Finished Being Fat

Learning to finish is a rare talent. The world is full of people who start -- especially at this time of year. My friend Betsy Schow has written a book about her own journey cutting her weight in half by learning how to finish. What I love about this book is the humor and voice. She never lectures. She doesn't take herself too seriously. But she is serious about learning to be a finisher.

Finished being Fat takes us on Betsy's accidental adventure that started out as yet another attempt to get rid of the weight around her middle, but snowballed into a year of changing her life, marriage and the way she raises her kids. While achieving a bucket list of impossible dreams on the side.

Whether your goal is losing weight, running a marathon, cleaning out the basement, or all of the above, this book will teach you how to achieve more than you ever thought possible without sacrificing your sanity or sense of humor.

Now let's hear from Betsy herself: 

"Let’s dispense with the shameless plugs at the start shall we? Buy my book, change your life, and learn to finish. Visit me at www.betsyschow.com to get your own free calorie budget and link to a beginner’s yoga routine. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Deseret Book and Seagull Book.

"Now onto the good stuff. During my adventure I learned my big fat problem had a whole lot less to do with being, well, big and fat, and more to do with the incredibly loud voice that screamed in the back of my head. As I was losing weight it would say, “Give up. You know you’re going to get fat again.” As I would write it would say, “Give up. You know no one is ever going to pay to read anything you’ve written.” After hearing that little voice for years, I believed it without question. I trusted that voice to be absolutely correct, so I did what it said and I gave up. On everything.

"Yes, that voice was just me, and it kept me from everything I truly wanted in life. I could, and had battled the pudge countless times in the past. But it was never permanent because of that nagging little demon that sat on my shoulder telling me what a loser I was. Some people, like Caleb, are born with a little cheerleader in their head that screams, “Look out, get the heck out of my way” the rest of us get the heckler that says, “You suck”. If I wanted to move beyond the ghosts of past failures, I had to kill off the voice and learn to finish what I started.

"Whether you are trying to write and publish your first book, working on losing weight for good, or just want to do something that seems impossible in your life - here are a few methods to get rid of the negative nagger in your brain.

Murder most foul
Use all of your creative juices and kill off the boogeyman in your head. Drown it, clobber it, attack it with a horde of demonic geese - just visualize you conquering your worst enemy ... you.

Tune it out
If it dares pop up again while you’re writing or running, or doing some other equally important thing to get get to your dream, then start singing showtunes. Okay, not really. But I’ve found if I’m listening to music or actively speaking or singing then I can’t listen to the little voice and all it’s yuckiness.

Change the conversation
If you hear something enough, you start to believe it. So start hearing good stuff instead of bad. Don’t go fishing for compliments to all our friends, do it yourself. Self affirmations, though cheesy and somewhat dorky, actually work. Some people go to the mirror and say, “Hey good looking”. I personally would say to myself, whenever I as doing something hard or scary, “You can do it, you’re awesome and you never give up”. After a while, I started to believe it.

Put up or shut up
This is the be all end all. Prove the stupid voice wrong. Everyday. Commit yourself to a life of finishing and give up being a quitter. Each thing you finish will build into a little mountain of proof you can show yourself. When the little voice says, “You can’t” point to the finishes you’re piling up and say, “I can. I did.” Every deadline you make, every race you finish, every day you survive - count them up and give yourself credit.

Shutting out the voice was just one of the things I learned on my journey. But now that I have, I’ve kept the 75 pounds off for almost 2 years now. Within a year I managed to run 2 marathons, 5 halfs, write 3 books (and sign contracts for them), and come to find a peace with who I am.  I can do anything I set out to do as long as I keep moving forward and never give up again.

I am a finisher.
Are you?