Grant has lost over 100lbs with the help of the Group23 Weight and Lifestyle Program, and doesn’t plan on stopping any time soon!

Grant and I met in December of 2019. He is a 24-year-old hard worker in a marketing research position. His work is fairly sedentary, but he lives close to work so he commutes using his only mode of transportation; his legs. He started his journey at 319lbs and he is currently 198lbs, but wants to go a bit further. He used to be a basketball athlete back in high school. He knows what it’s like to be a certain weight to play his sport. His #RiseAbove goal is to lose weight and get back to playing.

The path that took him to gaining weight may sound familiar. He went from high school to university. Moved out of his parents house and started his career. Like most people in that time of life, we get stressed, we pile on more responsibility, our social circles narrow, and we find ourselves pouring our efforts into working more and playing less. He also lives alone and I think that can sometimes make it more difficult, busy trying to cook for one with limited time and potentially limited culinary experience. This is his journey.

What do you think was the largest contributor to your weight gain over the past 5 years? Stress and poor eating habits. I didn’t learn how to manage the stress of university and adult life, and formed poor behaviours that snowballed into extreme weight gain.

There are many factors to your success. Which one do you believe is the largest contributor to your weight loss? The biggest contributor to my weight loss success has been the establishment of strategies to cope with eating triggers like stress and boredom in a healthy way. Small habitual changes like switching from soda to diet soda, keeping gum on my desk while working and focusing on tying conscious and unconscious eating to different activities have been key.

What advice would you give to anyone that is starting their lifestyle change? To take it one day at a time. If you think of everything you have to do all at once, it can be very overwhelming. Planning how to lose 100 pounds is a much more daunting and difficult task than meal planning for a week or thinking about the evening’s snacks.

What do you think will always be a struggle in your health journey? Managing my eating habits will be a lifelong journey. As new challenges and stresses arise, staying diligent to form healthy strategies will be the biggest challenge.

Grant has had to make a few adjustments in the pandemic. He had to start working from home, lost the ability to use his gym, and doesn’t have to currently commute on his legs. He has adapted. He learned what adjustments he had to make when life throws us curve balls, because it does. Adaptation to these changes is crucial and Grant has the skills to do so. He is adjusting to the seasonal change and has even purchased some items for his new “home gym” (like most had to during the pandemic). His goal is to get stronger. We want to move from pounds on the scale, to how many pushups. We want to move from fat percentage to how many free throws. It’s been exciting to see him take control and mentally prepare for his next journey and to be active in the sport he fell in love with as a young kid!

To learn more about how to start your #RiseAbove weight management journey, click learn more below.