Monday, February 4, 2008

A Sample Of The New Profiles

As promised, we will be creating profiles on each of our kindred walking group members. Since I will be doing most of the interviewing and writing, at least initially, I decided to profile myself first. I would appreciate it if you can look this over and provide me with any comments that might make the profiles more interesting for all our readers. I have tried to focus on some personal background information and then get some insight to weight loss and health goals as well as reasons the subject participates with the walking group. I am anxious to hear from you so please do write or talk with me when we see each other.

This week we are profiling Gary Black (that's me). I was born and raised in the great State of New York. Although I moved to Florida in 1988 with my wife and children, New York is still very much a part of who I am and I will always be grateful for that. I have worked in Financial Services for over 30 years and have no plans of voluntarily retiring anytime soon.

I was not always weight challenged. It became an issue for me in my early forties and I was totally unprepared to deal with it. So I didn't. Several years back I reached nearly 300 pounds and could no longer pretend that I was going to wake up and be 175 pounds again. I promised myself that I was going to meet this challenge head-on and beat it. Then I realized I didn't have a clue what to do or how to go about it.


Fate smiled on me. I met Bob who happened to be my neighbor...How convenient. We started to walk every night of the week. I lost about 40 pounds in a little over four months and then Bob suggested I join him at Weight Watchers. Since joining I have made slow but steady progress. However the biggest benefit of attending has been the access to valuable information and the association with people who can relate to my challenges. My personal goal is to lose another 25 pounds. However, Weight Watchers feels that I need to do better than that to make the goal weight they have set for me. I expect to reach my personal goal by May 2008 and I'm on target to do so. I will use both the 8 habits and 10 tools methodologies to guide and assist me in getting to my goal.

For me, the keys to success will be maintaining a clear visualization of the goal I have set for myself (winning outcomes), strict monitoring of interim benchmarks and the support of my family and friends, including the Nameless Walkers. My biggest challenge is not effectively managing my environment.

I believe that the Nameless Walking Group has provided focus and consistency to the activity dimension of my weight loss and healthy living strategy. The Group really gets me motivated and helps structure my week. I hope that we start to meet more frequently and I believe that accomplishing the 2008 miles in 2008 is very achievable. I really love that we get together and I look forward to it each week. Even when I am away as I was this last week, on Saturday Morning my first thoughts were of the group and who showed up that morning.

To all the nameless walkers, thanks for being a part of this very fun initiative. You have made a difference in my life as well as your own.

Later..................

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