When I first started

My blog buddy Lisa has started a new weight-loss blog as she is ready to take on the challenge that such an endeavor presents. She asked for some tips and I figured it would be great to share them right here.

New Year's of course is a day away and if I could guess at what the most popular resolution is, I'd venture to say it would be to lose weight. There are very few of us who don't desire to shed weight, whether it's a few pounds or 20-30 percent of your body weight.

So I'll take the opportunity now to blog about the beginning stages of my own weight-loss adventure and some of the tips I picked up very early in that path.

I think what helped me out the most was patience and faith. I had to have patience because there is no way you can see results right away. You can have the best workout ever, run a mile more than you thought you could, pedal on the bike for that extra and satisfying 15 minutes, keep up with everyone else in the step aerobic class... but one fantastic workout will not meet your fitness needs. You can't lose 10 pounds by doing that. It is, to borrow from Lisa's other blog, one step at a time, or in this case one workout at a time.

Patience.

If you stick with it, you will see results. They won't come soon enough - believe me, they don't - but before you know it, we'll be getting ready to welcome in 2010. That day is an inevitability, and you need to put yourself in a position now to have succeeded by then. You must be patient and give your workouts a chance to bear fruit.

And you also must have faith that what you are doing is correct. You must sell your program to yourself. If you don't believe wholeheartedly that what you are doing will lead to positives, then you won't succeed. If you don't think your 2-mile run is worth it, you won't try hard enough while running, won't push yourself, won't give that extra effort that is required in many if not all workouts and you probably will step off the treadmill or turn back around to the start well before the 2-mile mark.

When I sat down with my personal trainer back in March 2006 weighing in at a hefty 308.6, I didn't know what was in store for me. I didn't know if my weight loss was possible, if the money I had just put down would be a waste of resources, if I would be up for the challenge. But I did know that I needed to do something. I did know that I wanted to see my daughters grow up. I did know that I didn't want to embarrass Yvie when she finally went to school by having a huge 300-pound dad pick her up from school. I did know that I had reached the end of my rope, that there were no more excuses, that I had to do it now.

What better place than here? What better time than now?

I believed. And I had patience. And that started me off on this incredible journey to where I'm now going to start training for a half-marathon, thinking about the possibility of running a full marathon, planning on four races in 2009... I never EVER thought that was in my future.

More importantly than specific workouts or healthy recipes (which I'll blog about either later today or in the days to come) is the right mentality. That's really the only foundation for success.

That's how I approach many things now, with a belief in what I'm doing is correct and the patience to see it through. That got me to where I am today and it can lead anyone to where they want to get.