After 400# loss
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."
Thanks for the concern inspiration.
Until she hits bottom and something changes internally no amount of prodding, pushing, encouraging will work. The desire to change has to come from within. I know for me I was so resistant to truly changing until I hit the bottom regarding my weight after that there was nothing that could deter me from changing.
After 400# loss
10 years ago I went into the hospital weighing 210. 19 days later I came out weighing 165. 16 of those 19 days were without food or water, and with a stomach pump that went down my nose, and an IV. I've managed to keep the weight off all these years, and in fact, I spent the first 2 years trying not to lose any more weight (although I got down to 150). Keeping the weight off is still pretty easy. Of course.... they did take out 3 feet of small intestine while I was in the hospital :)
What a great story!! Awesome. what determination.
ping...
This is one way of losing weight...last Wed. I came down with a "stomach flu" picked up from mother-in-law during a Christmas visit. I'm still can't eat, and I've lost almost 10 pounds so far...I look at it as down payment on at least twenty more pounds I'd like to lose.
Damn! Way to go, Mr. Bishop!
Makes that 20-or-so pounds I need to drop look like a walk in the park.
He looks GREAT now!
I needed this story to inspire me. I was getting a little discouraged because I injured myself exercising and needed the motivation to get back to what I was doing to lose weight. I had slipped back into some of my bad habits because I was knocked off my schedule.
I would send it with a note of encouragement telling them you care enough to say something
This line choked me up.
What I was doing wasn't living, it was dying. I really think God had better plans for me."
because it is so true.
Post 90
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.