When Dr. Doug Myhre informed his friends and family that he was going to take part in One On One’s Lean and Mean Challenge, they “rolled their eyes at me and said “You don’t have any fat,” recalls Dr. Doug. Indeed, Dr. Doug is the first to admit that his fitness goal has never been to get thinner. In fact, he rarely engaged in cardio believing that it would simply make him lose more weight. “I was the six-foot, 150-pound, pimply-faced teenager trying desperately to gain weight,” he admits.
A practicing family doctor for the last 30 years and current Associate Dean for Distributed Learning and Rural Initiatives at the University of Calgary, 54-year-old Dr. Myhre is a busy man. A divorced father of two grown daughters, he cites his working relationship with his ex-wife as “one of the greatest accomplishments” of his life. He can now cite the fact that he was able to shave his body fat from 13.6 per cent to 10.5 per cent (a 22.7 per cent change from where he started) in 12 weeks as another accomplishment.
Dr. Myhre has been a client of One On One for a couple of years. “I kept driving by the studio on 17th Avenue and finally just stopped one day,” says Dr. Myhre. “I knew I needed someone I could trust to help me deal with my desire to gain weight without hurting myself. I don’t bounce back like others because I have arthritis in my spine.”
Working with physical trainer Codrut Curteanu has provided Dr. Myhre with what he needed, an anchor to his week. “If I didn’t have that anchor, my workouts would be the first thing to go in my busy schedule. Codrut gets as excited about my results as I do. He pushes me but has the human skills to know when to back off,” says Dr. Myhre.
Initially, Dr. Myhre wanted no part in the Lean and Mean Challenge, but “Codrut insisted that a lean, more defined body makes your chest and arms look bigger,” laughs Dr. Myhre. Having just read a book about integrity, Dr. Myhre also embraced this challenge as a way of staying true and committed to himself. Dr. Myhre’s workout consisted of meeting his personal trainer once a week and lifting weights four times or more a week. Instead of no cardio, he made sure to get in at least three hours a week, which he often broke down into 30-minute increments.
“When I started working out four days a week and added cardio, things started to change. I’m not happy about the weight loss, but I sure am happy with the look!”
Having lost the title by one percentage point, Dr. Myhre is stoic. “I endured a couple of setbacks. I got a shoulder injury and my three-year relationship ended during the Challenge,” he admits. “But Codrut helped me to work around my injuries, provided a soft touch when needed, and when I had to travel, he helped me to develop a modified workout program that I could do even in the worst of hotel fitness rooms.”
Dr. Myhre was also surprised by his increased fitness level and the “natural energy” he suddenly seemed to have. Cutting down on coffee and wine and adding healthy snacks into his diet enabled him to be more mindful of his eating habits.
His new goal is to stay at his current level for a year, and Dr. Myhre admits that if he somehow skips a cardio workout now, he misses it.
“My daughter says “grandpas don’t have abs like this,” laughs Dr. Myhre. “So I guess I won’t be a grandpa anytime soon!”
