degree of intensity, and the gym rats won't eat right.

 

I had my PHC appointment today - my third stabilization visit. I was down nearly 3 pounds, which is good, because I had put back on some weight since the finale. Most of it was bound to return - dehydration and prolonged, intense exercise tends to wear the body down. But I'm slowly dropping again, and as long as my body is in the mood to drop a few pounds, I'll run with it. This time, though, it will be fat weight, not water and stuff-I-might-actually-need-one-of-these-days. Just before I left, my counselor Savannah handed me a white PHC t-shirt and a Sharpie, and said they were having all the Biggest Losers sign it, and they would hang it in the lobby. I was the first one to sign, so I asked if they were looking for "thank you's", or something that would help inspire their clients. She indicated the latter, and after a minute of thought, this is all I wrote: "I did it - so can you! |  342 - 199  |  Ed Chavis, WINNER!" I've never talked to Pam Segers or Bernard Milligan, the season 2 winners, but I remember Bernard saying to us that November night when we all learned our fates, "If I can do it, ANYONE can do it." He doesn't know me from Adam, but his words helped drive me forward; I hope my few words will compel someone to stick with it just a little longer, when everything in them and everything around them says, "you can't".

 

One other neat thing today at PHC: the latest copy of CSRA Active magazine is out, and inside there is a story about our journey, and the promise that the next issue will feature the winners. I hope they do a photo shoot, because the last time their reporter was out to talk to us and take pictures, it was at the end of a workout, and we all looked horrible. One way or another, it looks like Nandy and I will be gracing newsstands around the Augusta area in early September!

 

Losing Your Voice...

Today I finally got to see the entire finale of "The Biggest Loser" - not our little show, but THE show. There was a little segment near the beginning where they showed some former winners in the crowd - Bill Germanakis, who has parlayed his victory into a very lucrative speaking and consulting career; some guy whose name I don't remember right now (I didn't get into the show until after about season 4), and Eric, from season 3, who had to display to the world in a "Where Are They Now" episode that he had regained nearly all of his weight.  He was also featured in the third from the last episode of this season, serving as a warning to the contestants not to fall back into their old habits. In the "Where Are They Now" episode, trainer Bob Harper went back to Eric's house and got him to start working earnestly on his weight loss, and told him that he would be "on stage" at this season's finale. Well, Eric worked, and had lost 150 pounds by the finale, but instead of being feted onstage, he was simply a footnote on the night, sitting in the crowd, obviously with much work still ahead of him.

 

Ironically, I was looking through the book "Biggest Loser Success Secrets" today - it was published shortly after Ali Vincent's season 5 win, and included photos and tips from past contestants, including Eric. At the time the book was published, he was still sporting the physique of a record-setting winner, which, of course, lent a strong degree of credibility to what he had to say. But after spiraling out of control, his message was no longer one of hope and victory; it had been reduced to, "don't be like me". Instead of being a motivator and a cheerleader, now he was simply a bad example. He had lost his voice.

 

As I was contemplating all of this today, I realized that those of us who have lost weight, whether on our own or with help, have a very powerful message to share. The easiest thing in the world to do is to gain weight; I'm convinced that one of the hardest things in the world to do is to lose it. Flip through the infomercials each morning before the news begins - the ads for weight loss / body shaping consume about 25% of the airwaves, because EVERYONE is looking for "THE" answer. "THE" diet. "THE" workout. "THE" gadget. If you can stand up and say, "I did it, and you can, too", you have a message that will get people's attention. My message is already being put out there whether I want it to be, or not - as a result of Augusta's Biggest Loser, Nandy and I are about to be on TV in a commercial that will air so often that people will get sick of it quickly; our picture is going to be featured in the Yellow Pages ad for PHC; my name and pounds lost has been on the PHC sign since November.

 

I had these thoughts today as I was thinking about the general topic of "why should I keep the weight off". Not that I ever want to go back to the way I was, but the odds of all of us keeping our weight off for life are not good. There are plenty of casualties like Eric among the ranks of both the "pros" and us amateurs. If you can't find the desire and the drive within yourself to keep toiling away at this lifelong task, let me encourage you to think about the opportunities to change others' lives that you will miss if you go back. Far greater than the gift of getting your life back is the gift of having the opportunity to help someone else get theirs back.

 

Don't ever go back - if you slip, get back on course, and quickly. People are watching you when you don't even know it, and you could be either their last thread of hope, or their last sigh of resignation.

 

 

Facts Are Our Friends...

"Facts are our friends."

This quote from Pastor Johnny Hunt, current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, is applicable to most areas of life. Most of us have at least one area of our life where we're not really interested in the facts, because this lack of knowledge helps us look past our own faults and shortcomings. I am reminded of the classic story "Snow White", where the evil queen asks, "Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest of them all?" She was more interested in the mirror's opinion, and how she compared with everyone else, than she was in the mirror's reflection. She was enraged when the mirror declared that, with Snow White's arrival, she was no longer the fairest in the land.

In ministry, we have been known to fall into some of these same tactics - a fellow pastor asks how many we are averaging in church, and I have heard many pastors round the numbers WAAYY up. A crowd of 150 can easily become 250 through the power of the "guesstimate"; the latest trend is to add up the total number of people in every service, and that's the "attendance". If Sunday School attendance is 100, morning worship 150, Sunday evening 70, Wednesday night is 40, it is perfectly acceptable now to say that your church is running about 360 (well, 400, if you count those who would have been there if they could have been, and a few more if you count those who attended the monthly service in the nursing home).

The same thing holds true for our eating and exercise habits. Unless we are very intentional about tracking everything we eat accurately, we will often paint a very distorted picture of what our diets actually look like. One thing I discovered during ABL is that the rule of thumb is, you usually eat more than you think, and you usually exercise less than you think. This past weekend was Memorial Day weekend, and I ate some things I would not have normally eaten. I am on a stabilization plan with PHC, in which certain foods are gradually re-introduced back into the diet. I ate well outside of that list this weekend (not excessively bad, but a few things that weren't on the list). Predictably, my weight is up a little bit - with a three-pound swing in two days, I can tell you that it is water weight. When I sat down and plugged yesterday's eating into my fitday.com profile, I was rather shocked to discover that my sodium intake was THROUGH THE ROOF! During the competition, one of the pleasures that I allowed myself was the Chargrilled Chicken Sandwich from Chick-Fil-A, and I would indulge myself with this treat almost every Monday night following weigh-in. It was in the PHC book as an acceptable eating-out alternative; I ate it without giving it too much thought. Every week I faithfully wrote it down in my food journal, and I always had a good laugh about it with Savannah, my nutrition counselor at PHC. Previously I had recorded it in my fitday.com journal as a piece of chicken and a couple of pieces of bread, and figured, "ah, that's close enough". This morning, I looked up the actual nutrition information for the sandwich at thedailyplate.com (which lists almost every food you can imagine from every restaurant chain you can imagine), and discovered that my treat is probably responsible for every single mid-week gain I had during the competition. The calories aren't bad (about 300), but the sodium is off-the-charts (1120 mg). That wasn't too bad for weigh-in day, because most of us didn't eat anything between a light, early breakfast and weigh-in time at 7:00 PM. But when added into a typical day's eating, the results can be quite alarming. Yesterday (Memorial Day, remember), I ended up at nearly 4800 mg of sodium, almost four times what I would get in a normal day. Now, I can fix this... today I will be eating very low sodium foods, and will be drinking water like crazy to get my body to stop retaining the fluid.

Here's the point: you can't fix the problem until you can accurately define the problem; you can't accurately define the problem until you know the specifics. And you won't know the specifics until you overcome your fear of the facts. Fear of facts is why we won't get on the scale, or check our bank balance, or be accountable with our time. Ignorance may be bliss, but bliss can be a very dangerous thing.

Addendum: I mentioned a website in this post, thedailyplate.com. This site has now been incorporated into www.livestrong.com. Just go there, and in the search box at the top right of the page, type the name of the restaurant or the food item you are looking for. If you tell it to search in "food and fitness" instead of "all", you will get where you're going much faster. You don't need an account to access this information. If you do decide to register for an account, you will have access to features similar to fitday.com, where you can input your food and track your progress.

The Power of Words...

After a photo session this morning and a commercial this afternoon, I was looking back through my photos in my facebook photo album. One thing I have not included in my book yet are some of the things other people have said when commenting on my photos, and I wanted to make sure that I saved their comments. In no particular order, here are some of the words of encouragement that friends and acquaintances have left for me:

 

"Go, Ed!" - Mark Shimeal, November 6, 2009 (college roommate)

 

"Oh my goodness! You almost don't even look like the same person!" - Sandy George (friend)

 

"Who are you and what have you done with my brother?" - Kim Stady (my sister)

 

"I couldn't believe how awesome you look, when I saw you this past weekend! Praying for you every day!" - Linda Keffer - music evangelist's wife

 

"You're doing great... keep it up!" - Skip Braswell, season 1 winner

 

"You look amazing!!! You are doing awesome!" - Rebecca Kitchens, former teen from my youth group

 

"You look absolutely amazing!!!!! WOW!!! I am so thrilled for you!! Now, the real hard part will be keeping it off. But I know you will." - Jenny Gottschalk, high school classmate

 

"WOW! Just WOW! You look great and I'm soooo impressed by anyone with that kind of will power" -  Liz Hill, NBC Augusta news anchor

 

"uhmmm.ok....you can stop now! :) you look amazing!" - Liz Hill (again)

 

"Ed... you look great brother... great work... I am glad that you have the support and adoration of many friends, family and NBC..." - Barry Allison, blue team trainer

 

"Awesome!!!!! SOOO PROUD to share the WINNER's stage with YOU!!!"- Kristy Youngblood, season 1 winner

 

"Eddie ~ I'm still amazed when I see these pictures side-by-side. It's such a remarkable change! You should be so proud of yourself and I know that you've been an encouragement to so many others." - Sheila Hiler, friend from college

 

So many others have left notes, emailed me, texted me, and snail-mailed me their best wishes and compliments; I want to tell all of you who may read your comments here that your words of encouragement kept me going through the entire process. This, of course, does not include the weekly encouragement by so many in my Lumpkin Road Baptist Church family... you guys are the best!

 

I am living proof of the power of words; it's a lesson we could all stand to learn. Before you tear someone down with your words, understand that you may be impacting their life, for the rest of their life. Choose carefully.