A Haunting Cry For Weight Loss Help (Episode 31)
5 03 2007If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to our RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!
Hello all you wonderful low-carbers and welcome to Episode 31 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.”
In today’s show, Jimmy looks back at a touching e-mail he received about a year ago from a distraught young lady who was so miserable about her weight problem that she admitted to him that “some days, I wish I wouldn’t wake up…”
To this day, Jimmy is still haunted by that e-mail and can’t help but think about that young lady every single time he blogs and podcasts on the low-carb lifestyle.
Her sad story reminds us all how high the emotional stakes can be for the obese which is why we are doing everything we can to spread the positive message that livin’ la vida low-carb has to offer those who are hurting.
You won’t want to miss Jimmy pouring out his heart in Episode 31.
LINKS MENTIONED IN EPISODE 31
- Visit our sponsor CarbSmart.com for protein powders
- Column on Jimmy Moore’s weight loss in The Spartanburg Journal
- Visit Jimmy Moore’s “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog
- E-mail Jimmy Moore anytime at livinlowcarbman@charter.net
Did you miss anything Jimmy said? Click below to see a full transcript of Episode 31!
TRANSCRIPT:
You’re listening to Episode 31 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” and I’m so glad you could join me today for another encouraging way to spend your day the low-carb way. Today I want to share with you one of the most touching and heartbreaking e-mails I have ever received in the two years I have been blogging and podcasting about weight loss and health. The pain shared in this correspondence sent shivers down my spine because I could sense the agony she has endured living the life of an obese woman. Get your Kleenex ready on this one, folks, because it’s a real tear jerker! I attempted to provide her with some much-needed hope and promise for a brighter tomorrow in my response. I’ll share that with you in just a moment.
Remember a few episodes back when I talked about the importance of protein when you are losing weight while livin’ la vida low-carb. Oh yeah! Well, one of the easiest ways to get more protein in your diet is with protein powders. And you can find all the bestselling ones in stock now at CarbSmart.com. Throughout the month of March, CarbSmart.com will feature protein powders that come in a variety of flavors to please your tastebuds as they are pumping you up with this powerful macronutrient. Go to CarbSmart.com to see their special protein powder promotion as well as many of your favorite sugar-free, low-carb products. Get “Carb Smart” at CarbSmart.com.
As you can imagine, my e-mail box is loaded each and every week with so many questions, comments, gripes, solicitations and yes, even compliments from quite literally hundreds of people. I sincerely enjoy hearing from anyone who is attempting to make livin’ la vida low-carb their permanent lifestyle choice because it was the best thing that ever happened to me. But just when I think I’ve seen and heard from virtually every character you could possibly come across in this world, along comes an e-mail from someone writing to me desperately seeking answers to their questions on dieting, weight loss and low-carb that seems to stick with me for a very long time. Such is the case of an e-mail that a young woman wrote to me last year about this time after reading about my low-carb weight loss success story in a local newspaper article here in my hometown of Spartanburg, South Carolina. In that article, I openly shared about how I was teased by a sixth-grade boy while substitute teaching just months before I started my low-carb lifestyle. I’ll provide a link to this column that appeared in “The Spartanburg Journal” in the show notes section at TheLivinLowCarbShow.com. I recall reading this e-mail from the young lady silently to myself for the first time and it literally caused me to lose my breath for a few seconds because I was so moved by the deep emotion she expressed in it. The tremendous pain this woman was experiencing at the time because of her seemingly impossible weight problem is something that I KNOW many of you will be able to relate to because you’ve either been there yourself at one time or you may still be hurting at this moment.
Here’s the devastation that she described to me about her life at the time in her e-mail:
“Diets of any sort…never work for me. Ever. I’m 24 years old. I look like a walrus. I hate myself…and I hate waking up every morning just because of how I look. I know what it felt like when you said those students made you feel like crying. I feel like that everyday. I don’t have the will to do anything to save myself, and even though I have people in my life, I don’t have anyone to help me feel confident enough to try anything that might actually work. I admit to being weak when it comes to doing anything about my weight. How can I possibly save myself if I’m too weak? Some days, I wish I wouldn’t wake up…it’d make things easier…maybe for everyone. I realize hearing the whimperings of a 20-something most likely isn’t what you want to have to read when you sign into your mailbox, but I really don’t know anyone to talk to who would fully comprehend my troubles.”
Heavy, heavy stuff there, isn’t it? I can absolutely relate to how she feels about herself because being big can really mess with your mind. While I never got this low when I was deep in morbid obesity, I can certainly understand how being overweight or obese can drive people to get this far down that they start to wonder if anyone really cares about them and if there is any hope left for them at all. Helplessness, hopelessness, desperation…all of these things become VERY REAL in your life when you get to the lowest point of your life when you feel worthless. It’s a sick feeling that leads to more overeating followed by even more weight gain and sometimes suicide. What a tragic reality this is, but it’s happening all around us at this very moment.
After a few minutes of prayer for this dear young lady who was looking for any glimmer of something positive to happen for her, here was my e-mail response back to her:
“THANK YOU so much for writing to me today. It took a lot of guts to approach someone you don’t even know about a problem like this. Being overweight isn’t any fun at all and I certainly will be praying for you to find a way to overcome this lifelong struggle as I did. When you’ve been fat, it’s hard to think there’s any other way out there or that you’ve got any hope of being anything but that fat person that you are today. That’s the way I felt when I allowed my weight to get up over 400 pounds.
When you reach this point, life pretty much sucks. You feel like everything’s fine, but you know something’s wrong. You WANT to be thin like everyone else and you are tired of people whispering behind your back about you. They’d never say it to your face (unless it’s a 6th grade kid!), but people can be very hurtful. So what do you do? Do you just give up thinking NOTHING will work? Do you just resign to the fact that you were destined to be fat and that’s the way God wants you to stay for the rest of your life?
If that was my mentality, then I would have never lost over 180 pounds and kept it off for good. While I lost my weight on the low-carb lifestyle (note that I didn’t call it a diet), I encourage people to find something (ANYTHING!) that can help them lose the weight and lose it for good this time. If you can’t stick with the plan, then you need to find one that you can stick with. Also, exercise has to become a part of your life. As dreaded as that sounds to you right now, believe me you will be craving exercise very soon. YOU WILL! I wrote a book about my experience and I encourage you to read it if for no other reason than to be inspired by someone who has overcome. I poured my heart and soul out in that book so that others would be motivated to do the same as I did. Of course, you can also browse around my blog at LivinLaVidaLowCarb.com where I write columns encouraging and educating people about healthy living principles, diet, nutrition, and, of course, low-carb.
THANK YOU again for writing to me today and I want you to feel comfortable enough to write me anytime. You are a special gift from God and I don’t want you to ever forget that. Regardless of how much you weigh, you are precious in His sight because He created you for a purpose that you may not even realize yet. Never let go of THAT fact as you travel down this journey of life. The Lord’s not finished with you yet. In fact, He’s just getting started! YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU! NOW GO FOR IT!”
I don’t know what ever happened with this precious child of God because she never wrote back to me again, but I still feel a burden for her today this day and it makes me that much more sensitive to everyone who is like her out there in this troubled world. With two-thirds of the population dealing with a weight problem of some sort, this is not an uncommon issue we are talking about. There are a lot of cynical anti-dieters like her desperately crying out for people to care as if to say–SOMEBODY HELP ME. As a man who has overcome that struggle once and for all, I believe it is my duty to stand with these people who are hurting and to let them know it is going to be okay. It will take work and discipline on their part to become the success that I eventually became, but it can be done. I pray that God will heal their hurt and put a newfound desire in their hearts to do something about their weight before it is too late. Will you commit to think about and pray for this beloved one and others like her who have all but given up on weight loss for good? These people feel they are worthless members of our society, like they are second-class citizens, and that nobody in the world gives a rip about them. How do I know this? BECAUSE I THOUGHT THOSE EXACT SAME THINGS AT ONE TIME IN MY LIFE! We need to show them our love and compassion so that they can find the light at the end of the tunnel waiting for them to climb through. Maybe you feel like this person who e-mailed me today. If so, then let me share with you some GREAT NEWS: YOU ARE LOVED and YOU HAVE PEOPLE CHEERING FOR YOU in your weight loss efforts! If nobody else will be your friend in this battle, then you can count on Jimmy Moore and my fellow listeners at “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show” to be there for you. We are real people who know what you are going through because many of us have done it ourselves and will do whatever we can to help others like you lose weight and get healthy. It’s our common goal and what has brought us together at this time. Feel free to write to me anytime for a special word of encouragement in your low-carb journey. My e-mail address is livinlowcarbman@charter.net. Be sure to listen to past and future episodes of my podcast show and visit my “Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb” blog often for encouragement and education about the low-carb lifestyle, which just so happens to be the best non-diet weight loss program on the planet! How do I know that? Well, it’s hard to argue with losing nearly 200 pounds and keeping it off for over two years! That’s what happened to me and it can for you, too! Now GO FOR IT!
That’s it for Episode 31 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore.” We’ll turn our attention to another interesting and thought-provoking issue in Thursday’s podcast, so you’ll want to come back for that. So, until then, keep on livin’ la vida low-carb!
Popularity: 59% [?]
From over 400 pounds to 230, Jimmy Moore is 
Jimmy has been on a one-man mission to tell the whole world what livin’ la vida low-carb can do for them. This episode is very interesting which is giving solutions to those who are facing problems of being overweight in real life.
This podcast brought tears to my eyes. I hope that young girl heard what you were saying in your email. It is lonely at times going through weight loss; that is why I so appreciate the podcast/website and Jimmy’s support in my goals. No one has to go this alone; support is out there in forums such as The Active Low Carb site. I visit this site and that one daily. Jimmy and the other low carbers I have met give me the courage to carry on with this lifestyle. It is saving my life.
Linda, I was actually thinking about YOU when I first got this e-mail a year ago. She was where you were before you found livin’ la vida low-carb. If only she would take a chance on it for it to work, she would be seeing the magnificent results that you are, too. We can only hope and pray she makes the right choice.
Man did this ever hit home—-there is so much more to her pain than the weight issue—but the weight compounds the problems—as young as she is she is bombarded with the meda images what healthy is suppose to look like—that isn’t always the case—
but let me share a persomal story–for 30 yrs I have suffered with Bipolar disorder—after having WLS–gastric bypass surgery—I was required to follow a low carb lifestyle—as you have posted many times Jimmy—it is our required way of eating for life—-since detoxing my system from the carbs rollar coaster—my mood swings are not near as bad and depressioin symptoms are almost non-existent–I did make the mistake of listening to my former PCP who was sooo against me eating this way—-I started adding some complex carbs –grains— back into my diet—within a week I was in full blown depressed mode—not to mention I gained 20 lbs in 2 months on it too—once I got myself back into ketosis–all was right with the world
But something I do want to point out—losing weight does not solve all your problems—they are still there whether you are big or small—but you are better able to think through them and work on them in a thinner healthier body than worrying constantly about the weight.
You are soooo right, Diane! The problems don’t magically disappear but you feel better knowing you can work through them once the weight comes off. THANKS for your contribution to this discussion.
I just discovered your website Jimmy, and I am so happy! I am shopping tomorrow for a low-carb lifestyle , I”m not really sure how to approach this though. Any help or suggestions? I was thinking about Dr. Akins, or perhaps just eliminating carbs .I.m diabetic, and I’m having a hard time keeping my numbers down. I need to lose weight. I need to lose 75 lbs.
I saw this episode 31 of “The Livin’ La Vida Low-Carb Show with Jimmy Moore” and i hope this would really help me to lose some weight because of which i sometime feel really embarassed.
Oh my God,
Jimmy, you sent the link to this episode last night in response to my email.
I can relate to this poor woman,
The fact is, being fat DOES hurt, and the comments of others, even well meaning ones, doesn’t help fat people to feel any better. nor does it encourage them.
I hope that this poor soul, is out there somewhere, thinner, slimming (or slim) and that she has found her answer. Perhaps some day you’ll hear from her again, and THIS time she will be happy and content at her ideal weight.
THANKS for listening Casey! I knew you’d enjoy this.