Posted on 01/01/2006 8:12:14 AM PST by Ninian Dryhope
Until Jim Bishop shows off his "before" pictures, his story is almost impossible to believe. Before was the summer of 2003: 31 years old, 600 pounds, a constant diet of junk, smoking, drinking, barely able to move.
"I was heading for death," Bishop says. "I became a recluse. I didn't want to see anybody, and I didn't want anybody to see me."
Now he's stabilized at 220, and he got there the old-fashioned way — no surgery, no drugs, no shortcuts.
Bishop, a data-security consultant who lives in Garland, says he was in a "contemplative state" for about a year before he finally acted.
"I was having difficulty taking care of myself, things like just getting in and out of the shower," he says. "One day I literally couldn't get my pants off because my calves were too swollen.
"I said, 'This is it.' I couldn't live another day like that."
He could hardly walk. So he got down on the floor, put his feet on the couch and did 20 crunches. The next day he did 25 and the day after that, 30.
"I did all that I could do, and I decided that maybe tomorrow I could do a little more," he says.
Feeling better Meanwhile, he swore off fast food, fried food, cigarettes and alcohol.
"I didn't make a rule about counting calories," Bishop says.
"I just ate a lot of vegetables and balanced meals. I never went hungry, but I had to teach myself to eat three meals a day, not one big meal that never ended."
He felt better immediately, he says, "and that inspired me. I didn't set out to lose 400 pounds in two years. My initial goal was just to back away from the edge."
He bought an exercise bike for the garage, where he pushed himself to do more calisthenics. After nine months, he started walking, then running.
All along the way were little milestones: friends and family noticing a change, a conversation on the stairs without becoming breathless, fitting into a button-down shirt.
"The healthier I got, the more I could work out," Bishop says. "The more I could work out, the healthier I got."
After six months he was down to about 430.
"I had set short-term goals," he says. "But then I started thinking, that was Phase One. I'm not just backing away from the edge anymore. Let's see what my body can do."
'A gym rat' He joined a Bally's health club. He took a course at the Cooper Institute to become a certified fitness specialist.
He trolled the Internet for different workout regimens that turned fat into muscle.
"I became a gym rat," he says. "When I'm sick or I tweak an ankle and I don't work out, it drives me nuts."
At 350, the needle on the beam scale (where you slide the weights across the top) didn't automatically plop to the bottom anymore.
By the start of 2005 he was at less than 300. By late summer he hit his current weight of 220, give or take a few pounds.
Along the way he's become an eloquent advocate for getting healthy and fit, speaking at area churches and encouraging fellow gym rats.
His immediate plans include a New Year's Eve wedding to Robin Dove, who stuck with him, literally, through thick and thin.
Dove, who has known Bishop for eight years, says she was concerned about the health dangers of obesity but didn't pressure him to lose weight.
"I had to let him find his own way," Dove says. "If I would have told him, I'd have been just another person nagging him. The entire time, I knew what he could be, and that's what kept me with him."
Although he's finishing a master's degree in business at the University of Dallas, Bishop thinks his future may lie in using his transformation to help others.
"People come up to me and say I've inspired them," he says. "That's humbling, but it's not about me.
"I take a spiritual view of the process. What I was doing wasn't living, it was dying. I really think God had better plans for me."
But he also knows that any encouragement from an outsider can only do so much.
"You have to flip the switch," Bishop says. "It has to be from within, and it has to be real. But you can do it."
Tell your friend that he has new friends here at FreeRepublic who admire him greatly! Hope he will consider checking us out, if he hasnt already! Amom and I were looking at his web page together and were oooooohing and ahhhhhhing over his delegate credentials and were hoping he is a Freeper!
Will do, once the honeymoon stuff dies down. Heh.
Anyway, I think he really wants to motivate people. He sees people who are massively overweight and wants to help them. He realizes what he did won't be easy for everyone, but he wants to at least help them to find a way to do it. He's just has the right kind of attitude, though. He decided to quit smoking because it was starting to affect his singing, so he just quit cold. He didn't taper off, didn't sneak any on the side. He just said, "That's it." I don't think that's the way most of us operate. I can't even go a day on my "no more Cokes" plan, and that stuff's not even physically addicting!
Jim is strong in his Christian and conservative beliefs, and I have to think that has been a big part of being able to accomplish this.
"It's really tough to burn off calories by exercise"
That is true, but the body is the perfect accountant. It takes LOTS of calories to maintain 600 pounds. If a person cuts calories AND expends them as well, by exercise, on top of the expense of calories one burns by moving around 600 pounds, it is entirely possible for Jim to have sustained the levels of loss he exhibited.
I don't know if he is an actual freeper or not, but he is aware of the place and would definitely fit in. I'll give him an invite.
It's really tough to burn off calories by exercise
Exercise must have some other effect such as a change in metabolism. 2005 was a really good year for me. I've been doing squats and pushups, and not that many of them. I average less than five minutes a day, yet my clothes are considerably looser, and I get a lot of compliments. My diet is the same as always. If anything I eat a bit more than I used to.
Wow! He looks like a really good, happy guy too.
For those interested, here's another guy who is after the same goal, but with a different approach:
http://www.thefatmanwalking.com/
He's walking across the continent. He started out in Ocanside, CA, and is now in St. Louis, MO.
How was the wedding??? Do you have any pictures???
Thanks, Rastus! I know people here would love to see him participate!
Thanks for the link. Wishing him well!
My mom lost 90 pounds in 3 months. She did it by eating only one hot-fudge sundae a day (Dairy Queen), doing farm work and taking vitamins. In the following 5 months, she began to eat "normal" foods and she dropped another 30 pounds. She went from 250 to 130.
Thanks, he's absolutely adorable!
Burn a lot of calories just carrying around that weight.
I realize that I'm not doing his book justice here with my very simplistic explanation. Better to read it for yourself. In any case, I recommitted to this on Friday and have already dumped 3.5 pounds. Of course, I don't expect that rate to continue but past experience has shown me I can at times go through periods of losing a pound a day. And I'm not starving myself by any means.
NO! We're not!
I'm able to do *some things*, but there is no way I can do aerobics. Drs still don't know why, but after a week of aerobic exercise my body completely collapses. (Right now, the popular theory is that my thyroid is screwed up. Before that, hypokalemic periodic paralysis. Before that, MS. Before that, mono. Before that, insane. Before that, "girl troubles".) I collapse, will become paralysed, BP drops into the shock range, turn white, vomit, sometimes seizure. It's ugly.
I found that my body responds to very little exercise spread out over the day just fine. I lift cans of soup while watching TV, jiggle my feet constantly, take extra steps when I do housework. I try to add just a little more effort in the normal things I do. Flex my muscles harder when I pick things up off the floor, stretch and hold for a few seconds when I stand up. But when I feel "the sickness" I rest.
It doesn't sound like much, but it really does help more than you can imagine. I'm a little overweight, but I don't look bad. I still have all the proper "girl" curves and no rolls.
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