My 20 Pound Journey, Part 1

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I wanted to do a video on my weight loss. I actually had a pretty dramatic weight loss over the summer and I'll be honest, when it’s 28 degrees outside, I don't really feel like going out and running. Even though it's been a pretty successful weight loss journey up to this point, I'll be honest - I'm struggling. There are days like today where it's really cold outside. I don't feel like getting out of bed. I don't feel like running. I don't feel like exercising, and so I'm going to turn to making these videos because the videos are actually what gave the initial motivation to lose 20 pounds (actually at this point I think it's a little bit more than 20 pounds, but anyway…) I'm hoping that by documenting what I've accomplished so far that all my good friends on the internet will hold me accountable in terms of maintaining the progress that I've been able to accomplish at this point.

Luckily I live in a wonderful condominium complex. We've got a community clubhouse, which has really quite a decent gym and it's all included in our rather expensive home owner's association. Be it as it may, even though it's right across from where I live, there were some much colder days earlier this week that made it a real struggle to get out of bed.

As I mentioned, it was the videos I made over the summer that shocked me into losing the weight. Now I know some of you folks may think it's not that much weight. “You already look so thin. Why do you need to lose weight?” I guess we can be our own worst critics. So let me show you. Here are some screenshots of the videos that I was looking at of myself. I was so embarrassed…

Look at that belly. Oh my goodness. Look at that belly. I couldn't believe that my belly was sticking out that much!! Oh, I’m so embarrassed!

Of course, eating all that yummy delicious food while traveling didn’t help, and boy my chin was getting pretty rotund. Even though most folks might say, “Eh, it's not so bad,” I have another funny confession. When you visit my website and you see some of my publicity pictures that are pretty similarly themed - I think those pictures are actually about three or four years old. Well, the ones where I'm wearing the sweaters and stuff, the funny thing is that in those picture - I'm wearing a girdle. I actually had to wear a girdle because my belly was sticking out so much!

So yeah, I've always had a bit of a belly. I'm over 50 years old now and in it's not easy to keep that belly off. So I was just used to the fact that I'm just going to have a round belly, but when I saw the videos, particularly the ones when I was in Vienna sitting at the piano, the gut hanging out…oooh, I just said, “No. I can't do this anymore.”

It took about three months to lose the weight, and it was pretty intense. So what I want to do is over the next couple of videos or so is to go into what I actually did to lose the weight. It was a combination of calorie deficits and also frankly, just exercise, getting back into it. I'll tell you, it was not easy. I really did not want to do it, but I want to share a little bit of what motivated me to do that and what exercises I did and the one exercise I'm holding onto right now.

I'll admit it's not easy and there are days like today where I can feel the temptation is just let it slide and just sleep in, forget about it. Again, to try to stay motivated, I'm going to go turn to the same medium that I use to inspire me to get started to keep me going: video.

I'm really happy with where I'm at right now. I'm really happy with the weight loss and I'm really happy with the way my stomach looks. My gut is no longer hanging out. When I was back in Korea recently and met up with somebody who I had seen over the summer before I started my weight loss, she looked at me and she's like, “Are you okay? Are you sick? You've lost so much weight. What's wrong?” I told them no, it was intentional. So she was really surprised. I guess when you haven't seen somebody and suddenly see them again, the change can be pretty dramatic. That’s another reason why watching my past videos can also be pretty inspiring. When I go back and see my summer videos I realize, “Ooh, boy. Yeah, it's been effective.” It's work, but I need to keep going. I need your help to keep inspired, to keep up with my workouts. So anyway, this is kind of a “post log” of my weight loss journey, and hopefully this will just keep me going to keep at it because it's a lifelong thing. Especially as you get older, it's not as easy to maintain your proper weight. Now I have to go on a run before I feel like turning around and going back home….