WIN THE FAT WAR: A LITTLE COACHING MADE HER A WEIGHT-LOSS WINNER
Jeanann Pock isn’t what you’d call a morning person. But with a little help from legendary football coach Vince Lombardi, the Zionsville, Indiana, woman found a way to resist the snooze alarm. She ended up losing 85 pounds as a result.
In 1992, Jeanann was a 22-year-old college graduate about to embark on a career in university public affairs. At 5 foot 2 and 200 pounds—she gained about 20 pounds in each of her last 3 years of college—she wondered whether she would be able to meet the demands of her new job. “Being overweight made everyday activities so much more tiring than they used to be,” she explains. “I made up my mind to slim down.”
Armed with information from the university library, Jeanann began trimming the fat from her diet and walking on a daily basis. She planned her walks for first thing in the morning so she’d be certain to fit them into her schedule. The trouble was that she had a hard time getting up early. At 4:45 A.M., all she wanted to do was snooze.
At about that time, Jeanann happened to be reading What It Takes to Be Number One, a book by legendary football coach Vince Lombardi. She was struck by one particular passage, in which Lom-bardi wrote, “Winning is not a sometime thing; it’s an all-the-time thing.”
His words provided the motivation that Jeanann needed. “I understood that to succeed at weight loss, I had to win every little battle along the way—including my morning skirmishes with my alarm clock,” she says. “I had to think like a winner to be a winner.”
From that point on, Jeanann had a new morning ritual. Rather than hiding her head under her pillow to block out her alarm clock’s ring, she repeated to herself Lombardi’s words. And then she asked herself, “Do I really want to be fat?” That got her out of bed and into her running shoes.
It also kept her weight-loss program on track. “After all, a winner doesn’t give up when she’s halfway to the finish line,” Jeanann says. Within a year, she got rid of all 85 unwanted pounds. She has maintained her weight at a healthy 115 pounds ever since.
WINNING ACTION
Give yourself a pep talk. All of us have moments when we need a little extra push to help us stick with our weight-loss programs. At times like these, having some sort of personal slogan can help. Think of a quotation, a song lyric, or a prayer that gives you inspiration and strength. If you can’t come up with one, create your own affirmation. For example, “My body is getting stronger, slimmer, and healthier every day.” You can repeat your slogan to yourself whenever you need to, or you can make it part of a daily ritual, as Jeanann did. It can help you get over the bumps on the road to weight-loss success.
*125\89\8*
Related Posts:
Tags: Weight Loss