This week we’d like to spotlight the incredible progress of gym member Fernando Rangel.  Fernando lives in Sacramento but is temporarily here in San Francisco with his wife Hazel and brand new son Mateo who was born with a rare Diaphragm disorder called CDH (Congenital Diaphragmatic Hernia) that causes lung development and sometimes heart development problems during pregnancy. Over the past 6 weeks Mateo has been undergoing treatment at UCSF’s Mission Bay campus and has been making great progress.  He is soon expected to be moved out the critical care unit to start making preparations to head back home to Sacramento with Mom and Dad. 

When the Rangel family arrived in SF over 6 weeks ago Fernando decided it was time to make some positive changes in his life and health.  Instead of just sitting around with nothing to do in waiting rooms while his son received his treatments Fernando checked out the gyms local to UCSF. And of course he settled on Fitness Urbano.  The facllity was clean and new, the location was easy to get to and the special introductory price for a gym membership was something he could justify with all the medical expenses his family facing.  

Fernando’s motivation for change?   His son Mateo.

The recent pregnancy had been difficult on the entire family and even before that Fernando had been drifting away from regular workouts despite having a gym set up in his garage.

Fernando had reached the point  where he had added too much extra weight and wasn’t feeling all that great about the condition of his health.  His dream is to be ready to run and kick the soccer ball around with Mateo.

So for the past 6 weeks Fernando has committed himself to at least 4 or 5 days a week coming to the gym.  His workout of choice has been running on the Woodway Curve treadmill.  Fernando likes the fact that the Curve is self propelled and he can change his pace at anytime between a walk jog or sprint without fumbling with buttons and settings like he was used to doing with the older motorized treadmills.  At first just a 15 minute walk was a challenge but Fernando took the right approach and slowly increased distance and pace with each workout.  Soon he was up to 2 miles a day with a time of around 48 to 50 minutes.  Nowadays he’s doing 2 miles in 28 minutes and he’s still progressing. 

Besides the improved endurance and cardiovascular condition Fernando has lost 15 lbs.  He has been consistent with his weight loss, losing about 2.5 lbs per week over the 6 weeks.  His results were not achieved through exercise alone.  Fernando dropped the Big Mac’s from his diet and replaced them salmon, other types of fish, fresh whole vegetables and lots of water. 

When it’s time to go home Fernando doesn’t plan to fall back into old habits.  He’s been making regular trips back Sacramento to check on Mateo’s brothers and sisters and each time he’s been getting the gym in his garage back in order so he can start incorporating strength training along with his continued cardio training.

Please join us in congratulating Fernando not only on his impressive results but also on his approach to systematically regaining his fitness and his health.  We wish the whole family the best of luck and look forward to the day when Mateo scores his first soccer goal.