Several years ago when Dr Phill began to be a regular personality on the Oprah Winfrey show and pitching weight loss challenge, my son Gary's interest was sparked. Gary weighed in over 350 pounds at the time and since he is now blind had not been getting proper exercise and was becoming much of a couch potato. Gary's eating habits were not good either. He loved the Whoppers and Big Macs and just about any fast food you can name. He knew he must take charge or he might become more obese and even shorten his life.

Exercise is key to weight loss and he thought maybe if he had a treadmill he could at least begin a regular walking routine on a treadmill without any fear of steping into a hole or something along a nature path in the local park. My wife, who is an avid yard sale fanatic found a great used treadmil, a TRUE. It was almost new with several options , incline adjustment and speed with built in calculators for calories burned, speed , distance etc.The couple who had owned it were moving out of the area. They were marathon runners and had used the treadmill to train.

I had just retired from GE and I helped Gary by keeping a log of his distance walked, calories burned. We did that everyday; it became a habit.On his chart I added his begining weight and soon the pounds began to come off, he was able to monitor the weekly progress a huge motivational factor for him. Gary also began to watch his diet and even today no mayonaise is allowed on his sandwiches. We later bought a weight training machine and an eliptical machine.

I would tune in Sirius radio to the bluegrass channel. Gary is one of bluegrass musics biggest fans. He himself is an excellent guitarist and mandolin player.( see barbershop jam on youtube for some of his playing abilities) Gary's interest in bluegrass and having it available made his workouts more fun and entertaining than just the drudgery of exercise. Don't get me wrong, he looks forward to his time on the eliptical and treadmill and gives it all his best efforts when exercising to the fast upbeat tunes.

Then came the Biggest Loser. This reality show has also impacted our family. We have our favorite teams and feel disappointments when one of ours has to be sent home. We now have an on going Loser challenge in progress. Gary began in 2003 to exercise and to watch his diet. He has lost about 130 pounds since starting this program. Other family members though not having the impressive numbers have been able to control their diabetes and blood pressure by following Gary's example. He is an inspiration to all of us.

Some has said we are killing ourselves with a knife, fork and a spoon. I must agree. For any program to be successfull persistance is the key. Fad diets are not the answer. I just heard on Good Morning America about a Cookie Diet. Sounds too good to be true. I happen to love those Keebler Pecan Sandies Shortbread cookeis and if it were true I'd dive right in over my head. In reality, persistant sensible eating habits and exercise remain the only road to a successful weight loss.