Peter Shankman is not quite (yet) a household name, but he is a well known and successful entrepreneur, author, speaker, and worldwide connector. Peter is recognized worldwide for radically new ways of thinking about Social Media, PR, marketing, advertising, creativity, and customer service.
In 2011 Peter embarked on a year long challenge to reach 10% body fat from an obese starting point. While he fell slightly short of the ultimate goal, he more than halved his body fat and ended up around 14%, gained muscle and strength, dropped clothing sizes, and felt great!
He chronicled the journey on a website he created A Year to Ten Percent, where he also posted photos of every single thing he ate all year. The link above takes you to the year end wrap up. This week Peter Shankman wrote “When the problem is you” on his business blog about hitting rock bottom. Peter took his eye off the ultimate prize trifecta..being healthy, feeling fit & looking fabulous. Sadly, his hard work and results have all slipped away this year.
Peter’s story has been on my mind a lot this week. Three things about his cautionary tale, “When the Problem is You”…
-Big thanks and bravo to Peter Shankman for writing this post and sharing his story. It takes guts to publicly say “I’ve screwed up” and even harder to admit to yourself that it is your own damn fault! Without a NO EXCUSES mindset there will be NO RESULTS!
-Reading his story scares the crap out of me! I know it can happen and that it usually does, 90-95% of people fail to maintain their weight loss. (I’m glad I didn’t know the statistics when I started.) How can all the hard work and dedication slip away…and so quickly? When I bump into people on the street, they actually say things to me like, “Oh my, you haven’t gained the weight back yet?”. They have been saying this from the start. Huh? Hopefully my fear of slipping, will keep me on my toes and away from the cliff.
– Some commenters try to make Peter Shankman feel better by saying things like “don’t be so hard on yourself”, “you are successful in every other way”, “set more realistic goals”, basically “settle for less”. I say BULLSHIT! Look at the guy in the photo above. Why should he settle for less? I bet he feels awesome and confident in that moment. He writes that he does not feel great now that he has regained the weight, or when he steps onstage, feeling fat and heavy! Please stop trying to make people feel okay about being overweight. And if you think daily workouts and clean eating are time consuming, as Peter writes, so is being fat! (I used to wonder what I would do with all the spare time I would have when I wasn’t busy being fat. An hour a day spent hitting the weights is time better spent!)
Dear Peter, this is a great picture of you! No way should you settle for less. I always say it is a great goal not try to look as good as someone else, celeb etc., but to strive to look as good as our own profile pictures:-) I wish you all the success in the world as you kick your own ass and restart! I’m not going to give you any advice, because those commenters are even more annoying than the people trying to talk you out of wanting it, but I’m right here in it fighting the fight every day too, oh and of course squats cure everything, but this you already know:-)
Success, Suzy
