My city’s NBC affiliate did a wonderful job in profiling my transformation from fat to fit, underscoring the importance of change needing to occur from the inside out.  However, they left out a crucial element to my story:  the name of the ‘long-distance mentor’ who helped me out of the hole.  So here it is, officially: 

I’ve got a great story, there’s no doubt. But in between this

and this

There was this:

No one makes it out of the hole of addiction and destructive behavior on their own.  I tried various diets, gurus, self-help books, and over-the-counter bottles of speed on and off, for 20-plus years. My turning point was finding Diamond Dallas Page via a Carnie Wilson TV appearance in January 2009. He helped transform Carnie, and I knew in my gut whatever he did with her would work for me.

I don’t mean to imply that all it takes is the magic guru or mentor to make everything all better.  That’s just more dieting-mentality-delusion.  Dallas was very up front about it being a total lifestyle change from the inside out. He’s a no-nonsense kind of guy but is there in spades with support if he knows you’re owning the changes and taking them seriously.

I was ready to finally come clean about the reasons I drugged myself with food.  And therefore ready to take his suggestions about eating clean and healthy and tailor them into something that felt natural enough to live with long-term.  Giving up gluten and cow dairy have changed my body like nothing else.  I was also ready to get off the chaise lounge and pop Dallas’s YRG DVD’s into the VCR.  Even at 345 pounds I was able to modify the moves he created of mixed martial arts, resistance training, and cardio to align with my ability at the time.   http://www.yrgfitness.com/

During that first year especially, he and Terri Lange (his first YRG pupil) guided me through the choppy waters of withdrawals from the foods I’d become addicted to over the years.  Without their guidance, I would not have had the focus or the information to make it out of the woods. 

Since that is the core thread of truth in my transformation story, I feel compelled to let the world know what got clipped in the editing room last week:  There would be no dramatic ‘woman loses 170-pounds’ story without Diamond Dallas Page.  Period.  I brought willingness to the table, he provided the YRG to strengthen my body, a clean way of eating to heal my body, and the emotional rocket fuel to get me to believe it was indeed possible at a point in my life where I’d lost all hope. 

You’re the man DDP…and you always will be.