Shaq's Big Challenge - Hitting Close To Home

I'm 30 years old. A year ago, I weighed 379 pounds. Today, I weigh in at 280.5 - 98.5 pounds less than I did last July. I'll talk about that in the next blog - but right now, I want to talk about a show on TV that every single person in this country should watch.

Shaq's Big Challenge is shown on ABC on Tuesday nights. It's a show about weight loss, but it's not some "Biggest Loser" competition type of show where the winner makes money. It's not a bunch of adults getting into a challenge where they have to vote each other off the show. This is the most pure show on TV - and for someone who has been battling weight his entire adult life, this thing hits home to me.

It's hard to explain, but to give you an idea about this show, I just spent the last hour watching this show on my DVR, and my eyes were welling up almost the entire show. You know that feeling you get when you are so moved that your body tightens up, and your eyes begin to water? It hit me pretty hard, and this is a show that has done that to me since I started watching the first episode.

The idea of the show is, there's 6 kids - all of which were in the obese category. I'm talking about a 14 year old who weighed 285. I'm talking about kids whose self esteem were non-existent, and they were afraid to show their faces. They were interviewing a kid that looked right into the camera and said that he'd felt like committing suicide because he felt so lost.

And it's not rehearsed. You can just tell how authentic it is. Shaq, his trainer, and a few others (a celebrity chef and nutritionist, for example) not only work with the kids, but they go into this school system and try to create change. School lunches full of deep fried chicken nuggets, pizza and tacos - they tackle some issues that frankly, should have been addressed years ago.

This show can't be explained in a paragraph. All I can tell you is that when I see these kids, working so hard, facing the same challenges that I do every day - the temptations of food, the realization that you are losing control of your life.. hell, even the glares and looks of disgust I used to get when I was walking down the street, it all hits home. It takes me back to the feelings that I had for years. I remember as if it was only yesterday where I was working in a pizza joint, eating pizza 3-5 times a day, drinking a 12 pack of beer every day, and I broke into a sweat doing as little as tying my shoe - yet I did nothing about it. I KNEW I was dying. I KNEW that I was destroying my life. I KNEW what I looked like in the mirror. But I did nothing. And why?

Because it was a lost cause. I was alone, I intentionally ignored the problem because I was so far away from the finish line that I didn't even know one existed.

This show "gets" that. Every week I sit there and watch it, and these emotions stir in me like crazy, it's hard to explain. As I said, I spent the last hour just completely moved. I had those tears in my eyes for most of the show. Then, when you look at these kids, they're accomplishing what they need to do. They're learning what we're learning - that a support system, the right plan, and a goal is all that you need to lose the weight.

Sounds a lot like the other aspects of our life, doesn't it?

http://shaq.abc.com. If you haven't seen it, you should. Give it a chance, and get over the fact that it's a "reality show" with an NBA basketball player. It's incredibly moving if you give it a chance.

I'll do another blog now with my regular update - I just really felt that this one deserved a spot of it's own.