Michael Prager
Michael Prager was a daily newspaper journalist for 30 years, most recently for 14 years at the Boston Globe, where he led the Life at Home section, helped edit several other sections, wrote regularly about the arts and magazines, and created dozens of graphics. He accepted a buyout in 2007 and now works to spread the ideas contained in his first book, "Fat Boy Thin Man," and in the forthcoming "It Matters: Eight Concepts To Sustain Personal Change."
Michael's prime example of sustainable change is maintaining a 155-pound loss for more than 20 years, after being overweight from childhood, weighing more than 300 pounds for much of the years between ages 15 and 33, and reaching 365 in October 1991. When he wasn't over 300 pounds during those years, he was losing weight impressively; twice he lost more than 130 pounds, but was unable to remain at a stable weight for more than a few days.
His first book looked at the experiences of weight loss, including widespread bullying, self-shaming, and isolation, as well as the changes in attitudes, ideas, and practices that have led to and sustained his transformation.
In his second book, he has taken a step back to explore and explain concepts for sustainable personal change that individuals can apply to whatever professional, social or other issues are holding them back from growth and fulfillment.
Prager's family life illustrates the breadth and power of change. When he thought, as many overweight people do, that the answer to his obesity was a diet, he was able to lose weight but achieved none of the stability in life that he craved. Despite the tremendous focus that years of frustration can bring, Prager did not find his first girlfriend until he was 36. Now, he's married 10 years and the father of a boy approaching 5. The family lives in Arlington, Mass.
In addition to his books and his speaking career, Prager regularly blogs at michaelprager.com on food, eating, and other issues that straddle the lines of planetary and personal sustainability.
Michael Prager was a daily newspaper journalist for 30 years, most recently for 14 years at the Boston Globe, where he led the Life at Home section, helped edit several other sections, wrote regularly about the arts and magazines, and created dozens of graphics. He accepted a buyout in 2007 and now works to spread the ideas contained in his first book, "Fat Boy Thin Man," and in the forthcoming "It Matters: Eight Concepts To Sustain Personal Change."
Michael's prime example of sustainable change is maintaining a 155-pound loss for more than 20 years, after being overweight from childhood, weighing more than 300 pounds for much of the years between ages 15 and 33, and reaching 365 in October 1991. When he wasn't over 300 pounds during those years, he was losing weight impressively; twice he lost more than 130 pounds, but was unable to remain at a stable weight for more than a few days.
His first book looked at the experiences of weight loss, including widespread bullying, self-shaming, and isolation, as well as the changes in attitudes, ideas, and practices that have led to and sustained his transformation.
In his second book, he has taken a step back to explore and explain concepts for sustainable personal change that individuals can apply to whatever professional, social or other issues are holding them back from growth and fulfillment.
Prager's family life illustrates the breadth and power of change. When he thought, as many overweight people do, that the answer to his obesity was a diet, he was able to lose weight but achieved none of the stability in life that he craved. Despite the tremendous focus that years of frustration can bring, Prager did not find his first girlfriend until he was 36. Now, he's married 10 years and the father of a boy approaching 5. The family lives in Arlington, Mass.
In addition to his books and his speaking career, Prager regularly blogs at michaelprager.com on food, eating, and other issues that straddle the lines of planetary and personal sustainability.
Why diets won't help food addicts
In a nation where two of three adults, and one of three children, are overweight or obese, many have tried repeatedly to reduce their body size, only to gain it all back or fail to lose at all. The result is battered self esteem and ever-deeper demoralization.
But what if, for some, the issue isn't laziness or low moral fiber, as many critics would argue?
Easily more than 10 million Americans are food addicts. Until they realize it, and accept the practices for recovery...
Sustainable You
Viewed most usefully, sustainability is a personal issue more than an environmental one, and self-interest is the only motivation toward it that anyone needs. Prager illustrates this case with stories of growing up fat and becoming obese before building an escape from it now extending more than 20 years.
Lifestyle = Work Style
Disengaged employees cost US businesses more than half a trillion dollars a year, and data show that the way to reach them is through programs that relate to them on health and lifestyle. "Lifestyle = Work Style" makes a self-interested case to employees that engagement is personally rewarding.
Member Of
