Member Spotlight: Bryan

Hello, everyone. I’m Bryan Wayne and am one of the few males in our BLCL group. Recently relocated from Boston to Reno, I have had a bunch of “life-changing” events in the recent past, namely cross country move and pending nuptials, that have served as a launching point to live a healthier lifestyle. I had tried (and failed) many times in the past but always seemed to be lacking that accountability that a monthly weigh-in and group of people waiting for you at the gym can provide.

This group has served a few purposes for me: it has allowed me to meet some amazing people in my new hometown, as well as being a jump-start to a “new” healthy Bryan. I have always had difficulties controlling my eating habits and finding motivation to exercise, and have found this group to be extremely supportive in addressing these two common downfalls.

I work from home for a company based out of Boston, and as a result  have to travel (domestically and abroad) for work quite often. This generally does not promote healthy eating habits and easily disrupts any exercise regiment. I have used this as an excuse for too long and am finally starting to find some success in losing both inches and pounds.

I am the winner for the month of March, with a total weight loss of 23 lbs since January 1st (as a member of BLCL) and a total weight loss of almost 55 lbs since my move to Reno in late August 2009. In addition to the lost inches and pounds, I have seen vast improvements with my asthma, increased energy level and mood. It’s amazing what a few changes can do.

While I still have a lot of work to do, I have to credit my success thus far to the support provided by my old friends and family back east, my new friends in Reno, and of course my beautiful fiancé Meghan. I look forward to the second half of the competition and hope to be posting more success stories in the future.

Member Spotlight: Sara

Hi, I’m Sara, and I’m February’s winner with 12 lbs lost last month (23 total since January 1)!

I joined this group in January with very little hesitation. I know where I am physically; my mirror and scale don’t lie. I am extremely blessed to have a man in my life that loves my body the way it is… but I don’t. And I haven’t in a long time.

I have joined “loser” competitions before, on a smaller scale, and for shorter time frames. They worked, but I always gained the weight back. I think the reason for that was the short time periods: crash diets and crazy exercise doesn’t work long term.

But I keep joining because I crave competition. It is one of the only things that drives me… even to the point where I have been accused of being “too competitive.” But it’s what I need, and I know it! Thank goodness I have good friends that are willing to be friendly competitors with me!

I have struggled with my weight on and off all of my life, from being bulimic as a teenager, to just giving up the “purging” part as an adult (an unfortunate side effect of bulimia). Binging has always been my downfall. I have also always had a problem with boredom eating and obsessing over food. I still do. But now I’m trying to keep things like frozen grapes and plain popcorn around, so when I do eat out of boredom, I’m not adding an extra 1000 calories a night.

Every single day is a struggle. Getting up in the morning early to go to the gym is easier when I know that people are waiting for me and will be upset if I’m not there, but I won’t lie, there are days when it’s easier to sleep in. I’m just praying that I have more days that I want to get up and go.

Winning is great, but that isn’t my ultimate goal. My ultimate goal is permanent weight loss, and looking good in a wedding dress in September. Better than good! With 23 pounds lost so far I’m off to a good start…45 to go.

Member Spotlight: Shannon

My name is Shannon Kimbrel. I am 36 years young and a full-time working, single mom of three. I am new to the Reno area, having transplanted here from Tahoe City in May of 2009.

People describe me as a “thick” girl. I would like to know when “thick” became the politically correct way of saying someone is fat? I have lived, complacently, as a fat girl for most of my life. Not really happy, not really unhappy.

When my marriage ended, I spiraled downward into depression for the first time in my life. Food was my medication. I realized I was an unhappy person with no passion for life. I was EXISTING.

I was home with a sick kiddo on New Year’s Eve when I stumbled upon the listing for The Biggest Little City Losers on Craigslist. I had been considering joining Weight Watchers (again) and thought that this would be a great alternative. I signed up and almost immediately, had a response and welcome email. The following day, I found myself in the South Reno Athletic Club with 30+ strangers. It felt right from the start. It was a diverse group with a common goal.

January was a great month! For the first time I enjoyed, not dreaded, going to the gym because I saw friendly faces there. Members became friends! Group events and meetings kept us motivated and energized. We experimented with different classes and had a bowling night. Plans for February include roller skating, rock wall climbing and a cooking challenge! We are learning and what we learn, we share with the others on our own website. The support is amazing!

On January 30th, after a long month of eating right and working out, 30 of our members attended our first weigh in. I am very proud to say that I was the biggest loser for the month of January! I lost 18 lbs and 9% of my body weight. I am pleased with my accomplishments but what excited me were the achievements of all my new friends. For me, it was a group victory!

People ask me daily, “What is your goal?” I don’t have a definitive goal. It’s not a number on the scale. I do not want to run a marathon or fit into a bikini by summer. I will say this, though: I want to find my passion in life. Being “thick” has held me back from trying new things. I want to climb a mountain and repel down. I want to go white water rafting. Most of all, I want to learn to scuba dive. For the first time in my life, I feel like these things are within my reach.

Three things that are keeping me on track:

Support – We, the Biggest Little City Losers, want each and every member to succeed in their goals. They are there to push me harder when I want to quit, teach me things I have yet to learn, and lend a shoulder if I need to vent.

Accountability – Yes, my new friends and team will hold me accountable. However, I refuse to disappoint these people, therefore I hold MYSELF accountable for what I am putting into this process.

Motivation – I want it for the right reasons. I want it for me! I refuse to waste anymore of my life just “existing” and I WILL find my passion!!

February is going to be great! I can see it, I can feel it! The energy and enthusiasm is infectious!

I’ll be back with more on February 28th!

Me, rock climb?!

That’s me!

First of all: I never thought I would rock climb – not just because of my weight but also because of my extreme fear of heights. But when Rocksport (on Oddie and Silverada) said they’d love to sponsor our group and wanted a couple of us to try it out, I agreed, and I dragged Tee along to try it with me.

We showed up at 9 am sharp and met with Kate, the operations manager. She was all ready to get us up this wall and, to our disbelief, she said it was possible even for us. We got our special climbing shoes on, then got a lesson on putting our harnesses on. They were quite… interesting… to get into, and I admit I never thought I’d be able to get into it. But I did! After that we learned how to “rope in.” Kate pulled an eeney-meeney-miney-mo to determine who got to go up first, and Tee lost and had to go first. Kate showed me how to belay her, that is – I was the one who stood at the bottom and the climber. Tee, had to put her life in my hands

We had plenty of safety equipment, so it wasn’t that risky.

After Kate convinced us that this was easier than it looked, I got hooked up and approached the wall. I took my first step and it wasn’t too bad, so I took a few more. Then I got about five feet up the wall and Kate decided to show me a technique called a “take.” This requires the climber to call down to the belayer “take!” which prompts the belayer to take up all the slack in the rope. Then the climber sits back and lets go of the wall, leaving the belayer holding the climber while they descend back down. Now, this was easier said than done for someone as afraid of heights as I am. I tried to do it first with just one hand off the wall, but Kate wasn’t going for it. So I sucked up my fear and let go! I didn’t fall, I didn’t even slide a little. I mustered up the courage to climb down the wall without clinging for my life. Kate did one thing for me that I have had a hard time doing for myself, she believed that I could do it. This gave me a new confidence that I had a hard time finding in myself.

After an hour and a half of climbing, we were doing it without Kate’s assistance. We had a great time and are ready to go back next week! I believe this experience gave me a new outlook, I now have more confidence and I am not going to count myself out of an activity because of my weight! And I think this is something I will continue doing even after I’m done with weight-related issues.

- Maria

Four days ’til weigh-in!

My name is Maria (pronounced Mariah), I am a 33 year-old, stay at home mom of three boys and I run a home daycare. My husband, Patric, and I have been married for almost 10 years.

I have always battled with my weight, but having three kids and then ignoring the problem didn’t help. After my youngest son was born I was diagnosed with high blood pressure, not what I wanted to hear, and about three years ago started noticing how tired I was and that I didn’t have the energy to play with my kids. Then I realized I wouldn’t be able to be around for my boys if I didn’t do something about my weight and health.

My husband has been into martial arts for the last 10 years, but because of the economy he hasn’t been able to actively for awhile, so his health was going downhill too. I had one of my dear friends tell me of this program that was starting in Reno on New Years Day, so I told my husband, and we decided to show up to see what it was all about.

When I showed up to the first meeting, I was a little nervous and even thinking twice about what I was doing. The meeting went well and I actually got to talk to a few of the people I didn’t know (I only knew two besides my husband). I am a very social person so it wasn’t hard for me to adjust, but I think even more was that we all had the same problem. We all had too much extra “baggage” and the lack of people who understand that is usually the one reason I don’t join gyms. I have always been on the big side and that gave me something to overcome when meeting new people. But now it was something I had in common, which was almost as comforting as chocolate.

So we all went our separate ways on January 1, with not much more than a private group web site connecting us. I became addicted to the site, and found myself on it more than Facebook. I was checking on my team mates, seeing when people were going to the gym so maybe I could meet them there. With a daycare and three boys I have a hectic schedule, so meeting at the gym isn’t always ideal, but I found myself rearranging my schedule as much as I could to get there. The more I went to the gym, I met more people and everyone I met was so supportive! I started to feel as if I had known these new friends for years.

We had our 1st team challenge that Saturday, kinda scary having only spent time with our teams for an hour a week ago. But it was a very well-laid out obstacle course, and, to our dismay, Team 2 won. (We will get them next time!) Everyone seemed in good spirits, so we took the tour offered by the gym. That’s when friendship started to build, we were all just cracking jokes and laughing.

Our first official weigh-in is still a few days away, but when we started this journey I weighed in at 338 lbs (ouch) and couldn’t even use my Wii Fit, due to the 330lbs limit. After being very discouraged and wanting to give up, I got on the web site. After looking around at comments people were posting, I thought: I shouldn’t be on the computer! So I found an exercise show on TV that I knew I had passed them up numerous times before. I did a whole show and then some yoga. So then I had to tell all my new friends that I didn’t give up. I got so much encouragement that I knew I couldn’t give up on this group.

So now three weeks have gone by since we started, and it seems like just yesterday I met my new friends. We have seen each other at the gym, hung out at the bowling alley, and even met for a day at the spa. I can’t wait until our official weigh-in, because I know I’ve lost at least enough that I can now use my Wii Fit!!!! So I can’t wait to see what I have actually dropped!

I will leave you with this for now, but I’ll be back. I’m going to try rockclimbing at Rocksport with another team mate, and will let everyone know how that goes. Until then just remember whatever you set to accomplish, you can be your own worst enemy. Take some friends along, they will keep you plugging away!

- Maria