Student loses 189 pounds!

December 9, 2009

By test

CAMP ATTERBURY JOINT MANEUVER TRAINING CENTER, Ind. – Rocky Stroup is a lose r. So much so that he looks like a completely different person. After casting off close to 200 pounds over a nine-month period, calling him a loser is not a bad thing.

Rocky, a student at Camp Atterbury’s Job Corps, weighed more than 400 pounds when he entered the program in March. Now he tips the scales between 230 and 235 and he continues to whittle away at his bulk.

“When I came to Job Corps my whole mindset was completely different,” said

24-year-old Rocky. “I always thought about working toward the weight loss

but it seemed like such a drag,” he said. “I felt like it was useless if it

didn’t show results immediately, but there I learned that if you just do it

little by little each day, if you work hard at it you will reach your goal.”

Initially motivated by an unrequited romance, Rocky said once he started

losing the weight he wanted to keep at it.

“I educated myself about weight loss and how to do it healthily and how to

do it so it would stay off,” he said.

Everything “they,” said was true for Rocky: He ate smaller portions of food

more often. He drank more water. And – surprise surprise – he began

exercising.

“When I first got on the treadmill at 400 pounds I couldn’t run for 30

seconds,” Rocky said. “Three point five [a low speed on the treadmill] was

running for me,” he said.

“Now I walk at three point five. I run at six. I can run for almost five

minutes straight and that’s not jogging,” he said proudly. “That’s a run.”

Rocky said one of the biggest challenges he faced when he first started

working out was the small amounts of weight loss.

“It was kind of discouraging,” he said. “When you’re bigger you don’t

really notice a 10-pound weight loss.”

Rocky also had to hide his embarrassment during workouts in the gym.

“I was big, so people expected me to be strong and when I tried to lift

weights I couldn’t lift that much because I wasn’t used to it,” he said.

“Seeing the people around you lift almost double what you were doing.it was

discouraging, but I’ve gradually stepped up.”

During his time at Job Corps, Rocky made use of Camp Atterbury’s Fitness

Center while he was interning on post. Job Corps is a program that helps

young people ages 16 through 24 improve the quality of their lives through

career technical and academic training. At Atterbury Job Corps, students

also have the opportunity to complete internships at certain offices on

post.

Rocky interned at the Judge Advocate General office and Lt. Col. Edward

McDonald, a legal assistance attorney there, said he and his staff usually

head to the gym at lunch time, and when Rocky was there he always tagged

along.

“He went to the gym with us and when we would run he would run,” McDonald

said.

“You could visibly see him getting thinner,” he said. “In two six week

periods he looks like a different person.”

Sprints weren’t the only thing Rocky was running at Camp Atterbury. To hear

McDonald tell it, the intern did everything but walk on water.

“He became a real asset because we had some heavy mobilizations and by

answering the phone he would free up [a Soldier] to do other tasks,”

McDonald said. “When you free up people you multiply your resources,” he

said.

McDonald said Rocky reminded him of a Soldier: diligent, obedient, and

efficient. Acting as a paralegal, Rocky embodied the Soldier’s Creed by

becoming “trained and proficient;” he was always on hand making file copies,

preparing documents for binding, labeling files, answering calls, taking

messages, etcetera etcetera.

“Anything you can think of,” McDonald said. “He’s the best worker we’ve had

in three years,” he said. “He became an integral part of our office. When

somebody incorporates that well into your office it does throw off the

balance when he leaves. I’m sad to see him go.”

For all the skills Rocky picked up in the JAG office, making friends was the

one he valued most.

“I moved around a lot and I never really made stable friends anywhere,”

Rocky said. “[The JAG staff] treated me as if I was family and I learned to

open up a little bit,” he said. “I think that’s the most important thing

that I did learn over there that’s going to carry on to my new life.”

Rocky’s new life now includes an education, which he is working on at

Indiana University Purdue University Columbus. In his old life, one marked

with misdeeds and moving from state to state, education perhaps was not a

priority. Neither Rocky’s parents, who are deceased, nor anyone in his

family ever went to college, but getting a degree is now the next box to

check on his “To Do” list.

“My goal was to get into the university,” he said. “I wouldn’t have

accepted ‘no’ as an answer, because I was already there in my heart.”

That type of determination is what gets results. From getting his GED to

losing more than 189 pounds -the weight of the average man -Rocky sets up

his goals like bowling pins and one by one he knocks them down.

“My ultimate target now is just to be happy,” he said. “I’m gonna change my

lifestyle and see where God takes me on my weight loss. Wherever I stop

losing weight will be where I’m fine at.”

091203-A-8719J-133: Rocky Stroup, a student at Camp Atterbury’s Job Corps,

weighed more than 400 pounds when he entered the program in March. After

losing more than 189 pounds, Rocky, shown looking at his “old” pictures,

continues to all the right things: choosing better food, eating smaller

portions, and of course, exercising. (U.S. Army photo by T.D. Jackson)

091203-A-8719J-165: Rocky Stroup, a student at Camp Atterbury’s Job Corps, recently lost more than 189 pounds through better food choices, exercise and