I was once fat.  Many people prefer another word but I like “Fat” and, since it was mine, I figure I get to call it any name I want.

In the year 1996, I weighed 242 lbs.! That’s quite a bit of fat, no matter what you like to call it. Like most people, I wasn’t fond of my fat. I desperately wanted to change it, and I had tried for over 20 years to solve fat. My first diet was at age 10. And, when you try to solve something for 20+ years, and aren’t successful, you get pretty pessimistic about the whole damned project.

The way I saw it, Fat got in the way of finding a career I loved. It got in the way of relationships. It affected how I felt about myself.

And, by 1996, I was seeing it pretty much as UNSOLVE-ABLE!

This wasn’t just an obstacle – it was the biggest obstacle of all time in my eyes. No matter what I had tried, and I had tried every diet, intervention and exercise modality known to wo/man,  the excess weight always came back.

Like a stalker!

Like it had FAT GPS!

And I thought I was the only one in the world who had this problem!

Seeing it as an obstacle, I kept trying to fix Fat. It was all I could think of. All the world, from TV to magazines, said they were doing it:  Fixing Fat.  And doing it with a smile!

So I worked, and I dieted, and I deprived my self and put myself down for my failures, and I suffered.

And what was it doing? It was getting bigger.  I thought my ATTENTION would help me find the answer to Fat. It started to become the focus of every thought.  The more I thought about it – and I obviously didn’t yet understand that we create what we think about –  the more it was overtaking my life.  I was becoming obsessed with this obstacle. It was starting to define my life.

No matter what I did, it was getting bigger.  And what was happening to me? I was becoming a VICTIM.

If we aren’t part of the solution, we are the problem.

Finally, I started studying Fat and, at the Medical School Library, found the facts:  99% of the people who lose weight REGAIN IT!

99%!

Ninety-nine percent!

NINETY-NINE F*&^ING PERCENT!

I wasn’t alone, but I was MAD AS HELL.

It’s not pleasant to wake up and realize you’ve been a victim, not just of your own thinking patterns, but of a diet industry (who knows the truth and capitalizes dramatically on it).

But those numbers, and the realizations behind them, did change one thing. I knew I needed to look at my problem or my obstacle DIFFERENTLY.

Was it about  the obstacle called Fat?

No!

It was about the opportunity in those numbers.

99%      1%

Was I part of this?

99%

Or this?

1%

It was a question right before my eyes.

And, if I wasn’t part of this:

1%

How could I get to be part of it? If there were some people over there, it could be done.

HOW WAS I GOING TO GROW INTO ONE OF THE 1%?

And, just like that, what appeared to be a curse or the biggest problem in the world BECAME MY PATH.

Whoa! An opportunity opened up. In an instant, I knew!

Because, if concentrating on Fat was getting me bigger Fat…  I’d better start concentrating on something else.

And that meant becoming powerful, and learning to act in a powerful way.

My path led me to get to know myself, REALLY DEEPLY KNOW myself, to understand myself, learn how to show myself compassion instead of judgment and criticism, and to see WHY I was using food in a negative pattern in my life.

So, I lost weight (some 92 lbs.) and, just a few weeks ago, on March 13, 2013, I celebrated 13 years of sustaining that weight loss – that’s what you call permanent weight loss.

If I was still trying to solve FAT, I’d still be FAT.

That’s how to turn things around.  Look behind the obstacle for the opportunity.