The Spirit Told Me What the Doctors Couldn't. Jody L. Williams

      I remember having a lunch meeting with a senior vice president and other leaders of the company. The senior vice president turned to me and said, “If there is anything that holds you back in this company, it will be the way you look. If someone can’t control their weight, they can’t control other things.”

      I felt like crawling under the table. At other times, I had others tell me that I needed to change the way I looked or dressed to be more successful. I know that this type of statement could be considered insensitive or even harassment, but I know that they were trying to be helpful and not hurtful. They knew I had the talent and ability, but in this world, the way someone looks causes people to draw conclusions about a person’s personality, intelligence, likeability and many other traits that have nothing to do with their weight. This put me at a dire disadvantage that I would have a hard time overcoming and unfortunately, that was the reality of it.

      My weight stayed around the 240 mark and it began to affect my back. In 2001, I had my first of many incidences of “throwing my back out.” I went to a fantastic chiropractor, Dr. Davis. He worked with me for weeks to get me so I could walk. He would see me sometimes twice a day and use all types of techniques to reduce the stress and pain. He, too, spoke to me about my weight explaining how this was putting so much strain on my back and knees. I continued to see him monthly, or when flare-ups would hit, for the next ten years.

      In 2007, I left corporate America and started my own company. It had always been a dream of mine to run my own business; to be successful and make money based on what I did and not on anything else. I purchased a business consulting franchise called Action Business Coaching. I loved helping business owners develop business strategies and execute those strategies to grow their businesses. I became a local public speaker focused on business improvement, growth strategies and motivation. I felt I had found my calling in life. I was helping people and using all of my training from my MBA and corporate experiences to help local business owners grow and be successful.

      During this period, I had several, what seemed to be, unrelated injuries. Twice I broke ribs. Once while working on plumbing under the sink. I was attempting to loosen a pipe and felt a sharp, burning pain shoot through my side to my back. The second time I was rolling around on the floor with my son, Noah. I was lying on the floor throwing him up and catching him. After doing this a couple of times, when he came down I felt the same pain shoot through my ribs to my back as I caught him. I was able to put him down safely but was in major pain for weeks afterward.

      Another injury I sustained was a torn triceps muscle as I was trying to catch an older man from falling. Thankfully, I was able to keep him from hitting the ground and hurting himself, but I tore the muscle in the back of my arm. And as I mentioned before, my back continued to give me troubles. I thought all of these injuries and ailments were due to my weight and that maybe I was just clumsy, but in reality, these were also symptoms of Cushing’s disease: weak muscles, joint pain and problems, bones breaking easily. But again, this didn’t sound any alarms or cause my doctors to do tests to see why this was happening.

      One advantage of owning my own business was that it allowed me to make trade-offs with other business owners for services that we both needed, otherwise known as bartering. In particular, I was able to make an arrangement with the owners of a gym. I would help them with their business strategy, marketing, financial and operational plans in return for a gym membership and personal training for my wife and me. I began working with the owner’s wife and she put together a weekly workout plan. I would meet with her every other day and lift weights and do flexibility workouts. This was a great arrangement for me and I was really able to get serious about working out daily. I finally had a professional who could give me advice on the best exercises to help me lose weight and get back in shape. I jumped right in with great excitement and really enjoyed working out. I felt myself getting stronger but saw no change in my weight.