BEFORE: A typical day food was definitely a lot of fast food. I was eating pizza several times a week, a lot of takeout, a lot of delivery, very, very little fresh food. I have a tough job and I put plenty of hours in. So it was very easy to come home to and call and let somebody else do the work.

THE TURNING POINT: My aha moment was I had a colleague at a conference who very bluntly asked me how I’d let myself get so fat. It really stung and so that was when I realized that I had to do something about it, and that’s when I started seeking out things. Now, I actually thank him regularly. It’s pretty courageous for someone who is not a friend or a family member to step up and say something so blunt. So I’m very thankful about it.

GETTING STARTED: Every boot camp starts out with a mile run and a minute of sit-ups, a minute of push-ups, and a minute of dips. My first mile run I did in just under 10 minutes but I walked a good bit and most of it was spent trying not to vomit. So I finished up the run and I was feeling very, very sick. Fortunately, one of the other campers saw I was in distress and he offered me his water bottle. And that was the only thing that kept me from throwing up on day one.

STAYING ON COURSE: Group exercise programs are typically not terribly cheap. I had skin in the game and I’m like, “I’m not going to throw that investment away because the first day was tough.” And I really wanted to find out what I was capable of doing. You got to give it a chance.

WORDS OF WISDOM: I think it’s important to tell the story because there’s nothing particularly special about me. And what I want people to know is that anybody can do it. Anybody can do this. It’s possible. I mean no matter whether you’re 40, no matter whether you’re 200 pounds overweight, is that if you’re willing to make a commitment to it, that you can make these kind of changes.

TOOLS OF MY SUCCESS: Operation Boot Camp, a 30-day program that includes diet and hard-core exercise.