Mayor Fassbender seeing and feeling fitness results
Almost half way through a 90-day fitness challenge, Langley City Mayor Peter Fassbender is feeling and seeing results.
“I’m getting muscle tone, I am sleeping better and my blood-sugar levels are really good,” said Fassbender.
Fassbender has been working out three times a week with a personal trainer with Innovative Fitness in Langley. He usually starts around 6 a.m. or 7 a.m., depending on his schedule.
His workouts are pretty intense including doing a six kilometre walk/run recently, weights and lots of other cardio exercises.
He’s also been eating smaller meals more often and staying away from starch. Despite all the exercise, he hasn’t lost any weight though.
“But, I’m not worried about it because this often happens when you lose fat and gain muscle,” he said.
What he’s most proud of is sticking with the program.
“I’m actually having a lot of fun with it,” he said. “I might just see my abs yet.”
Last month, four Lower Mainland Vancouver mayors — Surrey’s Dianne Watts, Langley City’s Peter Fassbender, Coquitlam’s Richard Stewart and Abbotsford’s Bruce Banman — signed up for the Healthy Community Challenge, which aims to get Lower Mainland residents to lead healthier lives.
The three-month long challenge — which is free for those who choose to participate — began in early March.
Those wishing to take part in the challenge may sign up online (www.healthycommunitychallenge.com.)
For Fassbender, it was a visit to the doctor nine years ago that served as a wake-up call, when he was diagnosed with prostate cancer and told he had gallstones and Type 2 diabetes.
The news he was a diabetic didn’t come as a great shock. He’d seen the warning signs but chose to ignore them.
“I wasn’t willing to accept that my lifestyle was causing that,” he said.
While his (ultimately successful) cancer treatment and gall bladder surgery were in the hands of his physicians, Fassbender knew that controlling his diabetes would be his job.
That’s one reason he took part in the 90-day Healthy Community Challenge.
“Our health care costs are getting out of control,” he said. “The mindset is, the system will look after us, that we’re not responsible for ourselves.
“I’m responsible for my health.”
Not everyone can afford a personal trainer or even a gym membership — but they don’t have to, Fassbender said.
“Getting fit is not a huge leap,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be an expensive program.
“It can cost as little as the price of an umbrella and a bit of shoe leather.”
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