As you might already know, in addition to being a personal trainer with a studio on Main Street in Boonton I’m also a motivational speaker and modern-day performing strongman. Basically, I perform feats of strength as part of a live show similar in nature to what you might have seen a hundred years ago in Vaudeville. I couple this with a motivational speech to help illustrate my speaking points.

Well anyway, a couple of years ago one of the professors at Montclair State University had asked if I would be willing to present for her class. So I came to present and that is actually where these pictures were taken.

So the professor and I had gotten to talking and I had given her a copy of my book. She was either in the final stages of publishing her book or had already published it…I can’t remember which to be honest.

The book is called Diary of a Fat Girl, losing 140lbs the hard way and is a free kindle download.

I downloaded it, and read a bunch of it and found it valuable because it gives me insight into the struggles of the very same people I’m trying to help. Actually I would think all personal trainers who help people to lose weight would gain benefit from reading it.

In the book she basically shares her thoughts and experiences following weight loss surgery. The opening introduction she says she’s not recommending for or against it, just sharing her experience.

Having read it, I’d like to take a moment to recommend against it, unless it is your absolute last resort. Yes it will help but I think a lot of people think of weight loss surgery as being a magic pill.

It’s not. There are no magic pills.

As a general rule if you can avoid going under the knife you should. You can never be “uncut” after all, and having read her struggles, though she lost a lot of weight, it was no picnic.

And I don’t think doctors should recommend it as a first course, for one because they only have a 33% success rate. That’s not very high considering everything you have to go through.

Second, healthy nutrition and proper exercise have produced more success stories in terms of losing weight than any other way of doing it. And in addition to losing weight, you’ll feel stronger, you’ll be able to move better and all the things that come with doing it the good ole fashioned way.

So you go and type in “best workouts for weight loss” or something to that effect and a ton of results come up. You feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of choices (the paradox of choice), and in doing so you end up possibly even more frustrated than when you started.

So what do you do? Something. Just pick one thing and try it out and see how you do.

But better than that would be to find a system that systematically produces the results you are looking for with people that are like you. Even better if you can find a coach that can guide you, provide feedback, and give you support along the way. A good coach/personal trainer should be able to prevent you from having that lost and alone feeling.

Losing weight isn’t easy. There are going to be times when you are like “ugh I don’t really want to do this.” Just hang in there because I promise it’ll be worth it when you look at the new you in the mirror.

It’s not the new you though, it’s the real you, unblocked, uncovered and ready to rock.

Eric Moss is a world-record-holding professional performing strongman, author, motivational speaker, and personal trainer. In the tradition of the strongmen during the turn of the century, he performs feats of strength such as bending steel and breaking chains as part of a show and speaks on goal achievement for corporations, nonprofits, government as well as for schools and universities. His exclusive personal training studio is located on Main Street in Boonton New Jersey, is close to Mountain Lakes, Denville, and Parsippany New Jersey.