May 3, 2024 • 23 mins
In this episode of ‘Loser Talk with Lar,’ embark on a soul-stirring journey with Larry, explore his deeply personal tale of combating life’s adversities using the powerful mediums of music and self-reflection, showcasing resilience, self-improvement, and his passion for personal growth.
From his musically infused upbringing to pursuing his dreams at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Larry's narrative is a living testament to the transformative power of staying true to one's aspirations. He candidly shares his battles with self-esteem, physical well-being, and substance misuse. Through his struggles, he underlines the strength in vulnerability and the importance of unwavering commitment to personal growth.
Through ‘Loser Talk,’ Larry invites listeners to partake in the empowering Loser Zoom sessions, fostering a community dedicated to holistic health and well-being. This episode not only highlights Larry's resilience but also encourages listeners to turn their hardships into tools for personal growth and self-recovery.
Witness Larry's remarkable transformation from a 400-pound individual at the brink of despair, to an impassioned coach who aids others with their weight loss journeys. His unyielding resolve amid significant life crises, such as his mother's cancer diagnosis and evicting his substance-abusing brother from their childhood home, is truly admirable.
Discover the healing power of vulnerability through Larry's dedicated Facebook page, chronicling his journey as the leader of 'Larry's Losers'. He further finds solace and purpose, heralding health and wellness through his podcast. His story reminds every one of the Japanese concept, 'Ikigai', urging them to discover their unique life purpose.
Join the movement by following Larry's journey on Instagram at @LarrysLosers22, and participate in the empowering community on Facebook at "The Evolution of Larry".
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Music.
(01:06):
There's my traveling circus band, the Larry's Loser Orchestra.
I don't actually have a circus because I don't believe in keeping wild animals in captivity.
So I just keep the Loser Orchestra in captivity. Captivity.
(01:29):
Captivity. And that's a new word. I keep the Loser Orchestra in captivity constantly
because they practice constantly.
But listen to the results, right?
Beautiful. Yes. They are amazing.
Beautiful. They are amazing. Yes.
(01:53):
Cheer them on. Yes. Thank you.
Music.
Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you.
Yes. Welcome to our ninth episode of Loser Talk with Laird, losing a lot more than just weight.
I'm so excited that you're here with me listening.
(02:14):
It means so much to me that this podcast is resonating with so many of you,
and I know it's sparking so many self-reflections that are being brought up
in our Loser Zooms, and I'm loving our conversations about it.
Speaking of our Loser Zooms. You can join us for them.
Find me on Larry's Losers 22 on Instagram, The Evolution of Larry on Facebook.
(02:42):
Ask on there to join our private exclusive Larry's Losers VIP group on Facebook.
Our Loser family is gathering and growing with lots of ways to celebrate our
health health, and wellness.
On there, you will find the information to connect with us on our Zooms.
(03:03):
Everyone wanting to get healthier is invited.
We'd love for you to join us. If you're liking the work of this podcast,
I provided the link to my Venmo for you to gift.
And on Facebook, there's lots of other ways to donate also.
I'm so grateful for you being here with me.
(03:23):
Did you ever have big dreams about what you wanted to be when you grew up?
What did that path look like?
Looking back now, did any of it unfold the way you thought?
I'm sure at first glance, you might be thinking, no, it went entirely different
in a different direction.
(03:44):
But maybe if you look closely, it went exactly the way you envisioned in the first place.
Really think about that as I tell my story.
If you've been listening to these
podcasts, you've heard my stories of my childhood and my family dynamics.
(04:08):
My mother's father was an alcoholic, so that gene was hiding inside us kids,
and it was sparked when my father left us when I was three.
My brother and sister, 12 and 13, they never were able to pull them out of the
dismal abyss of self-abuse that came along with their alcoholism and my brother's drug addiction.
(04:31):
My family lost my sister, Lara, at six months, and I arrived about a year and a half later.
So as you can imagine, there's just a lot of anxiety, stress, depression, etc.
Mom remarried when I was five to my stepdad, who was my dad my whole life.
He had five kids of his own, So that made eight of us. So that had its special stressors.
(04:57):
I was the youngest. So I got a bird's eye view of everything that was about
to happen over the years.
And as I talked about it in the last two podcasts, I was raised differently
than my brothers and sisters.
Because I believe, number one, to be honest with you, mom had some resentment
toward me for not being her little girl that she had suddenly lost and had no
(05:21):
control over on keeping her here.
And I was sickly with extreme asthma, and I scared her to death.
And number two, my brother and sister were turning out to be issues,
and she didn't want that for me.
So I know deep down things were going to be different for me, and they were.
(05:42):
Now I know all this sounds very sad, and you're probably thinking,
what a horrible childhood.
And that really is not the case at all. I had the most supportive parents that
loved me. Our family was loud.
We laughed a lot, mostly at each other.
We yelled at each other. We cried a lot. Very emotional.
Dad had a temper. Mom had a temper. Ask our neighbors.
(06:07):
I'm sure. I remember being happy and having everything I ever wanted.
But I also remember worrying about things always, too.
Worrying about the worrier, my mom. She was always smoking her cigarettes,
quiet, crying alone sometimes, outside at night.
I'd sit with her in silence.
(06:29):
Sometimes she'd have long talks with me. And as I got older,
my conversation skills developed more. My coaching skills developed more as
I studied. I was learning.
Trust me, I was learning.
I remember when I was eight years old, I was visiting with my grandma Garrett,
and our family friend was visiting from northern Indiana.
(06:53):
I was so excited. It was Mary D.
I loved her. She was a great friend of my grandma's, and I had a chance to be with the grown-ups.
Any chance to sit and hear them talk and tell their stories was so fascinating to me.
I always remembered I wanted to make everyone happy. I wanted to cheer everyone up.
(07:16):
I had the perfect opportunity at this point because Grandma wanted me to sing
for them. Oh my God, I was so excited.
So I got on stage, which there wasn't a stage, but play along with me, people.
I got up and sang Way in the Manger. And boy, did they go crazy.
(07:36):
Of course, it was the best rendition they had ever heard.
Anything I ever did was the best thing anyone ever did.
Grandma always made sure I felt that. She was my love.
I knew right then I wanted to make people happy.
I wanted people to feel good, to laugh, not to be sad anymore.
(07:56):
This would carry me throughout my life. As I'm sitting here writing this,
it actually started before that.
If you'll remember the episode where I would sit on the split rail fence and
read books and sing to the cows as they would gather around me at age five to six.
See, it starts early.
(08:17):
So my passion for music is ignited, but I'm always standing back and learning.
Life's lessons too, learning those lessons.
Homegrown psychology. As it's best, at its best, and boy did I have the best teachers.
I studied my music and I practiced and knew I wanted to do that as a career.
(08:38):
But how could I turn that into money? I had to live, right? Now,
no one has ever been able to tell Larry, no, I can do anything I set my mind to.
So I knew if it was supposed to happen, it would.
So I kept working and I had psychology as backup in case.
(08:59):
God forbid parents say, absolutely not. You cannot blah, blah.
I start getting courted by Berklee College of Music in Boston. Say what? Me?
Boston? Berkeley? I just could not imagine.
Well, I could. And I did. And mom and dad never said no. Not once.
(09:23):
They didn't say no one time. Mom said her, if there's a will,
there's a way. And there was.
So I went. And I did.
And I loved it. And it was everything I needed and wanted.
I needed to not be in Indiana. I needed to be away and learn other life and grow beyond.
(09:45):
And I did. And I had my music.
But then when I graduated, I came back home and I got lost in the madness of what am I? Who am I?
I felt like I lost my music and my direction.
I started waiting tables and doing meaningless jobs, drinking every night to forget who I was.
(10:08):
Well, I didn't even know who I was in the first place. I didn't want to know. I was embarrassed.
I didn't do it. I wasn't the rock star I set out to be. I was a failure.
I didn't make anyone happy, including myself.
I lost my way, and I was miserable. I hated myself.
(10:28):
I had moments of success with good money and nice things now,
but none of it meant anything because I was wandering around in darkness without my purpose.
I lost my direction in life, and
something had to shake me out of this nightmare, or I was going to die.
I finally started feeling like I needed to get my priorities straight again
(10:53):
and mom needed help with dad.
So that's when I moved home to help with him as he had two open heart surgeries
and all the doctor's appointments.
I rapidly gained 150 pounds. I was swollen with a death halo,
the stress and sickness helping him transition, but I was proud of mom and myself
(11:14):
for all the work we did to get him through.
Then I moved out on my own again and sat around and felt sorry for myself for a couple years.
And one day at almost 400 pounds, as I was walking up my front steps, my foot snapped.
The weight of my body finally crushed through my foot.
(11:34):
My body was done. It was giving up on me, telling me to do something now.
I struggled with that foot not healing for three years, and surgery ended up helping me.
But what was the ultimate help for me was the decision to walk into our Weight
Watcher studio we had here in town.
(11:55):
Mom and I had just helped Dad transition, position and mom was my number one.
She wasn't getting any younger and I wasn't getting any healthier.
And I knew if I didn't do something, I would not be able to do for her what we just did for dad.
And I would not let that happen.
(12:15):
She had done so much for me over my life. I would be there for her.
So I walked in on a Friday and it changed my life.
It took some time, of course. I still hated myself.
I was wandering around in darkness and approached it as a diet with self abuse
because that's all I had never known. Diet, self abuse.
(12:39):
Eventually, I was approached and asked to be a coach. And I thought, me, a coach?
And I had to take a weekend to think about it.
But I remembered that little spark in me, something in me that liked to help
people feel good and help people and entertain people and cheer people up. Hmm.
(12:59):
This isn't the rock star I dreamed about being, but I decided to do it anyway.
It wasn't until the pandemic hit and I rapidly gained 40 pounds. Here we go again.
40 pounds of the 86 pounds I had lost. Here it comes back.
And I sat down with myself and I said, this madness has got to stop.
(13:21):
What are you going to do differently this time than you've done all those other times in the past?
How can this time be different? I'm so sick of fighting myself.
I was done. I couldn't do this anymore. more. And I said, well,
what if I actually liked myself this time?
Maybe even loved myself.
(13:43):
Got to know myself. What a concept. So each day I'd say in the mirror, Larry, I love you.
Now you have to understand, I never ever looked in a mirror, ever.
When I'd walk into a store, I'd look away so I didn't see myself in the reflection.
I would never look in a mirror. This was not easy for me, and I would laugh every time.
(14:10):
I would tell my workshops I was doing it, and I would laugh as I would tell them.
It was hilarious to me that I could love me.
As I continued this daily for a few months, one day I was looking in the mirror,
and I got chills. I didn't laugh.
I didn't look away. It was just, wow.
(14:34):
I saw through my eyes. I saw a person there with facial hair and wrinkles and
gray hair and flaws and skin and bones.
And you know what? It was all okay.
It actually was better than okay.
(14:55):
The thing that really made a difference for me was the Weight Watchers techniques
that we studied every week.
Since I was coaching them and had to study them to give the lesson to everyone,
I always went above and beyond and went outside whatever Weight Watchers provided us.
And I would research whatever the topic was and really learn about it from a member perspective.
(15:18):
It made me learn so much about me, and it made me finally understand that I
was worth all the learning in the world.
It was finally time to put work in on me.
As I became more of who I am and more comfortable with me, everything unfolded
(15:42):
right before my eyes and imploded.
Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. Here it was.
I was just slapped across the face with it, and now I have no options.
God grant me the serenity because I have no other choice.
(16:02):
So, I took control of what I could. I took control of my binging.
I knew I was going to need the comfort from binging, and I wasn't going to shame myself for it.
So I would control it, and Fridays would be my day to eat whatever I wanted,
however much I wanted, and I would cry as much as I wanted on Fridays.
(16:26):
All other days were going to be doctors and mom and handling it.
And I would handle it. And I did. And I did not gain weight.
I held off the 50 pounds that I had lost. I kept it off during all that stress.
(16:49):
It's important to say that when I had became a coach, something in me told me
to create the Evolution of Larry page on Facebook as one of my very first things
I did when I started employment.
I knew I had to be real and upfront, not with the public, although that is what I do.
I always put it all out there, But I wanted to be real with Larry,
(17:12):
which had never happened before that moment.
There is where all the healing began. There is where Larry's losers began.
There is where losing a lot more than just weight began.
Those lessons of loving myself, learning myself. If I hadn't learned those before
(17:38):
mom got sick, I seriously would not have made it.
I gained 150 pounds with dad without those lessons.
And I can assure you, I would not be here going through lung cancer with mom. I would not have made it.
(17:58):
So now mom is gone. And now what is my purpose? us.
Well, I'm not a rock star. I can tell you, I'm not a rock star.
Mom said to me two days before she left, you are a grown man,
Larry, and you'll be just fine.
And you know what? She's absolutely right.
(18:21):
Mom is always right. You know, life sucks without her, but I'm fine.
I've surrounded myself with the most beautiful losers.
They've gotten me through so many times, so many things, good and bad.
I've just had to evict my drug addict brother from our childhood home,
(18:42):
and I'm about to move on from that so I can have peace there finally.
It's been horrible, horrible stress. Work with Weight Watchers was becoming too stressful.
It was too much, too constrictive, and the universe had other ideas for me.
As this podcast was unfolding and our private VIP group was being established,
(19:04):
we now have our own loser masterclass Zooms where we explore topics about health and wellness.
We support and lift each other up. I get to cheer them up and entertain,
counsel and listen to them, etc.
Does any of this sound familiar? I'm telling you now that that child back on that split rail fence,
(19:28):
that child that was singing for Grandma Garrett and Mary Dee,
that wanted to be a rock star and make people happy,
make people forget about their problems,
that kid has grown up and is talking to you right now.
My dreams have come true and I couldn't be happier.
(19:50):
This path has led me right to you, and there's no stopping me.
I'm so excited to see what happens next.
And trust me, there's already more planned. So get excited.
Now think about your childhood dreams and what your purpose in life is.
(20:12):
We are talking about this this week in our Loser Masterclasses. Finding our Ikigai.
You didn't know I was fluent in Japanese, did you? I'm not. I just have learned that word.
Ikigai, what drives your soul? And our first response is our families or our
jobs or something outside of ourselves because we are caretakers.
(20:36):
But that's what got us sick in the first place.
We need to care for ourselves and find our own purpose in this life.
Find us in this life. because we finally matter.
Let me know what you discover about you.
(20:56):
Keep in touch at LarrysLosers22 on Instagram. The Evolution of Larry on Facebook.
And on there, ask to join our private LarrysLosers VIP group on Facebook,
where our loser family gathers.
We even have our own health and wellness Zooms where everyone is invited.
(21:19):
Lots of ways to stay connected. So please join us. If you're liking the work
of this podcast, I've left my Venmo for donations, and on Facebook,
there's lots of other ways to give too.
I just cannot put into words how grateful I am.
Music.
(21:46):
Now, before I leave you, here's some words of wisdom.
There is no greater gift to give or receive than to honor your calling.
It's why you were born and how you become most truly alive.
(22:11):
Live. It's our time to live.
Thanks so much for listening. See you next time. Love you all.
Music.
(23:02):
Music.
Music.
(01:06):
There's my traveling circus band, the Larry's Loser Orchestra.
I don't actually have a circus because I don't believe in keeping wild animals in captivity.
So I just keep the Loser Orchestra in captivity. Captivity.
(01:29):
Captivity. And that's a new word. I keep the Loser Orchestra in captivity constantly
because they practice constantly.
But listen to the results, right?
Beautiful. Yes. They are amazing.
Beautiful. They are amazing. Yes.
(01:53):
Cheer them on. Yes. Thank you.
Music.
Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you.
Yes. Welcome to our ninth episode of Loser Talk with Laird, losing a lot more than just weight.
I'm so excited that you're here with me listening.
(02:14):
It means so much to me that this podcast is resonating with so many of you,
and I know it's sparking so many self-reflections that are being brought up
in our Loser Zooms, and I'm loving our conversations about it.
Speaking of our Loser Zooms. You can join us for them.
Find me on Larry's Losers 22 on Instagram, The Evolution of Larry on Facebook.
(02:42):
Ask on there to join our private exclusive Larry's Losers VIP group on Facebook.
Our Loser family is gathering and growing with lots of ways to celebrate our
health health, and wellness.
On there, you will find the information to connect with us on our Zooms.
(03:03):
Everyone wanting to get healthier is invited.
We'd love for you to join us. If you're liking the work of this podcast,
I provided the link to my Venmo for you to gift.
And on Facebook, there's lots of other ways to donate also.
I'm so grateful for you being here with me.
(03:23):
Did you ever have big dreams about what you wanted to be when you grew up?
What did that path look like?
Looking back now, did any of it unfold the way you thought?
I'm sure at first glance, you might be thinking, no, it went entirely different
in a different direction.
(03:44):
But maybe if you look closely, it went exactly the way you envisioned in the first place.
Really think about that as I tell my story.
If you've been listening to these
podcasts, you've heard my stories of my childhood and my family dynamics.
(04:08):
My mother's father was an alcoholic, so that gene was hiding inside us kids,
and it was sparked when my father left us when I was three.
My brother and sister, 12 and 13, they never were able to pull them out of the
dismal abyss of self-abuse that came along with their alcoholism and my brother's drug addiction.
(04:31):
My family lost my sister, Lara, at six months, and I arrived about a year and a half later.
So as you can imagine, there's just a lot of anxiety, stress, depression, etc.
Mom remarried when I was five to my stepdad, who was my dad my whole life.
He had five kids of his own, So that made eight of us. So that had its special stressors.
(04:57):
I was the youngest. So I got a bird's eye view of everything that was about
to happen over the years.
And as I talked about it in the last two podcasts, I was raised differently
than my brothers and sisters.
Because I believe, number one, to be honest with you, mom had some resentment
toward me for not being her little girl that she had suddenly lost and had no
(05:21):
control over on keeping her here.
And I was sickly with extreme asthma, and I scared her to death.
And number two, my brother and sister were turning out to be issues,
and she didn't want that for me.
So I know deep down things were going to be different for me, and they were.
(05:42):
Now I know all this sounds very sad, and you're probably thinking,
what a horrible childhood.
And that really is not the case at all. I had the most supportive parents that
loved me. Our family was loud.
We laughed a lot, mostly at each other.
We yelled at each other. We cried a lot. Very emotional.
Dad had a temper. Mom had a temper. Ask our neighbors.
(06:07):
I'm sure. I remember being happy and having everything I ever wanted.
But I also remember worrying about things always, too.
Worrying about the worrier, my mom. She was always smoking her cigarettes,
quiet, crying alone sometimes, outside at night.
I'd sit with her in silence.
(06:29):
Sometimes she'd have long talks with me. And as I got older,
my conversation skills developed more. My coaching skills developed more as
I studied. I was learning.
Trust me, I was learning.
I remember when I was eight years old, I was visiting with my grandma Garrett,
and our family friend was visiting from northern Indiana.
(06:53):
I was so excited. It was Mary D.
I loved her. She was a great friend of my grandma's, and I had a chance to be with the grown-ups.
Any chance to sit and hear them talk and tell their stories was so fascinating to me.
I always remembered I wanted to make everyone happy. I wanted to cheer everyone up.
(07:16):
I had the perfect opportunity at this point because Grandma wanted me to sing
for them. Oh my God, I was so excited.
So I got on stage, which there wasn't a stage, but play along with me, people.
I got up and sang Way in the Manger. And boy, did they go crazy.
(07:36):
Of course, it was the best rendition they had ever heard.
Anything I ever did was the best thing anyone ever did.
Grandma always made sure I felt that. She was my love.
I knew right then I wanted to make people happy.
I wanted people to feel good, to laugh, not to be sad anymore.
(07:56):
This would carry me throughout my life. As I'm sitting here writing this,
it actually started before that.
If you'll remember the episode where I would sit on the split rail fence and
read books and sing to the cows as they would gather around me at age five to six.
See, it starts early.
(08:17):
So my passion for music is ignited, but I'm always standing back and learning.
Life's lessons too, learning those lessons.
Homegrown psychology. As it's best, at its best, and boy did I have the best teachers.
I studied my music and I practiced and knew I wanted to do that as a career.
(08:38):
But how could I turn that into money? I had to live, right? Now,
no one has ever been able to tell Larry, no, I can do anything I set my mind to.
So I knew if it was supposed to happen, it would.
So I kept working and I had psychology as backup in case.
(08:59):
God forbid parents say, absolutely not. You cannot blah, blah.
I start getting courted by Berklee College of Music in Boston. Say what? Me?
Boston? Berkeley? I just could not imagine.
Well, I could. And I did. And mom and dad never said no. Not once.
(09:23):
They didn't say no one time. Mom said her, if there's a will,
there's a way. And there was.
So I went. And I did.
And I loved it. And it was everything I needed and wanted.
I needed to not be in Indiana. I needed to be away and learn other life and grow beyond.
(09:45):
And I did. And I had my music.
But then when I graduated, I came back home and I got lost in the madness of what am I? Who am I?
I felt like I lost my music and my direction.
I started waiting tables and doing meaningless jobs, drinking every night to forget who I was.
(10:08):
Well, I didn't even know who I was in the first place. I didn't want to know. I was embarrassed.
I didn't do it. I wasn't the rock star I set out to be. I was a failure.
I didn't make anyone happy, including myself.
I lost my way, and I was miserable. I hated myself.
(10:28):
I had moments of success with good money and nice things now,
but none of it meant anything because I was wandering around in darkness without my purpose.
I lost my direction in life, and
something had to shake me out of this nightmare, or I was going to die.
I finally started feeling like I needed to get my priorities straight again
(10:53):
and mom needed help with dad.
So that's when I moved home to help with him as he had two open heart surgeries
and all the doctor's appointments.
I rapidly gained 150 pounds. I was swollen with a death halo,
the stress and sickness helping him transition, but I was proud of mom and myself
(11:14):
for all the work we did to get him through.
Then I moved out on my own again and sat around and felt sorry for myself for a couple years.
And one day at almost 400 pounds, as I was walking up my front steps, my foot snapped.
The weight of my body finally crushed through my foot.
(11:34):
My body was done. It was giving up on me, telling me to do something now.
I struggled with that foot not healing for three years, and surgery ended up helping me.
But what was the ultimate help for me was the decision to walk into our Weight
Watcher studio we had here in town.
(11:55):
Mom and I had just helped Dad transition, position and mom was my number one.
She wasn't getting any younger and I wasn't getting any healthier.
And I knew if I didn't do something, I would not be able to do for her what we just did for dad.
And I would not let that happen.
(12:15):
She had done so much for me over my life. I would be there for her.
So I walked in on a Friday and it changed my life.
It took some time, of course. I still hated myself.
I was wandering around in darkness and approached it as a diet with self abuse
because that's all I had never known. Diet, self abuse.
(12:39):
Eventually, I was approached and asked to be a coach. And I thought, me, a coach?
And I had to take a weekend to think about it.
But I remembered that little spark in me, something in me that liked to help
people feel good and help people and entertain people and cheer people up. Hmm.
(12:59):
This isn't the rock star I dreamed about being, but I decided to do it anyway.
It wasn't until the pandemic hit and I rapidly gained 40 pounds. Here we go again.
40 pounds of the 86 pounds I had lost. Here it comes back.
And I sat down with myself and I said, this madness has got to stop.
(13:21):
What are you going to do differently this time than you've done all those other times in the past?
How can this time be different? I'm so sick of fighting myself.
I was done. I couldn't do this anymore. more. And I said, well,
what if I actually liked myself this time?
Maybe even loved myself.
(13:43):
Got to know myself. What a concept. So each day I'd say in the mirror, Larry, I love you.
Now you have to understand, I never ever looked in a mirror, ever.
When I'd walk into a store, I'd look away so I didn't see myself in the reflection.
I would never look in a mirror. This was not easy for me, and I would laugh every time.
(14:10):
I would tell my workshops I was doing it, and I would laugh as I would tell them.
It was hilarious to me that I could love me.
As I continued this daily for a few months, one day I was looking in the mirror,
and I got chills. I didn't laugh.
I didn't look away. It was just, wow.
(14:34):
I saw through my eyes. I saw a person there with facial hair and wrinkles and
gray hair and flaws and skin and bones.
And you know what? It was all okay.
It actually was better than okay.
(14:55):
The thing that really made a difference for me was the Weight Watchers techniques
that we studied every week.
Since I was coaching them and had to study them to give the lesson to everyone,
I always went above and beyond and went outside whatever Weight Watchers provided us.
And I would research whatever the topic was and really learn about it from a member perspective.
(15:18):
It made me learn so much about me, and it made me finally understand that I
was worth all the learning in the world.
It was finally time to put work in on me.
As I became more of who I am and more comfortable with me, everything unfolded
(15:42):
right before my eyes and imploded.
Mom was diagnosed with lung cancer. Here it was.
I was just slapped across the face with it, and now I have no options.
God grant me the serenity because I have no other choice.
(16:02):
So, I took control of what I could. I took control of my binging.
I knew I was going to need the comfort from binging, and I wasn't going to shame myself for it.
So I would control it, and Fridays would be my day to eat whatever I wanted,
however much I wanted, and I would cry as much as I wanted on Fridays.
(16:26):
All other days were going to be doctors and mom and handling it.
And I would handle it. And I did. And I did not gain weight.
I held off the 50 pounds that I had lost. I kept it off during all that stress.
(16:49):
It's important to say that when I had became a coach, something in me told me
to create the Evolution of Larry page on Facebook as one of my very first things
I did when I started employment.
I knew I had to be real and upfront, not with the public, although that is what I do.
I always put it all out there, But I wanted to be real with Larry,
(17:12):
which had never happened before that moment.
There is where all the healing began. There is where Larry's losers began.
There is where losing a lot more than just weight began.
Those lessons of loving myself, learning myself. If I hadn't learned those before
(17:38):
mom got sick, I seriously would not have made it.
I gained 150 pounds with dad without those lessons.
And I can assure you, I would not be here going through lung cancer with mom. I would not have made it.
(17:58):
So now mom is gone. And now what is my purpose? us.
Well, I'm not a rock star. I can tell you, I'm not a rock star.
Mom said to me two days before she left, you are a grown man,
Larry, and you'll be just fine.
And you know what? She's absolutely right.
(18:21):
Mom is always right. You know, life sucks without her, but I'm fine.
I've surrounded myself with the most beautiful losers.
They've gotten me through so many times, so many things, good and bad.
I've just had to evict my drug addict brother from our childhood home,
(18:42):
and I'm about to move on from that so I can have peace there finally.
It's been horrible, horrible stress. Work with Weight Watchers was becoming too stressful.
It was too much, too constrictive, and the universe had other ideas for me.
As this podcast was unfolding and our private VIP group was being established,
(19:04):
we now have our own loser masterclass Zooms where we explore topics about health and wellness.
We support and lift each other up. I get to cheer them up and entertain,
counsel and listen to them, etc.
Does any of this sound familiar? I'm telling you now that that child back on that split rail fence,
(19:28):
that child that was singing for Grandma Garrett and Mary Dee,
that wanted to be a rock star and make people happy,
make people forget about their problems,
that kid has grown up and is talking to you right now.
My dreams have come true and I couldn't be happier.
(19:50):
This path has led me right to you, and there's no stopping me.
I'm so excited to see what happens next.
And trust me, there's already more planned. So get excited.
Now think about your childhood dreams and what your purpose in life is.
(20:12):
We are talking about this this week in our Loser Masterclasses. Finding our Ikigai.
You didn't know I was fluent in Japanese, did you? I'm not. I just have learned that word.
Ikigai, what drives your soul? And our first response is our families or our
jobs or something outside of ourselves because we are caretakers.
(20:36):
But that's what got us sick in the first place.
We need to care for ourselves and find our own purpose in this life.
Find us in this life. because we finally matter.
Let me know what you discover about you.
(20:56):
Keep in touch at LarrysLosers22 on Instagram. The Evolution of Larry on Facebook.
And on there, ask to join our private LarrysLosers VIP group on Facebook,
where our loser family gathers.
We even have our own health and wellness Zooms where everyone is invited.
(21:19):
Lots of ways to stay connected. So please join us. If you're liking the work
of this podcast, I've left my Venmo for donations, and on Facebook,
there's lots of other ways to give too.
I just cannot put into words how grateful I am.
Music.
(21:46):
Now, before I leave you, here's some words of wisdom.
There is no greater gift to give or receive than to honor your calling.
It's why you were born and how you become most truly alive.
(22:11):
Live. It's our time to live.
Thanks so much for listening. See you next time. Love you all.
Music.
(23:02):
Music.
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