The A-Train Andrew Mcloughlin

You got to have a huge heart to be a big man.

I have know Andrew McLoughlin for many years. Never ever had he had anything bad to say and always seamed to be positive. This was just the outside face of this big kind man. On the inside his body was starting to fail, feelings of depression and the day to day teasing he heard from people had him in a huge rutt. You could only imagine the difficult daily routine he had to go through. From getting out of bed, washing, getting his clothes and personal hygene. Nobody knows the troubles he has seen and nobody would hear it from him even if they wanted to know.
 I would run into him from time to time and he would always say " I should come down and see you at your club". At first I just wrote it off. Everyone says that to me when I go out. But Andrew said "he just had to wait to get some cash together and he would be down". Thats when I piped up ( maybe it was the drinks) but I said " I will train you for free if you just show up on Tuesday at noon. That Tuesday came  and I was there finishing up with another client when he walked through the front door. That was the hardest step he had to take in order to change his live.

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Here he is week two at the club. He weighed over 500lbs and his skin and hair was terrible.
I sat down and explained to him that we were going to take things very slow. We were looking at 2 to 3 lbs a week and he needed to consult a doctor with his routine. I could see him counting in his head. That will take over two years.
 I did a physical assessment of him and tried to see what he could and couldnt do. This is where I thought i might be over my head. I asked him to give me 10 push ups and 10 sit ups on the ground. I didnt know at that time he needed help to get on the floor and 2 people to help him up. I asked him to raise his legs to get on a step and he couldnt. I knew i had my work cut out for me.
To be honest In my mind I thought this is not going to last. I've seen people come and go and when people get discouraged they usually find an excuse not to come back.
 I found some exercises he could do to get him moving for his first workout, got him sweaty and sat down with him and discussed what goals he wanted to achieve at  the end. ( in order to get to a destination you should follow a map, this is the route we were plotting) First he wanted to get under 500lbs, second is that he wanted to compete in a charity wrestling event. He tried the year before but couldnt get in the ring. He was very dissapointed about that and his 3rd goal was to get to 450lbs.

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 From the very beginning  we struggled with his diet. Not because he was a binge eater. It was because he was at a low income tax bracket and couldnt afford what he needed to help shed the weight. He had to visit the food bank a few times and we all know what kind of food goes there. Starched, pastas , bread, milk and processed food. We were going to have to do it the hard way and beg for some help. My sister donated some farm free run eggs, my friends Tia and Shaun donated veggies from a local farm and I did some fishing and gave him some big hunks of salmon. Even with help it just wasnt everything we needed. We needed protein powder and multivitamins, some c.l.a., msm and fish oils. Too far out of our budgets.
 That wasnt the only problem. He couldnt do many things that an ordinary person could do like walk long distances, push ups, sit ups or leg lift to name the few. This took a lot of thought.
 After a good few week the momentum was rolling. He was able to do a bit more each time. I added a bit more weight, more time and more difficulty to each training session. He came in happy one day to tell me that he was now under 500 and he had lost about 5 pound. That was a start. I asked him to weigh in ever 3 weeks from then on.

He came in after a weigh in and he was down. I asked him why? He thought he had let me down and that he had only lost 2 pounds and was expecting 6lbs. I stopped him and googled 2 pounds of butter. I said to him" every weigh in is going to be different and be happy that you lost 2lbs and had not gained it. His motivation has been positive from that point on. He can now do more then he has ever have in his adult life. He is now able to get down and up off the floor, he swings 50 lb Kettle bells like they are toys. He is able to run short distances, kick and punch the heavy bag, he walks to and from the gym, completes each workout and is breathing 100 times better. In the last month he doesnt have to take heart medication and the diabities is all but non existant. He have been and insperation to many people and now has a group of people that want to follow his story and that is why I am writing this blog. We have brought in other Heavyweights to help them in their struggles but Andrew is my number 1 concern. 
Today Andrew weighed in at 450 lbs. He had set his 3rd goal. Something that was so hard to achieve but he stuck to it. For that I told him we have to go to the next level and ask for help. Get the right things he needs so he can drop more. I posted a short message on facebook and within an hour we were set for 3 months of food and suppliments. I am very proud to be part of this transformation. A-Train insires me as well and has become a good friend. I want to thank everyone that has helped along the way from supplying him with food to pressing "like" in his blogs to saying very kind word on his stauses.
Below is his latest picture. If you look up top and compare that is over 50 lbs and has gained about 20 in muscle. This is a feel good story but it far from over yet. His next goal is 425lbs by the end of November early December. If anyone can do it Andrew will be the man.

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