In our local paper today: telegraphjournal.com - Six hundred pounds later, he feels like new man Health Stephen Walker went from 84-inch waist to size 44
SAINT JOHN - Looking at photos of himself from a couple of years ago, Stephen Walker has a hard time believing it's really him.
Cindy Wilson/Telegraph-JournalStephen Walker holds up shorts that were tight on him three months ago, He has lost more than 600 pounds in only a year and a half and attributes a lot of that rapid weight loss to working out at the Aquatic Centre. Photo submittedStephen Walker, front, said his mother, Evelyn Blanchard, is ‘as proud as anyone could be’ of him. One of his brothers, Randy Blanchard, right, didn't recognize him after he lost the weight. He tipped the scales at 836 pounds.
"That was my last recorded weight," done using the laundry scales at St. Joseph's Hospital, he says. "And I'm certain I gained weight after that."
Today, the north end man weighs "240-ish" pounds. His waist size has dropped from 84 inches to under 44.
And he did it all naturally, through diet and exercise, in just a year and a half.
"I guess I just decided I needed a change," says Walker, struggling to explain what finally motivated him to lose 600 pounds after decades of being obese and suffering from countless complications, such as diabetes and arthritis.
He suspects it was a combination of factors, but the turning point was a five-day hospitalization.
"Only half my heart was beating and it was beating at between 170 and 180 beats per minute," instead of the average 60 to 80 bpm, Walker says.
"I had three heart specialists at my bedside telling me I could have a heart attack or stroke at any time," and discussing the possibility of stopping his heart to bring it back to a normal rate.
Luckily, medication did the trick, but the experience set Walker, who was 48 years old and going through a divorce at the time, on a new path.
"It was like all my experiences just came together - the yo-yo diets, the nutritionists, the dietitians, the doctors. They all altered my life...It was a spiritual happening," says Walker, who also joined the Mormon Church.
He immediately started cutting out some of the fattening foods that had become part of his staple diet, such as ice cream, margarine, bread and pasta.
"I could sit and eat a quart of ice cream, maybe even twice a day," he says. And it was nothing for him to go through a tub of margarine in a day or two. So the initial results of his change in diet were dramatic, with Walker shedding about 40 pounds a month.
He also started working out at the Aquatic Centre. It was difficult manoeuvering his wheelchair around the exercise equipment and coping with the stares he got, but he persisted with the support of the staff, he says, singling out Sherry Gould and Janice Davidson. "They helped me physically and mentally."
Walker initially went to the gym six days a week for a couple of hours each day. But he gradually increased to going twice a day for five of those days, for four to six hours each visit, with Gould and Davidson watching him "like a hawk."
At times, they urged him to ease up and even though he didn't want to, he took their advice. And when he hit discouraging plateaus, when he wasn't losing any weight, they spurred him on by helping him realize he was still losing inches and gaining muscle.
Now Walker usually works out five days a week for about five hours before his night shift at a local call centre. "I practically live there. I just love it."
Walker, who wants to gets down to about 200 pounds by April, when he hopes to have some of his excess skin removed by plastic surgery, doesn't really diet anymore. "I've stopped counting calories."
He just eats sensibly, he says, citing skim milk, salad and fish as examples. He also snacks between meals and never eats after 5 p.m.
Although he does "treat" himself occasionally by indulging at parties or buffets, he's confident he'll never slip back into his old, bad habits. His situation was simply too dire, he says.
For nine years, Walker was forced to use a wheelchair, due to the severe and painful arthritis in his knees.
Prior to that, he had basically been housebound for a couple of years, unable to get around, unable to work. He was also taking about 35 pills a day and using two puffers for a range of problems.
And he had to be hooked up to an oxygen machine when he slept to keep his airways open.
"My life has changed to the point that I know I don't want to go back to where I was and I'm not going to allow that to happen," Walker said. "I'm also certain the people around me...are not going to let it happen."
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