Bryant McGill

Bryant McGill: There were a couple. One of them was that I was at an event nearly a decade ago. At that time I had been the front page cover story of the Wall Street Journal, and my phone was ringing off the hook. And I was the popular guy, at least for 15 minutes. So I went to this red carpet event. There were all types of people there, like John Travolta, Jenny McCarthy, and all these sophisticated people; as a newcomer I was way out of my element. I am standing on the red carpet and reporters were asking me what I was there representing that night.

I was a redneck from Alabama. Everyone there was dressed so fancy and I was wearing cheap superstore jeans because it’s all I could find to fit my 50” waist. The sweat was rolling down my face. I was aching. I was panting under the bright camera lights because I was so morbidly obese. I weighed 100 pounds more than I weight right now. I said I’m here, as I was huffing and puffing, to talk about world peace.

I had an epiphany in that moment. I realized that I was a total hypocrite. I was there speaking about world peace but I was treating my precious, beautiful body with supreme violence. I was there talking about poverty in the world and starvation, and I was eating more than my fair share. I was ashamed of myself. I made a decision shortly afterwards. I did a lot of reflecting, and I made a decision that I needed to have parity and integrity with my message if I was going to be taken seriously. Otherwise, I was just a joke, and so I decided to start loving myself and taking care of myself and trying to apply some of the things that I had been talking about to my own life. That was a pivotal moment for me.