Neil,

I think that is awesome that the gym recognized you for your efforts. I
believe that as you continue to faithfully stay the course with your
workouts, you will be an inspiration to those around you with your
dedication and commitment. You are a walking testimony that weight loss
can be achieved without fad diets, pills, or surgery.

I'm really glad you found us on ASD, I have been encouraged on my own
journey from some of the posts you have made.

Thanks, brother...

Matty (I weighed more than Jared from Subway)
481/251/225
(starting weight/current weight/goal weight)

First mini goal achieved - 104lbs lost 10/26/04
Second mini goal achieved - 137lbs lost 01/28/05
Third mini goal achieved - 183lbs lost 09/30/05
Fourth mini goal achieved - 204lbs total lost 01/30/06
Fifth mini goal achieved - 233lbs total lost by 08/31/06
Sixth mini goal - 256lbs total lost by 02/24/2007

You may well have inspired plenty of people without knowing it.
Sometimes people take a while between forming the idea and starting to
act on it.  And I'm not sure you'd be able to tell if they were acting
on it -- maybe changing their eating habits, for example.  Don't know
that they'd tell you.

I had a similar experience when my gym did an article about me in
their national magazine.  In addition to the article, they put a giant
blow-up of the two pages on two easels in the entryway of my local
gym.  This was almost a year ago, and I still get the occasional
comment from people in the gym saying that it had motivated them to
get serious about shaping up.

Chris
262/130s/130s
started dieting July 2002, maintaining since June 2004