MARTY FROM AVON LOSING WEIGHT WITH HIS PERSONAL TRAINER.
I knew that the road would not be easy, but I had to do something! Let’s take a quick trip back to March 2011. Got home from work and wasn’t feeling good, but attributed the pain in my side to having a few to many spicy wings while at lunch and figured it was indigestion. As the evening progressed I started to feel worse and worse. I couldn’t lay down, it hurt to stand up and I started to realize that it was my right side that was hurting me, not the left side. Called the nurse-on-call for our medical group and talked with her briefly. She was concerned and had the doctor-on-call get in touch with me. By this time it hurt to breath, but beyond that and the pain in my side I felt fine. The doctor called and didn’t like what they were hearing from me and advised me to go to the ER and make sure it wasn’t appendicitis.
Sure enough after a few tests and a scan of my abdominal area it was confirmed; inflamed appendix, I’m not leaving the hospital and will have surgery in the morning. Woke up around 4:30 in the morning with severe paid and hitting the call button to get the nurse into my room and get me some more pain killers. No dice, having surgery in an hour so I have to grin and bear it.
At that point I ask the nurse what my weight is.
That’s when I knew I was in trouble. 290 lbs., she’s got to be wrong, but deep down inside I know that was probably right.
I didn’t do too much in 2011 to start reversing the process. Yeah I talked about it and thought about it, but didn’t do any thing about it. Now it’s January / February 2012 and I know I have to do something, this is getting ridiculous! Just by chance I clicked on either DailyDealCleveland or one of those coupon-type sites and saw a coupon to try out Live Fit’s HIIT Boot Camp at a reduced rate. To make sure it wasn’t the type of place that pushed strict diets, supplements and other stuff like that I dropped them an email to feel them out. After reading their response I knew that I was going to try it out and if I liked it that I would sign up for more sessions. I hit my first session on a Thursday night with Craig and lasted only half the class, I was beat and couldn’t lift my legs or my arms. Friday came along and man I was sore! Saturday morning, got my butt out of bed and got in for the 8:00 session and you know what, I survived the whole class! Man I knew I found the right place to get back in shape! The instructors pushed you hard, but they made sure you were doing it right. After a few months I met my current trainer Heidi for the first time at a Saturday class. As first when I saw her in there I though she was a participant. BOY WAS I WRONG!
Fast forward a little bit into 2012 and things changed but it was a blessing in disguise. No more boot camps and the focus changed over to personal training. I showed up one evening hoping for a boot camp, but no luck. Instead I was offered a personal training session with Heidi. I figured that it couldn’t hurt. Yeah I was wrong on that one the next day! I consider myself to be very fortunate that by pure chance I ended up getting “teamed up” with Heidi. When I started working with Heidi I was at 247 lbs. in August 2012. Not bad, but still a ways off of my goal. About two weeks later and I’m down to 243 lbs. and dropped three inches. I’m feeling better, but still a ways to go to reaching my goal. Two months later (November 2012) and I’m down to 241 lbs. and a little disappointed in myself. But I had to remind myself that It took years to get to where I was in 2011 and that it would take time to get to where I wanted to be. Before 2012 ended I decided that I had two goals in 2013, Tackle the Tower was in February and I was determined to do it and I decided to start training for a 5K in May 2013. After the New Year rolled in, I decided to see if Heidi would join me in doing Tackle the Tower in February. Deep down I was hoping she would say “no” so that I had an excuse not to do it (oh great here I go again making excuses). Out of the blue Heidi gave a rather enthusiastic and surprising answer of “yes” to doing Tackle the Tower with me.
On February 2, 2013 Heidi and I competed in Tackle the Tower. Before I reveal my stats for that day I have to give congratulations to Heidi for her 3rd place finish in her age group. I saw Heidi take off on the first flight of stairs and my start was 10 second after hers. She disappeared from sight and I knew that it was now-or-never. All I heard was the word “GO” and I headed up the 38 flights of stairs that awaited me. My first goal was to finish and the second goal was to finish in less than 20 minutes. 9 minutes and 52.8 seconds later I saw Heidi waiting for me at the top. I survived but had to wait to see what my time was until about 4 hours later. When I saw my time later that day I just about fell out of my chair as I didn’t think I would do that good.
On March 9, 2013 I got weighed again and to my surprise, 221 lbs.! I have to thank Mike, Craig, Tom, Mark and Heidi at Live Fit Personal Training and Nutrition for getting me this far in just one year. If it wasn’t for the constant pushing, motivation and positive reinforcement I don’t think I would be where I am at today, only 21 lbs. away from my goal.
I also have to single outHeidi at this point in time. She’s been a HUGE inspiration with her hard work on her goals that she has. If anyone doubts what they can accomplish, just re-read this testimonial and put your trust in the Live Fit crew, they will work with you and get you to your goals by challenging you and at the same time making sure that you’re doing it right!
Thank you Live Fit!
