Client Case Studies
A Life Altering Success Story
by Terence G. Haynes
“Diets failed. Weight loss clinics failed. Working out on my own failed. At 430lbs, I finally asked for help.” With Paul Scianna and Empowering Punch, I lost 200lbs in one year!”
Unbeknownst to me, I’ve been battling weight my entire life. When I was 5 years old, I remember cleaning the dishes after dinner and eating the scraps off everyone else’s plates. Having a strict disciplinary for a father, as long as I did my part and cleaned up, the empty dishes were never questioned and my weight gain began to snowball. Entering my teen years, I was dubbed “fat boy” due to my overly husky physique at that age. Being the jovial, positive person that I am, I never took offense to it because I never realized it was being said in a negative or cruel context.
In junior high, I played football, wrestled and dabbled in about every other sport I could find. Still not looking at myself as an overweight individual, the extracurriculars weren’t an attempt for exercise, but rather for my pure love of sports.
Finally being able to use my weight to my advantage, I had multiple calls from colleges and was well on my way to becoming a football star. I started at a Division Three school with plans of transferring to a bigger school for my 2nd year. With one phone call, my dreams of becoming a professional football player came to an end and my life’s direction took a drastic turn. I was summoned to come home to care for my mother who had become ill with Cancer. I was 19 years old, took a job at Burger King and hung up my cleats. A few years later I found myself married to a girl from my high school. She was the popular cheerleader and I was the football star and that, unfortunately was the premise of our marriage. We divorced 3 years later.
What I now can identify as severe depression and emotional duress, the years following that chain of events served as a breeding ground for my obesity. I kept eating like an elite athlete would, however I quit working out.I quit my job and found myself becoming very secluded from the world, which was completely against my character. I finally resolved myself to the fact that football was over and the divorce was final. I began working as a counselor for troubled children which began to turn my life around. I love to help people. The problem was, I never recognized that I was the one in desperate need of help.
Trying to seem like I was still making an effort, I began going to the gym again. I remarried in 2006 to a beautiful and supportive woman for whom I wanted to be healthy. Again, not looking at myself as a 430 lb man, my trips to the gym were ineffective as I refused to quit eating the staggering amounts of food. My weight fluctuated 10-15 lbs here and there but I finally realized I could not do it myself.
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430lbs.
430lbs.
398lbs.
387lbs.
341lbs.
326lbs.
305lbs.
289lbs.
271lbs.
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227lbs.
At 430 lbs, I asked for help. I had been watching a particular trainer for almost 4 months. I watched his interaction with his clients, what types of routines he had them doing and his attentiveness. I knew I needed a disciplinarian because as much as I wanted to think I had it in me, I didn’t. His name is Paul Scianna and I can honestly say he has saved my life.
We started working together in late December of 2007 and by May of 2008, in only 5 months, I lost over 100 lbs. The beginning months were exhausting. Not only was I physically drained, but more so, mentally and emotionally.
Paul helped me uncover many of the reasons I was in denial for so long about my true physique and it has opened my eyes to a whole new world. He taught me how to cook, how to read labels so I learned how to choose the right foods at the grocery store, and how to always be prepared with my meals so I wasn’t rushing to the drive-thru when it was time to eat. Some of our most productive sessions didn’t even include a workout!
As a result I have a new sense of confidence… new goals, new dreams, a new lease on life. After 27 years, I went back to school at Baldwin Wallace College to finish my degree and ended up joining the wrestling team as the starting heavyweight!
In January of 2009, I did it! I successfully achieved my goal of losing 200 lbs in just over a year! I look back on those 12 months… the roller coaster of challenges I had to face and the accomplishments that came out of it… and I have to thank God for bringing this man into my life. I could have never done it without him!
Terence G. Haynes