Breakfast with a "Big Mac"

Big Mac lost 90lbs in a year.

While the day to day, week to week, month to month swings imitated the Ivari life path of ups and downs, during the four years Mac and I have been training together he has maintained a consistent level of success against that goal. 

This business affords you the opportunity to meet many vastly and uniquely different people and to appreciate that their goals and aspirations are just as diverse. It's an interesting, challenging, confounding and infinitely rewarding choice and while Macs story isn't unique, it is special.

Diagnosed with type 2 diabetes Mac made the decision to get into the face of the issue and dedicated himself to reinventing his lifestyle chioces as they related to exercise and nutrition.

While he had a background of team sports, specifically rugby, father time had conspired against him being able to continue to play competitively and so transitioning and adapting to other forms of exercise was not an issue as it was already a part of his life culture. He has a strong dedication and work ethic.

The most inspiring aspect of Macs story for me has been his independent willpower and industrial strength discipline and comittment towards nutrition. 

Mac and I have made a regular video blog of the journey called "Breakfast with a Big Mac". You can watch a sample episode of this series on my youtube channel Ivari Fitness LLC. Hit subscribe to continue following Mac's inspiring journey.

This is a written introduction to that series in the words of the man himself. Over to you Mac...

I was diagnosed with Type II diabetes about 5 years ago, my weight had ballooned to 330 pounds, mostly due to lack of exercise and a steady intake of pop and sweets. I immediately began to change my lifestyle, cutting out sweets and pop, eating better, and committing to daily exercise. 

My idea was to slowly gear up the amount and difficulty of exercises, as I knew that if I hit it to hard too soon, with the shape I was in, an injury would be likely. So, I began by walking, grabbing my iPod and headphones, cranking up the Zeppelin, and just heading out. One hour walks daily (in the winter in Chicago) became two hours, then three. My weight began to come down, I was feeling better, so I cut back the walking and bought an elliptical machine for the basement. Soon I was doing two-hour sessions and worked up to the maximum difficulty level of 20 on the hill and random programs (eventually I wore out the elliptical machine and had to replace it). I also began to add in some weight lifting exercises as well, specifically low weights and high reps.

The doctor had originally told me I should lose 50 pounds over the next year, I told him I’d do it in three months. He said that would be great but was an unrealistic goal. It took me 99 days to lose the first 50. I eventually dropped 90 pounds, to 239.5, which was great but really a bit light for my frame. I slowly over the next year balanced out to around 250 pounds, which I feel is really my fighting weight. I was diagnosed as “Diabetes Free” and no longer needed to take any medicine to treat it. My weight has been creeping up lately, and I admit that it is difficult to keep the weight off, but my goal is to always try to hover around 250 pounds, which is where I feel most comfortable, fit, and flexible!

There are two things that people said to me about my weight loss that I am most proud of. The first was my doctor, who told me that he personally had 28 patients with Type II Diabetes and I was THE ONLY ONE of them who actually lost the weight to improve my heath. The rest of his patients struggled with the weight lost and had kept on the meds. The second was my good friend Dan, who joked while watching me in a rugby match that I “looked like I was driving a new sports car around out there”, a comment on my new-found level of cardio fitness.

A chance encounter with Wez, at a vegetable and fruit grocery store (!), led to him becoming my personal trainer. We had met before a few times, as he had been the head coach for several years of my old rugby club (Chicago Griffins), but we weren’t close friends at that time. We had a great conversation about fitness and weight loss, and I mentioned that I was a bit bored with my workouts and they were becoming stale. Once he came on board, and we began weekly workouts, my whole knowledge and experience of exercise changed. He is an excellent instructor and coach, and the workouts he creates for me are always interesting, challenging, and varied. He also is sure to keep my various injuries in mind, and includes exercises to strengthen those areas and avoid further injury to them.

Since Wez has been training (teaching) me, I have added a rowing machine to my workouts, as well as kettle bells and elastic bands, Bosu ball and Swiss ball, and numerous stretching and balance exercises. I also now utilize a chest-strap heart rate monitor, which provides me with a way to determine how effective each workout has been, and to track them in order to chart my progress. Wez has insisted on my only having a single session weekly with him (even when I wanted to go two a week) as that it would be best for me to continue to do my own “homework”, which is my workouts on my own. So, in addition to seeing him weekly, I try to do a variety of some sort of exercise five days a week, sometimes two in a day if I have time. And variety is important to me, so some workouts are weights and stretches, long and short ellipticals sessions, rowing, bike riding (weather permitting), going for walks or hikes, attending rugby practice, and combinations of these activities.     

I often wish I had learned how to exercise like this when I was younger (in my 20’s), I’m sure my rugby skills and overall health would be much better now. 

If you’re interested, here is my advice for weight loss, these strategies helped me:

Eliminate sugary food and beverages (pop, candy, desserts, orange juice, etc.)

    -I haven’t had any pop in years

    -I ate grapes to control my cravings for sweets

Eliminate beer (I did for this for the first few months…)

    -Drinking leads to bad late-night food choices such as burritos and White Castle

Eliminate fast and junk food

-I replaced pretzels for chips and fries, even though they are carbs, the pretzels got me past desiring chips and fries

-Plan to have healthy snacks or fruit on hand so you don’t get hungry and give into fast food, apples travel well and are sweet and filling

-I still zip lock bags of nuts and pretzels to have on hand 

Eliminate/reduce carb intake:

-Only eat “minimal” carbs early in the day, breakfast, or lunch at the latest, never at dinner

-Reduce carbs by throwing away the top piece of bread in a sandwich

-Eliminate ALL potatoes, rice, and pasta

        -Eat a salad with fat-free dressing and a protein for dinner (chicken, streak, pork)

        -If you’re still hungry, have a second serving of the protein

        -I lost a lot of weight eating a large salad and two steaks for dinner 

    Never eat after 6 pm! I mean never!

    Exercise within your limits! 

-Don’t injure yourself which leads to giving up

Write down and track your weight every day.

        -Be patient and stick to your weight loss plan

-Weight loss is an up and down proposition, even if it goes up for a few days, if you stick to your plan, it will come down even more.

-I made up a large graph, and marked my weight loss (or gain) daily, so I had an excellent visual of my progress, which I found was a great motivator

    Write down and track your workouts every day

        -I still do this

-I can tell you the date and type of every workout I’ve completed for years