My name is Clarence E. Sanford, Jr. I prefer to go by Jr. I'm attended MWSU for a degree in Physical Education with a Health and Exercise Science background. After receiving my degree, I'm planning to become a registered Dietitian. Over the past 7 years, I've been working in the non-residential construction industry, as a Computer Aided Draftsman. After losing my job back in March, due to the economy. My wife and I decided it was best for us, if I returned to school and find a stable and rewarding career.
My family and I have lived in Liberty, MO since 1981, which is where I commute from every day. It’s about 15-20 minutes northeast of Kansas City, on I-35. Guess you could say I like the small town feel. It’s cool when you go to the store and you see 2 or 3 people you know. Being involved in Scouts, sports and the community there is always going to be someone you know, where ever you go.
A little bit about myself; I love sports, mainly football and bowling. 5 years ago, I weighed 451 pounds. With the help from a Personal Trainer and the support of my family, I’ve been able to lose and keep off over 160 pounds, no surgery needed. With the encouragement from another trainer, I became a Certified Personal Trainer myself. Over the past 3 ½ years, I’ve had the pleasure of working with people of all shapes, sizes and abilities, on a part-time basis. I think my story and success puts me into a unique position. I can relate to so many Americans that are dealing with being extremely overweight, not just 10-15 pounds. I’m talking 100-200 pounds overweight. This is my main purpose and passion for life now. I want those individuals that are extremely overweight to know there is someone out there that can relate and there is HOPE. There are more stories about people losing weight and gaining it back quicker than they lost, than those that have lost it and keep it off for good. It’s time to change that statistic.
My main objective for this class is to become a better reader and writer. I’ve never been really good at either. Over the past few years thou, I’ve developed somewhat of a passion for reading. I have read the Twilight series (all of it), Winning by Losing; by Jillian Michaels and several other self-improvement books. Being a CPT, I try to research the latest and greatest weight loss fads to discuss their pros and cons, with my clients. However, I did receive my Competent Communicator Award within the Toastmaster International organization, back in 2008. The work I had to do for that helped develop my listening, writing and presentation skills. I'm hoping those skills will be to my advantage in this class and other classes that I will be taking over the next 3-4 years.
