Richard Glanfield - Summerlin, NV

One of the most annoying things about weight loss is the preaching that goes on! Everyone thinks they are an expert, and everyone thinks they know the true path to salvation.

Whether it be because I am a man, or just plan stubborn, this was one of the reasons that I refused to lose weight! Keep telling me something I don't want to hear, keep giving me unwanted advice, and I will eventually dig in my heels and ignore you!

I live in denial. It is a wonderful place to live, and for years I have been very happy living there!

It is a strange fact that most men think that they are great just as they are; and while it seems women often look, really look at themselves in the mirror with a critical eye, men don't even look; they just glance, holding in their belly, choosing the best angle. They never look too closely, and they certainly don't look from the back or side! They give themselves a glance, a quick smile, and they're good to go.

Personally, I even have my favorite mirror in my bathroom. With its perfect lighting, it never lets me down!

So, what made me change after so many years and finally want to lose weight? Did I suddenly see the light and finally accept the advice and one day wake up a believer?

No! In truth, it was that once faithful mirror out of the blue betrayed me when I made the mistake of leaving my bathroom cabinet slightly ajar, causing me to catch sight of my body from the side, an angle I'd not seen before.

It all happened so fast. I didn't have time to flex or pull everything in or even look away or shield my eyes. It was to late, and even though I wanted to I couldn't deny it anymore. I needed help!

Fortunately, if you are a member of Life Time, you don't exactly have to go far to get that help, and even more fortunate for me that help came in the shape of Rowina Cariquitan, the lovely Life Time nutritionist who educated, enthused, motivated and at times chastised me into shape.

Talking with me, rather than at me, guiding me rather than bullying me, she did such a remarkable job that among other things she managed to make me believe that not drinking beer would be a good idea, and before I knew it she got me hooked to a new attitude, outlook and finally lifestyle.

That change in life over the past 6 months has led me to lose 35 pounds of fat, which is 15% of my body weight, and the funny thing is that I suddenly like to hear everyone's opinion. I even think I may have become one of those awful preachy people I used to hate, talking all about a "healthy way of life"!

I have never felt better, and I feel happy and proud to be a born again slim person! Thank you, Rowina, and thank you Life Time!

Holly Dentry - Rochester Hills, MI

After having 2 babies and gaining a tremendous amount of weight, I realized I needed to do something about myself. At that time it was January, 2012, Why not make a New Year's resolution and join the gym? I didn't just want to lose weight, I want to be healthy! I wanted to know what foods to eat, how to exercise, basically what my body needs to be healthy. I knew I needed to educate myself and started doing research. I looked up new recipes. I started taking processed foods out of my family's meals. I started prepping a lot more fruits and veggies to  have on hand for snacks, and I started working out.

When I joined the gym, I was ready for everything. I used myLT bucks and took full advantage of everything they had to offer. I joined the 90-day Challenge. I took some E.A.T classes. I joined Team Weight Loss etc. I was like a sponge--everything that I was shown I put to use, and not just for myself but for my family, my boys. I didn't want them growing up and not knowing what's good and bad for their bodies. I need to led by example--a positive example.

It's been 1 year, and our lives have been completely transformed!!! Between my husband and me, we have lost 130lbs, 80 from me and 50 from Nick. Our family has so much energy now it's unbelievable. We fix 85% of our meals at home--mostly together. When we eat out, we now make better choices and  find we're satisfied, not searching for something else to munch on after a meal of empty calories. We are just overall a much happier family. Good Exercise + Good Food=Great Family! Thank you!

                

Sara Ferris - South Austin, TX

In December of 2010, I went to the doctor and found out I weighed 312 pounds. My mother had just passed away on Halloween after a long illness. I felt I wasn’t in control of my life, and I hated that. I felt crushed by my professional, family and social obligations. “What do I do with this?” I thought to myself. Well, you either do something about it or give up.

I gave myself the holidays off and pushed my worries about my health aside. That wasn’t easy. I had always been athletic, but now that I was so heavy, that was buried. I was going around worrying if I could navigate the path between tables at the restaurant to get to our booth or wondering if the booth would be too narrow. I was avoiding going certain places because the parking lot was too big or I wouldn’t be able to find an appropriate outfit. I even started making choices based on how big the bathroom stalls were. This wasn’t me. In my heart of hearts, I knew this was not the Sara that I knew. But what could I do?

I decided to quit waiting and just do SOMETHING. Right. Now. So, I found a Weight Watchers group that was meeting that day and just started. It was a way to start taking back my life, but I knew that if I was really going to get my life back, I would need to look at more than just food. I’d need a place that could take my past injuries into account and push me when I needed pushing but accommodate my condition. I needed something that could make me feel like a winner again, just as I used to be on my sports teams.

I started looking and found Life Time Fitness. I was encouraged to come in and check it out. I went in on MLK Day, 2011, and I joined. I met Sarah Olson, who gave me my initial assessment and enrolled me in TEAM Weight Loss. At the initial assessment, she asked me about my goal, and I gave her a pat answer. She asked again and wanted to know where I would REALLY like to be, and I told her 165 pounds. I’ll never forget that she said, “You do know that that is entirely doable, don’t you?” That statement – that it could be my reality was life changing.  She advised me to walk (and swim) in the Life Time pool for the next 2 weeks until TEAM Weight Loss began, so I could prepare for it and not lose my momentum.

TEAM Weight Loss was fantastic. The nutritional instruction was key. I so appreciated the encouragement to track my food and the feedback I received each week when the nutritionist reviewed my food diary. The instructions were refined as I went along, so it wasn’t overwhelming at any point. I also took the Cardio Point and Calorie Point tests to know what zone I was really working in and what my metabolism truly was so there would be as little guess work as possible. I wanted to get this right. On the fitness side, TEAM was outstanding. I have torn both Achilles tendons in the past, so I was worried about all the walking we’d be doing. I’d put a heating pad on until right before class, jump on the treadmill with my weights and walk until pain would set in, then I’d switch to the bike and then ice down afterwards. At first, I could only walk 10 or 20 minutes at a time but about midway through my first 12 week session, I was able to walk the entire time. After 12 weeks, I had lost 28 pounds! I felt so free then, and my ultimate goal DID seem real. I stayed with TEAM Weight Loss the rest of the year, and in late November, I had lost what my Second Grader weighed: 62 pounds!  My trainer, Trey Rosencranz, was so proud and encouraged me to continue the momentum over the holidays. I took his advice and went skiing with my family over New Year’s - and I was “in shape” for it. I didn’t struggle to move around on the slopes, and I didn’t avoid places simply because they were uphill. It was so fun to be outside and active.

In January 2012, I moved on to TEAM Fitness with instructor Kel Gibson for new challenges. I had learned from the previous year that I do well when exercising with others and having a bit of accountability, encouragement and challenge, and TEAM provides that. By September of 2012, I had lost a total of 80 pounds and felt my old strength returning. Then I hit a frustrating period at about 88 pounds when the weight just wasn’t coming off. It was bouncing between 84 pounds lost and 88 pounds lost and just wouldn’t go lower. I took advantage of some of the lab testing available at Lifetime and met with Melanie Reyes. She evaluated my results and came up with a solid, realistic plan to get the scale moving again. The plan included adjusting my nutritional content and adding a few supplements and restorative workouts like yoga when I could. Her plan began working, and I started to lose again. On December 12, 2012, I weighed in and found that I had lost 101.2 pounds!  It’s funny, I didn’t think I’d be emotional about a number – especially when it’s not my ultimate goal number – but I was. It was staring me right in the face and telling me that I’m on the right track and can continue with confidence. 

Now it’s early 2013, I’ve lost a few more pounds (down 104.1 as of last week), and I’ve gotten really good results on my latest Cardio Point and Calorie Point tests. My metabolism actually increased over the last 6 months even while I’ve lost weight. Even more significant to me is that my body is not using oxygen the way it is supposed to. When I started all of this 2 years ago, I was told that my oxygen usage was like a 70-year-old’s. Now I’m right on target for my actual age. (Oh yeah, and my blood pressure is 107 over 63.) I’m actually able to run now, and I find myself considering new challenges. At the same time, I’ve started attending Cycle Studio when I can, and I’m continuing to progress in TEAM Fitness. I really enjoy the challenge and camaraderie that both of these classes provide. That’s what Life Time Fitness means to me:  Life Time is my second home. It is a place of acceptance and encouragement, of help and solutions.  I am so glad I made the commitment to take back my life – and I’m glad I’m doing it at my Life Time in South Austin, Texas.

Keith Huckabay - City Centre Athletic, TX

Everyone has that moment when the lightbulb goes off and they decide it’s time to make the lifestyle change—that moment when nothing will stop you from achieving your goals, not even your own self-doubt. My lightbulb moment came when I looked at my before photo. I never felt I was overweight and always attributed my pants fitting tighter or my shirts not being able to tuck to being bloated. But for some reason, when I saw that picture, I saw it: the excuses, the reason I wasn’t happy with my appearance, and the desperate need to make a change. I was very close to 240 pounds and wearing 38 inch waist pants. I was close to having high blood pressure. High blood pressure and heart disease run in my family, and I realized that if I didn’t do something I would run the risk of being on medicine for the rest of my life—or worse, have a heart attack.

I joined “Weight Watchers” and made the commitment to not “dieting” but creating a lifestyle change. I was resolved to the fact that being healthy and losing weight was going to take work. I didn’t put on weight overnight, and it wasn’t going to come off overnight. I started moving more and sitting less. I trained to run a 5k and went from having not ran since high school to finishing third in my age group at my second 5k race. I made healthy food choices and was forced to venture out of my food comfort zone and try more vegetables. To my surprise, I liked most of them. I allowed myself to not feel guilty about falling off the wagon. This was a lifestyle commitment and not a diet, so I stopped feeling like a failure and realized lapses were going to happen.

I wanted to take my workout regimen to the next level so I decided to join a gym and hire a personal trainer. This is when I learned the importance of finding someone who was experienced and understood what a lifestyle change meant. My first personal trainer, from a well know chain of gyms, didn’t take the time to get to know me and my goals and put me through one of the most rigorous workouts. The work out left me in the hospital with near kidney failure and with a condition called Rhabdomyolysis. The doctor told me that, had I not sought treatment, I could have had a heart attack.

Needless to say, I was nervous and very apprehensive about starting to work out again. After three months of not exercising, mainly due to fear, I decided it was time to hit the gym again. That is when I luckily found Lifetime Fitness and Sergio Lira. From the moment I walked into Lifetime, I realized they understood. They knew what a lifestyle change meant and knew how to incorporate the gym into my lifestyle. Sergio took the time to get to know me, my goals, and my lifestyle to create a workout that allowed me to immediately see results. Sergio’s personality meshed well with mine and he knew how to push me past what I thought my limits were.

I didn’t do this alone. I have the best partner in the world who went on this journey with me. Brian Hampton and I started this journey together and have been cheering each other along the way. Having a partner in crime helps keep you accountable, helps keep you motivated and helps you change for the better. He has lost almost 80 pounds and is a big inspiration that keeps me wanting to do better everyday.

If two years ago you would have told the “old” me that I would look forward to the gym, I would have laughed and shoved another chocolate glazed donut in my mouth. When I miss a day at the gym, I feel like something about my day isn’t right. I enjoy having the knowledge and will power to make healthy choices.

With the help of Sergio, I have achieved my weight loss goal. I went from weighing close to 240 pounds to weighing 185 pounds. I went from wearing 38 inch waist pants to 31/32 inch waist pants. Now, he and I are working hard to help me tone up and get into even better shape. I have had the My Health Score taken and have seen the results of my hard work. My blood pressure is normal and my cholesterol is great. Thanks to Sergio and Lifetime Fitness, I am the best shape of my life and am finally the person I wanted to be.

Sandy Natarajan - Colorado Springs, CO

In early January 2012, I came to the realization that it was time to take care of my weight yet again. In adulthood, the number on the scale has generally mimicked a yoyo, bouncing up and down over the years. I would say the range is something like 20 pounds, and I have lost the same 5lbs, 8lbs, 14lbs repeatedly since college.

Like many who struggle with weight, my past is riddled with small successes and bigger failures at commercial diets like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers. I cannot say what made it different this time, but I am more committed than ever. As much as I hate to say it because I feel it will jinx my progress, it actually seems pretty darn easy this time around.

Simply put, I have been watching what I'm eating, and I started exercising. I have not changed my diet per se but the portion sizes are considerably smaller. If I want a cookie, I'll have a cookie... If I want pizza, I'll eat a slice... I won't ever say 'no' to an Indian paneer dish with lots of cream. I find that if I eat a lot of salads or low calorie foods it feels like a restrictive diet that I can only maintain for so long. I now realize that I have to eat like this for the rest of my life and you know what, that's not such a bad thing! Like I said, I am still indulging in everything that I love but I just don't do it every day. I don't want to even think of the number of calories I was consuming on a daily basis pre-January-2012.

One thing that has been instrumental in helping me track all aspects of my progress is MyFitnessPal. It's a website and a mobile app for tracking calories and exercise. It's been dubbed "Facebook for Fat People" as it also provides forums for social networking. That name is misleading though because the members range from personal trainers to folks that need to lose 100lbs or more. I would highly recommend it if you're looking to manage your weight.

In addition to watching my calorie intake, I have added exercise back into my life. I'm no stranger to working out, but the past couple of years have been a little tough. Upon turning 40, I had the bright idea of running my first ever half marathon. As a result I ended up with a bad case of plantar fasciitis that left me unable to run for about a year.

This is where I packed on the pounds and accepted defeat by announcing that I was "embracing my fatness" including shopping at Fashion Bug for the first time in my life. After more than a year like this, it was difficult getting started in the gym as you can imagine. I signed up for a group fitness class that met at 9am on Monday through Friday. Because of this class, I would literally feel compelled to show up and put forth some effort at the cardio and strength exercises. I definitely credit this class for helping me prioritize fitness in my life once again. Working at the gym entitles me to an employee discount for most things, and I made up my mind I wanted to try personal training. I started with one trainer in March but only had a couple of sessions with him before he was promoted. It worked out great because there was another trainer that I had wanted to work out with. I've been working with that trainer now for the past 5 months, and in that time I have learned a lot about strength training.

Since money does not grow on trees, I have to give up this personal training that I've become so fond of. I know that I have the knowledge now that I need to continue this on my own. My trainer asked me a couple of days ago to send him Before and After pictures with a short paragraph describing my progress so that he can add it to his portfolio. I got a little carried away, and it ended up being more of a booklet. What follows is my client experience with Lawrence...

I started this journey in January deciding to do it without the help of a "diet". After roughly three months, the scale started to level off as it had in all of my previous attempts to drop the extra pounds. Doing this on my own without the advice or support of a commercial diet, I had been reading A LOT about the science of calories in vs. calories out and how our body reacts to both food and exercise. From the research, I knew for sure that I needed to add strength training to my regimen. I did not want to tackle this alone. I trust myself with cardio workouts but figuring out what to do with the dumbbells and weight machines... well that was out of my league.

Lawrence was just what I needed to kick start this phase of my weight loss journey. He was coaching the T.E.A.M. Fitness class that met during the time that I would routinely be in the club and the ladies in the class kept boasting about the excellent training they were receiving. I could see that they were doing a lot of strength exercises, so I asked Lawrence if I could try out a class. During that class, we were spread out on the circuit machines. In my previous T.E.A.M. class experience with another coach, the weights were fixed on each machine and then the students rotated among them in intervals. This means that each student regardless of ability lifted the same amount of weight. However, in Lawrence's class he encouraged, if not insisted, that we set the weight according to what we could handle as individuals. At least 2 times during that one hour class, he came over to me and said "I think you need to add a plate".

Somehow just by watching my movement he KNEW that I was loafing. Now I'm new to weight lifting, so maybe this is common, but for me I saw this as a special gift. He could sense by watching my muscles, my face or something that I was not pushing to my full potential. Immediately after that T.E.A.M. class, I knew I had to get some personal training sessions with this guy. Excited but nervous, I set up some training sessions with Lawrence. At the first one, he got me on the scale. This industrial strength scale measures weight, lean body mass, body fat percentage and percentage of body water among other things. It's quite fancy and even tells you your body fat in each appendage.

Lawrence, though, concentrated on just one figure when the display lit up; my body fat percentage. He didn't care one iota about the number of pounds it registered even though I was elated, since it was down from the week before. He had me focus on weekly goals of lowering my BF% and told me not to worry about my actual weight. He was absolutely right, and hearing it from him made it sink in a little more with me. Although I think I'm still too focused on the scale, to this day when I see an increase or a plateau it's his voice I hear in my head reminding me that this is not the number that's important.

After working with Lawrence for a few weeks, I started to get a lot of compliments and inquiries about my weight loss. It always surprised me because I knew that I had dropped significantly more weight in the first 3 months before training with him...why were people just starting to notice now? When I look at the progress pictures it is obvious to me. My body is finally starting to take the shape of an athlete. My waist is coming back and my quads have some definition again. My chubby cheeks are less chubby. Although the number of pounds lost is small, my body composition is definitely changing in a good way. I am putting on muscle while losing fat. Lawrence's style of training is so refreshing and far from traditional. You should not go into it expecting a workout consisting of 3 sets of 8 repetitions on such and such machine. No worries though, you can get that sort of thing from a book or the Internet.

What Lawrence provides you cannot get anywhere else. No two workouts are the same; he will push you to your limit; he believes in working a combination of muscles in each exercise (compound lifts), rarely just sitting you down on a machine to work, for example, your inner thighs. A typical conversation during a workout would have me proclaiming "30 of these with this much weight? Are you kidding me?" and him replying "Negative". :) I never know what to expect, I do know that I will love the workout, I'm always sore the next day, and it feels great! Lawrence has given me the confidence to lift heavy. He really has taught me just how strong I am. I have learned a lot from him during the last five months and now it's time for me to try it on my own. If it doesn't work out, I know what I'm asking Santa to bring me! Actually, even if I do well, I think "PT Sessions with Lawrence" will inevitably end up on my wish list.

This journey is far from over, as I still fall under the "Overweight" category according to my BMI, but I am feeling a level of fitness that I haven't felt in a long time. I am enjoying working out and am looking forward to what the future holds. I cannot ever forget to keep exercise and diet at the top of my priority list.