Teen coach helps dad to weight loss win

WASILLA — Shane Preuit is seeing less and less of his dad these days, and he couldn’t be happier about it.

The 14-year-old homeschool student helped his father, John, sweat and diet his way to losing 53.4 pounds — more than 23.5 percent of his overall body weight — over a three-month period. As winner of the Frontiersman’s annual Trim to Win weight loss challenge, John Preuit takes home a $3,000 grand prize and credits part of his success to Shane.

“He was my coach, and let me tell you, he was one harsh coach,” John said. “I had to justify everything I put into my mouth.”

The teen isn’t shy about keeping dad in line and working out.

“He was a slacker, sometimes,” Shane said, “but you have to keep him on his toes, point him in the right direction.”

John Preuit was one of 214 hopeful Valley losers to sign up for Trim to Win in January and 54 who completed the challenge. Overall, 2011 Trim to Winners shed more than 1,090 pounds, including impressive weight loss from second- and third-place winners Marnice Marshall and Troy Clark, who lost 41.6 and 58.8 pounds respectively.

Although Clark lost the most total weight of the top three, Trim to Win uses percent of body weight lost as the deciding factor. Clark dropped 22.27 percent of his weight, while Marshall 22.88 percent.

But for Marshall, Trim to Win was the home stretch for a nearly year-long effort that saw her lose 108 pounds since May 2010.

“I signed up for Trim to Win a couple years ago, but never did the weigh-in at the end part,” Marshall said.

But with her sons out of school and into her early 40s, she decided it was either now or never to do something about her weight. “Either I do something now or accept this is the way it’s going to be for the rest of my life.”

Part of her new healthy routine included hiking up the Butte five days a week, even in winter.

“My friend and I got up every day and climbed the Butte, five days a week,” she said. “We put ropes up so we didn’t fall down the ice.”

Now that she’s lost so much weight, the challenge is keeping it off, Marshall said.

“I feel a lot better,” she said. “I can get up and move around and stuff. Now, it’s like if you don’t exercise or you eat like crap, you feel bad. I can tell a huge difference. Now, I want to go out and ride my bike or swim or do yoga.”

While the prize money — $3,000 for the winner, $2,000 for second place and $1,000 for third — was motivation for all the winners, Clark had another.

“My wife made me do it,” he said. “She probably read about it in the paper.”

Together, they made simple changes that made a huge difference in his body and health, Clark said.

“I changed my diet, that’s basically what I did,” he said. “I was amazed at how much of a difference that makes. And I started to lose it pretty fast, too, just changing my diet.”

The $3,000 grand prize will be used toward the purchase of a boat, John Preuit said. With her $2,000, Marshall said she’ll take a vacation, somewhere, while Clark plans to pay some bills with his $1,000.

One simple change that can make an immediate impact in weight loss is to cut out soda, even diet soda, all three said.

“I don’t drink any sodas anymore,” Clark said. “I work a midnight shift and I used to drink a lot of soda. I cut those out, and some carbs and eat lean meat and vegetables.”

Putting aside his Diet Coke was one of the hardest changes, John Preuit said.

“Probably the biggest thing I did overall is I used to drink a lot of Diet Coke and things like that,” he said. “But the magic diet is willpower, controlling how much you eat and when you eat.”

Although his son was a good coach, the catalyst to sign up for Trim to Win came after looking at some vacation memories.

“The motivator had to be the pictures they took of me on a Hawaii vacation,” he said.

Contact Greg Johnson at greg.johnson@frontiersman.com or 352-2269.