Guest post from The Mr: Talking to my old self

Oh you're in for a treat today, y'all. You get a break from my sorry ass and get to listen to the Mr spout off!  Buckle up buttercups!

First of all I'd like to thank the Mrs for asking me to share a post with everyone today.  This all stems from something that happened to me this week and we both felt it was something that perhaps everyone could appreciate.  I suppose I should introduce myself a little first.  I am married to your trusted blog-mistress, and have been through this weight loss journey along with her.  At my heaviest I weighed 455 lbs and am around (not counting any recently acquired vacation weight) 265 lbs.

During my weight loss journey, I had a lot of co-workers who would all notice the differences in my weight at various times.  It's funny how some people can be oblivious for much longer than others but that is how it is. Eventually, however, the weight loss became so noticeable that virtually everyone in my immediate work area noticed and for a long time I was getting compliments all the time.  That is a little hard to get used to at first but eventually I saw it as a gift.  Now that I am in the tougher third leg of my journey and not losing as much weight but maintaining what I have lost and I rarely have anyone say much of anything anymore.  Until yesterday, that is.

I was walking through the hall at work yesterday and had a guy who I've seen before but don't actually work directly with.  He works on a totally different floor and our paths rarely cross but he does come down for the occasional meeting.  He was heading in the same direction as me and I noticed he was kind of walking next to me and then he said, "pardon my asking but how much weight have you lost?"  I told him and his next question was "forgive me for being rude and asking but I have got to know, did you have weight loss surgery?"  I proudly said no and the look on his face was a mix of disbelief and, dare I say, relief.  I should mention that this man is probably close to 400 lbs and it was as if his eyes lit up when I said that.  He then said that was encouraging to him because another co-worker of ours died about 3 years ago from complications of weight loss surgery.  I knew the guy but had not known that he died of that, so this was news to me.

He suddenly had a ton of questions for me.  "What do you eat"? being the biggest one.  I found a lot of my old self in him.  It was like the old me at 455 lbs asking the new me how I did it and all of those questions I always wanted to ask someone who I'd seen who lost weight.  When I told him that I had slowed down in my weight loss lately he said "yeah but you keep losing weight."  He said, "I saw you lose weight initially and then over the past couple of years I'd come down here and see you and be like, wow that guy lost even more weight".  Then he said "when other people lose weight around here they tend to follow a trend where they eventually start to creep back up again but with you, every time I see you you're still losing weight so I finally had to ask you how you do it".

So all this time I never even realized that there was this person who noticed my weight loss from afar but maybe either didn't want to say anything or just wasn't ready to yet.  I understand that completely because I have been there.  It's funny because there is this part of me that wants to help everyone I see but then I'm reminded that you cannot just walk up to any big person and be like "I know how to help you" because I know what I would have done if that had happened back in the day.

But as much as I feel like I have helped someone else, I also realize just how much he helped me today too. Just by getting a reminder of where I've been and how far I've come is a big boost to the ego but also my motivation on this journey.  Just the shot in the arm I needed.  So I guess the moral of the story is that you should most certainly approach another person you've admired from afar.  You just might be helping them as much as you're helping yourself!

Do you see any inspirational people in your lives and want to say something but don't?  What is it that you would say if you could? 

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