The Fitness Race - How I lost 140 Pounds Eating At McDonald's

...And you can too! In the fall of 2004, I had had enough. I knew I had been morbidly obese for years, but the grim reality of a short lived future slapped me in the face. After years of hearing what the doctors told me about my weight, I actually listened to what he said. He told me I wouldn't live much longer, and when I did go, it would be a "drop dead" event. The following is a short description of my story, and the journey I followed to go from where I was to where I wanted to be.

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Location: Schaumburg, Illinois (888)467-8593, United States

After struggling with his weight for more than twenty five years, in Nov 2004 Mark McKenna Little made up his mind that being unhealthy was no longer acceptable. Through sensible eating and increased physical activity (absolutely NO drugs or surgery) he lost 140 pounds and now does four triathlons per year. Early in 2007 he challenged a group at his church that if they were serious about losing more than forty pounds each... he would mentor them to make a total body transformation. SO, THE 2007 FITNESS RACE WAS BORN... Mark Little owns an unrelated business, which he operates, but is mentoring 15 individuals to make similar health and fitness transformations in their lives by September 30, 2007. Many of those in this group have well over 40 pounds of excess weight, but have set a goal to get light enough to do the 2007 Accenture Chicago Triathlon with Mark on August 26, 2007. FOLLOW THEIR STORIES BELOW

Thursday, October 28, 2004

I had a conversation that should change my life.

I met with two friends while traveling. Long-time friend and mentor Bill Bachrach (who is responsible for the complete redesign of my business model to give my clients and me more life) joined our snow skiing buddy Jeff MacInnis (former member of the Canadian National Olympic Ski Team and now a highly sought-after motivational speaker) for dinner with two of their friends.

Just as background, I weigh well-over 300 pounds. I have diabetes, triglycerides (whatever those are) that routinely run at over 1000. I'm told this is very baaaad since it prevents the lab from being able to calculate my LDL or HDL ... therefore only my total cholesterol can be counted, which is very very high. I've experienced vision problems (blindness) and neuropathies in my feet, as well as gout and other arthritis symptoms. I suffer serious food allergies (for which my weight has been mentioned as a culprit). And if that weren't enough... no male in my family (that we can find) has achieved age 55 without having had a heart attack or bypass surgery.

Of all my friends, Bill Bachrach has stepped forward to help lead my thinking to "the truth" about my condition. He's very subtle though... last March (while we were skiing with Jeff MacInnis), Bill commented that "People like you seldom die gracefully Mark, they just drop dead one day." It is not Bill's style to give me unsolicited advice (usually), no he waited for moments like when I asked his advice about which business opportunities he thought I should pursue to which he responded "You're kidding, right? I think you should focus on improving your health."

Back to the story of dinner, as we enjoyed the evening together, Bill shot a disapproving eye to the well-marbled rib eye I was consuming (he was enjoying grilled salmon). Something about that look sent me off into another world wondering woefully why I couldn't just "take charge" of my health & fitness and decide to lose all this excess weight I had accumulated over the past twenty five years sitting at my desk (forgetting to exercise).

I have no idea what the rest of them were talking about over dinner, but I was having a very active conversation with myself about "Why?!" I had tried over and over to lose weight. I had attempted endless diets, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, Adkins as well as countless "New Year's Resolutions" to join a fitness center and lose the weight. Well, I joined the fitness center, but the pattern was to "forget to go."

Several times during dinner I resolved to tell Bill and Jeff, "That's it!" and that I had made up my mind once-and-for-all to do whatever it takes to lose weight... only to bail-out at the last minute realizing that "I better be serious" because these two would never let me forget my commitment to myself. They would hold me accountable to whatever I committed to. "Better be careful here," I told myself. Back and forth I went mentally like this throughout the meal.

"This is silly" I thought, "It's actually very simple... all I have to do is really, really, really, really make up my mind to take action... and then just do it" With that I spoke up right-away and said both aloud and loudly "That's it... I've made up my mind."

Not realizing I had cut Jeff off mid-sentence, everyone stopped chewing and shifted their eyes to me. You could hear a pin drop when Bill asked, "What have you made up your mind about?" I told them my big decision and asked if any of them knew of any coaches or registered dieticians or wellness centers that could work with me to create a plan with accountability as a key component.

Bill looked very pleased as Jeff MacInnis agreed to refer me to one of the many high-performance training center directors he knew. (NOTE: See an interview of Jeff MacInnis' exploits as the first in history to sail the Northwest Passage... and survive to tell the story: http://archives.cbc.ca/IDCC-1-73-2349-13671/politics_economy/northwest_passage/)

We ended the evening feeling very satisfied. They all had wonderful conversations with each other over dinner. I, on the other hand, have made a commitment to myself that could possibly save my life. It's all up to me now. What I actually do next (actions) will determine the future of my health and fitness.

posted by Mark Little | 9:11 PM | 0 comments