November 2020: I recently signed up to do a new adventure and the person I told I wanted to do it told me “You Can’t Do It.” Apparently they don’t know me well enough because that’s exactly the words I like to hear from people because that’s what motivates my inner self.
Flashback to early 2010 when I was tested for sleep apnea. I got tested for sleep apnea where I got hooked up to wires and machines and sleep there overnight. A few days later, a lady called and said I have good news and bad news and I need to come in. It was 1–mile away so I went. She said the good news is you don’t have sleep apnea. The bad news is you need to lose some weight. She was a the same size as me and I was fat. I thought to myself “that sure is calling the kettle black”. My response to her was, I’m happy I don’t have sleep apnea (because I had already decided that my life was gonna be on a cPap machine the rest of my life), and you’re right I will lose weight. She said “that’s what everyone tells me”. Well, that’s the difference between me and everyone else. When I say I’m gonna do something, I’m gonna do it.
I stepped on the scale and weighed 310#. I decided I wanted to change my life. I got serious on 8-1-10 at 310#’s and on 11-1-10, I weighed 205#. With no pills, no potions and no surgeries… I lost 135# all naturally in 4 months and eventually got my weight down to 175#!
That was the beginning of many things in my life that I never could do when I weighed 310#.
Here are just a few POSITIVE things that has CHANGED my life in the past 10 years
Life of Rick Gosser = CHANGE!!!
Before 2010 – 310# and no grandchildren
Since 2010… All after the young age of 50 and now 7 grandchildren in 2020!
2010 – (50/51) Got braces. (On for 19-months). Lost 135# in 4 months all naturally. Had 2 knee surgeries. 11-29-10 on the NBC Today Show see: www.RickGosser.com
2011 – (51/52) – Became a runner at 50. I had emergency detached retina eye surgery (June 2011). I began my streak of running 10-1/2 marathons and too many 5K, 10K and 15K to remember.
2012 – (52/53) Joy Bauer featured me in her March 23, 2012 book Joy Fit Club: Cookbook, Diet Plan & Inspiration An inspirational book, with 30 stories of ordinary people who have all lost over 100#(+) naturally and are working hard to keep it off.
2013 (53/54) – I had my varicose veins removed at 54. I ran the Chicago Marathon in 2013 (My 1st ever). Skydived for my very first time 2 weeks after running the marathon. My Uncle Bob passed away.
2014 – (54/55) My running miles: Jan-June 342. End of August 500. End of December total of 660.
2015 – (55/56) I starting biking at 56. 6,000 miles or 400 hours on 2-wheels. And just started biking lots because it was fun and I enjoyed it. 1st and 2nd grandchildren were born.
2016 – (56/57) I got certified in scuba diving. Accomplished my 1st Triathlon at 56. 1/4 mile swim, 13 miles bike, 3.1 mile run (now done 2). Took handgun shooting classes and got my license to carry gun permit. 3rd grandchild born.
2017 – (57/58) I climbed the stairs for the 8th time at the Hustle Up The Hancock in Chicago. 812 stairs and 52 floors. I biked my 2nd 100-mile ride all in one day in Three Oaks, MI. I was literally pedaling for 8-hours! I visited Glacier National Park with most of my family and hiked the Highline Trail with one of my son-in-laws. It was a 13-mile hike in the mountains. I vacationed in Switzerland, France, Germany and Netherlands, Florida, Boston I no longer have to take cholesterol medicine! Woot! Woot! No meds for me! One of my brother-in-laws passed away after fighting cancer for 3 years. 4th and 5th grandchildren born.
2018 – (58/59) The thought of doing a triathlon this year came to me on the night after we returned from a European vacation as I was swimming in my pool on July 14, 2018. I knew there was a local one coming up in August. I went online in between swims and signed up for the LaPorte, IN Triathlon on August 4th. I immediately thought I need to start swimming every day until that day. I completed my 2nd Triathlon this year.
Things to say about KOZ, My Father-In-Law who passed away 2-days after Christmas 2018. 41 years ago when I met my wife Jolynn’s Dad, I knew he was a very special man because he said “Yes to me marrying his oldest daughter.” My wife, Jolynn has lost her “LIFE ROCK.” 👼 I always loved his willingness to become the referee or umpire from the stands in a heartbeat! In my early years of marriage when I coached LL baseball (b4 my girls) he was thrown out of the stands by an umpire just being a fan. Koz didn’t like what the umpire was saying about me and he was defending me. To this day I can remember that like it was yesterday! The KOZ Family Patriarch has gone to heaven and will again be with my brother-in-law, Bill. I can hear KOZ saying to Bill: “What’s the good word?
2019 – (59/60) I took IMPROV classes with a friend of mine. I started lifting weights & deadlifted 260#, leg pressed 560#. 6th grandchild born. Celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary in Hawaii with our entire family in a house that slept all 16 of us!
2020 – (60/61) My wife & I vacationed in Puerta Vallerta, Mexico and saw Lizzo and Shaed perform live 50′ away from our faces in Feb 2020. March… Say no more, COVID. It has changed everyone’s life. All vacations cancelled and many life things shut down. Both my wife and myself tested negative for the virus. 7th grandchild born. December 2020, planning a vacation to DisneyWorld. Booked a vacation to the Galapagos Island in 2022. Booked a vacation to Egypt for 2021. Booked a vacation to Oktoberfest in Germany 2021.
I ride 💯 miles in day on my bike just for fun!
My rollercoaster of weight:
2017: 1/30/17….. 258 12/31/17… 209.8. Down 48.2#’s
2018 – 1/1/18… 209 12/1/18… 233 Up 24#
2019 – 1/1/19… 246 4/16… 240 8/16… 217.8
2020 – 1/1/20… 234 11/1/20… 224.6 My goal is to weight 200# again!
Flashback to 1.10.10: I was in DisneyWorld with my wife and my 3 daughters and I was awoken by the sound of loud music on Saturday morning around 5:30 a.m. My response was “what the hell” and who is playing that music so LOUD! I lumbered my fat ass (all 310#) of it out of bed and took a walk because now I was awake. Come to find out it was just a bunch of people doing some kind of a run. I thought at 5:30 in the frickin’ morning? As I think back on that day… I told my wife when I returned to the room, it was just a bunch of people doing a run. Couldn’t they do it at a decent time when the rest of us was awake?
I told my wife that would be fun to do if I was a runner, not sure if I would run it at 5:30 a.m., but it would be fun to do if I could do it. Fast forward to 1.10.13… And that day 3 years ago was actually the first day of my transformation and I didn’t even know it. I mean I was actually on a diet that I had started on 1.1.10, but never knew that I would actually be running what I now know as the DisneyWorld 1/2 Marathon let alone be taking my entire family… wife, girls, 2 husbands and 1 fiancée on this trip.
I wrote the following on 1.11.13!
As of today 11.1.10 I have lost 105# and weigh 205#. What? That is crazy! On 11.26.10, I was on the NBC Today Show with Hoda, Kathy Lee and Joy Bauer as I was inducted into the Joy Fit Club for losing that 105#. I flew from Chicago to New York City, walked around Rockefeller Plaza, went on TV, saw Michael Bubbla, the Kardasian sisters, and met the entire NBC Today Show staff and flew home all in 24 hours. I felt like a rock star. 2 weeks later I spoke to 3,500 people and 40,000+ via skype about my weight loss as I created this blog, a PowerPoint presentation about my fat life, and showed my video during a lunch and learn. People were actually shoving their food aside when my video was playing. How funny? The video shows me eating more calories a day than you could imagine. How do you think I maintained those 310#? I was wrote about in the local newspaper 2 times and was given an accommodation by the Mayor Uran of the City of Crown Point for my accomplishment. I surely did not lose all of this weight for this kind of attention, but I was riding the wave. In the months to follow, I spoke to many groups, organizations and church weight loss groups about Been There, Done That! My focus turned from Look at Me to I want to inspire YOU!
In Feb 2011, I did my first extreme adventure thing… I ran up the stairwell of the John Hancock Building in Chicago with a friend of mine, Janet and 6 other people. I had no idea what to expect other than I wanted to do it (52 floors, over 812 stairs) in 15 minutes. I actually did it in 11:41. Awesome. I did that same stairwell in 2012, which I now know is Hustle Up Hancock in 10:17. My 2013 goal is 10:00 flat.
It’s been an amazing 3 years, as I have inspired many people to lose weight any way that they can, because if I can lose 135# at the age of 51, now 53… Anybody can do it. I am super stoked about running the DisneyWorld 1/2 Marathon on 1.12.13 and I will be one of the ones waking other people in the park this year. And yes, I will catch the bus at Animal Kingdom at 4:00 a.m. to get to my corral by 5:00 a.m. to start the race at 5:30 a.m. Remember, what I said in paragraph one: Couldn’t they do it at a decent time when the rest of us was awake? Written 1.11.13
Life is good! I’m now able to do any adventure that my body allows me to do! I’m looking forward to many more fun life things, better weight management, spending quality time with my 7 grandchildren, more adventures, life relaxation.
Talk / Text / Email me… Anytime.
Rick Gosser
talk or text 219-808-9888
email: gosserrick@sbcglobal.net
web: Rick Gosser