How I Climbed the Ladder to Dieting Success

Email To a Friend 02 June 2009 Hi! My name is Brian Turno and I am 35 years old. I never considered myself to be athletic guy. Ever since I was in primary school, I was always the heaviest kid in class. Growing up, all of the active kids always made feel awkward especially with the comments and whispers throughout my academic life. I always thought that being overweight would be a part of who I am.

I grew to be introverted with little hope of ever changing my weight and lifestyle. I lived a considerably normal life, getting married out of college and having two beautiful children. My wife had always been an average weight with such a fun, boisterous personality. I felt like such a winner when she agreed to go out with me on our first date. Despite me feeling like I scored with such a wonderful life partner, I have always secretly felt a bit hopeless about my size weighing in at 300 pounds at the age of 30.

After my wife’s second pregnancy, my wife started feeling a little bad about her 75 pound weight gain. I let her know how much I loved her regardless of her physical appearance, sending her flowers at work and coming up with all sorts of romantic surprises. The more I did for her, the worst she felt. Sharing similar feelings about being overweight, I knew that she was starting to suffer internally with feelings of worthlessness like I have at one point or another.

After a couple of months, I came up with a creative idea that would not only help my wife be the wonderful, lively, outgoing woman I originally married. For mother’s Day, I presented her with a re-sized picture of herself from college and enrolled the both of us in a samba class being held at our local gym. At first she was a little hesitant about it, but after a little encouragement, I persuaded her to join me. These classes were affordable and the scheduling was flexible so we didn’t have a problem once we got into it. After the first month my wife discovered that she had lost 12 pounds.

I saw a twinkle in her eye that reminded me of the first day I met her. I weighed myself out of curiosity and discovered that I had lost 20 pounds after the first month. That moment is when I started to see a change in my confidence and appreciation for life. As me and my wife continued with these dancing classes, we started to add all sorts of fun activities to our lifestyle that incorporate our whole family. With daily long walks around the neighborhood, gym memberships and a slight change in the way we eat have changed our lives completely. My wife has gotten back to her pre-pregnancy weight and I have conservatively lost 180 pounds in the first three years and have felt happier than I ever have in my life.

Brian Turno, Edinburgh.

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