Weigh to go, Shane!

This morning, this photo appeared in our Twitter feed and we were thrilled to see we were part of this gentleman’s incredible weight-loss story:

@HolidayWorld one of my weight loss motivations was to ride your roller coasters. See you this season!! pic.twitter.com/gvwxSY2XLn

— Shane (@ShaneInTC) January 11, 2016

We got in touch with Shane and he was kind enough to send us his story. Prepare to be impressed:

My name is Shane. I live in Tell City and I am a Wal-Mart Associate at the Tell City Store. As a teen, I was always a “Thrill Seeker” and loved the adrenaline rush of jumping my bicycle on ramps, dried creek beds or where ever I could. The feeling of “weightlessness” at the peak of the jump was quite a rush. I would get the same feeling on roller coasters.

The first roller coaster type ride I rode at Holiday World was “The Firecracker.” I was so excited when “The Raven” was constructed. Me and my wife rode it after it debuted. Then came “The Legend”! My wife was too scared to ride it, so I took a solo ride and loved it! Unfortunately this was the last time I was able to ride any of the Holiday World coasters because my weight and size got out of control. I could still ride Frightful Falls which was still thrilling. Eventually I pretty much had to give up riding anything. One reason was the weight limits and another was I was too embarrassed of the thought, “What if I got to the ride and I couldn’t even fit?” This almost happened at the Eagle’s Flight. Fortunately, the ride attendant had belt extenders. You all always are always thinking of your patrons. Even with that, I really couldn’t even enjoy going to the park anymore because even walking became too hard. Despite that we would go every year with my wife’s work. After all, I had to have my Udderly Blue Ice Cream and Holiday World Pizza.

Fast Forward to June 10, 2015. I was 388 pounds (down from 394 at my heaviest in early 2014) and my weight was catching up with my body. My legs and knees were hurting so bad I was not sure if I could even continue working, as walking was an essential part of my job function.

That’s when I had to make a decision. Was it harder to be heavy and overweight or was it harder to try to lose the weight and live healthy?  I chose the latter. On June 11 I started to count my calories (limiting myself to 2000), gave up all the fast foods, over-processed food, limited sweet treats, started eating healthier in general, implementing portion control, and started walking every day, besides what I did at work. The next time we visited Holiday World on 7/26/15, I had lost 52 pounds. I was just able to squeeze into the tester seats of “The Legend.” (At 388 I couldn’t even do that. It wasn’t even close.) To me this was almost as exciting and thrilling as being able to ride the actual ride! I knew, at the moment, in 2016 I was going to be able to ride the coasters again! I still had my Udderly Blue Ice Cream, Pizza, and even a Hot Diggity Dog but I planned on what I was going to eat, got the nutritional values, and adjusted my meal and exercise plan to compensate.  I am excited to say, as of today 1/11/16 I have lost 153.2 pounds. I’m down to 234.8 pounds, less than 15 pounds to my target weight of 220 pounds.

Since the last coaster I rode was “The Legend” I’m most excited to ride “The Voyage” because it was the first coaster that I couldn’t ride. I then plan to ride “The Thunderbird” because I want to go in the order of construction. Then I hope to start over with “The Raven” and ride them all in order. I may even hop in “The Howler,” time permitting. After hitting all the rides I plan on hitting Splashin’ Safari and riding the slides! I will still have my Udderly Blue Ice Cream and Pizza, though. My visit would not be complete without having those. Needless to say 2016, is going to be an awesome year for me.

Congratulations, Shane – we’ll save you a back seat on The Voyage for your first ride this summer!