Dennis Pinco

Dennis Pinco lost 120 pounds!

36.82% change during the Lean and Mean Challenge

A defining moment:
 I was having health problems that were going to require extreme measures. Two years ago, I was over 340 pounds and my doctors wanted me to be 185 pounds! I was scared and determined not to have to make those drastic alterations. 

Exercise:
It started off slowly. I was only doing about one hour a week with Codrut and I was working on my nutrition and getting myself in the right frame of mind. About 9 months ago, I started to do about half an hour a day during the week and an hour on Saturdays with Codrut. 

In January when the Lean and Mean started, I was in the right mind set and decided this is the time. I started doing one hour of cardio during the week and saw Codrut on Saturdays.

The hardest part:
The hardest part of doing fitness is keeping at it. Late last year I got busy at work and stopped going to the gym during weekdays for a week then before I knew it, I hadn’t gone for 8 weeks and I was back to my old routine of only exercising with Codrut on Saturdays.

Most rewarding:
For me, the most rewarding aspect is seeing the changes and having others notice that I have been losing weight. Getting into pants and shirts that I have not been able to wear for years is nice, but now those clothes are big on me! I know I’m reaching my goal!

Approach to nutrition
The way I look at food is different now. When we go out to eat I spend a lot more time looking at the menu. The more time I spend analyzing my choices gives my brain time to select a healthy option (instead of my first instinct of having what I always had). 

When working with the nutritionist she suggested some changes that I knew I was not able to make. I then spoke up and said I can’t or won’t do that. This allowed us to work together to find a change that I could or was willing to make. 

 Share advice or comment:
I worked on ONE THING. Over the course of 2 years I worked on just one thing at a time and worked on it for 4 to 6 weeks. If I was able to make that change I moved to another challenge. If not, I continued to work on it until I was successful. For example, I really loved diet pop and would have 4 to 5 cans a day. I worked on decreasing my consumption for 10 weeks. Now I only have diet pop about once a week.  In January when I decided to do the Lean and Mean challenge, I still worked on only one thing but that one thing was to WIN. My mind was in the right place and I increased my exercise and reduced the volume of food. I chose food that was healthy. 

I also set a goal to be at 225 pounds. I weighed in at 220 pounds.