FORGIONE: A quest to fit into the Green Lantern T-shirt

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Rick Forgione

May 30, 2011

By Rick Forgione Niagara Gazette The Niagara Gazette Mon May 30, 2011, 12:27 AM EDT

Column by Rick Forgione — “Relax, stay the course.” That’s the message my personal trainer Chris Tybor texted me on the Saturday afternoon following my second full week at his gym ChrisFit.

Yep, I was having a meltdown.

Four days earlier, I had my first weigh in at the fitness center at 2423 Hyde Park Blvd. and was down 13 pounds — in one week. Though I knew every week wouldn’t be that, er, big, I couldn’t help envision myself reaching my six-month goal of losing 70 pounds in six weeks instead.

So I got over confident and went for the Green Lantern shirt.

A couple of years ago, I bought the comic book superhero T-shirt two sizes too small as motivation to exercise and get healthy. I think I managed to squeeze most of my upper torso into it just prior to my wedding last September, but by the time I returned from our honeymoon cruise, Green Lantern’s light was back to being way too tight.

But, hey, I just lost 13 pounds in my first week of personal training. I was working hard, burning calories and following Chris’ strict orders of not eating any “junk.” I had even survived an encounter with “The Prowler.” This piece of equipment is notorious among ChrisFit’s membership for being one of the hardest workouts because it involves stacking weights onto it and pushing or pulling it across the fitness center’s parking lot. Think I’m exaggerating? Check out www.chrisfit.net to see videos of the Prowler being used.

Anyway, after all of that training I was feeling pretty good and decided that Saturday would be the day I proudly, at age 34, donned that glorious Green Lantern shirt and strutted out in public.

Wrong.

It didn’t fit. Not even close.

After that, I did the next logical thing that came to mind. I weighed myself — in the middle of the day, on my home scale.

Strike two.

That 13 pounds I had lost had suddenly turned into only a 5-pound decrease, according to my scale, and with only a few more days before my second weigh-in, I panicked.

So I sent a text message to Chris’ cell phone and lamented that all of my hard work that first week went down the drain.

I wasn’t sure I would get a response back, and definitely wasn’t expecting it to come less than a minute later.

“Relax, stay the course.”

But, but, but ...

“Don’t worry. We got this :-). This isn’t my first rodeo! Lol” was his final text.

Chris was right. Three days later, I was back on the scale and had dropped another 9 pounds.

Two weeks, four 30-minute training sessions, hours of follow-up cardio exercise and limitless support and encouragement had added up to 22 total pounds lost.

So I pulled out the Green Lantern shirt ...

Just kidding.

I know I have at least a couple more months for that to happen.

But as Chris has taught me, losing weight and becoming healthier isn’t a sprint, it’s a marathon.

You just need to stay on course.

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