When I began the WildFit Quest I had just turned 71 years young, my wife of 31 years had died the previous June (after being in hospice for almost three months), and I had moved the previous July from the house that my wife and I had shared to a one bedroom apartment in an independent living fifty five plus active senior community. Before I retired and moved with my wife to Las Vegas seven years ago, I was a professor of Management at the University of Scranton in Scranton, Pennsylvania for over 35 years. In that role, my area of research and writing was spirituality in management. I am considered to be one of the founders of that sub-specialty in management, and I have edited and/or written several books and articles on the subject. I also have been meditating for over 40 years, and taught meditation and other spiritual related topics to my management students (most of whom were MBA students). My blood work over the years that I was teaching was always good, and I had been routinely exercising (including both yoga and weight training), but I had high blood pressure, and was rather heavy.
My wife, on the other hand, had many health problems, most of which stemmed from her being overweight and having type 2 diabetes. I retired and we moved to Las Vegas so that my wife would not have to spend another harsh winter in Pennsylvania. Her health improved the first three years we were in Las Vegas, but then grew progressively worse. I spent the last two years of her life being mainly her caregiver and taking her to doctors and in and out of the hospital. Seeing my wife be so ill, and seeing the ravishes that diabetes inflicted on her health, I made a vow to myself that I would improve my health and reduce my weight. When my wife was hospitalized I began using the Noom weight reduction app, and my weight had gone down from 230 pounds to 195 pounds.
By February when I began the WildFit challenge, I still wanted to reduce my weight (my goal was to reduce to below 180 pounds), my blood pressure was high, and I was on several blood pressure medications. Thankfully, all of my other blood test results were good, and I never have been diagnosed with even prediabetes. After taking the Quest, I feel much healthier. My weight has been reduced to 173 pounds, my blood pressure is now around 110/65, I am receiving many compliments on my appearance, my clothes size has been going down, and my energy is the best it has ever been. I especially feel grateful and fortunate to have learned about and started the Quest right when I did - at the beginning of the Corona virus pandemic. While I had been doing the Quest, I was simultaneously also doing three exercise programs - Jade Teta's Metabolic Prime exercises (from Natural Health Sherpa) three days a week using ten pound weights and his current Get Immunity Challenge, Tai Cheng (from BeachBody, and Juan Pablo Baharona's activations that I first learned about from his Soulvana Quantum Health program. I find these programs and trainings to be very useful and to be a very nice complement to the WildFit program.
The reason I enrolled in the Quest was to reduce my weight, lower my blood pressure, increase my energy, and improve my health and appearance. What I was hoping to learn was more information about nutrition, and better understanding of and control over my eating habits – especially on being better at mindful eating. Even though I have been meditating and teaching meditation and mindfulness for over thirty years, I still found myself mindlessly eating most of the time - especially when under stress.
Areas of my life in which I've noticed the biggest changes are:
• Improvement in my overall health – especially lowered blood pressure
• My energy level is the best it has ever been.
• My weight is the lowest I have been in over 40 some years. Because I am also doing Metabolic Prime and Immunity Challenge, Tai Cheng, and Juan Pablo Baharona’s trainings, I am in the best physical shape I think I have ever been. Not bad for someone who biological age is 71 years. I recommend this Quest because I believe it is an excellent approach to producing long term permanent changes in the way a person approaches food and nutrition, and has the best chance of producing lasting behavioral change in eating habits and attitudes toward food.
My top 3 takeaways or insights during/after finishing this Quest are...
1. The importance for me of eating mindfully - paying attention to my inner dialog and the food timeline, and particularly, for me, being mindful during every bite.
2. The importance of good nutrition in improving my overall health and my immune system.
3. How grateful I feel that I began and completed this Quest just at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States. I believe that the improvements to my health during the past three months have improved my immune system and have enabled me to more successfully cope with the challenges and stress of being “locked down” at home during the crisis. As the saying goes, “May you live in interesting times”. These times are certainly interesting and challenging. As another saying goes (From “The Twelve Chairs” by Mel Brooks) “Hope for the best. Expect the worst”. While I don’t think it is helpful to expect the worst, I do think it is a good idea to prepare ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually for what lies ahead. I believe that the WildFit challenge certainly helped me with that, and, as I said above, for that I am very grateful. I hope we all stay healthy, optimistic, and try out best to be there for each other.
My wife, on the other hand, had many health problems, most of which stemmed from her being overweight and having type 2 diabetes. I retired and we moved to Las Vegas so that my wife would not have to spend another harsh winter in Pennsylvania. Her health improved the first three years we were in Las Vegas, but then grew progressively worse. I spent the last two years of her life being mainly her caregiver and taking her to doctors and in and out of the hospital. Seeing my wife be so ill, and seeing the ravishes that diabetes inflicted on her health, I made a vow to myself that I would improve my health and reduce my weight. When my wife was hospitalized I began using the Noom weight reduction app, and my weight had gone down from 230 pounds to 195 pounds.
By February when I began the WildFit challenge, I still wanted to reduce my weight (my goal was to reduce to below 180 pounds), my blood pressure was high, and I was on several blood pressure medications. Thankfully, all of my other blood test results were good, and I never have been diagnosed with even prediabetes. After taking the Quest, I feel much healthier. My weight has been reduced to 173 pounds, my blood pressure is now around 110/65, I am receiving many compliments on my appearance, my clothes size has been going down, and my energy is the best it has ever been. I especially feel grateful and fortunate to have learned about and started the Quest right when I did - at the beginning of the Corona virus pandemic. While I had been doing the Quest, I was simultaneously also doing three exercise programs - Jade Teta's Metabolic Prime exercises (from Natural Health Sherpa) three days a week using ten pound weights and his current Get Immunity Challenge, Tai Cheng (from BeachBody, and Juan Pablo Baharona's activations that I first learned about from his Soulvana Quantum Health program. I find these programs and trainings to be very useful and to be a very nice complement to the WildFit program.
The reason I enrolled in the Quest was to reduce my weight, lower my blood pressure, increase my energy, and improve my health and appearance. What I was hoping to learn was more information about nutrition, and better understanding of and control over my eating habits – especially on being better at mindful eating. Even though I have been meditating and teaching meditation and mindfulness for over thirty years, I still found myself mindlessly eating most of the time - especially when under stress.
Areas of my life in which I've noticed the biggest changes are:
• Improvement in my overall health – especially lowered blood pressure
• My energy level is the best it has ever been.
• My weight is the lowest I have been in over 40 some years. Because I am also doing Metabolic Prime and Immunity Challenge, Tai Cheng, and Juan Pablo Baharona’s trainings, I am in the best physical shape I think I have ever been. Not bad for someone who biological age is 71 years. I recommend this Quest because I believe it is an excellent approach to producing long term permanent changes in the way a person approaches food and nutrition, and has the best chance of producing lasting behavioral change in eating habits and attitudes toward food.
My top 3 takeaways or insights during/after finishing this Quest are...
1. The importance for me of eating mindfully - paying attention to my inner dialog and the food timeline, and particularly, for me, being mindful during every bite.
2. The importance of good nutrition in improving my overall health and my immune system.
3. How grateful I feel that I began and completed this Quest just at the start of the Covid-19 outbreak in the United States. I believe that the improvements to my health during the past three months have improved my immune system and have enabled me to more successfully cope with the challenges and stress of being “locked down” at home during the crisis. As the saying goes, “May you live in interesting times”. These times are certainly interesting and challenging. As another saying goes (From “The Twelve Chairs” by Mel Brooks) “Hope for the best. Expect the worst”. While I don’t think it is helpful to expect the worst, I do think it is a good idea to prepare ourselves mentally, physically, and spiritually for what lies ahead. I believe that the WildFit challenge certainly helped me with that, and, as I said above, for that I am very grateful. I hope we all stay healthy, optimistic, and try out best to be there for each other.