It turned out I was right to be nervous because the results were not good—the blood work revealed I had type 2 diabetes, and my doctor told me I needed medication to keep my blood sugar under control. At first, I was mad at the doctor, and I thought the results must have been wrong. (But really, I was angry at myself.)
Truth be told, the diagnosis was no surprise because for the first 40 years of my life, I had eaten whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted. My father had recently been diagnosed with diabetes, but I chose to ignore that risk factor. I thought calories were a sham, and I was lucky if I weighed myself once a year. With both of us overweight, Jennifer and I had tried fad diets and lost weight together a few different times, but we always gained the pounds back…and then some. That's the thing about diets—they work when you are on them, but you almost always fall off.
(Take a look at these 7 scary things that can happen if you don't treat your diabetes.)
For a few days following my diabetes diagnosis, I grumbled. Jennifer, 37 at the time, listened to me and didn't say too much. She weighed more than I did at the time, and as I saw her huffing and puffing after climbing a flight of steps, I knew what she was thinking. She, too, needed to make some major changes.
Photograph by Mark and Jennifer Trenkle
"I am not diabetic," I told her. "I am going to prove the doctor wrong." That kicked off the heart-to-heart that was long overdue. Jennifer and I talked about how we couldn't fit on rides at amusement parks with our kids and the fact that we were both exhausted at the end of every day. At the time, our two kids were 8 and 5 years old. Not only did they need their mom and dad to be around for them, they needed us to be good, healthy role models. This time the "diet" needed to be a lifestyle change, and this time we could not go off it—it needed to be forever.
To really lose weight, I knew I needed something to make myself accountable. We started by using MyFitnessPal, programming it so we could lose the maximum weekly weight—2 to 3 pounds. That put us at 1,200 calories per day. The biggest changes we made were cutting out pasta and red meat, which were two of our favorites. We added tons of vegetables, got rid of potato chips and junk food, and substituted white rice with brown rice and white bread with 30-calories-per-slice whole wheat. We started drinking tons of water and stopped drinking soda. (Check out these 8 things that happen when you finally stop drinking diet soda.) Instead of having two or three helpings of dinner per night, we limited ourselves to only one.
Using MyFitnessPal, we discovered if we added exercise, we could eat more! Jennifer started doing water aerobics a few times a week, and I began walking using the MapMyRun app to track my distance. I started with 1 mile three times a week and increased it a little each time. (Take back control of your eating—and lose weight in the process—with our 21-Day Challenge!)
All the while, the pounds melted off both Jennifer and me. In the beginning, we lapped MyFitnessPal's predictions, losing 3 to 5 pounds a week! Only 6 weeks after we started, people noticed we were trimmer, which felt so good.
Jennifer and I are both competitive, so she would create challenges each week to see who could lose more pounds. Every Sunday was weigh-in day, and we would reward each other—and ourselves—with things like shopping trips for new, smaller-size clothes. Over time, I went from not believing in calories to becoming the calorie police. I learned losing weight really is a balancing act between calories in and calories out.
To boost the calories out, I slowly built up my walking into running. Only 4 months after my fateful diabetes scare, I ran my first 5K. (You can train for your first 5K, too, with this training plan.) I can't begin to describe how amazing it felt to cross that finish line. I got the "runner's high" and couldn't wait to get it again and again. Jennifer got into different types of exercise, like Zumba, and she built up to working out 6 days a week. I ran two more 5Ks in 2014, beating my personal record each time. I passed my running addiction on to Jennifer, and we recently ran our first 5K side by side.
I have to admit, there were many times losing weight wasn't easy. But the hardest part by far was getting started. Once we began, Jennifer and I never looked back, challenging and motivating each other all the way. We kept telling ourselves, any exercise we do today will make us healthier than we were yesterday. Every salad we eat or burger we turn down will put us one step closer to our weight loss goals.
Photograph by Mark and Jennifer Trenkle
Along the way, as we've lost inches, our bond has grown. Not only is she my best friend, Jennifer is my primary motivator. She is the most determined person I have ever met. If it weren't for her, I would have fallen off the weight loss wagon long ago. Thanks to our teamwork, today, nearly 3 years later, I weigh 192 pounds, more than 90 pounds less than I did that fateful doctors' appointment day. Jennifer weighs 164, a whopping 205 pounds less than her 369-pound starting weight. My latest blood work revealed I am no longer diabetic—my most important victory!
Photograph by Mark and Jennifer Trenkle
When I think about what Jennifer and I have accomplished, I am amazed. But really, it's the little rewards we've gained on the way that have made the weight loss so enormously rewarding. The other day, I heard our daughter tell Jennifer, "It's cool you lost all the weight, mom." Our kids are still young enough to think we are pretty "cool," so it's great we can instill healthy habits in them now. Plus, they have happier parents, which makes them cheerier kids and us a much happier, healthier family.
