The Yellow Brick Road

How many times in your life has someone told you that you could not do something either because of and physical or mental issue? How many times have you heard that you were too old to do something or you were not smart enough to do something?
Over the last four months these challengers have run miles, lifted more weight than ever before, gotten a mental hold on their eating habits, Kayaked over a half mile, played indoor soccer, and now run a 5k (3.1 miles) in under 45 minutes. The fastest time was 28 minutes which turns out to be about 9 minute miles. This is after I was told that she could never and would never run that consistent.
Take into consideration that some of them are suffering with ACL issues and lower back pains, physical disabilities which after the challenge is over could lead to surgeries, with all that said they put that aside and GOT IT DONE.














I hope over the last 5 months they have inspired you all to GET IT DONE. This is the last month and it is heating up now. Stay tuned for THE FINAL WEIGH-IN. Who will win, nobody knows.

The Kayak Challenge

Last year at this same time on this same weekend the Weight loss challenge people were to hold their water challenge. It is was to be a quarter mile lake course that they were to kayak. It never happened. Why? That same week we had a flood of rain come upon us that flooded the lake. Last year WLC went and did service work.




This year, however, we got it in. At first it began to rain but when they hit the water for the challenge the sun came out and the water was calm. This was an individual event that can only be won by the fastest time over the half mile course. The winner this year was Rick who finished the course just ahead of Mary by 1 second. Each challenger competed and did their best. Some who had never kayaked before said that they really enjoyed it. It was grueling for them but in the end they did well and all finished.



Welcome Kathy our new Personal trainer for the blue team. She was our runner up weight loss challenger in 2008 and she lost 100 pounds and has kept ALL of it off.

Truck Pull

The dreaded truck-pull. So many were afraid of it, so many told me that they could not do it, but in the end all did it. All of them had heard that it was going to be a hard challenge. I had two of them come up to me and tell me that they just could not do it. One excuse after another, from a bad foot, to a blown knee. But together they could do it and they did. My goal here was to show them that, yes they are right; in it of themselves they cannot pull the 6500 pound truck up a slight incline 300 meters. In it of yourself they would probably hurt something. But with a partner, with a person that can come along side them and help them in the task YOU CAN DO IT AND ACHIEVE HEIGHTS THEY THOUGHT WERE IMPOSSIBLE. Below you can see their effort and their times. Please note this was a 300 meter course and they are pulling a 6500 pound truck up an incline.

Mark and Krista 2:55.00 seconds

Rick and Mary 2:44.00 seconds

Vic and Marsha 3:04.00 seconds

Josh and Tracy 2:53.00 seconds

Steve and Darcey 3:28.00 seconds



Special thanks to Auto Connections for the donation of the truck, to the Oconomowoc school system for the use of their driveway and to Vic Glassey for donating his pull-ropes. Thanks guys this challenge was successful because of all of you.

Lowering Expectations

Lowering Expectations

Someone comes to you and tells you what they are looking to accomplish. They are very specific and have a time line in which this goal needs to be achieved. After working with them you come to find out that their goals may be achievable but they will be very difficult to attain. What do you do?

In this society today we have this notion that if YOU feel as though YOU cannot achieve it we have to reduce our standards to make US feel better. Look at our school system. For many years WE were held to a certain standard for our academics. WE knew that if WE did not achieve that standard there would be consequences so we tried and in most cases to achieve those standards. WE would consider our teachers and parents evil and bad for holding us to a high standard of achievement. However, at the end of the day, were we not better people and better citizens for it?

Look at those that did not grow up with discipline and where they are today. A friend said to me that if WE don’t train them when THEY are young he would have to when they were older. Imagine if our teachers gave us a test and then after the test said that she felt really sorry for us and that she was going to just give us all A’s. How much would we have learned? We would have learned NOTHING!

Yes, you can feel sorry for a person or group of people, but lowering the standards for them in a challenging event does not make them better people, it just makes YOU(US) feel better and keeps them right where they were originally. Tough love is tough, but just remember, many of them put themselves in the position they are in today. Let them work to get out if it. In the end, they will be better people for it.

The First Three Mile Run

If I had told these challengers back in November that by April they would be running their first 5k, they would have laughed at me. But guess what…… they did it. It is my understanding that there was a bet on the table that anyone that ran it under 30 minutes would get a steak dinner (one of the trainers said this) and it was very close. Mark came in at 30:17 seconds. The slowest person came in at 45 minutes and the quickest 30 minutes. Not bad. This goes to show you that what you put your mind to do you can achieve. Below are some pictures of the challengers coming in after running 3 miles.




Nice hill at the end! Just my signature and way to say that I love them all. Great job guys.

Step Challenge and the Challenge of Challenges

The first time we did this challenge we started at 96 BPM (beats per minute). The winner ended up at 184 BPM and 34 minutes. This time I started it at 126 BPM. The top three finishers were Mary, Tracie and Josh, and the winner was Mary. She stepped for 40 minutes and at her final BPM of 200 or 2 minutes. Great job to all!





Two weeks ago, our challenge was not to schedule a sporting event for the challengers, but to get them in their own worlds and begin to deal with their everyday lives without supervision. It was a challenge that the average person could not complete. Just look at how many people start in January at a health club and by February 90% of them are gone. At Parker’s Place and as part of the Weight Loss Challenge we emphasize Life-Style Change, not weight loss. We understand that weight change is a byproduct of life changes. We knew that after the last two weeks we would be able to tell who the real life changers were and who were not.

Over these last two weeks many of the challengers came in and got a lot done, but some did not. I also saw some of them go through a tremendous amount of soul searching and dealing with problems that would have still been there even at the end of the 6 months. I saw some start out with good intentions and end up just as they started if not worse. Some say that after three months a person can make life changes. As this goes to show you, unfortunately some do not. The attempt was there but in the end for some of them, their old life won out.

Changing one’s life is a long hard process and it starts with the person whose life needs to be changed. They need to want to change and not just emotionally but through a process of logical reasoning. In this process, their old life and its problems become magnified and what would have seemed small a few months ago becomes even bigger while going through this process. New temptations begin to creep up and old issues begin to surface again crying out for the attention they need. What do you do? When life gets hard we tend to run away from those things that in the long run can help us and try and find that comfort zone we used to be in again (good or bad).

One of the biggest problems the challengers have had is food control. I have been baffled on how to help them through this trial. Then one day a member told me that “If you focus on something, you empower it. It becomes all consuming.” This makes sense. Think about it, if you tell yourself that you will not eat this or will not eat at a certain time, what ends up happening is you begin to set yourself up for ultimate failure. Why, because you are thinking about it. However, if you focused your energies on some other thing or project the time would fly by and would have forgotten about eating during that time.

Now I am going to give you my conclusion on how to make life changes regardless of who you are and where you are at this time of life.

1) Plan your goals, little ones. Baby step.
2) Make a plan to get there and stay with it. Do not let excuses deter you from achieving.
3) Focus on the final prize, whatever that may be.
4) Do reward yourself for little success but remember to strive for your final destination
5) While going through the process of achieving your goals, think about all of those negative influences and begin the process of getting rid of them. (Even if it is people in your life)
6) Do not settle for second best or just making it. Instead, always strive for your best effort. Ask yourself a question in the end, “Could I have done better? Could I have gotten to this place sooner (whatever that place is)? Did I really do my best?”
7) If you can answer “yes” to #6, you are not settling for second best and you did do your best.
8) Once you achieve that goal then don’t quit. Set new goals and achieve them. This is what makes life fun and worth living.

I have said this before and I will say it again. Weight Loss is not a goal. Weight Loss is a byproduct of you achieving goals. Goals are such things as:
• Reduction of medications
• Running not for the first time but faster than the previous time
• Getting better at a specific sport
• Being able to physically do things that you were not able to do before( i.e. bad knees, bad back, bad joints, etc)

These goals are not weight loss itself. As you work to achieve your goals your weight will decrease until you are at the peak of your conditioning. Stay in it guys, don’t quit. You can do anything you put your mind to doing. Yes, it may be hard at first but nothing worthwhile is easy.

Special thanks goes to the 2008 class (Matt, Kathy, Sue, Donna, Craig, Nicole)and Jodi for coming alongside the 2009 class for that two week period and holding them accountable. You guys did a great job.

Kevin’s Challenge

I have heard a lot of complaining about one’s knees and how their legs really hurt so I figured it was just time to really work out their upper body so that it could catch up with their legs. In today’s challenge there were four disciplines, Olympic Bench, Bicep Curls with Dumbbells, Triceps cable pull downs, and Bend over rows. Each person had to do each station for 2 minutes. The men had to lift 135 pounds on the Olympic bench and the women 65 pounds. On the Bicep curls the men had to curl 20 pounds and the women 10 pounds. On the cable pull downs the men had to use 60 pounds and the women 40 pounds. Finally on the bend over rows the men used 95 pounds and the women 65 pounds. The winners were, Vic with 44 reps on the Olympic Bench and Mary for the women with 38 reps. In the bicep curls it was Richard with 77 reps and Krista with 60 reps. In the pull downs it was Steve with 102 reps and Debbie with 90 reps. Finally in the Bend over rows it was Steve again with 101 reps and Mary also with 66 reps. In the overall reps challenge Steve won with a total of 305 reps for total in all categories. Please look below for all of the results.


Steve doing 101 reps with 95 pounds Debbie doing 90 reps with 65 pounds


Mary doing 38 reps with 65 pounds Vic doing 44 reps with 135 pounds



Rick doing 77 curls with 20 pounds Krista doing 60 curls with 10 pounds

Debbie doing 90 pull downs with 40 pounds



• Reps for 2 minutes
• Men Bench 135 lbs
• Women Bench 65 lbs
• Men Curl 20 lbs
• Women Curl 10 lbs
• Men Pull Down 60 lbs
• Women Pull Down 40 lbs
• Men Bend Over’s 95 lbs
• Women Bend Over’s 65 lbs



Also below are the results for the half way mark in their weight loss journey. Please don’t lose site of the fact that weight loss is only a by-product of them changing their life styles. My goals for them are not weight related but life changing relate.

Joe Tajnia 43.8 pounds 10.42%, Marsha Hoffman 14.2 pounds 8.1%, Debbie Lorenz 38.4 pounds 12.3%, Josh Foust 26.4 pounds 6.93%, Steve Foust 17 pounds 5.18%, Krista O’Brian 41.4 pounds 14.43%, Josh Branham 63.8 pounds 19.57%, Vic Glassey 62 pounds 19%, Tracie Brasch 41.2 pounds 16.79%, Darcey Lowerre 21.2 pounds 11.22%, Mark Meinhardt 32.2 pounds 11.29%, Richard Andrus 89.2 pounds 22.58%, Mary Schiefelbein 38.4 pounds 18.32%. Congrats to all.