What If You Were Thin?

We gotta turn back the hands of time to the year 2000. After getting use to living in Japan for 7 years, I came back to the US for college and relearned some pretty bad habits.

I re-learned the fun of having 24/7 access to junk food, drive-thru windows, and all-you-can-eat buffets.

I didn’t put on the “freshman 15″. I put on the “freshman 50″!

When the dust settled and I looked around at my life, I had 2 full time jobs, 3 children, a failed marriage, and I WAS FAT. I weighed over 210 pounds! Now I was up to 80 pounds gained, and absolutely miserable.

I was stressed to the gills. I ate whenever I could find the time. And ‘exercise’ was the act of getting in and out of the car to get to each job.

I couldn’t drive down the street without going through a Drive-Thru first.
But then I felt guilty about getting the cheeseburger.
But I couldn’t waste the burger since I’d already paid for it.
But by the time I got around to eating it, I hadn’t even driven out of the parking lot and all I had left was an empty wrapper and the smell of fries left in the car.

I ate the burger so fast (usually in 3-4 bites max) that I didn’t even remember what it tasted like!

I felt like I had no control when it came to food. I got to where I cried when I ate because I couldn’t slow down enough to enjoy what I was eating. Guilt wracked my entire being on a daily basis!

I looked in the mirror and thought, “I use to be pretty. Now I’m so fat!” I sweated ALL the time – even just walking outside to get something out of the car! Don’t believe me? Look at all my “before” pictures! I’m sweating and red-faced and I’m INDOORS!

It took a lecture I gave at a local church about my time in Japan to remind me of a very important lesson I’d learned at the age of 15:

How Toyota Helped Me Lose Almost 80 Pounds!

It was 1990 and I’d been in Japan for about 3 years. At 15 years old, I’d gotten use to riding the train an hour to school each day. I’d grown accustomed to speaking Japanese (even though English was by far my best subject). I’d even grown to enjoy eating most Japanese cuisine!

I was pretty certain that life couldn’t get any better than it was for me right then and there. That’s when I got the phone call from my friend Susan.

Susan, a daughter of missionary parents like I was, had been born in Japan shortly after her parents’ arrival in the country. Her fluency in Japanese got her all the best jobs!

She taught English to IBM and Toyota executives and the money she spent on a weekly basis was more than I’d see in 6 months!

One day the phone rang. It was Susan. She’d gotten a much COOLER job working at Tokyo Disneyland! OOH – THE ENVY!

But she wasn’t calling to gloat. Susan was calling ME to ask if I wanted to take over her teaching job at Toyota, teaching the executives how to speak English!

I think I said ‘yes’ faster than any winner on The Bachelor ever could!

I showed up for my first day excited. I couldn’t wait to show those ‘suits’ how much I could teach them! But what surprised me was what they taught me!

I gained access to touring one of the largest car manufacturers in the world.

What I learned in that factory changed my life forever.

I learned “kaizen”. The art of ‘good change’.

You see, the Toyota execs applied the art of kaizen to everything they did in life. From learning English to building a great automobile.

Kaizen was an art that had been practiced by the Japanese for centuries! The “suits” at Toyota explained that kaizen could be used to change anything, anytime, anywhere, FOREVER if you just knew the secret to making it happen.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but learning kaizen from one of the world’s largest and most respected car companies would benefit me greatly in years to come!

 Click the button at the top marked “Lose Weight Now” to read more about how the Kaizen Program will work for you (and get a FREE chapter!)

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