Contacted By The Man Who Inspired My Weight Loss With His Low-Carb Success
For those of you who bought a copy of my autobiographical book about my low-carb weight loss experience called Livin' La Vida Low-Carb: My Journey from Flabby Fat to Sensationally Skinny In One Year, you may recall the name Keith Jackson from Chapter 5 on motivation.
Here's what I wrote about Keith on page 67 of my book:
"Keith and I were in the same high school class at Bolivar Central High School in Bolivar, TN in the late 1980s. Like me, Keith was overweight when he was in high school. But I could not believe my eyes at my 10-year high school class reunion in 1999 when somebody told me that skinny man with the goatee I inquired about was none other than Keith Jackson himself. I remember staring at him for what seemed like an eternity completely mesmerized by his incredibly radical change in appearance. This former chubby classmate of mine had dropped a considerable amount of his weight and restored his health by implementing a low-carb program. Although I was still skeptical of the low-carb lifestyle at the time, I never forgot the dramatic change in Keith's physical appearance."
I never got a chance to personally thank Keith for the impact he made on my life, but I was hoping to do so at my 20-year high school class reunion in 2009. But, as fate would have it, I didn't have to wait that long because Keith himself found my blog on Monday and stumbled upon this blog post where I had written about his influence on my life.
Quoting from that post, here's what I said about Keith Jackson:
"I have another one of my high school classmates to thank for being an inspiration to me to begin livin' la vida low-carb and he may not even realize it...My fellow classmate Keith Jackson showed up at a social we had at the high school on the Friday night before our reunion and everyone looked at him with their jaws on the floor. Keith Jackson, who had been a rather hefty young man, was...well, SKINNY! He was merely a shadow of his former self and certainly amazed most of us who knew him when he was 'bigger.' When he said he did it on the Atkins diet, I was skeptical about the method he chose. As you know, I chose to go on a low-fat diet that year and did well on it, but couldn't keep the weight off. The image of Keith Jackson was indelibly burned into my memory and he was one of my personal inspirations to start my Atkins diet on January 1, 2004. I hope to have the opportunity to shake Keith's hand at our upcoming reunion to THANK him for helping me change my life. And he probably has no idea he did anything!"
After reading what I had written, Keith was moved to e-mail me back:
Jimmy,
Congratulations on your weight loss!!!!! Words cannot express the emotions I had when I read your blog. You were right I had NO idea that I had been an "inspiration" to anyone about anything, and still would not have known had I not by some fluke Googled my own name.
I really think that saying I was "hefty" was very kind of you. As I recall I was just downright FAT! LOL! Having that in my history, I am always proud when someone loses weight whether it is great or small.
I applaud you for what you are doing to help so many people with a problem that without help is not easily solved. Up to this point in my life, I could have only hoped that I would have had an impact on someone's life for the better. Now after reading your blog I feel that if I do nothing else in my life I have accomplished this goal.
Needless to say, I will definitely go get your book. That is the least I can do for someone that is going to make me famous. LOL!
I wish you the best of luck. Keep in touch!
Keith Jackson
That's the power of a life that's been changed. If you have been positively impacted by my nearly 200-pound low-carb weight loss success story, then you have Keith Jackson in part to thank for that. Don't ever underestimate how even a brief encounter with someone in your life who needs to lose weight can result in the motivation and inspiration for them to really do it.
That 15 or so minutes when I saw Keith in 1999 changed my life forever. It wasn't instantaneous, but the seed was planted and came to fruition in 2004 when I DID IT! And I'll never be the same again. THANK YOU Keith!
He sent me a follow-up e-mail about another one of our "big" classmates who had also lost a lot of weight on low-carb and now runs 10 miles several times a week and competes in marathons. Think of the biggest kid in your high school class being able to run marathons and that's how amazing this story is. The neat thing is that guy is an honestly "good" person who always tried to make people laugh. I'm so thrilled to hear he has improved his weight and health so much by livin' la vida low-carb!
I called Keith on the telephone and spoke with him about 30 minutes on Monday night. I told him that I would love to feature his weight loss story on my blog if he would be willing. He seemed interested in doing that, so stay tuned. I asked if he had any contact information on the other classmate who lost weight on low-carb and Keith said he would try to get that for me so possibly I could post his success story as well.
The Internet and blogging has made this a small world, hasn't it? I'm grateful in this week of Thanksgiving that my high school friend Keith Jackson was able to know just how much he changed my life for the better. That's something I will never, ever be able to adequately repay him except by continuing to share with others what livin' la vida low-carb has done for me. You bet your sweet bippy I'll keep doing that! :)
Here's what I wrote about Keith on page 67 of my book:
"Keith and I were in the same high school class at Bolivar Central High School in Bolivar, TN in the late 1980s. Like me, Keith was overweight when he was in high school. But I could not believe my eyes at my 10-year high school class reunion in 1999 when somebody told me that skinny man with the goatee I inquired about was none other than Keith Jackson himself. I remember staring at him for what seemed like an eternity completely mesmerized by his incredibly radical change in appearance. This former chubby classmate of mine had dropped a considerable amount of his weight and restored his health by implementing a low-carb program. Although I was still skeptical of the low-carb lifestyle at the time, I never forgot the dramatic change in Keith's physical appearance."
I never got a chance to personally thank Keith for the impact he made on my life, but I was hoping to do so at my 20-year high school class reunion in 2009. But, as fate would have it, I didn't have to wait that long because Keith himself found my blog on Monday and stumbled upon this blog post where I had written about his influence on my life.
Quoting from that post, here's what I said about Keith Jackson:
"I have another one of my high school classmates to thank for being an inspiration to me to begin livin' la vida low-carb and he may not even realize it...My fellow classmate Keith Jackson showed up at a social we had at the high school on the Friday night before our reunion and everyone looked at him with their jaws on the floor. Keith Jackson, who had been a rather hefty young man, was...well, SKINNY! He was merely a shadow of his former self and certainly amazed most of us who knew him when he was 'bigger.' When he said he did it on the Atkins diet, I was skeptical about the method he chose. As you know, I chose to go on a low-fat diet that year and did well on it, but couldn't keep the weight off. The image of Keith Jackson was indelibly burned into my memory and he was one of my personal inspirations to start my Atkins diet on January 1, 2004. I hope to have the opportunity to shake Keith's hand at our upcoming reunion to THANK him for helping me change my life. And he probably has no idea he did anything!"
After reading what I had written, Keith was moved to e-mail me back:
Jimmy,
Congratulations on your weight loss!!!!! Words cannot express the emotions I had when I read your blog. You were right I had NO idea that I had been an "inspiration" to anyone about anything, and still would not have known had I not by some fluke Googled my own name.
I really think that saying I was "hefty" was very kind of you. As I recall I was just downright FAT! LOL! Having that in my history, I am always proud when someone loses weight whether it is great or small.
I applaud you for what you are doing to help so many people with a problem that without help is not easily solved. Up to this point in my life, I could have only hoped that I would have had an impact on someone's life for the better. Now after reading your blog I feel that if I do nothing else in my life I have accomplished this goal.
Needless to say, I will definitely go get your book. That is the least I can do for someone that is going to make me famous. LOL!
I wish you the best of luck. Keep in touch!
Keith Jackson
That's the power of a life that's been changed. If you have been positively impacted by my nearly 200-pound low-carb weight loss success story, then you have Keith Jackson in part to thank for that. Don't ever underestimate how even a brief encounter with someone in your life who needs to lose weight can result in the motivation and inspiration for them to really do it.
That 15 or so minutes when I saw Keith in 1999 changed my life forever. It wasn't instantaneous, but the seed was planted and came to fruition in 2004 when I DID IT! And I'll never be the same again. THANK YOU Keith!
He sent me a follow-up e-mail about another one of our "big" classmates who had also lost a lot of weight on low-carb and now runs 10 miles several times a week and competes in marathons. Think of the biggest kid in your high school class being able to run marathons and that's how amazing this story is. The neat thing is that guy is an honestly "good" person who always tried to make people laugh. I'm so thrilled to hear he has improved his weight and health so much by livin' la vida low-carb!
I called Keith on the telephone and spoke with him about 30 minutes on Monday night. I told him that I would love to feature his weight loss story on my blog if he would be willing. He seemed interested in doing that, so stay tuned. I asked if he had any contact information on the other classmate who lost weight on low-carb and Keith said he would try to get that for me so possibly I could post his success story as well.
The Internet and blogging has made this a small world, hasn't it? I'm grateful in this week of Thanksgiving that my high school friend Keith Jackson was able to know just how much he changed my life for the better. That's something I will never, ever be able to adequately repay him except by continuing to share with others what livin' la vida low-carb has done for me. You bet your sweet bippy I'll keep doing that! :)
Labels: Bolivar, high school, Jimmy Moore, Keith Jackson, Livin' La Vida Low-Carb, low-carb, success, Thanksgiving, weight loss
posted by Jimmy Moore at
11/21/2006 04:51:00 PM
3 Comments:
That is such a cool story Jimmy, real life coincidental stories like that are very inspiring!!
How cool!
Awesome Jimmy!
Great post!
Seeing inspiration and it's results!
THANKS, Laura! It was the blog post I wrote about YOU that Keith found in his Google search. VERY small world than what we had in 1989, eh? THANKS for stopping by my blog.
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