It’s the holiday season again and many of you have written to me asking for ways to avoid gaining extra weight. However this year I decided not to bore you with cliché holiday fitness tips. Instead I plan on sending you into the New Year with a motivational story about a friend of mine named Tim Clausen who recently stared in The Biggest Looser TV show on NBC.

Tim and I started teaching together at Selbyville Middle School about eight years ago. During this time I had the opportunity to watch Tim grow into a wonderful teacher husband and father. Unfortunately I also observed him grow in size and body weight.

When Tim and I met in 1999 he had the physique of an athlete. He was a former college baseball player and coached several sports teams at school. He stood 5’6’’ and weighed 165 pounds. I never would have guessed that his weight would become a problem later in life.

However it wasn’t long before Tim began to change. It seemed with each passing year he gained weigh. A lot of it! Tim never acted as if gaining weight bothered him. Instead he constantly made himself the butt of fat jokes to cover his depression. It soon became obvious to me that deep down in his heart Tim was disappointed in himself.

This year when Tim returned to school from summer vacation I noticed that he was much heavier than he had ever been. In fact he tipped the scales at an all time high of 268 pounds. Tim wasn’t laughing anymore. His attitude began to change as he realized the seriousness of his condition.  Every once in a while Tim would ask me how he could get himself back in shape. He also told me that he was tired of being overweight and it was time he did something about it.

A couple of weeks later Tim told me that NBC was interviewing for a new show called The Biggest Looser- the show was designed to give one person from each state the chance to compete on national TV to see who could loose the largest percentage of their body weight.  Tim said that if he made the show he would have the chance to change his life forever. All he had to do was make a video tape explaining why he felt he deserved to be chosen.

Tim got started right away. He recruited the help of a couple students and began making the tape. Within a couple of weeks he received several calls from the shows producers telling him they liked his tape and asking him more questions. The next thing I knew he was chosen to be part of the show was headed off to Hollywood, California to start filming.

Tim first day was very disappointing. Only a handful of contestants were chosen to stay at the ranch. Unfortunately he was not one of them. He was sent home to continue working out on his own with the possibility of being brought back to the show if he lost enough weight. This didn’t seem to discourage him a bit. Instead he worked harder.

It wasn’t long before I started noticing differences in Tim’s appearance. It seemed as if he lost weight every week. His clothes became baggy and his belt began to look like he barrowed it form an older brother. Tim lost so much weight that he was one of six contestants that were invited back to the show for a second chance to win 250,000 dollars. However Tim’s second appearance was short lived. He was seven pounds from away from being allowed to stay. He was eventually sent home again and didn’t appear back until the final episode on Wednesday, December 13th.

In the end Tim didn’t win any awards nor did he get the 250,000 dollars. However he did get his health and self confidence back. His weight dropped from 268 pounds to 154 pounds. The doctors that worked for the show estimated that his body fat dropped from approximately 42% to 10%. Not bad Tim! Congratulations on a job well done.

In closing I am sharing this story with my readers as a reminder that it doesn’t matter how far gone you think you are. You can always get back in shape. Don’t give up. The New Year is a great time to start over.

Tim Clausen after the Biggest Loser