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So I’m working out in public the other day and some guy yells out the window as he drives by…..”Hey FLABZILLA!” After I showed him he was “#1″ in my book………I started thinking.

Why should anybody listen to me about getting in shape? I’m still 60 lbs. overweight at the moment. Why listen to me?

I’ve actually seen this weight issue from both sides of the fence. I’ve been 185 lbs., with 6% body fat with washboard abs. I could eat anything and everything and not gain an ounce, even when I wanted to.

I’ve also weighed as much as 310 with 48% body fat with no abs in sight. I couldn’t lose weight no matter how little I ate or how much I exercised.

I know the frustrations caused by excess weight as well as the major roadblocks that keep someone in that forever heavy “state of mind.”

What was the main difference between the healthy me and the heavy me? It was attitude and expectations.

When I was fit I worked out because it was fun. I just flat out enjoyed it. No pressure, no life or death struggle, just the enjoyment of sweating and straining and trying to get stronger and faster.

When I got heavy it was a slow downward spiral that got more and more out of control as time went on.  My attitude changed. I turned working out into a life or death struggle

I was easily frustrated when I didn’t see immediate results and that caused me to slide backwards more often than not.  My self image took a beating. I was negative more often than I was positive.

I stopped believing in myself and got to a point where I actually reveled in my own grand mal sense of imminent failure.  Let me tell ya, this is no place to find yourself.

What turned things around?  I guess it came down to waking up one day and insisting that this just wasn’t good enough for me.  I did a lot of soul searching about who I am, not what I looked like.

I’m more than just my weight or body fat %. I have an amazing life, a great wife, 5 amazing kids, a great mother and sister. I’ve had a storybook career where I’ve met and worked with some absolutely amazing people.

I have great friends whom I love that actually care about me. There is, quite frankly much more to me than this stupid weight issue I’ve been playing around with for the last couple of decades.

I have turned a corner in my life. I have turned a corner with my health and fitness as well. I am no longer allowing my weight to define me as a person.

I am working out once again because it’s fun, not because I have to. It’s made all the difference in the world.

I’ve dropped over 8% body fat in the last 6 weeks, that’s over 26 lbs. of fat that I’ve dropped. I’m training my body to burn fat more efficiently for fuel. I’m eating healthier more organic meals. Life is good.

Today I rode the bike for half an hour and followed it up with the P90X workout. I held my own pretty well today. It’s a great improvement over 6 weeks ago when I was struggling to just breath.

Sure there are still days that I can get frustrated when the numbers on the scale don’t correspond with the effort I put in the previous day, but I’m no longer working out just to hit certain numbers.

I’m in this for the long haul. I’m not just feeling stronger, I’m getting stronger and I have more energy than I did just a few short weeks ago. It’s a fun ride and I’m enjoying every minute of it.

Thank you condron.us and everybody else for your support over these last several weeks, it has made all the difference in the world, you’re great friends!

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Tim Pannell – Big Fat Mama’s Boy! is a post from: Losing weight with P90X