Monitoring More DirectLife Emails

I'm off on a long weekend with Anita to celebrate our anniversary, so I'm cheating a little today and running the interview I did for the DirectLife blog recently. You may have seen it already, but I bet you didn't see my correspondence with DirectLife Junior Market Intelligence Analyst Antonio Galván and DirectLife Coach José...

Dear Jack,

I sat with coach José and he would like to know your answer to the following questions:

From reading your blog we noticed how determined you are. What do you consider important when setting a goal and staying motivated?

From your experience, what is the impact of an active life in weight?

Where did your inspiration to lose weight come from?

Now that you have been so successful in losing weight, what advice would you have for our DirectLife members?

If you had to sum up your DirectLife experiences to a friend from your cell phone what would you text (146 characters)?

Thanks a lot,

Antonio.

______________________________________________

Antonio Galván Puente
Junior Market Intelligence Analyst
www.philips.com/directlife

Hello Jack,

I just wanted to quickly introduce myself. Antonio mentioned the idea of doing an interview-type blog post with you. I wanted to send you some questions that I thought would be great to have your answers for, but I believe he already went ahead and sent them to you. So, just wanted to say hi, and that I am looking forward to your answers. I sit very close to Jen in the office (we both work in India...kidding!), and it has been a lot of fun to read your interactions on your blog. Also enjoyed your "tough love" post today... like I said, it will be great to have you on our blog.

Have a great and active weekend, Jack

José

|

Hey DirectLife Coach José,

I don't like to brag, but do you know who's a good interviewer? Me!

I interviewed the President of Weight Watchers a few weeks back and asked him some probing, insightful questions that, quite frankly, raised the bar of interviewing about seventeen notches. That's why I was a trifle disappointed with the quality of the interview questions that Antonio forwarded on to me. Where's the kind of question that will have the reader sitting on the edge of his or her seat?

For example, "Jack, is it true that you're a cannibal?"

See? You're breathlessly waiting for me to answer that question now, because if I am a cannibal, then that changes everything you thought you knew about me! (the answer is that I'm NOT a cannibal, but I do have some really good cannibal recipes I sometimes share with my readers, some of whom just happen to be cannibals).

My disappointment aside, I'll answer your damn questions, DirectLife Coach José. And don't rub it in that you sit in such close proximity to DirectLife Coach Jen; you know that there's quite a bit of sexual tension between the two of us and now you've just about set me off into a jealous rage. Watch your back, DirectLife Coach José!

Thanks for the note.

Jack

Hi Jack,

Sorry to hear about your disappointment with the questions. I have no doubt about how good an interviewer you are and that you could come up with much more interesting and creative questions. Sorry if this took some of the fun out of it! I can imagine it did. On the other hand, from what I read in your blog.... I am totally convinced that you will be able to work with them in a way that does keep "the reader sitting on the edge of his or her seat".

Have a truly great day,

José

|

Hey DirectLife Coach José,

I just sent Junior Market Intelligence Analyst Antonio Galván the answers to those interview questions. And way to set the bar absurdly high, DirectLife Coach José. It's like you two want me to fail...

By the way, can you please tell DirectLife Coach Jen that her hair looks nice and shiny today? Chicks dig that kind of stuff...

Your pal,

Jáck

|

Hey Junior Market Intelligence Analyst Antonio Galván,

I'm a little ticked off that you and DirectLife Coach José have those bitchin' little accent marks in your names. Do you think you're better than me because of that? Well, I do!

Here's the answers to the questions you sent last week. Let me know if you need anything else or would like to lend me some money.

Thanks,

Jáck

From reading your blog we noticed how determined you are. What do you consider important when setting a goal and staying motivated?

Yes, I AM determined. In fact, I often get letters from suicide bombers asking “Hey, brother–how can I be as committed as you are?”

Truthfully, I don’t know why some journeys spark and some sputter. All I know is that when you do finally catch hold of that lightning bolt, you need to hang on and ride it for as long as humanly possible.

And I do give my blog – Jack Sh*t, Gettin’ Fit – a lot of credit for getting my weight-loss journey bubbling on the front burner. I post my weigh-in numbers every week, and that’s a huge incentive for me to stay on track because I have a lot of readers who’ll get on my case if I slack off for very long.

From your experience, what is the impact of an active life in weight?

It’s all intertwined for me: diet, exercise, focus. When I’m active, I tend to eat better, tend to sleep better, tend to manage the stresses of my day better. It really is true that an activity-filled lifestyle creates more energy for you in the long run, and the long run is what we all need to be concerned with.

Where did your inspiration to lose weight come from?

Who among us doesn’t want to be fit, to be healthy? Who really wants to be overweight or obese? There’s usually some moment of rage… a public embarrassment, a cruel comment or seeing a particularly bad photograph of oneself… that gets us charged up but that kind of fire burns way too quickly. What we need to enjoy success over the long haul is a sustainable source of inspiration, something that can fuel a slow and steady burn.

My inspiration came on Easter Sunday of last year. My family was out of town and I was feeling down after another bad day of eating and drinking way, way too much. I spent some time having a long heart-to-heart talk with myself. A switch flipped over inside me and I knew, from that moment on, that things were going to change for the better.

Now that you have been so successful in losing weight, what advice would you have for our DirectLife members?

Get going, get moving. Just get started. Today. Right now. Right this very moment. You don’t have to eat nothing but celery or go out and run a marathon tomorrow, but you do have to make some changes. You need to find a lifestyle you can live with and… well… start living with it.

If you had to sum up your DirectLife experiences to a friend from your cell phone what would you text (146 characters)?

Xppt krig 4 odsjg… hate this crappy phone. Got 2 keep moving or DirectLife Coach Jen will send an electric jolt thru activity monitor and render me sterile.

Jack Sh*t is the mastermind behind Jack Sh*t, Gettin’ Fit, the diet, health and wellness blog that chronicles one man’s journey from “too fat” to “all that”. Besides being a full-time blogger, Jack makes exotic animal sculptures out of candy corn, which he sells at local flea markets and craft fairs.