Post by: Director of Communications - Rich Tate

 

In November of 2010 I went in for my yearly physical.  Per normal, my blood pressure was fine and the doctor suggested I lose a few pounds, but for the first time ever my cholesterol was elevated.  It has risen to 229.  I was asked to return in the spring.

 

Early in January I started to notice what felt like a strange heart beat.  The only way I could describe it was as a “whooshing” sensation several times an hour.  One of my co-workers had been dealing with some heart problems, and it certainly got me thinking about my own health in a new way.

 

I made an appointment with my doctor and went in to get my ticker checked out.  The EKG was normal, but my description of the problem got me signed up for a stress test.

 

On the day of the stress test I weighed in on the doctor’s scale at 244 pounds –   10-15 pounds heavier than I normally weigh.  The technician that day seemed worried about me being able to complete the test.  I laughed it off, and assured him that despite my appearance I would be fine.  I was right…I ran that treadmill into the ground.  No problem.  The test worked, the doctor was able to diagnose me with PVC (Pre-Ventricular Contractions).  PVC is pretty common, and in most cases it’s not a major concern.

 

I left the office with instructions to lose a few pounds, and let them know if the PVC got any worse.  I felt that it was time to make a real change.

 

My thoughts turned to the Lose and Win program that had been announced a few weeks before my stress test.  The Biggest Loser Competition would be the perfect motivation for me to lose a few pounds.

 

The day the Biggest Loser program started, the ground here in Dallas was covered with snow and ice.  The first meeting was delayed, but I remember going in on Wednesday, February 2nd after being stuck at home for two days.  We had pizza brought in for lunch that day because the weather was so bad.  I pigged out!  After lunch I stepped on the scale for my initial weigh in.  The display showed I weighed 245.4. Yikes!

 

Like many of us, I’ve gained and lost weight my whole life.  In 2009 I dropped some extra pounds by trying out the South Beach diet.  That seemed like a good place to start this time around, so I cut out carbs and loosely followed South Beach.  I was able to lose ten pounds the first week.

 

From my past dieting experiences, I knew I could drop some weight quickly the first 3 or 4 weeks.  At that point, I wasn’t really looking at losing a ton of weight.  If I could get rid of 15 or 20 pounds, my clothes would fit better and my doctor would probably be happy with me.

 

The second week of the contest I was out-of-town on show site, but I still managed to lose 5 pounds.  I was pretty happy about that, and at our second weekly meeting it was announced that I was the leading loser at Alford.  Well, that got my competitive juices flowing a little bit, and I thought it would be fun to try and lose the most weight amongst my co-workers.

 

I continued to lose about 5 pounds a week.  About a month into the contest, we got an update that showed my 8.31% of weight lose had me in second place in all of Freeman and I was only behind by .4%.  Well let me tell you, that really got me fired up.  If I did everything I possibly could to lose weight for the eight or nine weeks left in the contest, I felt I had a good shot at placing in the top 5.

 

This is when the Biggest Loser turned into a math equation for me.  I looked at my weight and started doing some calculations.  I determined that getting down to 190 pounds was a reachable goal, but it would take some serious work.  I knew that you had to burn 3,500 calories to lose a single pound.  My mental calculator came up with a very large number of calories I’d have to lose.  How could I do it?

 

I went out and bought a reasonably priced heart monitor/calorie counting watch at a sporting goods store.  This would allow me to keep an eye on my heart rate during the day, and it would count calories as well.  After two days of monitoring my calories in 24-hour chunks, I figured that I was burning about 3,000-4,000 calories in a day.  I was doing cardio on the treadmill every night, and going to the gym during my lunch break, but I wanted to do more to lose weight.

 

I created an Excel file with all of my food choices.  I noted calories, carbohydrates, fat, sugar and protein.  I was going to put myself on a strict, low calorie diet, and I could not afford to have any excess junk in my body.  I determined I was going to be eating around 1,000 calories a day and anything I ate had to be nutritious.  I was not going to do anything to risk my health, but I knew if I forced myself to make the hard choices needed to stay on my program, it would work.  I also had to ramp up my exercise exponentially.

 

I routinely exercised with my office workout partners at the gym.  I did lots of reps with lighter weight to try and keep from pounds of muscle.  I jumped up and down and did imaginary jump rope between sets to keep my heart pumping and to increase my cardio.  At night I would run on the treadmill longer, faster and at higher inclines than I ever had before.

 

My food choices were pretty narrow, but I allowed myself all of the fresh vegetables I wanted to help fill me up and to supplement my nutrition.

 

The workouts were hard, but I ran faster and longer than I ever had before, and after just a few days I was burning 4,500 to 5,000 calories per day.  The math was starting to work out.  If I ate 1,000 or a little less and then burned a total of 4,500 to 5,000 calories, I could remove one pound per day.  It didn’t always work out exactly that way, but sure enough, deep into the second month of the contest, I was still able to drop an average of 5 pounds a week.

 

At this same time in early March, I went to GNC to get some supplements. I explained that I didn’t want any stimulants, and I didn’t want diet pills.  I had a diet and exercise plan that was working, and I was not taking in any caffeine.  I didn’t want to risk my heart health in any way.  They suggested a product that would help me burn fat during and after I worked out.  The pills smelled and tasted like celery.  They totally grossed me out but they definitely helped out.

 

Being a graphic artist (among other things), I created a PowerPoint chart for myself that I could use to track my weight loss visually. I was still looking hard at hitting 190 pounds by the end of the contest, but I was starting to think I could beat that.

 

While I’ve always prided myself on being disciplined, this challenge required I up my game to a new level.  When it came to exercise, I had to run the whole time, turn up the incline and stay on the treadmill no matter how badly I just wanted to quit.  When it came to food, I always faced the choice of eating the good food in the right amounts, or have a little treat and eat the bad food.  I’m proud to say that I was able to make the right choices throughout the entire run of the contest, and I’m still making them today.  Habits were changed because I forced myself to do the right things.

 

I was on a program, it was working and I continued to lose weight.  Company-wide updates were way to few and far between, but at the two-month mark, having lost 20.37% or fifty pounds, I was told I was in first place! I was almost at my goal weight, and there was still a month to go.

 

We were in the home stretch, and I dialed it up even more.  I was running up to 8 miles a night and could burn off 1,200 calories in just one session on my trusty treadmill.  My eating was still good, and I felt great.  None of my clothes fit, and people were starting to worry about me – even freak out – because my appearance had changed so drastically.  I admit…I enjoyed it.

 

With three weeks left in the contest, I had met my original goal.  I set a new goal of 25% total weight lost.  That would mean I would have to get down to 184 pounds.

 

The last couple of weeks were the hardest and best for me. I found an old pair of size 33 jeans in my closet and while they were still a little loose, they sure beat the size 38s I was wearing earlier in the year.  I kept up my strict diet and exercised like a mad man.  I did all that I could do right up until our final weigh in.

 

When I stepped on the official scale on Tuesday, April 26th, the final day of the contest, the number was 182.2 pounds!  I had lost 63.2 pounds and had lost 25.75% overall.  I was able to lose an average of 5 pounds a week over the whole twelve weeks and I surpassed my original goal by almost eight pounds.  On top of all of that I surpassed everyone else’s expectations, and seriously shocked most of them.  Below is the video from the final weigh in.

 

 

Ironically, my doctor had scheduled me for a follow up visit on April 26th.  Perfect!  I couldn’t think of a better day to go see the doctor.  After the final weigh in (and a little celebration lunch) I headed to his office.  I weighed in, he looked at me, he checked my chart, and again he looked at me.

 

“Three months…really?” was all he said. I filled him in on everything I had been doing.  He was proud of me, but he had saved the best for last.  He read me my updated blood work.  My cholesterol had dropped from 229 to 123!  He asked me to keep up the good work, and sent me home with a clean bill of health. On a side note, I have not felt my PVC symptoms in over 2 months.  All of the cardio conditioning I did alleviated the condition’s symptoms.

 

I came in second by a fraction of a percent, but more importantly I am healthier than I’ve ever been.  It’s amazing what twelve weeks of change can do for you.  I do have new habits, and I am not going to go back to the bad habits that got me in trouble in the first place.  I enjoy healthy foods and exercise.

 

This is a life changer for me.  I have a lovely wife and a 6-year-old daughter that need me to be healthy, and I want to be here for them.  I’m not attempting to lose any more weight, but I’m committed to maintaining my current weight.

 

One really huge thing that came out of all of this relates to Alford Media and my “burgundy” family.  Each week we’d all get together on Wednesdays and go over the course materials and talk about health and fitness.  Each week someone would come up with a great tip or idea for losing weight and/or staying healthy.

 

On April 26th quite a few of us had lost weight and were getting healthier, but it shouldn’t end here.  It hit me that Alford needed to continue on after Lose and Win with our own program.  I didn’t want to lose the amazing momentum that we had already built up.

 

Burgundy is our company color, but it also describes our culture, who we are and what we do.  I came up with a program that I named BURGUNDY4Life.  I shared it with my colleagues, and everyone agreed that we wanted to carry on with getting healthier. We’ve already taken a Wednesday Nature Walk as a group during lunch, and we’ve secured a free, modern vending machine where we can put all kinds of healthy drinks in all shapes and sizes.  We will have a monthly column in our employee newsletter where we will share health and wellness tips, and the B4L group will also be heavily involved in endeavors like Heart Walk.

Biggest Loser was just the beginning.  We have all lost weight and improved our habits, and we’re looking forward to continuing these healthy habits far into the future and being BURGUNDY4Life.

 

Biggest Loser?  No way.  Biggest Winner!