Former US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has lost 90 pounds weight in over six months and termed it a "lifetime struggle" for him.
In an interview with The New York Post, Pompeo said that "It all started on June 14, 2021, when he stepped on the scale and saw he was just pounds away from 300 for the first time in his life."
The next morning, he said, he woke up and told his wife, Susan: "Today is the day." He added that "I started exercising, not every day, but nearly every day, and eating right and the weight just started to come off."
Pompeo, 58, said he invested in a home gym in his basement with some dumbbells and an elliptical machine. "I tried to get down there five, six times a week and stay at it for a half-hour or so. And that was nothing scientific. There was no trainer, there was no dietician. It was just me," he said.
The weight started piling on when he was first elected to Congress as a representative for Kansas in 2010, Pompeo said, adding "Although the truth is losing weight has been a lifetime struggle for me."
"For me it's about getting it right and being sufficiently disciplined," he said.
The New York Post reported that the gone were the cheeseburgers, carbs and sugary treats that lingered beside Pompeo computer as he worked long into the night -- or traveled with him on long flights across the world.
But the change in diet hasn't changed family restaurant traditions.
"We still go there as a family -- it's important to not take those traditions away. Now we get egg whites and turkey bacon," he said.
"For our family, food is where we gather. We are Italian and we like to get together around a good meal of pasta and bread and cheeses and dessert. We are still going to enjoy these big meals with family and friends except I am going to be the guy that says, 'Yeah, I'll have a salad,'" he said, laughing.
"It was a virtuous cycle instead of the vicious one that I had been in, and I've managed to lose the high side of 90 pounds in six months."
Meanwhile, Pompeo said he hopes his journey will inspire others struggling with obesity to lose weight.
"It is hard, and it's not permanent. There's no guarantees that I'll still be at whatever I weigh now, but if you realize that good things can happen if you keep at it, you can do it as well," he noted.
Pompeo said he gets it. "No one wants to admit they have gained weight or are overweight even if all the evidence points otherwise."
His weight loss came with plenty of social media speculation. Pompeo said none of the comments were particularly complimentary.
"The posts were pretty nasty or just inaccurate, speculating that I had health issues with my neck, or that I had cancer," he said, adding "Nobody ever called me and really asked, 'Hey, what happened?'"
Pompeo served from 2018 to 2021 as the 70th secretary of state in the Trump administration after a brief stint as the director of the CIA and three terms in Congress.
( With inputs from ANI )
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