I usually write a blog that coincides with the 1st of January when people set their New Year’s Resolutions. The number one Resolution people announce has something to do with their health. I generally explain the benefits of a healthy lifestyle and describe in detail the risks associated with the unhealthy alternative. This year is different. I intentionally held off writing the same old message.
First, I decided to write a post mid way through January, because according to statistics, 70% of all people that make New Year’s Resolutions have already abandoned their commitment to a new lifestyle and retreated back to their favorite couch in front of the TV while eating unhealthy food and washing it down with soda, beer or a glass of wine.
Second, instead of “preaching” the benefits and risks associate with lifestyle choices, I decided to share a story written by Peter Leclaire. I coached Peter last year and he finishing one of the hardest single day cycling races in the world. What’s most impressive is when I started coaching Peter he weighed around 245lbs, and after 10 months of committing himself to a healthy lifestyle, Peter dropped his weight by 80lbs, to 165lbs and has become a lean, mean cycling machine.
It’s my hope that by reading Peter’s transformational story, you too will be inspired by what’s possible when you take action and make this Year’s Resolution the one that sticks for the rest of your life.
Enjoy the Ride....Rob
My Journey to Health - by Peter LeClaire
Ever since Robert (AKA: Coach) asked me to write my story describing my transformational journey soon after racing Etape du Tour back in July of 2012, I’ve been struggling how to best write this. I had many ideas floating in my head where to start my story, how to fill in the middle and provide an ending with a call to action for those who like me were sitting on the sidelines. Below is my story and I hope it inspires you to make the lifestyle changes I embraced, regardless of your age, your gender or starting weight.
My life, like many of yours, is fairly ordinary. I’m a 50+ year old guy that has time commitments of work, family, friends, etc. I’m not an overachieving “AAA” personality with a strong take-charge mentality, but I am a passionate individual who generally loves what he does and sticks to it once started. This is especially true when people support and believe in me. This is where my story starts.
About 5 years ago I registered for my first charity bike ride, a back to back metric century (100km) in support of the Princess Margaret Hospital in Toronto, one of the largest charity rides in Canada. At this point I had never thought of a bike ride in terms of distance, only in terms of time. I was excited about being part of something bigger than myself and raising money for a great cause in addition to joining over 4000 cyclists with the same goal. What I didn’t realize was how hard it was to get my fat behind (and I mean fat) out the door and actually do some training. I had no real game plan except to put some time on the saddle. I was quite overweight and considered obese even though I was reasonably active in other sports, but it didn’t take me long to realize just how out of shape I was when I began climbing hills I found myself gasping for each breath by the time I reached the summit feeling the negative effects a poor cardiovascular system and carrying so much extra body fat. I’m happy to report that I can laugh at those days now, but at the time it was not only painful, but provided a view into my general fitness level.
I completed that first charity ride that spanned over a weekend and besides having fun, I felt an overwhelming sense of pride and accomplishment I immediately signed up for the next year’s event. This is when I realized the importance of setting a major goal for myself each year and cycling was the “vehicle” for me. Although I was still overweight, I participated in the Ride to Conquer Cancer four years in a row with the last two events being back to back 160km rides. I erroneously felt that since I was doing all this riding I could reward myself with over abundant meals that were for the most part, unhealthy.
I think I can say that my real transformation started two years ago when I was in France on vacation and had the opportunity to ride with Coach’s step brother Gerry Patterson who has been blogging about his cycling adventures and guided tours throughout the South of France. I contacted Gerry through his blog and we scheduled a guided day ride. The only thing I knew about our outing was that we were going for an 80km ride in the hills behind Nimes. I mean really, how tough could it be. I had a vision of a pleasant cycle through the rolling French countryside, but the reality was a far cry from what I had imagined in my head. How naive was I? As much as I struggled that day, and I mean struggled as it was probably the hardest physical thing I had done in my life up until that point, it was an epiphany. Gerry was telling me about completing his first Etape de Tour race, or riding up the famous Mont Ventoux and it dawned on me that I would love to do a big mountain climb like that one day. I couldn’t believe I was actually thinking this because I’m the same guy that hated climbing any hill and used to ride out of my way just to avoid them.
The biggest part of my transformation was to set a big goal, and after listening to Gerry talk about his riding and racing adventures I proceeded to sign up for what would become the biggest physical challenge of my life, the L’Etape du Tour 2012 – Act 2. For those who don’t know, this was an actual Tour de France stage, but for amateurs. This particular race was 202km and located in the high Pyrenees Mountains. It was the hardest stage of that year’s Tour de France.
It would be an understatement of colossal proportion to say this was a huge undertaking and probably something in my physical condition that bordered on impossible. In fact, there were many times I thought to myself that I must be nuts to attempt such a physically demanding event. I knew I couldn’t do this alone and needed some guidance and structure to my training if I was going to accomplish this monumental task, and I had no idea how I was going to get it. Talk about setting an audacious goal.
It was at this time that I was introduced to Robert Armstrong by Gerry. Robert was looking for someone to train as he often does from time to time. Gerry mentioned that I had signed up for the Etape du Tour race and recommend I contact his step brother for some training tips, as he coached him to his first Etape de Race. Well be careful what you wish for, because I received more than a few coaching tips. I think it was when I mentioned my weight to Rob that he realized I needed more than just a few coaching tips. In fact, my challenge was a total life makeover. Rob didn’t want to kill my dream of participating in this great race, but he said there was no way I could finish in my current condition and he was genuinely concerned for my long term health. Rob didn’t charge me for his services, so he spent a long time qualifying my interest and personal commitment to the transformation plan and it wasn’t an easy process. He told me that most people fail because they embark on these journeys for all the wrong reasons. I basically had to convince him that I was worth his time, and I must have done a good job, because he took me on. So as I said above, be careful what you wish for, because although Coach was supportive, he showed me no mercy.
Even though his training program was communicated via email, because he lives in Calgary and I’m in the Toronto area, I felt his encouragement every day. If this was to work he said, there has to be complete honesty between the two of us. Coach sent me new dietary principals that I had to follow without question and he expected I follow it to the letter before we even started on the cycling training program. He told me things about myself that were hard to hear, but it was the wake-up call I needed. Commitment to my general health, given I was obese was far more important than riding a bike in some race in France. But cycling was also the catalyst to get me to the end point. He explained the many health reasons why getting my size under control from my current weight of 245lbs back to my senior high school weight of 170 lbs was important. I just thought he was nuts when he suggested I could lose 80lbs in 9 months.
Changing my diet was difficult at first because it was based on the healthy foods I rarely ate, like Vegetables, Fruits, Salads, and a healthy balance of Carbohydrates, Protein and Fat. He also said no alcohol until I was back to a healthy weight. These were tough choices indeed. Changing from a lifetime of self abuse based on bad food choices and avoiding sugars like soda pop & concentrated fruit juices, processed convenient foods, as well as simple carbohydrates was very difficult. These were all the foods that contributed to my weight gain and provided me with the comfort I desired. This was a significant change, but after his big speech about commitment to each other, it was tough to let him down, but more important, I wasn’t about to let myself down.
The next step was making exercise a daily priority. Coach set up my program in 4 week periods. It started with approximately 7 hours of structured training per week, which progressively got harder and longer as the winter season wore on. This was not to say that I didn’t grumble to myself more than a few times and that I was exhausted and tried to convince myself that couldn’t do this. Every time that happened I focussed my thoughts knowing the big picture goal: a new me with a new healthy body with a newer outlook on life. Many of my friends witnessed my transformation right in front of their eyes as the excess fat started to melt away. As much as I was seeing and feeling the positive effects of Coach’s training program and dietary principles, I still remained focused on the big goal ahead, which was getting scarier by the minute as the Etape de Tour got closer and closer.
Since reducing a significant amount of body fat by the time the outdoor season arrived (by March/April I was weighing around 180), my overall riding significantly improved and my ability to climb hills was easier than I ever experienced. In addition to my new found energy, my wife was tossing out all my oversized clothes. I had gone from a size extra large in everything I owned, to a size medium. I couldn’t remember the last time I wore a medium in anything, but there I was wearing a new skin tight cycling kit 2 to 3 sizes smaller than I did a short 6 months before. I finally started to look like a real cyclist. That being said, the other challenge I had to get used to was accepting my own self identity. Every time I pasted a mirror or caught my reflection in a window, I didn’t recognize the skinny guy looking back at me. And it wasn’t just me, many of my long time friends that I hadn’t seen for months didn’t recognize this new person that remotely looked like the fat guy they once knew.
I found it strange that when I was obese, no one ever told me I was too fat, but now that I’m a very healthy size, with a BMI of 24, people will tell me all the time that I’m too thin. I think we have so many overweight people in our country that used to look like me, we’ve lost track of what a healthy person should look like, because having a healthy weight is no longer “normal” in this country and people feel it’s ok to point out that you don’t look like the rest of the fat population.
2012 was a big year for me. In late 2011 I finally met the woman of my dreams whom I was to marry in July prior to going to France for Etape. It wasn’t a bad way to spend a honeymoon and do some cycling at the same time. My wife got to proudly watch me complete my goal of competing in Etape de Tour and only 3 days later climb the epic mountain of Mont Ventoux with a new friend John who was gracious enough to open his home to us for a few days. Thanks to Gerry for taking me out on that ride a couple years ago for without that single act of generosity, who knows who I would be today. You never know where that turn in the road takes you.
As I mentioned earlier, it’s imperative to set goals to keep yourself motivated. I love my new life of opportunities and I plan to stay this way. I continue to train under the guidance of Coach Rob and have already seen further improvements in my fitness levels.
So what’s on my agenda for 2013?
I’ve signed up for another stage race in France which takes place in Lac Annecy on July 7th. I’m going to climb the epic mountain of Alpe D’huez (13.7km, 8.1% grade, 21 switchbacks, 1071 meters of climbing). And if that isn’t enough, I plan to ride the famous mountain in the heart of Provence, Mt Ventoux, not once, but three times in the same day from the three different start towns. And finally back home I’ll do a couple 160km+ races.
I share the list above not to brag, but to highlight the opportunities that are available to me now that I’ve taken control of my health and made it a priority in my life. I can truly enjoy my passion for cycling. I’ll never go back to my unhealthy self. Take it from a guy that was obese and take control of your life, set a goal that scares you to hell, build a plan that includes someone to support and motivate you and most importantly, take action. As the Nike slogan goes, “Just do It”. Coach would often say to me,“Knowledge is power, but action flicks the switch”. Well, I think by now most everyone knows what’s required to live a healthy lifestyle, it’s not rocket science. Flick your switch and you too can enjoy an exciting life that isn’t held back by any physical limitations.
Best of health.....Peter LeClaire.
What a great story. I must have scrolled back and forth from Peter's last photo to the first (when he weighed nearly 250 lbs) half a dozen times.
The transformation is nothing short of incredible!!
Good work Rob........ and Peter of course.
Posted by: Terry Haws | 01/21/2013 at 04:33 PM