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FIT FOR THE ROAD Losing Weight, Gaining Hope Trucker sheds 200 pounds, runs marathon MISTY BELL hat started in the simplest fashion has led to more than 200 pounds lost and — most recently — a completed marathon for Vaughan Express driver Mike Sammons. W “Basically what I did was that I started counting my calories,” Sammons says. “I … didn’t think I ate that much, but I was drinking 1,800 calories a day just drinking Cokes.” Sammons made an audition tape for the NBC show The Biggest Loser; he says it was the show’s website that gave him the idea to start writing down what he was eating and drinking daily. His consumption “went down anywhere from 1,600 to 2,000 calories a day,” lead- ing him to lose 58 pounds through diet alone in his first five weeks. “I told a buddy of mine once I lost 50 pounds I’d start walking,” Sammons says. “And in seven months I lost 100 pounds. In 17 months, I lost 203.” ONLINE EXTRA Want to read more about Mike Sammons’ weight loss journey? Visit his website at www. loseweightwithmike.com. Once the pounds starting dropping away, Sammons began setting other goals for himself. He decided he wanted to run a 5k, and he did. He ran two half mara- thons in 2010. And in March he realized a goal many athletes strive for their whole lives: He finished a mar- athon. “I think I did it in 4 hours, 40 minutes or 4:42,” he says. Next up: A half triathlon in June. Sammons says his decision to get healthy stemmed from reaching a point of hopelessness. “When you’re 393, you go to climb out of a trailer, and half the time I’d fall out of it,” he says. “It just got to the point where it was real depressing.” He says he even prayed that God would let him go to sleep and not wake up. “Let some kid that has cancer or something live,” he prayed. “I was 46 or 45 at the time, so I’d pretty much lived. I was just asking him to let someone else live. I’d lost hope.” But, Sammons says, he believes at this time of hopelessness his faith brought him through. He found the information about The Biggest Loser, which included tips for living a healthier lifestyle. He says the important thing for other drivers to remember is that “anyone can do it.” “Somehow, somewhere, you’ve got to find some faith,” he says. “The hardest thing in the world is to believe in someone, something or yourself. That’s basi- cally how I had to do it.” Mythbusting Sleep Apnea: Four Misconceptions MISTY BELL n recent years, much attention has been given to the hours truckers keep — when they are driv- ing, resting, sleeping — and how these hours affect their health. When it comes to Department of I Transportation health qualifications for the job, sleep apnea has become something of a buzzphrase, but it also remains a gray area in many ways. Because of this, some drivers 32 TRUCKERS NEWS APRIL 2011 fear a sleep apnea diagnosis could amount to a CDL death sentence. But is that really true? Below are a few commonly held misconcep- tions about sleep apnea. The fuss over sleep apnea is just a money grab by the sleep medicine industry. Sleep apnea is a very real disor- der, and Dr. Barbara Phillips, former Medical Review Board member and current professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, University of Kentucky College of Medicine, says common risk factors include “obesity, male gender, increasing age, heavy snor- ing, big necks and hypertension, among other things.” Many of these indicators are common for truckers. “If a driver (or that drivers bed continued on page 65 COURTESY MIKE SAMMONS