They're half the people they were

Chuck and C.J. Huffman have lost 312 pounds between them.

By MICHAEL KRUSE, Times Staff Writer
Published August 19, 2007

ADVERTISEMENT [Zach Boyden-Holmes | Times] Chuck and C.J. Huffman of New Port Richey can embrace each other more easily because they've embraced a healthier lifestyle.

NEW PORT RICHEY - This story starts in Ohio, where Chuck Huffman is from, and in Pennsylvania, where C.J. Huffman is from. It starts with some no-bake oatmeal cookies with peanut butter and cocoa. It continues with bags of Doritos, Taco Bell and McDonald's, chicken pot pies, Lucky Charms, doughnuts and caramel macchiatos and mocha frappuccinos at Starbucks, and keeps going at Chili's and the Golden Corral and the Pizza Hut lunch buffet, and with the nachos at Moe's Southwest Grill and the two-large special with pepperoni and mushrooms for her and the works for him.

And one day Chuck weighed 359 pounds.

And C.J. weighed 315 pounds.

And then last September - late last September - the husband and wife walked into the Medi weight-loss clinic in Lutz on State Road 54.

* * *

"My whole family is overweight," C.J. said this month at their apartment in New Port Richey. "When I was about 7 or 8, I probably would've been considered obese."

"I played summer league baseball when I was 8 or 9," Chuck said. "They didn't have a uniform big enough for me.

"If I saw somebody laughing, I always thought, 'They're laughing at me,' " he said. "The whole class started hollering at me one day: 'Chuck is fat!' That was probably in the fourth or fifth grade.

"I didn't go to prom or nothing. I was afraid."

Chuck, who's 30, works in maintenance at Sanders Elementary School in Land O'Lakes. C.J., who's 28, is a kindergarten teacher at Oakstead Elementary in Land O'Lakes. They met online in 1999 and have been married for seven years.

He shopped at the Big & Tall on North Dale Mabry in Tampa.

She shopped at Lane Bryant for plus-size women on U.S. 19 across from the Gulf View Square mall in Port Richey.

They helped each other get to their biggest, they said. Then they decided to help each other do something about it.

The program at Medi, the 3-year-old weight-loss franchise based in Tampa, includes vitamin supplements, fat burners and appetite suppressants, but the basis of the plan is this: eat less, exercise more. And stick to it.

"We had tried Weight Watchers, the Atkins diet," C.J. said. "We tried South Beach for a while. Our own variations of things.

"I would lose five or 10 pounds," she said, "and gain back 30."

But this one worked. Immediately.

Chuck lost 18 pounds the first week. C.J. lost almost 10.

He was down to 270 by Christmas. She was down to 250.

He was down to 220 by Easter. She was down to 200.

Now he weighs 190. And she weighs 172.

He's gone from a 50-inch waist to a 34-inch waist. She's gone from a size 28 to a size 14.

A total of 312 pounds between them.

All in barely more than 10 months.

Chuck shaved off his goatee. "I felt like I hid behind it," he said.

He had to get a smaller wedding ring in February.

C.J.'s didn't fit by Christmas. So Chuck bought her a new one. And that one didn't fit by April.

They now walk 2 miles every evening. They ride their new mountain bikes on weekends. They eat things like chicken breast with broccoli and green beans, and spinach salad with no-fat, no-carb dressing, and sugar-free Jell-O for dessert. They eat meat portions the size of a deck of cards and not the size of somebody's head.

They even made a commercial for Medi that runs during Oprah and Today and on Bay News 9.

At her 10-year high school reunion in June, C.J. said, one of her best friends was startled when she saw her. C.J. sat at a 10-person table at Olive Garden and drank water.

Chuck misses his Mexican.

C.J. misses her pizza.

But some things they don't miss: airplane seat belt extenders, getting winded walking up to their second-floor apartment, waiting at the head of the line at a roller coaster watching to see if anybody bigger than them would get on just to make sure they could.

* * *

"When we dance, we can get much closer," C.J. said.

"We sometimes dance right here," Chuck said.

* * *

"People will hold the door for me now," C.J. said.

* * *

In February, Chuck was at the JCPenney at Gulf View Square mall going through the clearance stuff in the big and tall section, and he looked through all of it and then stopped. I can't buy anything here, he thought to himself. Everything was too big.

He looked around. And slowly, and for the first time in his life, he walked over to where everybody else was shopping.

* * *

A little later in the spring, C.J. got a $15 coupon from Lane Bryant, where she was a good, reliable customer. She went looking for a new shirt. She found a shirt she liked and asked the clerk if there was anything in a smaller size.

No, she was told.

That's the smallest size we sell.

C.J. paused for a moment. She gave the $15 coupon to another shopper. And she walked out of Lane Bryant.

Michael Kruse can be reached at mkruse@sptimes.com or 813 909-4617.

[Last modified August 18, 2007, 21:11:34]