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Interview with Ron Ernenwein about health and life work balance

Interview with Ron Ernenwein about health and life work balance

In this episode we will talk to Ron Ernenwein about staying healthy and balanced in life.

Transcript of Video

 

hi welcome to healthy living I'm dr.
Donna pelt oh and I have Ron earning
wine here and Julie here Ron is the
owner of double a transportation company
and Julie is does everything pretty much
both in the business and another
business that you guys have with horses
so I'd like to welcome both of you here
today to healthy living
thank you thank God to be here yeah so
you're both very entrepreneurial and
we're gonna talk today a little bit
about business and health and how to
have a balance because it's something
that you've got to now or you're working
on right now but it hasn't always been
that way so tell me a little bit about
your your businesses and your story in
terms of your company sure a
transportation I founded in 1996 was a
startup for me with about 25 employees
over the years we've grown it to over
500 employees now primarily we do school
buses and we do home to school
transportation for 17 towns in the
Worcester area so we're transporting
about 35,000 students to school every
day wow that's a big business it is and
did you have experience in the
transportation industry before or how
did you get involved in it well I
actually got my start working in the
maintenance department yeah fixing cars
yeah I work for a Ford dealer and I have
I have my associates degree from Qin sig
at the time they had excuse me they had
a program sponsored by Ford Motor
Company so I did a co-op with a Ford
dealer and I worked there for a while
I was headhunted by a family that owned
a school bus company to run their
maintenance department and soon after I
began they started having some trouble
and they really downsized I was able to
take that as an opportunity to expand my
responsibilities it's almost like a
general manager type position okay well
I get to learn about the bidding and the
insurance and all the different aspects
when they went out of business
I was stuck thinking well now I need a
job yeah so I was able to acquire one
contract
and started with that I did a startup
and was able to expand it over the years
that's quite it's kind of interesting
industry and to expand it that much is
it was it slow was like one additional
contract per year type of a thing or was
it uh well we did you know we were able
to to bid some some work you know soon
after the startup and then we did
acquire there were two businesses that I
bought along the way so those were kind
of a little easier to do than starting
from scratch yeah it so for people that
are here in Shrewsbury you're gonna see
a lot of these buses driving around most
of them that take all the kids to school
and things like that in terms of the
business were you always balanced like
you are now or you know we went through
you know period of time where we just
Julie and I just worked so much and you
know it affected our personal lives
where we weren't able to really take
time for us so all those long work days
or were taking their toll so a few years
back we made the decision where you know
Julie was going to step aside from the
business and I literally had to hire
four different people that fill her spot
shows how much she was doing yeah
exactly
but the the good part of that was that
you know was I was able to even more
department eyes things a lot of things
fell under the umbrella of what she was
doing and now to have other individuals
doing just pieces of it you know it made
it it took more off of me so I was able
to to loosen up my work hours and my
work schedule and now when I can get
away you know we're able to do things
together yeah and then along with this
where you started to be more interested
I guess during those maybe it's startup
years five ten years however many it was
you probably weren't taking care of
yourself and your health you were just
working working working eating whatever
and that was taking a toll as well in
your house yeah for sure
and then something happened it was at
the same time when you kind of switch to
having managers and then all of a sudden
you could start taking care of your
health is that how that happened well
for me the red flags are coming up with
my doctor's visits and you know we went
from doing yearly physicals to go
you know every three to six months my
cholesterol was off the map my blood
Sugar's were creeping up so you were
pre-diabetic I was pre-diabetic yeah and
you know the process you know the doctor
your primary care would give you the you
know the regular standard advice diet
and exercise yeah that work for you and
no no it didn't it was so frustrating
you know because we we thought we were
eating well but you know that I guess
that means something different for each
individual for me eating well was was
not what I thought it was and it was so
frustrating because you know the more I
exercise and the more I tried it seemed
like the more the sugar levels went up a
lot of exercise yeah yeah I get to the
point where I was gonna kick this thing
is I was I really didn't want to go on
meds yeah yeah so I did more and more
and more you know I was lifting every
day running five miles a day and
sometimes I would do another cardio
session like on the elliptical for
another 40 minutes at night and I you
know it was so exciting like I got this
thing and I'm gonna go back to the
doctor get my blood test and they're
like well you know you got to do better
it went up again and I get to the point
where yeah my my a1c was at six point
four and they said he goes up one more
notch we really gotta start you on meds
yeah what can I do it was right around
that time that you know we made contact
with bonding the frak as a fitness
asylum and we started getting involved
but with some of her programs and that
was just life-changing I mean so you
switched from maybe going to the gym
every day and running every day to like
a bootcamp type of a thing or boxing
exactly exactly
and along with that we did one of her
challenges and so for those that are
listening explain a little bit about
what what a challenge is well Bonnie
offers a lot of different types of
challenges you know different lengths
you know she does a 30-day she does like
I did the 12-week
Challenge yeah the body challenge which
was I forget what they called it was you
know beach-ready or something like that
but the point is that you go there and
everything is outlined for you you don't
have to think about how many calories
and I going to eat or figuring out
macronutrients or jeez how many grams of
proteins in this meal
you know she literally hands you a map
and do this do this yeah successful take
it took all the thinking of it was hard
and how many workouts was it was it
every day or was it four for that
challenge I think we were doing three to
five workouts a week and I always go
over the top and do a little extra
anyways my personality but the real key
is a diet and just to have that in front
of you and just do this it's so simple
you just do what's on the paper and of
course you get a coach with it and you
know we do check-ins and she's with you
the whole time you know making
adjustments if need be you can ask
questions she'd outlined what
supplements she recommended and it
really takes all the science out of it
yeah yeah yeah when you look at some of
this stuff it gets overwhelming with
information and data and all kinds of
different options and this just
simplified it so when I get done with
that challenge not only did I lose I
think over the 12 weeks on that
particular one I lost about 15 pounds
but my a1c all of a sudden dropped and
at this point today 5.2 which is you
know perfectly normal yeah and I stopped
taking my cholesterol meds and you know
my my body weight is I'm probably 50
pounds less than I was when I started
this challenge yeah Julie what was your
experience did you do the challenge
together that first one that first one
we did not he didn't he did it alone
yeah what did you think what he was
doing it you were just watching it yeah
I was he did it with my my oldest
daughter Caylee ha
they did it together they both had a few
pounds to loose and they wanted you know
to be a little more active without being
as winded during their activity levels
so they did it together and they did
very well and I was very proud of him
yeah and were you so but you guys were
cooking together did you have to change
the way you
to eat like he was eating my journey not
necessarily so for Ron when he says he
ate healthy or what his version eating
healthy he probably eat chicken every
day but he'd have barbeque sauce all
over it
so it was just adjusting some of the
things that he was doing and in removing
very little because he he really did eat
healthy but it was the extra added stuff
that he would put on the healthy food
that was kind of throwing him off kilter
yeah kind of like coffee but it all the
cream and sugar
exactly exactly and he learned to drink
coffee black and he loves it now now he
can't imagine having it with cream and
sugar so it was different things like
that that we tweaked
and he did great with it and what was
the experience of your daughter how was
her experience excellent excellent she's
taken off oh my goodness I think she's
probably shaken off about 50 pounds and
it's it's never come back on and she
says she'll never go back this she
didn't like feeling like that okay in
that and that's the question that's what
I was gonna ask a lot of people they
might do a challenge they might do these
bootcamp challenges for six weeks or for
12 weeks and they lose a whole bunch of
weight like the Biggest Loser contest
but a lot of times if you look at the
Biggest Loser they'll gain it all back
was there any rebound or regain or be
able to maintain and continue on and
what's the secret to doing that well so
with the body challenge no I was able to
keep the weight off
and Julie and her other daughter Georgia
started to do some of the bikini
challenges where they actually get on
stage and compete yeah so she's done
that probably eight or nine times now
over the past three years or so and when
you're doing a stage diet you're getting
lean to the point where it's not a
normal walk around<
Author
Dr. Donald Pelto Dr. Donald Pelto Dr. Donald Pelto is a Podiatrist at Central Massachusetts Podiatry, in Worcester and Westborough. Author of several books on foot health, he also speaks Portuguese and Spanish. He likes to go on family hikes and loves learning and talking about health related topics and healthy life hacks. Watch some of his interviews about health and video lectures on youtube.com/drpelto.

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