Here’s a success story from Paul Martens who placed 2nd in the Virgin Radio (Calgary) 12 week Health to Wealth $10,000 contest!
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Having just turned 39 years old late 2010, I had been struggling with my weight for years. I had let 50 pounds of body weight crawl onto my body. I had gone through a divorce and used video games as an escape, to take my mind off my troubles. The computer chair attached lifestyle became my body’s undoing. Kraft dinner, Pizza, burgers, fries and a coke were everyday meals it became a real problem as the weight poured on and I couldn’t go a day without taking at least 2 antacid pills. I became tired sluggish, my memory was failing me, it was like I was going through life in a fog as my performance in real life dropped at work as well.
I decided to lose the weight last year but I tried to change one thing at a time. Diet change, I ate 600-800 calories a day, boy did that only make the fog and sluggishness worse. Now I only wanted to stay in the chair further eroding my metabolism, no energy for moving around at all, let alone exercise. I was totally starving myself and I didn’t know it. I had no motivation, no energy, and when I tried to exercise and with that came massive headaches every single time I tried to workout with the lack of food it was debilitating. Clearly the weight gain, poor diet, lack of sleep and video gaming had hijacked my life and I needed to take control. I knew I had to put it all together.
The New Year came and I committed myself. I quit video games cold turkey, got my body composition and pictures taken for the Health to Wealth challenge the first day it was available to register at 7am on January 10th, signed up for additional sessions with my personal trainer, and perhaps most importantly scheduled an appointment with Dr. Kevin Ashby. Little did I know THIS WAS THE TURNING POINT. Kevin created a schedule that outlined exactly what to eat at what time of day and streamlined when I was supposed to exercise.
I won’t lie, the first few weeks were hard following his food schedule, eating certain amounts at certain times but honestly the food plan got easy!! I just kept following the plan. The weight was melting off at a predetermined weekly rate and the centimetres were coming off! This constant improvement was feeding on itself and steamrolled to an unbelievable change in only 12 weeks. Everyone I knew was complimenting me on how much younger and better I looked even 6 weeks into the challenge after losing 27 pounds at the halfway point. I was being stopped all the time by people I know, asking me what I did and how I lost all the weight and I was more than happy to exuberantly tell them. The thing is after 6 weeks the routine became EASY!! This is the single most important thing I could tell people. It became second nature to eat healthy, to exercise, and to sleep proper hours, my health was improving exponentially and I was only halfway done. Everyone needs to know this. It gets easier as you go and it propels itself. It was a self feeding machine.
By 12 weeks, the end of the challenge I HAD BLOWN PAST MY WEIGHT LOSS GOAL of 190 pounds. My weight had dropped from 230 pounds to 180 pounds over 22% of my weight and my body fat percentage had dropped from 24% to 11%. My pant size had gone from 38 to 32.
I used to finish a workout before the weight loss and I would be done, finished, tired the rest of the day. 50 pounds lighter and everything is easier. 12 weeks ago I was running 50 pounds heavier! I pick up my 50 pound daughter and I think “No way, I used to weigh this much more, why did I let that happen! “ I have renewed vigour and focus at work and at home and this is just the beginning of my transformation. I am going to keep up the healthy changes I have made. I have already set new expectations and objectives for myself while maintaining and improving my new self. I am determined to do something I have never done before in my life, in the 40th year of my life I am going to run a sub 3 hour marathon with the proper training, nutrition and rest. I have asked Dr. Ashby to create another plan to take me to 8% body fat and to accomplish this goal. I have no doubt with his guidance I will accomplish my goal.
Now whenever someone comes up to me and compliments me and then asks how I did it, I enthusiastically tell them every step of my journey and try to motivate them to do it for themselves. Nothing would make me happier than if my story helped someone else’s transformation and I hope I can inspire someone to begin their journey as well.
Thank you Dr Kevin Ashby, my daughter Jayde and my friends who all encouraged and supported me through my transformation!
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