Regaining Marine Corps Physique: Erik Therwanger’s Inspirational Exercise Story

Guest post by Erik Therwanger, of ThinkGreat90.com

Saving My Wife Led to Regaining My Life!

As a former U.S. Marine, I have always led an active lifestyle and remained in great physical shape for most of my life. In 1999, after ten months of marriage, my then 27 year old wife was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma. We were told that it was very aggressive and she needed to start chemotherapy immediately. The effects of her treatments were devastating. To have more time as her caregiver, I left my job and started a career in sales. One of the side effects of her treatments was a violent reaction to the smell of food. To make sure that she did not encounter such odors, I started to eat out more often, usually at fast food restaurants in between my sales appointments.

In addition to eating poorly, I had stopped exercising due to how hectic my schedule was. After months of taking care of my wife, I  realized  I had stopped taking care of myself – I had gained over forty pounds. I began a ninety day diet and exercise program. I began eating three smaller meals consisting of a protein, a fruit, and a vegetable. I drank mostly water. In between each meal, I ate about a ½ cup of granola cereal (with a glass) of water.

I started a small amount of exercise, which only included about seven minutes of cardiovascular training, three days per week. My initial goal was to lose 16 pounds. At the end of my 90 days I had lost 42 pounds. I looked great and felt even better. The goal-setting process was a huge part of my success. I identified my initial goal of losing 16 pounds and attached many powerful reasons to it: I don’t want to die early, I want to be around to watch my daughter grow, and I want to feel good about myself.

During the first week, the least fun part of my program was cutting out the junk food that I had gotten used to. But after the first week, I was starting to see results. I had lost nearly seven pounds and I knew that I would not only hit my first goal, but I would exceed it.

The top four habits that I adopted to accomplish this goal were to:

• Stay focused on my goal – instead of being focused on my challenges
• Eat healthy foods – instead of eating fast food/unhealthy food
• Drink a lot of water – instead of drinking soda
• Exercise – instead of staying stagnant

But the most rewarding part of accomplishing my goal actually had nothing to do with me. I inspired other people to lose weight also. In fact, I have been asked so many times about my weight-loss program that I started to write a book, The Goal Formula which provides a detailed account of my story and my program.

Erik Therwanger today

For me, losing weight enabled me to regain control of my life in so many ways. It also allowed me to impact the lives of other people!

Readers: If you want to contact Erik and learn more of his story (which gets even more interesting and inspiring) go to http://www.thinkgreat90.com