Sally is a 61 year old recent breast cancer survivor with a long history of serious weight problems. She is one of the sweetest people you could ever meet and last night she gave me an enormous gift.
Jason Merson and I were conducting the final night of our “Biggest Loser (Winner)” contest in conjunction with The Spa at Roops Mill. This was a 12 week program focused on teaching the principles of managing weight through learning to live a healthy lifestyle. Each week this group of women weighed in, shared there challenges and then either Jason or I did an educational segment. It was an awesome experience for all of us. Many of the women lost more than 5% of their body weight without dieting and all of them shared how much better they felt and the difference it was already making in their lives and the lives of their family.
A little over a month ago (half way through the program) Sally shared a story that warmed everyone’s heart. Every year Sally and her husband go shopping at a large outlet store for their grandchildren. There are two children’s stores located at opposite ends of the outlet campus. Each year they shop at one store, then get in their car and drive to the other end of the campus so they can shop at the other store. They do this because Sally cannot physically handle walking from one end of the outlets to the other. On this occasion Sally shopped at the one store and then walked to the other end and shopped there. When she told us how in the middle of the walk she was saying to her husband “I’m doing it! I’m actually walking the whole way and I feel fine!” She ended up walking around the whole day! All of us had tears in our eyes. It just doesn’t get better than that…or so I thought until last night.
Last night as we were wrapping up and everyone was about to leave, Sally (she lost 18 pounds) came up to me and said “I want to give you a hug. You guys changed my life. I came here only as support for my sister. I have failed so many times that I didn’t expect to have any results, but you guys changed my life. I feel so much better.” To see the look in her eyes and feel the truth of what she was saying was incredible. This is what the Million Lives Team is all about. Helping people make the changes to live a better life. Thank you Sally for the enormous blessing you gave me.
