Response to Coach Albert's comments

First off let me just say that I have nothing but love and gratitude for Coach Albert. When I was first starting out on my weight loss journey he was the first person to consistently encourage me in my efforts, and for two weeks he was my constant companion in my struggles to lose weight. So I was a little dismayed by a recent comment that he wrote on one of my articles. I will post it here for you to see.

  “I haven't stopped by your hubs for some time, FM because frankly your self pity was turning me off and my advice seemed to go unheeded. This one caught my eye though. Let me preface with the fact that I tried to give you encouragement early on in your quest for fitness, and was met with obstinate self-pity. Well as a fitness professional that has worked in the industry for almost 20 years and seen it grow and change in that time, I resent your grouping all fitness workers in as "Idiots". I can tell you that you haven't seen ANYTHING. Just 20 years ago fitness "pro's" consisted of your local muscle man who would charge you whatever he wanted and probably hurt you in the process. Nowadays you have to invest thousands of dollars in your credentials and keep investing in continuing education before a reputable health club will even talk to you. In 1989 I joined a gym in San Diego that will go unnamed but suffice to say that the name on the sign was a very famous one, after 6 months, the gym closed its doors and continued charging my account. So i've seen the sleazy places! According to your article you haven't even set foot in one and you would condemn them all? How much research have you done on the facilities in your area?

The truth of the matter is, there are plenty of fitness facilities out there for those with a low budget. How about the YMCA or 24 hour Fitness (although I have never worked for them because they pay their trainers next to nothing.) You rail against the "sleaze" industry. How about the sleaze merchants who marketed to you the fattening foods that got you where you are now? And as I stated before, you don't need a gym to exercise. You need the will and a working set of limbs. You shouldn't be looking at signing up for a gym anyway if your unemployed! Get in reasonable shape, get a job, then if it's in your budget, you can join a gym. That's all I'm going to say”.

I understand where he is coming from, he works in the health fitness business and I should not be maligning the whole industry because of my frustration in trying to find out a simple answer to how much something costs. I’m sure there are a few reputable honest individuals who work in the industry and I hope he is counted amongst those rare gems. But I find it difficult to understand why it’s so hard to determine how much something is going to set you back before you have to encounter a high pressured salesman, it isn’t the iron clad contracts which is a whole other issue it’s the deceptions and secrecy which makes a business sleazy, in my opinion, and if they were only a little more upfront and honest I think places would get a lot more business, and by my voicing the frustrations that I’ve encountered perhaps in some small way I might bring about some change.

What I do take some offence to is the statement that I’m being too self pitying. For the most part I think that I’ve been pretty upbeat, I do have my moments self doubt, depression, and difficulties, and I think it’s important to write about the struggles as well as the triumphs, but out of the 133 hubs which I’ve written I doubt that more then 20 have been negative or self commiserating. And if memory serves correctly (and it does because I went back and checked) you stopped writing comments when I tried to explain that you were suggesting activities that I was incapable of doing at that time. ( in my mind you were suggesting that I jog around the park, when I could barely climb out of bed, or waddle from my car to a church pew) But when I stood up for myself and tried to explain my physical capabilities I guess you took that as self pitying. I tried to explain that I have a process, and for the most part my process has worked fantastically, I set out to lose 100lbs in the first 90 days and I did that plus 1 or 2 more. How many of your clients can say the same? What I do is working for me. You see I’ve done the exercise bit and I’ve done the fasting bit, both times I lost around 100lbs, the trouble is that when I lost the 100lbs exercising it took 6 years, and now both times that I’ve done the fasting bit it only took 3 months, was I in better shape when I exercised? Hell yes! But I didn’t have 6 years; I thought I only had 3 months until my unemployment was going to run out, I had to do something quick. Now I don’t know what your experience is with people on prolonged fasts trying to live on 500 calories a day, but physical exertion, body recovery time, and the dangers of falling all have to be monitored and controlled, and I know that it’s difficult to suggest something across the country and having never meet the individual, it might seem like self pity when I was reluctant to incorporate your suggestions, but understand that I  know what I’m doing here, I know how to lose the weight, I know how to get back into shape. That does not mean that I do not relish companionship along the way, many individuals have walked with me, and have kept me company, but as is the nature of life, their travels often depart from my own, I am saddened to think that it was my disposition that drove you away and not just your own journey.

But as I stated in my bio

“this blog is about the difficulties in my life, the struggle with weight loss and unemployment, the frustrations with being an obese man in a thin culture, My pain, my sorrows, my life.

And maybe some of my joys.

If you walk with me along my journey I thank you for your company

If you berate me I will defend myself

For the value of a man should not determined by the size of his girth, but the strength of his character, and the kindness of his heart.”

I wish you well in your own journey, and thank you for your companionship for the short time you traveled with me.

Peace be with you

FM