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BIGGEST LOSER MAI VITI SEASON 3 FINALE

The Ambassador, Embassy of the Republic of Fiji Washington DC His Excellency Mr Winston Thompson, His representative to the Biggest Loser Mai Viti Season 3 Finale Mr Ray Baleikasavu, BLMV S3 Committee Members, Fellow Biggest Loser Mai Viti Season 3 Members, Supporters, Ladies, Gentlemen and Children. First of all let us recognize and acknowledge the efforts and initiatives of the BLMV Organizing Committees and give them a big hand for organizing the weight loss competition for the past three consecutive seasons. I would also like to acknowledge the involvement of the Embassy of The Republic of Fiji Washington DC Office and the Fiji Government which indicates the importance they place on the health of Fiji Islanders as well our fellow Pacific Islanders through their acceptance to attend tonights function. It is also noted that the Ambassador himself was a keen sportsman and represented the country many times and I would not doubt at all that he fully supports this initiative of healthy living. I wont be speaking too much tonight as I am not a public speaker but a firm believer that action speaks louder than words. I hope what little I will be speaking to you about and showing you will inspire and motivate you to healthy living. I stand before you today as living testimony that all things are possible if you have the will to do so. Its been a journey of self discipline, accountability, honesty, perseverance, will power, commitment and sacrifice. With all these qualities I cannot see anyone failing to achieve their goals in whatever one intends to pursue in life. I encourage all intending BLMV S4 members to keep these traits in your weight loss journey and also put it into practice in your daily lives, your success is guaranteed if you do so. Many lessons have been learnt from this journey. I wont elaborate on all but I would like to stress that since you will be changing your life styles and habits you must first discipline yourself. There is a price to be paid for indiscipline and I personally experienced this twice during my weight loss

journey. The price paid, two weeks of no weight loss and intense workouts to get back on track. Lesson learnt; no more cheating, can we not sacrifice for the 15 weeks or so, I challenge you all to do so. Remember cheating can become habitual after a while. Before I embarked on my weight loss journey I was a whooping 340 lbs at the BLMV S2 Finale where I was a non participant / supporter. I could not fit into any category in a standard BMI chart meaning I was grossly underweight or grossly overweight with the latter being true. Further reinforcing my obesity was the fact that it was becoming harder and harder to find clothes to fit into. I reminisced into the past and remembered the days of around 25 years ago when I was around 180 lbs and fit as a fiddle. This vision inspired me to do a complete turn around and this is where my weight loss plan was born. Age is no barrier for weight loss and healthy living. Towards the end of my weight loss journey I had just turned 50 years old. Recognizing my obesity and bad eating habits, I decided that I must first lose weight to a manageable point through healthy food choices, eating at the right intervals and portion control before any consideration of working out. I fully understood that my body and frame would not be able to sustain any increase in physical activity not to mention it was already stressed through my then current obesity. I used this time frame to study my body responses to eating certain types of food, food portions, hydration, and eating intervals. I lost 50 lbs through this simple plan. There is light at the end of the tunnel for your 300 pounders out there. Now weighing in at 280.7 lbs my wife asked me to join her in the BLMV Season 3 which I agreed to knowing I had done my homework and also was at a manageable weight. However, I soon realized that my homework was far from over as I was now in a weight loss completion with many

competitors not to mention there was competition right in our home. Weight loss/ weight maintenance should always be your primary focus. I continued to study and record my body responses as I had mentioned earlier for a month more until I was confident I knew what I was doing. I also mapped out my proposed weight loss journey for the entire 15 weeks and monitored my actual weight loss against the planned weight loss on a weekly basis. I exactly knew where I was on my weight loss journey at any point in time on any given day. I also developed my own spreadsheets to monitor my competitors closely and monitored their three weekly weight loss and weight loss percentages on a regular basis. Mereoni had developed the BLMV spread sheets for you to use to monitor your progress as well as your competitors and I would encourage you all to use them. To be successful, use all tools available to you. I will be showing you some slides of tools which I developed for my journey and encourage you to do the same. I am also a big fan of visual aids as the brain processes this much faster than a bunch of figures. My initial goal was to lose 100lbs during the 15 week journey. Why 100 lbs and where did this figure come from? Simply, because I would finally be recognized on a BMI chart at 180 lbs and secondly that would bring me to the correct BMI range [normal]. However, I managed to lose 93.4 lbs, 6.6 lbs short of my initial goal with a total weight loss percentage of 33.3%. Was I disappointed, not really, I had accomplished a lot; from high blood pressure to normal blood pressure, extremely obese to normal on the BMI scale, a shirt size of 3X to [M] medium, a reduction of the waist line from 48 inches to 34 inches and the chest pains have disappeared too! What more could I ask for. All this was accomplished through healthy living; healthy food,

correct portion size, eating at the right times, hydrating [water is the best], and regular exercise/ workouts. Self discipline, accountability, honesty, perseverance, will power, commitment and sacrifice was the key to my success. I hope what I have told you and shown you tonight has inspired you and will motivate you to do the same. For those who havent made a choice of healthy living I encourage you to do so now and join the next season BLMV S4 and let us do it together, dont sit on the fence. I also extend the invitation to our embassy staff and their families to also join in. So what is in it for me now; to this day I am still in the business of healthy living and will continue to do so for the rest of my life. I have made that commitment. I have as of today managed to maintain my weight of one month ago this is why I had the confidence to talk to you tonight on the subject. I will devote my future time to inspire and motivate others to practice healthy living and also help those who are facing difficulties during their weight loss journey. On this note I would like to wish you and your families a Merry Christmas and a happy and successful 2013. I hope you enjoyed all the delicious food and drinks tonight but be committed and accept the responsibility to shed those calories on Monday. I will also be doing the same. Goodnight and God Bless you all.