As a DJ, Joe Leonard used his nickname—“Load”—as part of his amusement personality, making jokes about his weight, which, at his heaviest, reached 385 kilos. But while he noticed how much that “load” had taken on an existence of its own in photos, he knew it needed to change. After nighttime at an awards rite for his different task—Leonard also works as a shop clerk—he was searching through pictures of the occasion when he felt shocked.
I couldn’t accept as true with how some distance out of form I’d emerge as,” Leonard, 48, informed Runner’s World.
At that point, he changed into around 350 kilos, was on medication for excessive blood stress, and was on the verge of many other fitness troubles.

I had sufficient. I knew it changed into time to govern my exercise and consumption,” he stated. “I want to regain my life. Leonard was no stranger to the discipline and had to make an extreme change: He did it nine years ago when he stopped smoking for correct. Leonard knew he ought to do it once more—he just had to begin taking some small steps to get there. Once he did, he dove in headfirst, dropping a severe weight while gaining the self-belief to push himself in approaches he never imagined. For one? Skipping the everyday starter 5K and going to a 15K helped cement strolling as the main part of his new healthy lifestyle.

Making Some Changes

First up on Leonard’s list was his weight loss program. When he noticed those pictures from the awards rite, he was, in most cases, ingesting at buffets—and ensuring he was given his cash’s worth. It became typical for him to devour many rapid meals, including Chinese meals, pizza, and wings, on occasion, all on the same day. At night, he prefers to consume a half-gallon of ice cream crowned with chocolate and caramel syrup. He did some studies and decided to begin with a low-carb, excessive-protein food regimen because he heard many human beings misplaced weight quickly on it. He knew exercise was also crucial, so he coupled the weight-reduction plan exchange with walking on the treadmill and working as much as 30 minutes daily.

After he changed into assured in his treadmill walks, he was given a gymnasium membership. He lost approximately 30 to 40 pounds with a combination of his new ingesting plan and workout; however, the headaches started. Leonard began eating quite a few pork to get in his protein. But because he was born with the best kidney, his frame was incapable of his sudden higher protein consumption. He ended up hospitalized with kidney stone blockage and gout. I became trying to lose weight, and I thought as ingesting healthy, but food my body wouldn’t permit me to pass in direction,” he said.

It turned into time to replace it again.

Around August of last year, he kept riding by a former carpet store and seeing people walking up and down the street wearing sandbags. Intrigued, he eventually was given the courage to head in: It had transformed into a CrossFit gymnasium. When he realized what he had walked into, he informed them of the idea that he had turned into in the wrong vicinity. He became intimidated by the fitness levels of the people inside the gym.

But he gave it a shot, and this became wherein his weight loss journey certainly started to click on—he found a form of exercise he wanted to make a habit. Leonard signed up for the health club’s six-week challenge and worked with a nutritionist at the gymnasium to find a diet that worked for him. It became pretty easy: It utilized a tray method, where three distinctive compartments signaled how much of each meal you needed to consume, with vegetables taking up the biggest one. During that time, I lost 32 kilos,” he said. “That’s what saved me there. For the first time in my existence, my fitness became heading in a nice direction regarding people with low incomes.

Starting to Run

While Leonard is enjoying CrossFit, he started to reflect on his consideration of increasing his exercise, which is recurring into walking. He knew that running would help his weight loss and had pals in jogging organizations that recommended him. Around March, he decided to run his first race, the Utica Boilermaker 15K. In the beyond, he, in reality, had served as the DJ for the occasion. However, he didn’t attend or understand much about the birthday celebration.

His simplest earlier experience with going for walks became no longer a superb one: Back in high school, his teachers made him run the mile in a meet to punish him for getting caught smoking inside the park. Leonard, a thrower, waved off the music before he finished one lap because the race was over.
Now, even though, with his fitness on the road, he decided to make it stick. He started jogging three instances per week, a half of a mile at a time. After some 1/2 mile runs, he worked as much as strolling a mile, then without prevention.

Leonard additionally joined a nearby institution that began doing interval education to get equipped for the run. He continued his runs by way of himself but commenced to up his mileage to about 2. Five and 5 miles every time. Before Boilermaker, his longest run was eight miles. Want to start running? The Big Book of Running for Beginners will take you through everything you need to know to get started, step by step] When he picked up his bib for the race—10771—he knew it was all going to work out, as his quantity changed into a great omen. He weighed in at 107 pounds, down earlier than the race, and was born in 1971.