Unbeknownst to me, I’ve been battling weight my entire life. When I was 5 years old, I remember cleaning the dishes after dinner and eating the scraps off everyone else’s plates. Having a strict disciplinary for a father, as long as I did my part and cleaned up, the empty dishes were never questioned and my weight gain began to snowball. Entering my teen years, I was dubbed “fat boy” due to my overly husky physique at that age. Being the jovial, positive person that I am, I never took offense to it because I never realized it was being said in a negative or cruel context.
In school, I played football, wrestled and dabbled in about every other sport I could find. Still not looking at myself as an overweight individual, the extracurriculars weren’t an attempt for exercise, but rather for my pure love of sports.
As I got older, I kept eating like an elite athlete would, however, I quit working out. I quit my job and found myself becoming very secluded from the world, which was completely against my character. What I now can identify as severe depression and emotional duress, the years following served as a breeding ground for my obesity.
I eventually began working as a counselor for troubled children, which began to turn my life around. I love to help people. The problem was, I never recognized that I was the one in desperate need of help. Fifteen years of helping others, I woke up one morning and decided it was time to help myself.
I joined a local weight loss clinic where I weighed in at 413 lbs. I soon realized that the program wasn’t working for me, as I actually gained weight and hit my highest weight of 429 lbs. I was still in denial of my weight, which was why I wasn’t committing to the program.
Trying to seem like I was still making an effort, I began going to the gym. Again, not looking at myself as a 429 lb man, my trips to the gym were ineffective, as I refused to quit eating the staggering amounts of food. My weight fluctuated 10-15 lbs here and there, but I finally realized I could not do it myself.
At 429 lbs, I asked for help. I had been watching a particular trainer for almost 4 months. I watched his interaction with his clients, what types of routines he had them doing and his attentiveness. I knew I needed a disciplinarian because as much as I wanted to think I had it in me, I didn’t. His name is Paul Scianna and I can honestly say he has saved my life.
We started working together in late-December of 2007 and by May of 2008, in only 5 months, I lost over 100 lbs. The beginning months were exhausting. Not only was I physically drained, but more so mentally and emotionally fatigued...
Paul helped me uncover many of the reasons I was in denial for so long about my true physique and it has opened my eyes to a whole new world. He taught me how to cook, how to read labels so I learned how to choose the right foods at the grocery store and how to always be prepared with my meals so I wasn’t rushing to the drive-thru when it was time to eat.
Some of our most productive sessions didn’t even include a workout. As a result, I have a new sense of confidence…new goals, new dreams, a new lease on life. After 27 years, I went back to school at Baldwin Wallace College to finish my degree and ended up joining the wrestling team as the starting heavyweight!
I ended up losing 200 lbs in a little over a year. I look back on those 12 months - the roller coaster of challenges I had to face and the accomplishments that came out of it - and I have to thank God for bringing this man into my life. I could have never done it without him!
Terence G. Haynes
