My almost 20 year old son who taught himself guitar now wants to teach himself piano but we don’t have a piano and money is tight with a wedding for his sister and one more year of ECC and then two years at Illinois State University to pay for so he can be a teacher.

Thanks Laura for the encouragement and motivation. Your contest has probably given me up to 15 more years on my life as I had read that people with diabetes have on average 15 less years to live.

I was a type II diabetes person before the contest on three meds the maximum dosage. Today I am on none when I have the time to do cardio after breakfast and after supper. If I am not doing cardio I might need one fourth dose of one med in morning and one fourth dose after dinner.

I had the reputation in our scout troop of being the loudest snorer. I don’t snore anymore my wife tells me.

At start of contest I weighed 197 lbs. I now weigh ????????????? 159.4 lbs.

My BMI or Body max index was 31.3 or obese Now I am ????????????????? 25.3 a 19.17% improvement.

I was heavier than 77 percent of people in my age group Now I am ??????????? 32 percentile for people my age and height of 66.5 inches and 56 years old male.

My doctor had told me before I ever knew about the contest that the next time I came to her with my blood work in about 4 months if my A1C number was not better she was going to put me on one shot of insulin a day. Being the needle wimp that I am that was motivation for me along with all the benefits of possible winning the Elgin Biggest Loser weight contest.

Here are the most exciting results of cardio and diet for eight weeks…………

A1C level which is a blood measurement over two to three months and so since contest only went two months it has not fully reflecting my diet and exercise as the most recent A1C I received just a week and a half ago.

A1C before contest was 7.6 At end of contest is 7.0 An 8.6% improvement
Blood pressure was 146/78 At end of contest is 140/70 a 4.1%/10.3% improvement
Total cholesterol was 198 At end of contest is 112 A 43.4% improvement
Bad cholesterol was 83 At end of contest is 49 A 41% improvement
Good Cholesterol was 36 At end of contest is 52 A 44.4% improvement (Higher is better)
Triglycerides was 395 At end of contest is 57 A 85.6% improvement

Three lovely twenty somethings at work have been watching me go by over the last eight weeks as my big baby boomer belly has been getting smaller and smaller. They have asked me for my weight loss secrets I imagine so they can tone up for bikini season. They already look great but I believe they just want to drop about 10 pounds for the summer.

I am known as CJ at work and I joke with them that after they reach their desired weight they can consider getting a heart shaped tattoo that says Body by CJ in it.

So my doctor is overjoyed with my numbers. If I understood her correctly she was not worried about me loosing over two pounds per week since I was losing it with both diet and exercise. If I had lost over two pounds per week on diet alone she would have concerns that I was losing muscle as well as fat which would not be good but since I was exercising all along she was not worried about how much more than two pounds per week I lost. At final weigh in we will see what that figure is ?????????????I lost a total of 37.6 lbs. represented visually at the weigh in by 4-8lb bags of potatoes and1-5lb. bag.

Caution: Always check with your doctor before starting a diet or exercise program. Check with your doctor before altering the dosage on any medications you are on. Find out what is the safest amount of weight to lose per week without dangerously burning muscle as well as fat. You would not want to end up burning heart muscle as well as fat. That would not be good. What worked for me might not be right for someone else based on age or other medical factors.

My doctor cut my cholesterol med dose in half based on my new numbers. I am off completely my glipizide and actos for diabetes. When I have time to do the cardio after breakfast and supper I am off the metformin as well. At the most I just need one fourth dose of metformin in morning and one fourth dose of it after supper if I don’t have time to exercise.

Thanks Laura for all your help with this. I read your book and followed your diet and exercise plan very consistently and it works! I plan on getting to the weigh in around 5:50pm this Wed. May 5. I sure would like it if you could do the math on the top finishers so that we know who won immediately. I will have potatoes to represent the total fat that I lost. At the four week mid contest mark I had dropped 22.4 lbs or 11.4% of my obese body weight based on BMI calculator. What percentage will I finish up with ???????????

Now that I have cut most of the fat in my body my next goal is to see if the voters in Kane County Board District 19 currently held by long time incumbent Cathy Hurlbut will consider hiring me as their board commissioner with their votes on November 2 so that I can begin to work with others to cut the fat in Kane County payroll and other areas.

“Voters in Kane County District 19 please consider hiring Common Sense Clarence Hayward as your next board commissioner so that I might cut the fat in Kane County government for you. Your wallets deserve to be fatter.”

I am living proof of the fantastic medical results that can come from eating right and doing cardio everyday.

I just did exactly what Laura said regarding eating and doing cardio. I did it consistently. There was only one or two days I didn’t do cardio.

I kept to a no sweets, no bread, rice, potato, or pasta diet religiously. Early in the contest because my blood sugar was dropping naturally from diet and exercise I had a couple times where because I had not cut back enough on the diabetes meds I actually had to eat some high carbs to bring it up from being too low.

My wife and son and I celebrated my weight loss at the Golden Corral last night and I had two plate fulls of mostly fatty ribs and a bowl of banana cream pudding plus two pieces of that terrific candy someone made and gave us at the weigh in. This morning my blood sugar without any meds and without any cardio after eating was 108. It needs to be between 60-120 so I right where I want to be. Fantastic. That is the best prize for all of my hard work. I can’t thank Laura enough for being the motivator. Knowing she lost 130 lbs over two and a half years and keeping it off for 7 years I knew she really knows what she is talking about so I followed her instructions and they work.

As always, thank for anyone who took the time to read my post.

Common Sense, Independent, Clarence Hayward

P.S. If you want to lower the Kane County government salary average, raise taxes and hire more minimum wage workers.

Weight loss coach Laura Dion Jones has a radio show on WRMN 1410 AM on Wed’s from 3-4.

Common Sense, Independent, Clarence Hayward for District 19 Kane County Board.

Together we can work to stop the bingeing of payroll dollars as noted by the Sun Times in 2008 below. I want to slim down local Kane County government so that the taxpayers have an opportunity to fatten their own wallets for a positive change.