Businessman credits diet, contest for 77 pound weight loss

BARSTOW — For many years, Billy Rosenberg maneuvered his 341-pound frame through Barstow Station, always stopping at fast food restaurants and candy stores for samples.

These days, after six months of exercise and 77 fewer pounds later, he’s more likely to be eating vegetables instead of hamburgers.

Rosenberg, the owner of Barstow Station, recently finished burning off pounds in the High Desert Slim Down, a weight-loss challenge sponsored by the Desert Dispatch’s sister newspaper, The Daily Press. He and other participants spent six months working with doctors, a nutritionist and a personal trainer as part of the contest.

Rosenberg said that heath concerns and the lure of the contest’s grand prize, a Ford Focus, motivated him to sign up for the competition. His doctors and friends were afraid that his weight could lead to a potentially fatal heart attack.

“I have a thriving business and beautiful family, how dare I risk that?” he said.

Rosenberg and his slim down teammate, Griffin Jumonville, together known as the Silverlake Wild Ones, spent eight months exercising, competing in challenges against other teams and changing their eating habits.

For Rosenberg, altering his eating patterns was the hardest part.

“I always ate for pleasure,” he said. “I used to get up in the morning and think ‘what’s for dinner?’ ”

Desmond Pennington, Rosenberg’s personal trainer at Main Street Fitness, said that daily hour-long workouts and changes in diet led to the weight-loss.

“You can work your butt off in the gym, but it won’t show if you aren’t eating right,” he said.

Pennington said that at the beginning of the competition, he could sense Rosenberg’s potential health issues by the heaviness in his breathing.

“The way he talked, it’s like you hear a bear coming,” he said.

Rosenberg and Jumonville led the other nine teams in pounds lost during the early part of the competition but were eventually surpassed by the La Vida Lo-Cal team, which lost a combined 287 pounds. Rosenberg said that after it became clear his team wouldn’t finish first, he and Jumonville were somewhat disappointed. They adjusted their eating habits to a healthier but more realistic diet.

“We said ‘now let’s eat like were actually going to eat,’ ” he said.

Rosenberg’s wife, Angela Rosenberg, said that at first the weight-loss effort seemed difficult to achieve, but the contest format and cooperation between the two men helped them accomplish their goals.

“They’re both competitive so that set the stage,” she said. “They were absolute support for each other.”

Billy Rosenberg said that he doesn’t mind that he didn’t win the car and estimates that the weight loss will add an additional 35 years to his life.

“Everybody says ‘did you win?’ I won the support and respect of my family, friends and employees,” Rosenberg said.

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