To donate to Steven's charity and support his weightloss, click on the link below!

http://www.everydayhero.com.au/hero_pages/view_posts/steven__garganodragonsabreast

Hi, I am Steven Gargano – General Manager Cambridge Hotel, overseeing 70 odd staff. It’s a high pressure job to keep a four star hotel running smoothly with plenty of demands on my time from all areas. I haven’t done well when it comes to taking care of my own health.
But all this is about to change, I have embarked on a life changing journey to get healthy and stay that way! Over the past 5 weeks, with the help of personal trainer, Anton, I have lost a whopping 13 kg – and I’ll have set up a charity cause to motivate myself to lose more.

Read more about my journey follow my weight loss endeavors and track the progress through the weeks to come.

13 May 2010
Weigh in: 127 kg
Weight loss to date: 27 kg

As always, I would like to start by saying
Thank You to you all.

It has been quite a week and I still managed to lose weight. (Thank you Anton) Mind you I wasn’t saying that last Thursday when I joined what Anton calls the 100 club, it still hurts to think about it and is best left up to Anton to explain.

I am continually amazed at how much more movement I have since I began losing weight. I can skip office towers in a single bound - only joking. But it is so much easier to do things, get out of a chair, in and out of a car etc.

The best feeling is when you have to fly (as I had to do last Thursday) not having to ask the flight attendant for the extender belt. I am very happy to say that not only do I not have to ask for this extender belt, I now have 4 or so inches to spare on the seat belt.

I am very aware of the health benefits of losing weight but what has surprised me is the little things that bring such a sense of achievement. Also the ability to deal with work pressures and stress is so much easier. Now, I'm not lying awake all night, I actually sleep - again thanks Anton since this is mostly due to exhaustion from the day's workout! I'm waking up feeling refreshed and ready to tackle the day with Zest and Ziel - this is all very new to me.

As always I don’t want to highlight the negatives of this journey, it is truly hard as I keep reiterating, but it's really the little wins that I mentioned above that makes all of this worthwhile.

Again, I'm blown away by the support I am receiving from the women of Dragons Abreast. What I am going through is so trivial when you look at the courage these women (and men) have. The statements of support left on the Blog from these people both surviving and going though therapy for cancer is amazing. I cannot explain how receiving a message from a complete stranger who has cancer saying "well done! keep up the good work" makes me feel. This is truly a selfless act when they themselves have such major issues to contend with. The support is amazing and I can only explain it as a natural high.

Also the support I receive from companies that work with the hotel is amazing, the money, time and man hours donated to support my efforts in raising money for "Dragons Abreast" is unsurpassed. I would like to acknowledge these individuals and companies as they are the silent heroes behind my efforts.

Bob from Zoet Printing.

Bob has donated all materials and time as well as many man hours and donated ALL the printed materials, including posters and stickers, promoting my journey with "Dragons Abreast" the totals well exceeded $2000.00 in printing. Thank you Bob. Please give Zoet a call for any printing needs.

Zoet Print
www.zoet.com.au

Lynn and Linda, from Travelyackie.com

Lynn and Linda have donated all materials and the time as well as many hours to film, produce, edit and post the viral video of myself training with Anton. This also was in excess of $2000.00. Thank you Lynn and Linda. Don’t forget Lynn and Linda for all your video service productions and tourism project management.

Travelyakie.com
www.travelyackie.com

Scot from Switched on Media

Scot and his team are the facilitators of the blog and look after all of the hotel's SEO needs. Scott to date, in cash, has donated over $ 2000.00 to "Dragons Abreast"
A big thank you. Give them a call for all your search engine marketing.

Switched On Media Pty Ltd
www.switchedonmedia.com.au

Anton the trainer

Anton donates his valuable time to each week to motivate and inspire us. He's helped us with his tips of the week to keep us all motivated. Thanks Anton.

Anton the trainer.
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Directors Management and staff of the Quality hotel Cambridge - the directors and the hotel have donated in excess of $ 2000.00 in cash to "Dragons Abreast" - a huge thank you and a personal thank you to the directors. Additionally the hotel has introduced an accommodation deal, the "Fire Breathing Package" and will donate 5% of the room rate to the Dragons Abreast cancer foundation.


The team at the Cambridge
www.cambridgehotel.com.au

And finally to all of you, my family, friends, work colleagues and strangers who are now friends. THANK YOU!!!!

Now the weigh in, my weight this week was 127 kgs, that is down from 129 kgs so a 2 kilo loss this week.

That’s it for this week - except to say we have just hit $7000.00 raised for "Dragons Abreast". :)

- Steven