The Big Fat Truth: The Behind-the-scenes Secret to Weight Loss (5 page)

That reminds me of a story I heard about the actor Jim Carrey. When he first moved to L.A. to become a star, he was poor and practically living out of his car. He wanted to be a star more than anything, so he pulled out his checkbook (even though his bank account was empty) and wrote a check to himself for $10,000,000. For those of you having trouble getting past all those zeros, that’s ten million dollars! Then he told himself that one day he was going to deposit that check. He put it in his wallet, and then let that check drive his passion to succeed. Every time he went into his wallet to pull out the few lousy bucks he did have, he saw that check. Every time he reached in to grab his credit card, he saw that check. It was a constant reminder that he had to become famous so he could one day cash that check. Guess what? Years later, he was in a position to cash that check many times over. It was a brain game all along, and it paid off. So what will be your inspiration? What will you put in your wallet to motivate you to live a full, healthy life? You need to make emotional deposits so when it comes time to make a withdrawal, you are secure in yourself, and have what you want out of life.

Throughout the years, people have criticized our production company, saying we exploit fat people for financial gain. It started before the first episode of
The Biggest Loser
even aired. In 2004, the night before our premiere, before the whole genre of weight-loss TV had even hatched, I was asked to come on
Entertainment Tonight
to counter claims by the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance. Never mind that they hadn’t seen a frame of the show; they knew I was a horrible person. On the show, I sat next to two 400-plus pound women, who argued that there are plenty of overweight people that are happy. Why were we trying to say that all overweight people were miserable? It was their gotcha moment. What did I think of that? When the camera cut to me (on a severe close-up, perhaps meant to see me sweat), I looked right into the lens and calmly said, “I’m looking for the ones that are unhappy, and I think there’s a lot of them.” Conversation over.

If you’re a stable, happy, loving, confident person and your body isn’t perfect, it doesn’t really matter. But I think you also have to ask yourself if you are healthy. Consider that according to the 2009 European Prospective Investigation Into Cancer and Nutrition-Potsdam (EPIC) study, not smoking, exercising 3.5 hours a week, eating a healthy diet, and maintaining a healthy weight prevented 93 percent of diabetes, 81 percent of heart attacks, 50 percent of strokes, and 36 percent of all cancers in a group of 23,000 people. Doesn’t that make changing your body and how your treat it, worth it?

I’d ask you, too, are you using food to push down issues you should be dealing with? Are you living the best life you can live? Don’t you want to live to see your kids have kids? Do you want to live a healthier lifestyle? Are there things you can’t do because of your size?

One contestant, Rod, told me that one of the most humiliating moments of his life was when a flight attendant asked him (loudly) if he needed a seat-belt extender. And there were other mortifying accommodations he had had to make because of his weight. He’d always try to get to a restaurant before his friends so he could look at the chairs to see if they’d hold his weight (booths were out of the question—he couldn’t fit in them).

Granted, these are not the problems of every overweight person, but even if it’s just having everyone watch you to see what the fat person’s going to eat, life can be difficult when you’re packing extra pounds. And it’s a vicious cycle. As soon as you feel the shame and embarrassment of people looking at you, you’re done. Next up is feeling that you are less then everyone else, then accepting less because you think that’s all you deserve. Toward the end of his year with us, by the way, Rod sent me a triumphant email with the photos on the following page attached that read, “I asked for the extension belt from one flight attendant (as it had been my norm). The other one remarked, ‘He doesn’t need one, does he?’ She was right.”

Rod with his seat belt buckled—no extension necessary!

If you’ve picked up this book, I’m probably preaching to the choir; you are undoubtedly not content with your body, whether it’s for health reasons, inconvenience, because you don’t think you look good, or all of the above. Nothing wrong with that—though keep in mind that losing weight won’t necessarily make you happy. However, getting happy
will
make you lose weight. The two go hand in hand.

Remember the three-pronged principle I told you I drill into my kids? 1) Identify the problem; 2) Make a list of things you need to do; 3) Go do them. That’s going to be your assignment, too. This book is divided into three parts, one for each of those principles, plus 30 days’ worth of ideas to give you a jump-start. All the chapters are short (I don’t want you to feel like you’re reading
War and Peace
) and designed to help you come away with insight into your own psyche. Another part of my plan is to give you as much of a reality-weight-loss-show experience as possible. I want you to have the pixie dust that I sprinkle on the participants—and you can, just by reading this book. You may not be on one of our shows, but you can use some of the same tools our cast members do to help them frame their stories and figure out what needs to change. I’ll take you through some of the casting process, which will help open up the doors of discovery and begin your transformation.

I want to become your own Miyagi, the character in
The Karate Kid
that teaches his student the right moves by having him practice washing a car (wax on, wax off). That is to say I may ask you to do some things that make you think I am wasting your time. I am not. Trust me, the way I’m going to lead you down the road of change has been proven time and time again. So if I ask you to do something, and you think, “Oh, I can just skip that part,” you are once again making excuses for why you can’t lose weight.

In the last section of this book, you’ll find a 30-day plan full of eating, exercise, and motivational ideas to help you initiate change. Thirty isn’t a magic number, but having a month-long “to do” list can help you start the wheels turning. That’s important because I don’t want you to just contemplate the ideas you’ll read about here, I want you to
implement
the ideas immediately. Let the 30-day plan be your guide.

Another important part of this book is the stories I tell about the cast members who have appeared on my shows—and who provide the evidence that my method works. Throughout these pages, you will hear from many of the people who’ve had success (as well as their ups and downs) with weight loss. They gained incredible knowledge while going through the process and have words of wisdom to offer. I still keep in touch with many former cast members, and you’ll see excerpts from their emails, posts, and texts scattered throughout the book, giving you an idea of their progress and the battles they still fight every day. You’ll also read success stories that are going to make you want to dump the contents of your refrigerator and jump up and run five miles. They’re that inspiring.

I’m going to tell you truths that you may not want to hear, but will be glad you did. Most of all, I’m going to give you hope. Hope has lead many men for thousands of years into battle, hope is the basis for every religion on the planet, and hope even elected the president of the United States! Hope is a key ingredient in the game of change, but hope has to have action behind it. Hoping you will get thin, and not doing anything about it will never get you closer to your goals. But you can do this! The job ahead of you isn’t for the faint of heart; it’s not for the weak (but don’t worry if you feel weak now, this book is going to show you how strong you really are). Losing weight for good is entirely within your realm of possibility. Starting now, your life will be divided into
before
you became the master of your fate and
after
you took the reins.

Are you all in? Then bring it!