I’ve lost close to 50 pounds and I feel great. I still have some weight to lose, but this is a journey. The weight won’t fall off overnight. This knowledge makes my ass go to the gym four to five times a week. I love going to the gym. I feel amazing when I walk out of the gym after a great work out. Today was different. Today I left the gym with two feelings that I’ll never forget. Unfortunately, one of those feelings was anger. Let me explain…

By no means am I the most overweight or out of shape dude in the gym. On the flip side, I am by no means the most fit guy there. I fall somewhere in the middle. As I was leaving the gym today, they had a free sample booth setup (think Costco) with some after workout drink they are trying to promote. They even had one of the fit trainers there answering questions. I stop to survey the scene and I notice three fitter looking guys go by the sample table and the trainer engages them, almost goes out of his way, in a conversation about the product and how it will help. They take the sample and leave. As I’m approaching the table, which is near the door, the trainer looks at me and says “have a good night”. No conversation about the product, no attempt to tell me its benefits and no where near an attempt to hand me a sample.I should have picked up a sample and tried it out, but my mind was racing at this point. I was fired up. I left with anger and a bad attitude.

As I’m walking to my car, I tweet:

After my anger subsided, I realized what the guy actually did. Which is the second thing I left the gym with…motivation. This guy gave me a kick in the butt. He didn’t do it out of goodwill, hes an ass. I chose to let him give it to me. But then an amazing thing happened, which kicked up the motivation even more. I received two replies to my tweet:

These two tweets made my day, but they did much more than that. They show what the true weight loss community is all about. We’re all in this together. The guy at the gym doesn’t get it.

There is a great lesson I’ve learned in all of this; don’t let anyone hold you down or stop you from trying to achieve and that there are amazing people out there, in the same place you are, who are there to support you and want to see you succeed. If you feel down about losing weight, if you need some motivation to get on track, please contact me. I am here for you…you are not alone.

A very heartfelt thanks go to Chris and Miller. You have no idea what those tweets mean to me.