Meet Mike

Life’s a bitch… it’s the truth you can plan how you want it to go but sometimes it doesn’t work out.  I know how I got to be almost 600lbs. but I couldn’t tell you why I let it happen.  I had been big my whole life but it wasn’t until the last twelve years that my weight had skyrocketed to the extremely dangerous levels they are at.  My name is Mike LaPlante I’m 29 years old and here’s a little story about me.



Front and center with my cousins and sisters around age 12



I have been a big kid my whole life as I had said in fact I can barely remember not being overweight.  In attempts to hide my shame I went with it and made fun of myself before others could.  I became a big party guy the life of the party; I was the person you called to find out what was up tonight.  I never gave people a chance not to like me.  I was a fun person, I drank more, ate more, and out moronathoned anyone I could.  I was the party on the outside but I was a wreck on the inside.  What people never knew was the pain and shame I felt and the fear I masked that if I didn’t do these ridiculous things I would have no one and I would be alone.  Being accepted was the most important thing in my life.



Age 20 my Grandmothers Birthday



When I got into my late teens early twenties my weight really got out of control.  My friends and I for a short stretch worked out religiously daily.  The lightest I can remember being is around 317lbs. when I was 19-20 years old.  We would work, go to the gym and then drink and party all night long.  We eventually stopped working out as we started to party more and more. The Superbowl in 2007 I was up to 565lbs. that was the day my mom, sisters, and I joined weight watchers.  I had some good results I lost 85lbs. in four months mainly because I worked out feverishly not changing my diet at all.  My weight loss ended when I suffered a knee injury and couldn’t work out anymore.  Since my diet had never improved my weight eventually shot back up.

My sister Lori who also has been over weight her whole life decided that she was going to have weight loss surgery and opted to have the lap band operation.  I decided that maybe that was my last option and I also enrolled in the program.  I went to their mandatory meetings and appointments.  The Doctor told me I had to lose 100lbs. in three months to have my surgery in September of 2009.  They put me on a liquid diet where all I could eat was these 500 calorie meal replacement shake 3 times a day for the next three months.  I made it two weeks on the diet constantly hungry.  I couldn’t do it I was in constant discomfort.  I loved food and three months without it was not practical for me.  I only managed to lose 20 lbs.  They refused to do my surgery and told me my outlook was grim.

I’m not sure if that was rock bottom but it was pretty darn close.  I was told by doctors that the only solution for weight loss was surgery now I was told I was too fat to have that surgery.  My whole life I have had a fear of death but at that point I did not care. I wanted to die… I didn’t know if I could do it myself if I could commit suicide but I definitely became a more reckless person.  I didn’t hang out with friends anymore became a shut in.  Death had become my only option and it couldn’t come fast enough.



Me around 550lbs



Have you ever had one of the moments that completely changed your life very unexpectedly?  Like a tree falling down on a road that blocked you from crossing a bridge that was about to collapse. Mine tree came from a very unlikely source.  My sister Amy who can be kind of bitchy called me saying that they were casting for a weight loss show in Boston.  She said it was like biggest loser and I should look into it.  I was skeptical I had auditioned for the biggest loser and it had never gone anywhere.  I went online to look it up and it turned out it was different the show was going to incorporate your life while you lose weight.  I thought yeah why not try I had nothing to lose.  I went down to the casting call and the place was packed.  My interview I thought went horribly the other girl wouldn’t shut up.  Even when I was asked question midway through my answer she would cut me off to say how what I was saying she could really relate too and then turned it back to herself.  When I did get answer a question it seemed by the expression on the interviewer face that my answers were wrong or dumb.  I left there with the real feeling that really sucked the big one.  I hadn’t even gotten home and my phone was ringing they wanted me to come back tomorrow for a secondary interview.  There I am pulled over on the side of the highway writing down the information that would change my entire life.  The next interview went really good they kept calling me giving me little hoops to jump through and things I had like 8 hours to get together but eventually I was told I was a finalist…

January 2010 could possibly be the most important month of my life.  I was out in Los Angeles where I met some of the most amazing people ever.  It was the first time in my life I had ever truly felt comfortable as a person.  Hanging out with 18 people who were just like me was unbelievable.  It made me so relaxed it was the first time I had taken my shirt off in public since before kindergarten.  That week in LA I had never laughed so hard or have been so happy in my entire life.  I met a girl who since has absolutely taken my heart like no other girl had before.  I met two people that will be in my life forever, they will all be there but these two are like family to me.  Jonathan and CC are like my brother and sister and the two of them argue like that too.  I love them very much but as Jonathan would say not in “gay” way.  I left LA in a waiting game for well over a month.  It was a very stressful time but my new friends really helped me get through it.  I don’t remember how long it took to get the NO from the network but it seemed like an eternity.  In that time I grew really close with a group of 5 fellow contestants one in particular was Jonathan.  Hanging out with Jonathan was like being with my twin… I’m cuter though.  We both ended up being rejected by the show and were pretty pissed off.  We had missed out on a huge opportunity to lose weight but also inspire others to do the same to save their lives.

Through that rejection an idea was born.  The show we didn’t get wasn’t looking the way it was advertised so Jonathan and I decided maybe we could do it ourselves together as a team.  We would create a program that would show that you could live your life and just making some changes you could also save it. That if two guys that weigh over 1000lbs could do it then any one could do it.  We would seek the help of professionals and work together to achieve greatness.  The idea was simple we would work our jobs but make the changes to our diet and exercising that were need to make us healthy and fit.  We would document the process and put it out there as proof that it could be done and anyone could do it. 

With that the Road 2B Fit was born.  Getting it off the ground was not easy Jonathan had to move from Kansas to Massachusetts and we had to find the right people to help us.  I can truly say that I am blessed with the support I have gotten.  I was introduced to Alicia Moskal.  Alicia is a holistic life coach with a back ground in nutrition.  With her help Jon and I would learn not only how to eat better but how to make those food enjoyable to eat.  She stressed that it was not a diet but a life style change.  Diets don’t work as a fat guy I have tried them all and I would get success with them but they would never stick because I didn’t enjoy them and could not see myself eating that way the rest of my life.  The problem with diets is you reach your goal and you stop and you end up on that roller coaster fat people live on.  Working with Alicia I learned more than what to eat but how to cook, why we eat, and how to eat.  It was a lot of looking into yourself and figuring yourself out which is scary but amazing.  Being accountable to yourself because that’s who you got to do it for you have to know you are worth it.  I’m not perfect but every day I try to get better.  Pick a goal and shoot for it.

We next needed to increase our physical activity.  What you eat is the most important part of this program but working out will increase your results.  We approached Gold’s Gym in Tewksbury MA and told them what we were doing.  They introduced us to our trainer Edmund.  Working with him is tough but I fight through the pain and so can you.  It’s amazing that everyday things become a little easier.

Jonathan and I realized something that there is no magic pill to lose weight.  That it was going to take a change on our side to get this done.  There is over 1000 pounds between the two of us but we found out its amazing the things you can do when you can put your mind to it.  Ask for help there are amazing people out there but you have to make the first move. 

Jonathan and I are going down this Road 2B Fit we will give you the map we are using and show you what we are going through and experiencing.

So this is the map and it is here to start your own Journey….