A Clydesdale Carol, Part 5

(part 4, here)

Darkness.

Kevin knew he was sitting.  He knew there were others around him.  But he couldn't see anything.  He was getting nervous.  Had Terry sent him to the wrong place?

A voice rang out.

"Live from studio 87 at back of Barry's Garage, it's Barry's Garage Talk, staring your host, the Ghost of Weight Loss Present...Barry!"

Bright lights came up and canned big band music blared through unseen speakers.  Kevin found himself sitting in a faded orange art deco sofa.  Next to him was an matching faded orange art deco chair.  He could see others beyond the cameras, but enough detail to be sure what was going on.  A man walked out on stage.  He was tall, in his early 50s, with white hair teased up into a Pompadour.  His teeth gleamed in under the studio lights.  He wore an orange polyester suit with paisley shirt and a lime green tie.  His suit matched the chairs perfectly.  They might have been made from the same fabric.

Kevin stood, not knowing what else to do.  Barry walked over and shook Kevin's hand.   He motioned Kevin to have a seat just as the music faded and the canned applause lifted to a roar.

Barry adored the moment, his hands out to the non existent audience, blowing kisses and smiling.  Finally the applause ended and Barry sat down.

"Thank you, thank you!" he exclaimed.  "Thank you.  You are too kind.  Thank you and welcome to Barry's Garage Talk.  I'm Barry and today we have a very special guest, Mr. Jogging Clydesdale, Kevin Kilmer!"

Canned applause thundered into the sound stage. Barry turned to Kevin and gave him smile.  Kevin half smiled back.  He wanted to hide.

"Kevin, welcome to my garage.  As you may not know, I'm Barry, the Ghost of Weight Loss Present.  How are you?"

"Uh, I'm fine, um, Barry was it?"

Canned laughter.

"Ha ha, yes, that's right.  Now I understand you've spent the last four parts with my associate Terry"

"Yes, that's right Barry"

"You had quite the trip.  High school, college, every thing."

"Yes," said Kevin.

"Tell me, Kevin," said Barry, "was there anything you learned on that trip?"

"Well, yes, actually.  I was surprised that most of the times that stick out in my memory are times when I was lonely."

"Interesting, interesting," Barry mused.  "Now, we left part 4 just as you decided to enter the weight loss program.  How did that work for you?

"It worked very well.  Within 6 months I had lost about 40 pounds, 60  or 65 altogether was my best," said Kevin.  "I was feeling proud and working hard.  I even started running the following spring."

"Really?  What motivated you to do that?"

"I had to start some kind of exercise program to go hand in hand with what I was doing with the hospital.  Running is only exercise I ever even kind of enjoyed.  It seemed the right place to start."

"Did you follow any kind of program?"

Kevin answered, "Yes, I found the Couch to 5K run/walk program.  It started off with one minute of running at a time.  It was perfect.  Once I found an mp3 file of music that had beeps for when it was time to run and time to walk, the program became even easier."

"I understand you took your daughters on some of your runs," Barry said.

"Yes.  It was actually pretty fun.  I loaded the same mp3 on their players and we all hit play at the same time.  Of course, it wasn't exactly at the same time. It was fun to watch the girls start and stop knowing I was listening to the same cues."

"That is neat," Barry observed.  "Did you then run a 5K at the end of the training schedule?"

"Yeah, September of '09.  A small race put on by the hospital program. It felt really good to have met that goal," Kevin answered.

"But you lost some of your mojo right after that, didn't you?"

"Yes," said Kevin.  "I just didn't feel like running out in the cold.  I tried to ride the stationary bike, but I just couldn't get into it."

"When did you start blogging?" Barry asked.

"January of 2010.  I had hoped to journal my foray back into running.  It didn't work out so well."

"But you kept losing weight, right?"

Kevin paused.  "No.  That January brought some things brewing inside regarding a friend to the top.    It ended up disintegrating that friendship.  Since he was also my pastor, it affected my relationship there too.  A lot of things that had been simmering within the congregation that came to a boil. I had been the church administrator, but stepped down when our friendship seemed like it was over.

"It was perhaps the most stressful situation I have ever had to deal with, apart from my wife's health. I thought it was possible that my stepping down would eventually lead to his leaving our church.  It did in the end. My friendship with him had been a kind of plug.  It opened up opportunities for the congregation to address other issues they had with him. By stepping down, it opened up that plug. For months it seemed like my pastor was at constant odds with the congregation.  I felt like I was at the center of it as I'm sure he did too.  I didn't handle it well, and I am not sure the church treated him completely fairly either.  It was a bad situation all the way around.

"I personalized a lot of it.  I gained weight even as I stayed within the program."

"Wow, that seems like a lot to bear," said Barry.

"It was.  It contributed to my wife's second breakdown that fall too.  She was out of work so long, she lost her job at the hospital.  Being down to one paycheck and a dramatic increase in insurance premiums and medical bills, I couldn't stay in the program.  By January, 2011, I had gained back nearly all the weight I had lost.  I wasn't running.  I was a mess."

"Hold on to that thought.  We need to take time for a commercial."  Barry turned to the camera.  "When we come back, will continue with Kevin's ongoing journey.  And we'll have a surprise guest, someone who wants to say a few things to Kevin as he moves forward.  We'll be right back after this with part 6."