“My doctor was actually making fun of me,” Mark Stach of Chicago said of his last checkup. “He was actually questioning whether or not he wanted to have some hormone tests run, because my man breasts were so big.”
Isn’t teasing against the Hippocratic oath?
Stach, 35, made a promise to himself soon afterward, helping him win Fit Eye for the Fat Guy. The contest grants an out-of-shape dude a 12-week weight-training/makeover program.
“Mark had some really good reasons for wanting to get into shape,” said Jill Davis, president of Chicago fitness company Motiv8 Fitness Inc., which held the contest.
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Stach and wife Victoria are expecting a baby daughter in March. Stach wants to be a combination stud muffin-role model by then.
The pregnancy was a “huge wakeup call,” he explained. “I kind of made this commitment to my wife. I said that by the time she gave birth, I want to get back to the guy that she married.”
That guy weighed 185 pounds five years ago. Stach is around 210 but did balloon to 230 at one point–a lot of poundage on a 5-foot-11 frame.
“When [Victoria] gives birth in March,” Stach said, “I want to be the sexy guy waiting for her when she’s feeling her least attractive.”
He also wants to do it for the other woman in his life: “I am concerned about transferring some of my bad eating habits to my future daughter. . . . I think diets are very important. And I know with this contest that it’s not just all about going to the gym.”
“It was his level of determination, which just really seemed strong,” Davis said for selecting Stach. “And that appealed to us because we want someone who’s serious, who’s going to stick with it while we’re putting forth effort. We want them to put forth effort.”
We’ll see about that, as Stach gives Q a periodic skinny on his quest to deal with his man breasts.