An ACTON Story

VINCE STORY BOOK No 1. In 1983 Vince Maruffo's father was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. He smoked heavily and was overweight , he was 42, Vince was 8. He was diagnosed in May and passed away in December of the same year and Vince and his family saw his father suffer horribly. Fast forward to June 2012 and Vince was sitting at home with his wife comparing bellies. She had had their first child a few months before and was still carrying a bit of extra weight. However Vince's stomach was significantly bigger. They shared a laugh - she'd recently had a baby, what was his excuse? "It was funny at first," says Vince, "but then I had a light bulb moment." "I felt embarrassed, I didn't have an excuse. There was no reason for me to be overweight. I thought of my father. I was 37, just five years younger than he was when he died, and I didn't want to go down the same path. I wanted to be able to play with my son Stellan, be there as he grew up, be active and not be a couch potato, and not suffer from health problems in the future. "It's funny as we get older we all think, so what, a little bit of extra weight won't hurt, but it gathers momentum and before you know it you hit the three figure mark on the scales and it goes on and on." Vince weighed 101kg. It was a moment of clarity. He was in the position many of us face, accept the challenge of losing weight and getting fit, or do nothing. He took action, cleaning up his diet and starting an exercise program. His wife joined him. Vince now does yoga once a week, goes mountain biking twice a week, and he and his wife and son go for regular family walks. "It really was one step at a time. I just got into a routine, got the legs pumping and got out in the fresh air, and when it comes to mountain biking we have some fabulous scenery around here. "It's a matter of finding time, you need to be proactive. It's so easy to look for excuses, but you just can't do that." When it comes to diet, Vince says he didn't follow a particular program, but cut out all junk and concentrated on eating well. "We banned all snacks from our home. Chocolate, biscuits etc. I refused to have them in the house - which made it easier to cope with those 8:30/9:00pm sugar cravings. WWW.ACTON.COM.AU