Like many on-the-go guys, John Schierle would swing by fast-food restaurants several times a week on his way to work as a maintenance supervisor at Frontier Airlines.
His typical breakfast consisted of three egg-and-muffin sandwiches, in addition to a cheese, meat and pancake “sandwich.”
Likewise, when he went to a steakhouse for dinner, he enjoyed the biggest rib-eye on the menu, and at all-you-can-eat buffets he was determined to get his money’s worth.
What Schierle didn’t enjoy, eventually, was reading the numbers on the bathroom scale: 394 pounds.
While he stands an impressive 6 feet, 5 inches tall, there was no denying he was obese. And he had been for a long time.
Schierle spent 11 years in the Navy and Navy Reserve, and along the way his boot camp weight of 218 pounds ballooned to the point where he had to resign because his excess weight rendered him unfit for his job.
Still, it was a combination of several things that made Schierle change directions: a challenge from his wife to lose weight before a wedding; seeing the documentary “Supersize Me,” about a man who eats nothing but fast food for a month and realizes its deleterious effects on his health; and getting an e-mail invitation to join colleagues in a Weight Watchers At Work group.
Almost two years later, Schierle, 46, has dropped 120 pounds and become something of a celebrity among his co-workers because his efforts earned him an award in the 2007 Weight Watchers Inspiring Stories of the Year.
“He’s really been persistent and stuck with it, realizing it’s not a short-term fix,” says Cathy Devencenty, Schierle’s group leader for most of the time he’s been on the program. “He’s been really great with taking the ups with the downs. Life gets in the way sometimes and the scale doesn’t always tell you what you want it to.”
She says Schierle also has been successful because he’s lost his weight gradually and has sought help from the group he meets with every Thursday. “The magic is in the meeting,” Devencenty says. “You can bounce challenges and struggles off others. John participates a lot. Once a person gets comfortable in the group, it becomes like a family.”
It wasn’t like that in the beginning.
At first, Schierle didn’t tell his co-workers at the hangar at Denver International Airport that he was attending the meetings. “The perception was that it was a woman thing,” he said. “I just snuck out and didn’t tell people where I was going.”
All the while, Schierle set goals, learned to make better food choices, got online tools for tracking his progress, and shared his experiences with other members in his group. With each weigh-in, the scale showed him losing pounds.
The healthier food choices began at breakfast, where he traded fast food for cereal. And substituted Kashi varieties or Grape-Nuts for Cap’n Crunch. He packed his lunch, bringing sandwiches, fruit, yogurt and juice to work most days.
For dinner, he and his wife Lyla switched to lean protein and vegetables. “If we have meatballs and pasta, it will be turkey and whole wheat pasta rather than beef and regular spaghetti,” he says.
Exercise is important, too, so Schierle added walks with his dogs and takes walks at work. He joined a gym, where he swims and lift weights a couple of times a week.
When the pounds started dropping off and others remarked on his weight loss, Schierle shared the secret of his shrinking physique. Other men in his department joined him in the Weight Watchers group.
Schierle admits it hasn’t been a slam- dunk, but reaching his goal of 211 pounds by next year is now a possibility. He still finds it hard to get on a regular schedule at the gym. And he struggles with portion sizes “because I used to eat so much.”
Still, he savors the rewards. He no longer has to take medicine for his cholesterol and he says his doctor was impressed with his condition during his last annual physical.
The health benefits of losing so much weight are undeniable, but “the coolest thing,” Schierle says, “is that because I’ve gone from wearing a XXXXL to a XXL, I can buy clothes off the rack.”
On the menu
BREAKFAST
Then: Sausage, egg, cheese and pancake fast-food sandwiches
Now: Kashi cereal or oatmeal bar
LUNCH
Then: Fast-food burgers, fries, soft drinks
Now: Low-fat submarine sandwich and sugar-free lemonade
He often packs his lunch and snacks, bringing yogurt, vegetable juice, a sandwich, and cut-up fruit, including apples, grapes, blueberries and watermelon.
RESTAURANT DINNER
Then: 20-ounce rib-eye steak and trimmings
Now: 6- to 8-ounce steak, salad and vegetables
SNACKS
Then: Chips and cookies
Now: Cucumber slices and fat-free ranch dressing, baked chips if he eats them at all; fruit
Suzanne S. Brown: 303-954-1697 or sbrown@denverpost.com
