Healthy Living in Connecticut Blog

The final results are in and I'm the biggest loser of the bunch for the Northwestern YMCA's Fall Corporate Wellness Challenge... First time in my life being a loser helped me to win something!

I won the challenge by losing just shy of 30lbs in 8 weeks. The week following the end of the challenge I broke the 30lb mark and I am still losing. Currently I have 50 more pounds to lose to reach my goal.  Seeing my goal is set for the end of march I am on schedule to reach that goal in the time allotted.

It's fun to look back on how far I came. Here's another picture I found, along with a recent picture. I have no idea what my weight was on the left, but I'm sure I was over 300 there!

If I can lose the weight, anyone can. It took me a while to figure out the best approach to lose the weight, but the most practical way is exercise and eating right! I never lost weight until I started to eat better!

As many of you know, I was in a walking challenge sponsored by United Healthcare. I was also in the same challenge last year when they ran one in the fall of 2012.

Yesterday was the final day of this year's challenge, so how did I do? I don't want to reveal my total steps yet until they announce the winners but I did comparable to last year. Last time around I had over a million steps in ten weeks. This year, I stepped over 800,000 steps in eight weeks. If the challenge were 10 weeks like last year's challenge, I no doubt would have the million steps again.

Elisha Bonaparte was morbidly obese and in bad shape. In fact, his diabetes landed him in the hospital as his organs were shutting down. Once in the hospital, he made a decision to live a healthier life and lose weight.

Elisha decided to join the Greater Waterbury YMCA and started his own exercise program. He's lost over 100 pounds, and the great thing is that he did it on his own, without surgery! He is now off insulin and other medications. He plans to keep at it and live a healthy life free of the debilitating illnesses he once had.

A while ago, I wrote about New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's decision to have lap band surgery to aid him in losing weight. I thought it was time to update the story.

I'm happy to hear that Governor Christie is half way toward his goal. That being said, I still find it hard to accept any kind of surgery to lose weight. I know it's difficult to lose weight as I've been there. Being over a hundred pounds overweight can discourage anybody, but I'm living proof that you can lose weight without surgery.