Fittest Loser

From Karen:  This has been the best 12 weeks of my life!  The knowledge that I have filled my brain with is the knowledge I need to continue a healthy lifestyle.  I KNOW that this is the life I must live forever to be successful with the “heavy life” I had been living.  I deeply miss the Push family and the other loser contestants, I have made friends I will have for the rest of the my life, and friends that have been thorough this journey with me and truly understand the challenges with living an overweight life.    I must move on to motivate myself, to push myself, and see this body of mine be under 200lbs.    I have a new workout location, have been given a 6-month free membership at Curves, and I am going to continue this lifestyle forever, its the new ME.  I am runing a 5k, yes I said RUN, in August and have to meet that challenge with full force.  I can WALK but to this day have not run so its something to work towards.  Thanks to everyone for your support.  I must go now and walk some stairs!  Tony “aka capt n crunch”  I would not have done this without you.  A miracle worker you are and I promise to make you proud.  I might be away in body but never in mind!  Thanks again!

From Matt:  Last night’s finale was unbelievable. I was overwhelmed by the amount of people that showed up to support us losers. Thank you to everyone that took time out of their lives to celebrate with us. Everyone was so positive. Dr. Paul’s numbers on how everyone improved were very impressive.
During the past 12 weeks, I had the opportunity to meet 6 other people that were also battling to get their health back. We each came from different backrounds, different ages, different personalities, but one common goal. To get our health back and live a long active life with our families. It was an absolute honor to be part of such a dedicated group of individuals that lost over 400 lbs.

From Matt:  With only 5 days remaining in the competition, it is a race to the finish. My guru mechanic has gotten the 64 Chevy hitting on all cylinders. The question is whether or not there is going to be enough fuel in the tank at the finish line. There is no holding back now. It is time to run the engine as hard as you can and hope for the best. I don’t want to look back and think there was something that I could have done that I didn’t risk. Pedal to the metal and head for the finish line. If you are looking to get your classic machine out of the garage and running, get in touch with my guru mechanic Mark Trapp at Push Fitness Schaumburg.

From Karen:  Same as the past three years,  I head to University of Illinois for Moms weekend. This being my last, it was an emotional adventure. I see a student that I have known for 3 years and he says “Mrs M. You look great! what are you doing?” I looked immediately at my son and said “you told him about my fittest loser.” My son said ” no.”  OK,  then it hit me…this 21 year old college student can see it…see the new me..the shrinking me coming out of the heavy me….I guess its true.. I now can say I do believe , I believe that it shows more than in the sagging clothes. Time to get back to fitness,  no time to blog …  its crunch time!

From Karen:  OK,  everyone I really need help here. I am beginning to worry about what my life will be like when this is all over! Its freaking me out.  I need a fitness center! I love the pool and want group exercise classes. I haven’t given up on the chances I can still work out at Push but I need other choices as well. This is stressing me out and all us LOSERS know stress is not a good thing in weight loss. I am OCD with planning and have things in order so now is the time to set up the next few months of my life.  Suggestions?????

From Matt:  We are in week 9 and feeling strong. Last week I was experiencing some intestinal cramping. They said that may have been a withdrawl from the statin that I was taken off of. The cramping has ended and I am feeling gooooood! My wellness guru has stirred the pot one more time and added some new treats into my exersice menu. This week there were more weight and muscle confusion circuits. He told me to grab two 20-pound dumbells and head for the stairs. When we got to the stairs he told me to climb up to the 6th floor and come back down, You know you have complete faith in your trainer when you don’t even question what he tells you. Three sets of those and I was gasping for air. I apologize to the maintenance department who probably thought there was a broken pipe from all of the water in the stairway from my sweat. The great part of working out with weights is that you are burning hours after you are done working out. That is the good burn.

From Matt:  That is how I felt during my workout last Thursday. In the middle of my workout, my eyes rollled back and I knew I was going to hit the floor. Fortunately for me, Mark was there to make sure I was OK.

It can be an uneasy feeling when you know you are going to pass out. I sat there on the floor with sweat pouring out of my body trying to figure out what I did wrong to have this happen. After 2 bottles of water and an apple, provided by my guru body mechanic, things started to clear up.