His house stinks, but Kent man happy with weight loss

It’s impossible to miss the odor upon entering the Flewellings’ home in the Panther Lake section of Kent. As you open the door, it’s immediate and lingering: steamed broccoli and cauliflower.

But to Keith Flewelling, that’s the sweet smell of success.

That’s because for two of his meals every day since October, Flewelling, a bus driver in the Kent School District, has included a plate of the steamed vegetables, usually with a grilled chicken breast rolled up with salsa in a tortilla.

And the results are undeniable: Flewelling has lost more than 96 pounds, winning the national 2008 Weight Loss Challenge and a free trip to Hawaii in the process.

“That’s why the house stinks,” Flewelling says with a hearty laugh.

Five months ago, Flewelling was a different person. He was 316 pounds, had high blood pressure, high cholesterol and was on three different medications to treat his diabetes. His energy levels were low and his knees always hurt him, limiting his ability to coach soccer.

Flewelling says he stopped nearly every day to grab fast food, didn’t do much exercise and was not particularly concerned about the amount of calories he ate on any given day.

“I was a buffet guy,” he says. “We knew where all the buffets were.”

Despite being a soccer player in college, Flewelling’s playing days were behind him and thoughts of his own mortality began to creep in.

“I started having these mortality issues of not walking my daughter down the aisle,” he said.

Debra, his wife of 27 years, was having similar thoughts of her own.

“I didn’t think we were going to grow old and retire on the path he was going,” she said.

Then he saw a sign on the bulletin board at work announcing the weight-loss challenge and decided something had to be done. Flewelling, his wife and his family were all big fans of the TV show “The Biggest Loser,” and Keith decided it was his turn to make a change.

“I wasn’t in it to win the contest,” he said. “It was for me the thing that I needed.”

In the beginning it was difficult to change. He started getting up every morning at 4:30 and went for a walk around his neighborhood, a loop that takes him nearly a mile, though because of the pain in his knees, he didn’t always make it the whole way.

“I couldn’t walk more than a mile,” he says, brow furrowing. “I’d get frustrated and stop.”

But he kept at it and changed his diet, denying himself even the fast food he loved so much.

“Since October, I haven’t even been through a McDonald’s or Jack in the Box drive-thru,” he says, grinning.

Today he is up to more than six miles a day.

After the first 20 pounds (about two weeks’ worth of diet and exercise), not only did his fellow competitors start to notice the weight drop, but Flewelling himself began to notice his thrice-daily walks were getting easier.

With the help of his coaches, Pat and Michele Sarver of Living Healthy 101, Flewelling started counting calories, keeping his limit at about 1800 per day. They taught him the importance of drinking water and of eating protein and helped supply him with protein bars for his between-meal snacks.

“It was really informative stuff,” he says.

Flewelling never thought too much about the contest, but as the weeks progressed, the Sarvers noticed his percentage of weight loss was among the top in the country and began to encourage him to work harder.

“My workouts became really intense,” he says.

He also began to notice what he calls “the little, stupid stuff,” like not having to turn sideways to get down the aisle of his bus or not sweating while he was eating.

At the end of the 12-week challenge, not only had Flewelling outpaced his class, he lost 25 percent of his body weight, more than any other competitor in the country.

“I was shocked,” he said, of the announcement, which was made at work.

Flewelling said he and his family plan on taking their trip to Hawaii in November.

Flewelling credits his family and friends for supporting him through the weight loss, saying he could not have done it without them.

“You definitely need the support behind you,” he says.

Besides dealing with the near-constant smell of broccoli, Debra and the Flewellings’ two daughters Jena, 14, and Joelle, 17, were among Keith’s biggest supporters, responding to each test about weight-loss with encouragement and love.

Today, the word most used to describe how Keith looks and feels is “amazing.”

“His work ethic was amazing through the whole thing,” Joelle said.

“He just stuck with it through the whole thing,” Jena added.

As for Debra, she agrees he looks “amazing” and says he even looks better than when they married and certainly better than he did before he started losing the weight.

“We can get our arms around him where before we couldn’t,” she says, hugging him close.

“My wife has become very huggy with me,” Flewelling adds with a sheepish smile.

Today, his energy is up, his weight is down and Flewelling has a whole new outlook on life. And if he can do it, he says anyone can.

“Hopefully this will inspire people,” he says, holding up the size 44 shorts he used to wear (he’s a 36 now). “It’s gonna make your life a whole lot better.”

Flewelling continues to walk regularly and maintain his low-calorie diet, and says he can’t imagine going off his plan.

“I like it and I found it’s what’s going to let me grow old,” he says.

And yes, when his girls are ready, Flewelling is looking forward to walking them down the aisle.

A losing diet

Since October, Keith Flewelling has lost 100 pounds through steady exercise and the following diet, which totals approximately 1800 calories a day:

Breakfast: a banana and two pieces of peanut butter multi-grain toast

Snack: an apple and a protein bar

Lunch: grilled chicken breast and salsa wrapped in a tortilla with a side of steamed broccoli and cauliflower

Snack: an apple and a protein bar

For dinner, Keith eats a regular dinner, based on the remaining calories left in his day.

As a snack at night, Keith allows himself a whole wheat tortilla with peanut butter.