2011 Royal Fitness Challenge Winner

                Mr. Kirk Spaseff, Guest Service Associate/Night Auditor (lost -29.4lbs)

“My Journey”

Written by: Kirk J. Spaseff

       

                                                                                                                            

                I've been overweight about as long as I can remember. Some years are worse than others, but I've always had a problem with overeating and not enough exercise. When I decided to get involved with the weight loss challenge at the King George, I kept my goals fairly conservative, knowing that I had tried to lose weight with varying levels of success before. I have reached those goals and now set new ones, however, as it seems I've finally found some ways to stay healthy.

                I obviously divided my weight loss problem into two different goals: eating better and getting (at least some) exercise. Knowing that a regular exercise routine would take some time to get used to, I decided to focus the majority of my efforts on eating better, so that I didn't have to stress as much about getting a lot of exercise. There was two main ways I did this. First, I focused on tapering my food intake as the day went on. I would work on eating bigger meals earlier in the day, followed by a smaller dinner, and then no more food after about 8PM. Second, I made small substitutions in otherwise similar meals to make them healthier. I cut out chips, fries, soda, or anything that was essentially fillers or sides that were unnecessary. I cut out fatty condiments and dressings from otherwise innocent foods – things like mayonnaise and ranch and the like. These two changes made a huge impact – even without consistent exercise, I quickly was dropping weight and having more energy. I should also point out that I'm a vegetarian. I really do believe this was not especially significant, as I had managed to gain weight as a vegetarian as well. Not eating meat does not mean one's diet is automatically healthy. I would encourage anyone who eats meat and is looking to lose weight to follow the same advice – simply cut down on unnecessary portions of meat or fried/fatty meats in their diet.

                As for exercise, before the weight loss challenge, I led a very sedimentary lifestyle. Switching from almost no exercise to just a manageable amount throughout the week had a huge impact. What helped me the most was forcing myself to sign up for a run – a simple 5k in this instance. Just knowing that I would have to participate gave me motivation to start running a little bit. While the 5K was actually quite a challenge for me, it started me running, and now I've done about 4 races, getting slightly better each time. Signing up for events like this worked for me – it forced me to have goals and challenge myself. I will continue to challenge myself until I have reached my fitness goals for the year.

          Nov. 11 Urbanathlon
(left: Kirk Spaseff, right: Juan Bran)

Oct. 2011 Bridge to Bridge                     

(left: Bertrand Newson, center: Kirk Spaseff, right: Juan Bran)