Give me the skinny on this weight loss bid-ness

Sunday morning. Day two of a 3-day weekend (thank you, Dr. King!). I'm chillin on the lappy with the dog curled up and Guy Fieri on the tube, reading some blogs. I read each and every blog on that list over thataway (-->) on a daily basis. I never talk about them in my own blog, and I have no idea why, but today one post really got me thinking and as I was typing a comment that got longer and longer, a blog post emerged.

One of the most popular, likable and successful weight-loss bloggers in this little community (whom I know almost all of my readers also follow) is Tony "The Anti-Jared" Posnanski. His post today was about a subject that I think hits home to a lot of us, dignity. I know that when I was one of the heaviest guys in my high school class, I really didn't stick up for myself much, and I think part of me thought I brought this on myself , I deserve every degrading word. I think it's rather important to find your self-respect and self-worth in order to be a success story. We aren't just shedding pounds of the fat variety. We're dropping off bags of guilt and self-doubt along the way.

That's not what really got me thinking about Tony's post this morning, though. No, what really got me thinking is the story of the customer that approached him ostensibly to help him lose weight. Clearly, the guy had the wrong motivation for doing so since he was just looking for an endorsement for his product, but if not for that, I think the message would have been a genuine, thoughtful gesture. It reminded me of a manager I saw yesterday at BestBuy that looked a bit like myself when I was at the peak of my unhealthiness. I wanted to walk up to him and tell him where I've come from, what I've done, and how doable this weight loss stuff truly is.

I mulled it over in my head and thought about how I'd wished someone had told me that sooner. I came to a couple of conclusions:

1. several people on numerous occasions tried to encourage me to lose some weight throughout my life
2. I never took it very seriously
3. I always acted like I was

The truth is you have to be ready to do it yourself before any information out there is worth anything to you. Besides, what if someone had given me a speech like that on day 2 of this weight loss journey? Who am I to assume he hasn't already started and is down 100 pounds from where he used to be?

As much as we all share our stories -- our successes and failures -- to a lot of people, weight loss is a much more private matter. As I've said before, I respect anyone that wants to lose weight and share it with their peers, but I've come to realize that I also respect anyone who isn't ready to start or doesn't want to discuss it. Epidemic or no, the first step begins with the individual making the decision.