Making to-do lists and planning to do something makes you look busy, but it certainly doesn’t make you productive.  You know what you’ve accomplished at the end of the day if all you’ve done is planned to do something?

Absolutely nothing.

Ready to count calories to lose weight? Know what gym you want to join?  Great.  Have a membership already?  Even better.  Have a new pair of running shoes and a couple pairs of Under Armour shirts to go with them, along with a fancy new iPod?

Sounds like you’re ready to go.  But you’ve got to actually go to start moving.

Don’t fall into the illusion of being busy all the time, only to get very little done at the end of the day.  It doesn’t matter how many good intentions you have or how you’ve spent so much time planning to do something (lose weight, go back to school, stop smoking, etc) — unless you’ve actually started, you’ve accomplished nothing.

Time is a terrible thing to waste.  The clock is ticking.

Losing weight ain’t an easy thing to do.

Sure, counting calories isn’t hard.  But try doing it every day.  Try counting calories as you go out for Mexican with your co-workers for lunch Tuesday, then resume counting calories later on that night at your niece’s birthday party.  Mmm, I heard there will be pizza, cake, and ice cream all for the taking.  Delicious!  After the party, go home and force yourself to go to sleep early and wake up in the morning to hit the gym at 5 AM.

Do the same on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings too.  Then, start over again on Monday and with another 10-50 weeks you’ll be at your goal weight.

The information on how to lose weight is out there.  I’ve talked about it so many times before — eat less and move more.  Don’t tell me it’s not that simple.  Losing weight is really that simple.  If you fail at doing it and move onto something else, some other weight loss product or formula, you’re just giving yourself an easy way out.  You’re looking for another trick, another shortcut, whether it be a diet, gimmick, or fad.

You want to lose weight?  Go earn it.  Get to work.  You know what you need to do. Will it be hard?  Yes.  Most will fail — few will succeed.  I failed a dozen times before I succeeded once and for all.  It will be one of the hardest things you’ve ever done.

But it’ll also be one of the greatest.

My life isn’t very exciting.

I wake up between 4:30 and 5 and practically roll over and I’m in the gym.  Seriously, my hair is a mess in the mornings at the gym.  After a solid hourlong workout I’ll come home and shower, eat breakfast, and go to work.  About eight hours later I’ll come home from work. Then, it’s onto dinner and family time. If it’s Tuesday or Thursday, I’ll go to the gym for 90 minutes or so after dinner for The Biggest Loser training.

Right before bed some nights, I’ll have a little bit of “me” time.

Is there anything I listed above that makes you think I’d have something to write a book about?  Of course not.  I’m a nobody.  But, I’m a nobody that lost 150 pounds by eating normal foods.  I lost 100 of those pounds in the first six months.  I’m you.  And I didn’t follow a fad or gimmick to lose 150 pounds (a whole person!), nor I did spend money following a worthless diet.  I still have a social life.  I’ll have BBQ over the weekend with the family for the 4th still be on my “diet” — guilt free.

I followed a roadmap that everybody can follow.  It’s not exclusive to me or because of my gender, age, or personal/financial resources.  I’m not special, nor did I acquire some secret formula to weight loss — it just clicked one day.

My book will hopefully make it click for everyone else, too.  Get ready, it’s coming.

I love it when the way to lose weight “clicks” for somebody like it clicked for me.

I’ve advised plenty of people (mainly those I know locally) on how to lose weight, and most of them have done been able to lose weight and keep it off as of today.  Most folks are extremely hesitant in my whole “eat less, move more” mantra at first because they’ve been taught over their entire life that the food they eat while they’re losing weight has to taste terrible, or that they have to spend money to lose weight.

Neither is obviously the case with the exception of an optional gym membership.

Losing a lot of weight is a lot like winning the lottery.  Countless people try to do both, but very few ever succeed.  I think once you do, though, you don’t necessary have a responsibility to pay it forward and help others do the same — but it’d be nice.

I don’t really care about being called nice, but I do want to help.  I remember what it was like 100+ pounds overweight, and I’d like to help people come to the other side.

Helping others is just another one of the countless benefits of losing weight.

It doesn’t how matter how strong of a person you are when you’re grossly overweight, you can never be fully confident in yourself until you lose weight.

Bold statement, eh?  Don’t get offended, it’s true.

You can be the most educated, richest, best prepared and best looking 250, 300+ pound person in the world, but until you have the ability to walk into any Denny’s in America and sit down at a table, it’s hard to be confident in yourself.

Living life obese was stressful as I daily had to ask myself questions like “Will I fit?” or “Can I find my size?” or “Am I going to break this?” when I sat down on a chair I’d yet to sit down on before.  My size was an obstacle that I had to maneuver around.

It’s not that way anymore.

Today, a friend can call me up at any given moment and ask me to do any random thing and I know size won’t be an issue.  If someone called me today and asked me to go to Denny’s, I could say yes without hesitation (granted, I’d probably pick another restaurant).   At 344 pounds, I would have to hesitate and ponder if I’ve ever been there before, the structural integrity of the chairs, the width of the booths, and how hot they kept the restaurant (due to being very prone to sweating when I was obese).

Benefit number 851 of losing weight is more confidence.  A lot more confidence.