My name is Joe and my story doesn't begin any different than anyone else's that I've heard, but, it does end rather uniquely. I wanted to change my life drastically back in August so I set out to quit smoking after 18 years and by October, I succeeded. That wasn't enough. Coincidently, it was time for our annual ""The Biggest Loser"" contest at work. $50 buy in, 10 contestants, winner takes all, why not. I entered with the intention of losing a few pounds and figured the $50 that I paid in would be enough incentive to get me moving. I did not anticipate weighing in at 212.5 lbs., the heaviest I have ever been. I knew that I had to get serious so only one name popped in my head for help, John Leavell. I have known John for about 14 years and I know how hard he worked and how much dedication he had to get where he is today. He has laid a well paved road that he worked very hard to make and now he is sharing it, essentially giving an easy way to success so that we don't have to spend years figuring it out the hard way as he did. We spoke on the phone, being that I live in Houston, for about an hour. His first questions were ""How long do we have and how much do you want to loose?"" I told him that the contest was for 9 weeks and threw out what I thought was an unrealistic goal of 40 lbs. He gave me diet recommendations and my workout plans. I pondered on this whole ""diet"" idea for a couple of days then decided to try it out. I followed his instructions to the letter hoping for some kind of results. At the end of week one I lost a staggering 10 lbs.! At that point I was committed. Luckily, John made me take progress pictures because 4 weeks in I started to become very disappointed because I didn't see any change in the mirror although my weight was steadily dropping. It wasn't until I looked at my progress pictures, as I was sending them to John, that I noticed the big difference, I was amazed and had a renewed drive. At the end of the contest I couldn't believe it, not only did I win the contest, but, I weighed in at 173 lbs. losing a total of 39.5 lbs. in 9 weeks! I now enjoy running, which is something I thought I would never say because not even the 5 years I spent in the Marine Corps accomplished that. John put me on a run program that gave me a sense of accomplishment every time I ran. I can't say thank you to him enough and now I can't wait to begin my next phase of bulking up.
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