Success Story Update

Remember Aaron? Read about his initial success here. Aaron has continued to work hard since the first post. Talk about a total transformation! Check out an animated before and and now pic. It is crazy how his body has changed.  Read Aaron's full story below:

"In January of 2016, my cousin Rachel suddenly passed away at age 44 due to a massive heart attack. Like me, she struggled with her weight and it was a wake-up call for me.

For the past 10-15 years I had slowly gained a bunch of weight. As pant and shirt sizes increased, I would tell myself "This is it, I'm not moving up another pant size", but I still got bigger and bigger and kept sizing up. It was seemingly endless.

However, I knew with a little bit of work, it was possible to shed some of this fat. My wonderful wife had, over the course of a year or so, worked her ass off and lost a bunch of weight. While she got fit, I made excuses. After Rachel's passing, and a little gentle encouragement from Larissa, I decided to make a change.

A year ago last week (3/14/2016, to be exact), I started down the path of trying to be healthier. I had my first "Bootcamp" class at Studio ME Fitness (in St. Anthony Main). I about died. It was hard. I was very fat. I was very sore afterwards, but I came back to the next class. Before long, the soreness subsided as the muscles I had been wasting became acclimated to a little bit of physical activity. Pounds weren't flying off, but I was losing weight.

I was having success, but I would sometimes "plateau" and when I talked to my doctor in May, he suggested using a calorie tracking app, My Fitness Pal, to track what I was taking in. It turns out that eating a little bit less (like one bowl of hotdish rather than 2 and a half) and exercising regularly can help a ton in dropping pounds.

So over the past year, I've lost a lot of weight. It wasn't fast (and as one person said, you didn't gain all that weight in a couple months, you won't be able to lose it in a couple months), and it took commitment. No excuses. Sometimes I'd be a little hobbled because I did something wrong, or was just too sore, and Megan at Studio ME would suggest a slightly different exercise that avoided the problem, but still allowed me to keep that heart rate up.

Am I done? Well no, I've still got work to do. I havedays where I eat or drink a bunch of crap, but I'm honest with myself. I'll just work harder next time I exercise, or be smart with my diet over the next couple days. Considering my job is sitting at a computer all day, I might always need to take these steps to remain physically fit. But I feel great now, and I don't want to lose this feeling.

As of today, I've lost 65 pounds. That's four pants sizes, two shirt sizes and 11 notches on my belt. I'm fitting into clothes that I had when I was in my early 20's. I'm not an expert at this, but if you're looking to lose some weight, I'm more than willing to talk about what I've done (send me a private message if you don't want to talk about it on this post). I don't feel like I've sacrificed much. I still drink beer. I still eat pizza. I still LIVE and I'm happy doing it.

Thanks to everyone that has helped or given me moral support: My rock star wife Larissa, Megan at Studio ME, The Studio ME bootcamp crew (Tamara, Erin, Sue & Larissa)

Take care of yourself!"