...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!