Spotlight: Shane T.

The best place to start is at the beginning. I started to gain weight in third grade. The bullying about my weight started in 4th grade. I was always one of the bigger kids without the excess weight. I was bullied at school daily and I was bullied at home about my weight by one of my older siblings. The summer after sixth grade, I went to a wrestling camp and I was 5'4" tall and weighed 141 pounds. At the start of my sophomore year in high school, I was 5'9" tall and weighed 139 pounds. High school went fairly well weight wise although I was dealing with my changing schools, my parents' divorce and all the other crap that you deal with in high school. I graduated high school at 6'0" tall and 190 pounds. The weight was starting to come back on.

My whole family has struggled with weight. It has been a lifelong battle. Peaks and valleys. Minor successes followed by setbacks. I have done different diets. Exercise came in spurts. Positive self-esteem has always been a challenge. It's been the ongoing life of the fat kid trying to find some direction and success.

Finally, in September 2019, I joined a gym and had a great trainer. I took the team training classes with my wife and we have stuck to the exercises since. We took three classes per week. I had lost 24 pounds and was feeling successful. Then, something happened in June of 2020 and I gained it all back, plus another 10 pounds, despite adding bicycling to my weekly workouts. In May of this year (2021), we switched gyms and joined a CrossFit gym. I have added two workouts a week which brings me up to five workouts per week. I am back on the calorie counting and am hoping that I can get back to my goal of 250. I had gone from 276 pounds to 254 pounds from September 2019 to June 2020. Then the weight started coming back. I have reached a weight of 286 pounds. I am tightening up my nutrition and calories, along with the extra workouts, to try and get the fat off and the pounds down.

I am seeing some success at the new gym. It's all showing up, putting in the work, pushing past the discomfort to make gains on my goals. As I always tell people....Baby steps. Keep moving forward.