New year, new you: Lose weight, get fit
CLIFTON PARK (Jan. 1) — Kandy was a key ingredient in Walter McKay’s weight-loss success.
McKay had already lost over 50 pounds — a lot of weight but nowhere near enough — when he decided he needed help. He was making great progress, but he was still around 430 pounds. He realized he could use a trainer.
Enter Kandy Shannon, a personal trainer at the Southern Saratoga YMCA. That was May 2005. Now — 4½ years later — McKay weighs 230 pounds. He went from a size 66 waist down to a 40, and he’s not done yet.
Walter McKay used workouts and a personal trainer at the Southern Saratoga YMCA to help him lose over 260 pounds.
Unbelievable is what Shannon called McKay’s work ethic.
“I have not trained an athlete — including the pros I’ve trained — like Walter,” said Shannon, who has trained professional football and hockey players. “Even among the pros you find people who won’t commit 100%. With Walter, you have to make sure he doesn’t do too much.”
So if your new year’s resolution is to lose weight or get in shape, let McKay be an inspiration for you — it’s work, but it can be done.
“If you set your mind to it and have the tenacity and fortitude, you can do it,” said Shannon, who has trained people of all ages — from children to folks in their 80s. “You don’t need gastric bypass or Lap-Bands.”
Shannon recalled what it was like when she started working with McKay.
“When he first came he was just working on the recumbent bike,” she said.
“She started me out with this very basic workout — cardio and circuit weights,” McKay said.
His early workouts started at 1½ hours a day, 6 days a week — beginning with a 5-minute walk and full-body stretching and goes on to weights and 30-40 minutes of cardio. He was also attending Weight Watchers meetings.
“At different times — if we weren’t losing enough — he had to do 2 workouts a day, morning and evening,” Shannon said.
The workouts would change with time to keep them fresh. McKay would do free weights or power lifting. After he lost 100 pounds, McKay rewarded himself — he returned to karate. Now he works out 3 days a week at the Y and 4 times a week doing karate. He even helps teach at the dojo once a week, and he has 2 black-belt tests coming up in February.
“At karate, there are people half my age that can’t keep up with me — and some of them are half my size, too,” he said.
Shannon said McKay would weigh even less now if he had the excess skin left over from the weight loss surgically removed. She estimated that operation could drop him down to around 180 pounds. But McKay said his insurance company won’t pay for the surgery.
“If you had a (gastric) bypass, they would pay for it,” he said. “But if you lose the weight on your own, they say it’s cosmetic.”
Despite all of the hard work he put in, McKay said the toughest thing was getting started.
“The most intimidating thing,” he said, “was walking into the Y at the size that I was.”
For more information:
- Southern Saratoga YMCA, 1 Wall Street, Clifton Park, 371.2139
- Weight Watchers
