Jay Y. (Testimonial)
I may be his brother but please don't mistake the effort required to decide to change your life or I should say how you live your life. In my view and I can say as a result of my experience in this process, Jon is a facilitator - someone that is able to demonstrate, motivate and provide knowledge and accountability for as little or as much of this process as you will allow.
Your first impression may be of a younger man that can run, climb and is educated in fitness. I encourage you to step back and realize that you're looking at someone that decided to change his life and this is the result. I say this as I want to start here, the decision to change the way you live your life. As you can see, in my early twenties, I had gained weight (I found out that I am actually pre-disposed to this). In total about 250lbs is where I topped out. Even though I was active when I was younger I still was practically blind to the changes that where happening. A large part of it was my career, being an IT geek and sitting in front of computers all day, that combined with a typical North American diet and lifestyle is what caused me to reach 250lbs over 6 years. Simply put, there was a huge gap in knowledge of what we should do and what we are taught to do. I then decided to change.
At that point in my life I had made several changes, one was to stop smoking, the second was a turn in my relationship, and the third was to change my lifestyle. I turned to Jon for the latter and it was not easy, not in the least. My first attempt at running was in February, it was -20 and lasted about 50 yards before I slipped, fell and slide about 10 feet on my ass. The next day I did it again, then again, then again. Jon's first meeting with me after this was structured but the direction was clear. "Bro I am glad you are deciding to change, but frankly I don't believe you and neither does your body" followed by a series of questions designed to help me realize that I WILL need to change if I expect to see results. He was right, I too did not believe myself that I could reach the goals that I wanted, and when I started it was to run 3km without stopping and to lose 20lbs. I started to learn everything I could about my body and the reality that I was facing. The pivot of this was about 2 months later when Jon and I were out to dinner with some folks. We were at East Side Mario's and we ate the typical portions: appetizers, dinner and dessert. On the way home I asked the question "How many calories did I just eat, and what will it take to get rid of them?" Great question Jon said, the answer is about 1800 calories and you need to run 20KM. After that point the whole situation became very real; I remember Jon telling me shortly after that he now believed I was going to change. I did too.
Then end results:
Total weight lost: 75 lbs
Total muscle gained: 6-8 lbs
Farthest start distance (Run): 50 yards
Farthest end distance (Run): 22 KM Non-stop
Chin ups Start - 1
Chin ups Finish (3 months) - 25
Push ups start - 5
Push ups finish - 35
