Chris and Hayley Pandolfo were not happy and over weight for many years before they fixed their diet and exercise habits. That’s how they did it.
Hayley explained: “Our marriage before was difficult and very unhappy. We were both severely depressed and not communicating as a couple.”
Chris added: “I had been so ashamed of myself.”
Working security on the night shift, he could conveniently “hide” from the world.
“I was assuming my responsibilities in terms of financially supporting my wife and children, but I settled a little bit to hide and get fat and sick.”
It was only when he caught a glimpse of his reflection in his laptop screen one night, while avoiding mirrors, that he realized what a “sad, sad person” he really was.
Reaching a “tipping point,” Chris realized that at age 35, he was only two years younger than his mother when she passed away from an obesity-related disease.
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He thought, “I’m going to do the same thing to my wife and children that my mother did to me.”
And if he did survive, he didn’t want his kids to think, “Daddy just sits in the chair and doesn’t do anything.”
Willing to do whatever it took to avoid going down this path, he joined Beachbody and turned down weight-loss surgery because he wanted to deal with the reasons he gained the weight in the first place.
He wrote: “I am fat, I am sick, I am dying. I need your help.”
He worked out at home, mainly boxing, twice a day, “at home so my wife and kids could watch me do it,” and he changed his diet.
Chris admitted, “I was close to 400 pounds so I just needed to physically move around, it didn’t really matter what I was doing.”
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Hayley recalls that Chris became a completely new person: “He started working out in front of the TV and cooking his own meals. His personality became lighter, kinder, and more open. He changed on the inside even more than on the outside.”
But it wasn’t easy; Chis would often throw up during grueling workouts, before coming back for more.
At times when it was hard to stay motivated, Chris would hold a pizza or a hamburger in one hand and a picture of his family in the other, reminding him of what he had to lose and who he was doing this for.
But he stuck to his goals: “I don’t do a good job of emphasizing how scared I was to die, because I didn’t want to die, even though I was acting like I was trying to kill myself with all my sick skills.” habits”.
After 18 months, she had an incredible 12 stone drop and entered The Beachbody Challenge.
He took first place out of a whopping 50,000 contestants and took home a staggering $100,000 (£73,500).
At first, Hayley’s own personal struggles meant she struggled to be happy for her husband, let alone follow in his footsteps.
Depressed at the time, she admitted: “I hated everything, I was very resentful. When you are in such a dark place you never believe that something as simple as exercising will change your life. I was a master at not looking at myself and ignoring any problem.”
But almost three years after Chris’s transformation, something changed for Hayley: “One day I realized I felt like I’d been living in a basement, with this physical need to get out. I told Chris, ‘I need to do what you’ve done.’
“That night I spent the whole night watching transformation videos on YouTube.”
The next day, she began an exercise program and, regarding diet, ate three nutritious meals a day “and no snacks.”
Previously seeking happiness at the bottom of bags of potato chips, Hayley and Chris relied on processed foods like potato chips as their staple diet.
She admitted: “I was probably around 19 when I had my first salad.
“It was takeout all the time and we never left anything on the plate.”
Chris added: “A big change was that we refocused when we started working out, looking at food as fuel for the workouts we were doing.”
At the beginning of their journey, Hayley was “embarrassed” that Chris was in the room with her when she worked out, but now, after a year and a half, after a year and a half, they do it together and “have a laugh.” at the same time.
Since they both lost weight, Chris and Hayley have never been happier, and Hayley will never forget when her daughters heard her laugh for the first time in years and said, ‘Did Mommy just laugh?’
“I was looking to lose weight, but what matters most to me is that it changed me for the better and I can be a better mother to them.”
For those looking to embark on a journey similar to Chris and Hayley’s, they have embraced the “mainly vegetarian” approach, where meals typically incorporate a protein source and a side of vegetables.
Filling up on vegetables meant couples could be in a calorie deficit but still feel full.
Chris concluded: “Our trip is really boring and simple. We did our workouts every day and stuck to a particular method of eating.”
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