Brian Loses 23 pounds and Makes a Huge Impact on His Family!

 “I am not an athlete, I’m a baseball player.”  John Kruk, former professional baseball player.  Growing up my favorite sport was baseball.  One didn’t really need to be an athlete to play, heck you only had to run 90 ft. at a time.  Anyone can do that!!!   Most of the game was standing and waiting for you opportunity to throw the ball, hit the ball or catch the ball.  Not much athleticism was required.  I was always strong but not at all fit.  And slow.  Man I was SLOW!!!!!!Brian 3.0 began as a result of an illness, but not mine.  My family took a vacation to Washington DC and Norfolk VA in 2017. It was a last east coast hurrah before my son transferred his Navy duty station from Portsmouth Naval Hospital to TwentyNine Palms California.   Everything was fine; lots of hiking, walking, sightseeing, and touristy stuff.   We got home on Saturday, lazed around on Sunday and back to work on Monday.   My wife, Val, went to work at her new job, day 5, and all seemed ok until early afternoon.  She started to get a little light headed and dizzy so she went to urgent care to be seen.  They completed a quick exam and immediately sent her to the ER.  They thought she was having a stroke or heart attack.    Well long story short, Val left the hospital after 5 days unable to walk unless she was using a walker.  Lots of tests with more to come but no real explanation.  As time passed by, Vals condition worsened to the point where the walker wasn’t doable anymore if we left the house.  In the beginning Val was barely able to transfer herself from her new wheelchair to the car and back.  As her legs and lower half got weaker, the task of transferring became undoable.  At first, I didn’t have to do too much to help but it got to the point where I was doing all the lifting and it was a real struggle.  I needed to get stronger so I could help.   That’s where my journey with Freighthouse Fitness began.It June 2017 when I walked through the door.  I was familiar with FHF because one of my sons high school teammates on the football and wrestling teams was a trainer there.  My goal when I walked in the door was to get stronger and it needed to happen fast.   Not fast because I wanted a quick fix, fast because I needed to help Val.   The gym is just a few minutes from my office so that couldn’t be an excuse not to go.  The training was exactly what I needed.  Planned out, scheduled, instructions, and I didn’t have to think.  Just do the work.   I think that’s why this gym works for me.   It didn’t take too long to really start seeing changes.  Slimming down, but more importantly getting stronger.  Within a month or so I was able to lift Val from wheelchair to car and car to wheelchair with one arm.  Mission accomplished!!!!!  But now that wasn’t enough for me.  New goals.  Well not really goals, I haven’t set any real goals yet.  Maybe someday!!!!Fast forward to 7 weeks ago.  When I started at Freighthouse I weighed 217 lbs, wore XL shirts and snug 36 inch waste pants.  I had dropped to as low as 200 but was kind of stuck at 203 - 205  lbs.  I hadn’t measured anything when I started so I didn’t have a baseline.   It wasn’t the effort in the gym that was the issue.  I was attending 2 classes a day, plus doing 12 minutes of Tabata between classes 6 or 7 days a week.  The one thing missing was the diet.  It had never changed.  I hadn’t really thought too much about it.   So for 6 weeks I modified my diet and added running to my workouts.   Most of my previous dieting attempts had focused on eliminating carbs so trying to get 50% of my calories from carbs was hard.  I think I was in the neighborhood of the macro ratios one day.  Carbs were always the hardest to reach.  If I hit the carbs, the fat was too high. It just never worked out.Wow, what you can do when you really set your mind to something.   The last week of the challenge was the easiest for me because of the meals.   Protein, protein and water.  YES!!!!!!  I ate 6 pounds of chicken, 3 dozen eggs, steak, etc.  It was nearly heaven except I wanted peanut butter and honey on a tortilla more than once.     All total, I lost 23+ lbs  and 6 inches around my waste.   My chest was slightly bigger(yeah muscle!!!).   I bought my first medium shirts, medium shorts and I can now fit in an old pair of 32 inch jeans that I should have thrown away years ago.Its still a work in progress and I will never really be happy with where I am.  I will thank my dad for that.  ;-)My next goal will to be to get to 172 lbs without extraordinary measures(sipping on ice chips) and to do 20 pullups.  SOMEDAY!!!!In my pictures of my back you should see an 8 inch scar down the middle of my spine.  That was the closure to Brian 2.0.  Come talk to me about it sometime so I can tell you how exercise saved me.

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