Joseph’s Journey – A CFW Participant Success Story
Meet Joseph! He works for a CFW client in the financial sector and participates in our Integrated Fitness Services there. He has struggled with healthy weight and fitness for many years. He wrote to us to share this very personal journey to overcome his struggles and find better health and happiness. On his path, he encountered CFW Coach Tricia... and we're so glad that he did! Here's his story:
This took me a while to get started because I didn’t know where to start. To make this readable, I’ll start at what they call in AA: Rock Bottom. When the world shut down, I decided that I ran out of reasons to not lose weight. I had hit 435 before I started working from home and consistently told myself I didn’t have the time to exercise. I quickly learned that the only thing I would do with my spare time is to waste it. After a few months of reading “ERR” on my home scale, I broke down and called my doctor. I had finally made the decision to ask for help and when I did, I decided to take all professional advice I could get and to take it seriously.
After a year and a half of medicinal intervention, I hit a hard wall at 390 lbs. At the advice of my Primary Care Specialist, I reached out to a mental health professional and CFW. While my counselor was able to help me with some very old mental blocks, most of my success came from my interactions with CFW Coach, Tricia Wagner-Lau.
Tricia’s positive attitude and incredible ability to motivate someone can easily be summed up with something she said during our first interaction. When she asked me about my goals, I told her that I liked myself better when I was in better shape. She responded with the most caring tone of voice I’ve ever heard with “I’ll help you get healthier, but you are still that person.” I think about that at least once a day ever since that interaction.
She didn’t stop after fixing my self-image problem. She has continued week after week responding quickly to any question I had, driving me to do better, and always knowing what to say when I needed it. With her encouragement, I have restarted visiting the gym 2-3 days a week with personal training sessions with Trevin, I’ve completed many weeks of the CFW plan, and I’m walking more every week: with my recent record exceeding 31 miles in 7 days.
I feel better physically and mentally because of her help. I have dropped from 390 to 350 lbs. In the four months I’ve been working with Tricia, I have more energy than I’ve had in 20’ish years, and every time I look in the mirror I am proud of myself and I love who I am, not just who I was.
Joseph's story is a powerful reminder for all of us at CFW that our reach and impact goes far beyond the miles a participant logs, or pounds lost on the scale. It's the personal relationships, the trust, and messages of encouragement that make the biggest difference. It's Tricia telling Joe - "you are still that person" and being able to offer solutions that transcended across his work and home-life. That has been life-changing for him, and for us that's the ultimate motivator to keep on doing what we do!
*Posted with permission by participant granted 9/2022.