GETTING INK: Take things one small step at a time.

We’ve all heard the advice, but Justin Willoughby of Bradford
has lived it. In the process, he’s gone from 800 to 250 pounds.
Yes, you read right.

Justin’s amazing weight-loss story was featured in a recent
edition of the National Enquirer. Era readers should be somewhat
familiar with Justin’s story; we’ve been following it for about six
years as he worked his way through the many obstacles standing in
the way of such an incredible process.

By any measure, his is a memorable story.

The National Enquirer report tells of the early days when, at
age 16, Justin tipped the scales at 800 pounds and could barely
walk.

He told the tabloid about a time when he fell and, literally,
could not get up until his brother put a couple mattresses on the
floor and helped him get up in stages. Once he was walking down the
hall and his foot went through the floor.

“When I did go out, I was on oxygen – and people would look and
stare,” he told the newspaper.

Justin was forced to face reality by doctors at Children’s
Hospital in Pittsburgh who told him that he would die if he didn’t
do something about his 800 pounds.

“When he told me that, it was like my wake-up call. I finally
realized I just had to do something,” he said.

“At first, my only exercise was getting up out of my chair and
sitting back down. That’s all I could manage. I’d take a few steps
and get so winded, I had to sit back down. But each day I took more
and more steps. I was able to walk around the house and count my
steps. I found out that 2,000 steps equaled a mile, and that’s what
I got up to after three weeks.”

Justin, who now weighs in at 250 pounds, has reduced his caloric
intake from 5,000 calories a day to 1,600 a day.

He works out two hours a day, five days a week, running on a
treadmill and lifting weights. On his “off” days, he walks five or
six miles.

His message to others out there fighting the weight battle?

“I want to show people that all things are possible. If I can do
it, anyone can!”