Wow, where to begin?
I am 41 years old and I have been overweight since I was 6. I don’t just mean overweight; I am morbidly obese and based upon the definition, (being more than 50-100% or more than 100 pounds above their ideal body weight) I have been morbidly obese since I was in middle school. I have spent thousands of dollars on weight loss programs, diet programs, exercise programs, and prescription weight loss plans none of which ever made a difference in my life. At my highest weight, I weighed almost 475 pounds!
Two and a half years ago, I had to have my gall bladder removed and begin my efforts again to lose the weight that was causing me to be miserable. I joined a gym and worked with a personal trainer twice a month, but after a few months my trainer had to switch gyms and the new trainer I was put with just didn’t know how to motivate me, so even though I lost some weight I just quit going. I managed to continue losing some weight but stayed right around 400 pounds. I would gain a few pounds, lose a few pounds, and gain a few pounds again. I felt like I was on an out of control roller coaster with no end in sight.
So, by now you are probably thinking okay so what happened to cause you to enter this transformation challenge? Well here is the answer. Sunday, May 15, 2011, I was in my Sunday school class at church, (My wife and I had just moved back to the Atlanta area after having been away for over a year.) and I heard this woman speaking of how her husband Mike Whitfield, had just received his certification to be a trainer for the Turbulence Training body transformation program. At the time I had no idea who Mike was, or what the TT program was, but that was soon to change because I was intrigued.
I went home that afternoon and looked Mike Whitfield up on Facebook to find out more about him. I was floored!! This guy knew from personal experience right where I was at because he had been there himself. I just knew I had to talk with him and try to get something started. So the following Sunday, I literally cornered him in Sunday school and told him I wanted to come talk to him and see what we could get worked out. On May 25th, I met with him at his gym and committed that day to taking the first steps toward a total transformation in both mind and body.
I started my journey on June 1st, 2011 at 380 pounds!!! I made a three month goal to see where I would be and at the end of those three months, I had dropped to around 345 pounds, and had lost 3 pants sizes. So you might be wondering what I have done in the last three months during this contest. Well, I now weigh in at 305 pounds, wear a size 46 in pants (they are still loose), and a size 2xl shirt. I can hardly believe where I once was when I look at myself now.
Let me do a recap of where I am now:
305 pounds (I am smaller than I was as a junior in high school!!!)
Size 46 pants (I used to wear a size 60)
Size 2xl shirt (I was once in a 5xlt)
Neck size is 17.5 inches used to be a 22.
Chest measures in at 52 instead of 64.
I no longer have to use the seat belt extender in the car.
And there will be so many more from here!! For me this wasn’t just about entering a contest to see if I could come out on top, (Well, okay maybe it was just a little bit), as I had already made a commitment with Mike to start complete a journey with him as my mentor, accountability partner, and friend – he has been all three of these, but it was to make some everlasting changes. Changes in how I see myself, how I choose to eat, when I choose to eat, when I choose to fast (love Brad Pilon’s Eat Stop Eat), and how to work out without doing endless, mind numbing cardio.
This contest was an opportunity to challenge myself to see where I could get to in twelve weeks. As much as I am hoping to make the final cut, and hopefully, take away full access to Craig’s site, in the eyes of my wife and family, I won that first day in May when I went to Mike and said, “Hey man I need your help. I can’t live another day of my life this way. If I don’t start today, it’ll just take me that much longer to get to where I need to be.” So I may not be buff like some of the other guys that you will see in their before and after pictures, but know that I am committed to working every day to a total transformation that will one day see me another 100 pounds down and hopefully, I can be the motivation for someone else like Mike Whitfield has been for me!!
