The 50 Million Pound Blog

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I heard of The Challenge listening to the Tom Joyner Morning Show and watching Celebrity Fit Club. 

I took a look and signed up because my wife recently gave birth to our daughter Kaitlin and she talks to me all the time about getting in shape so I can be around for my family. What's better motivation than that? 

My father has high blood pressure and has recently turned 60, its great to have him around.  I have a great family and I want to be around many years to leave memories of good times with my child thru my life as my father has planted in my life. 

I am loosing weight for love; for the love of my wife, my parents, my friends and most importantly my daughter. Being a father is the most significant thing I have done thru the grace of GOD and I want to get healthy enough to be here to raise my baby girl up to an upstanding woman someday. And, I want to stay attractive to my beautiful wife. 

I want to stay helpful to my parents as they age and stay active with my two sisters and my friends. 

In Feb. I was 313 pounds, I started a weight lost competition at my job (where I am on the recreation comittee). We have weekly checks on progress and prizes for the most weight lost with an overall winner at the end of a 3 month period, then it begins again.  Its sponsored by the company and its motivational. 

As of April 14th I am down to 280 pounds and I and my goal is the get down to 220 pounds. 

I watch what I eat and cut out the sweets and junk food and grill everything on the gas grill my wife got me for Christmas. I stay active playing with my daughter everday and taking her for walks in her stroller. 

Wish me luck.

Click here to submit your story and be featured on our site!

Dr. Ian shared the story behind the letter below this morning on the Steve Harvey Morning Show. Craig's story demonstrates the powerful influence of friendship.

Enjoy, and please allow the words of Craig's story to encourage you as they have us and many others.

----------------------- 

Michael,

I just want to drop you a quick line to thank you, State Farm and The 50 Million Pound Challenge for changing my life forever, as of today I have lost over 198 pounds and I feel great! 

What do you do when you’re going the wrong way?  You TURN AROUND!  As you already know because of a tragedy in 2001 my life/weight started heading in the wrong direction fast.  I ballooned to as high as 415lbs in 2003 to 406lbs in 2006.  I cared about my health because I wanted to live and I had seen better days in my college and military years, but I just couldn’t get it together on my own. 

So what does an overweight person do? 

A) Surgery
(Not an option for me when I considered the risk of not waking up) 

B) Reality show
(Almost an option but I was rejected twice after being flown to California for auditions) 

C) Believe I can, find resources & support and start applying it to my life  
Option C was for me.    

I started turning around on March 1, 2007 at 390lbs and with the support of two great friends I started eating better and working out on a regular basis.  I was motivated to lose 105lbs by August 07, but I wanted more. 

I heard Dr. Ian on the Tom Joyner Show and I knew “The 50 Million Pound Challenge” was just what I needed – 24 hr info, support and motivation when friends aren’t around.  But, I needed one more friends to help me out and that was you! 

Mike, you and State Farm provided “The 50 Million Pound Challenge” kit that has kept me going on the road to a better me.  On August 6, 2007, I joined the Challenge (praisehim3571914) at 285lbs and I started visiting the internet site 3-4 times a week to update my progress, get tips and check out the success stories.

I have been and continue to be encouraged by you, State Farm and “The 50 Million Pound Challenge” to make wise decisions and apply the lessons learned going forward to maintain my transformation.  I hope someone can find inspiration from my story and pictures to” Turn Around” and move their life into a healthy direction.

Michael as a friend and State Farm agent you are awesome, thank you for making the difference in the lives of so many people.

Sincerely,
Craig Nash 

The Challenge is Growing!
JET/Ebony Magazines

Dear Challenger,

I wanted to personally share another accomplishment that we have all hit together!  This week go to your local newsstand and pick up the new issues of JET and Ebony magazines.  Both magazines feature great stories about The Challenge. 

In JET, Patti LaBelle—a true Challenge champion—and I talk about The Challenge and what it takes to make healthier choices. 

In Ebony, there are 5 families/individuals who are part of The Challenge and who we’ll be following in the magazine and online for the next 6 months.  We are going to share their stories with you through updates and their blogs and future articles. 

This is a great way for us to showcase the hard work and dedication that all of us are putting forth to successfully lose weight and become healthier. 

Tell all of your family and friends to pick up a copy of both magazines.  By doing this we will show the decision makers that health and wellness are important to African Americans.  This is critical. 

The more we demonstrate the importance of the issue, the more others will listen and help champion our cause. 

I’m so proud of all of you.  Remember to get family members, friends, and co-workers to sign up at 50millionpounds.com. 

And if you haven’t been back in a while to update your weight loss, please click here to sign in and do so as we can only count the weight loss that has been logged in. 

We are almost at 2.2 million pounds and we’re going strong.  Also, keep sending us your stories so that we can feature you on the homepage or maybe in a future issue of JET. 

We can do it!  CHALLENGE YOURSELF NOW!

Yours in The Challenge,
Dr. Ian-

That's right - LeBron James is teaming up with Dr. Ian and The Challenge!

Live in Cleveland? The Challenge is coming to The Q Arena on Wednesday, June 18... click here for details to join us! 

King James, Dr. Ian, the Mayor's office, employees and residents are all coming together to let the nation know that Cleveland is serious about reversing negative health trends. So, they are taking the lead and committing to truly living by getting fit and losing weight.

We'll also be joined by Tahira Davis--one of our previous Featured Challengers. Click here to read her story.  

Join LeBron on Cleveland's Challenge Team:

The Challenge is about a community coming together to change and save lives from being claimed by being overweight or obese. So, LeBron has started a Challenge team for his community to give up the pounds, not the fight. It's called: Fit 4 Cleveland.

Click here to join Fit 4 Cleveland!

 Joining and being active on this team will pay off in terms of reaching your weight goals, and members of this team will be eligible to special prizes from Wednesday through October, 2008.

Stay close to the site for more details as the 18th approaches!

We want to hear your stories too!

Reporters are always looking for inspirational stories.

For example, Tahira's story has been picked up by a local newspaper.

Ebony and JET are also following some of our Challengers.

You could be next!

Click here to send us your story!