“I might have believed the actual weight loss, but not the productivity or how I feel. It was the other things (other than weight) I didn’t realize could improve.”
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Chris came to work at SparkPeople nearly one year ago, on Tax Day 2002. Before he came to SparkPeople, exercise, nutrition and sleep all took a back seat to work. Chris was easily working 60 hours a week and stayed up past 3 a.m. once or twice a week. He was sedentary, slept less than 6 hours a night and was eating lots of red meat, heavy starches and fried food. Only 5-foot-9, Chris weighed nearly 230 pounds.
But during the past year, he has turned himself from completely out of shape to a lean, mean, in shape machine. The motivation to get into shape came his first day at SparkPeople, when he had to catch his breath just walking up the steps! He knew it was time to do something, but he also knew if he was going to be in it for the long haul, he could not keep up his lifestyle of quick highs, followed by crashes. He needed a strong foundation, and gave the SparkPeople System a shot.
In May, he meet with SparkPeople Coach Joe Bonin, who was mainly working with older and “at risk” clients. This was another wake-up call for Chris; he realized just how out of shape he really was. He started slowly, first working on his strength, then his cardio. During the first two to three months, Chris lost a dozen pounds of fat and gained basically the same amount in lean muscle tissue. He was getting stronger, as well as running a lot, but his weight was still the same and his diet was still pretty out of whack.
This started to change when Phase II of Chris’ fitness plan hit. This came during the beginning of fall, when he ran his first 5K race. Not only was this a breakthrough for Chris’ fitness, it also inspired him to tackle his mismanaged diet. He started paying attention to what he ate. Along with that, he started sleeping a little bit better. He was now averaging 7 hours of sleep per night. The combination of the two lead to a drastic reduction in Chris’ stress. He now had a strong foundation; it was time for some serious weight loss.
In November, Chris switched coaches, from Joe B. to Joe Downie. Coach Joe D. was working with more of the younger and fitter group, so it was kind of like an upgrade for Chris. Right away, they dived in to more high-level circuits. And right away, Chris started to see some major weight loss.
Chris now weighs in the low 190’s; he even dipped down to 189 at one point. He continues to work with Joe D., along with a few of his co-workers, twice a week. Also, he is now a health nut. He regularly eats fruits, green vegetables, complex carbohydrates, protein and nearly 100 ounces of water a day. His sleep continues to improve; he now goes to bed between 10 and 10:30 p.m. and gets between 8 and 9 hours of sleep a night.
Perhaps most importantly, Chris is now more energetic and productive than ever before. Instead of the continuous highs and lows he experienced before he started with the SparkPeople System, he is now consistently feeling strong throughout the day.
If you would have asked Chris when he started working at SparkPeople if he would have thought he could accomplish so much in a year, his answer would have been no. “I might have believed the actual weight loss, but not the productivity or how I feel. It was the other things (other than weight) I didn’t realize could improve,” said Chris.
Along the way, Chris has hit many milestones. After running his first 5K during the fall, he continued to push himself with cardio training. Soon after he ran the 5K, he ran a 10K. Then in March he achieved something he is extremely proud of, running a 15K. He ran the Cincinnati Mini-Heart Marathon on March 24th. His goal was to run at an average speed of just less than 10 minutes per mile. He crushed this goal, running at an average of 9 minutes per mile.
Despite his overabundance of success, he still has many goals of all sizes he wants to accomplish. A small one he wants to accomplish is touching the top of a doorway at the SP Coaching office. The height of the top of the doorway is 9 feet, 7 inches, much higher than his 5-foot-9 frame. Yet Chris is oh-so-ever close to reaching the top and attempts it a few times every time he works out.
Even after losing nearly 40 pounds, Chris is still shooting for more. He says he ideally would like to weigh between 175 and 180 pounds. However, he says his weight is less important to him now; taking precedence is how he feels and the different systems he uses to live a full life.
A dream of Chris’ is to hike the Appalachian Trail, a 2,160-mile hike from Georgia to Maine. The hike normally takes five to six months to complete and is an emotional and physical challenge, something Chris looks forward to.
Chris has gone from borderline obesity, bad diet and poor sleeping habits to a healthy, physically fit individual who gets a large amount of sleep and eats a nutritious diet, just within a year’s time! He is just another great success story from the SparkPeople System.
These days, it's not uncommon to make decisions that affect your health based on information that you find on the Internet. But can you trust the weight loss advice you find on Internet message boards?
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Research Study Recommends SparkPeople
