Meet the 21st Century Man

In one year, Randolph Bannerman (63) has undergone a rapid transformation, dropping from 290 pounds to less than 190. Randy, as he likes to be called, owes it all to the impressive technology of the 21st century, which helped paved the way for him to take control of his health and fitness. Here's what Randy has to say about his journey: 

What started you on your fitness journey?

Everything started because of technology. I bought a new iPhone in October 2014 and I saw it had a health app on it. I was impressed with how the app counted my steps. One thing led to another and I realized it could watch my sodium and sugar. Eventually, this led me to try out a couple of other apps. I did some research and came across Argus in November. 

One day, I decided to go for a walk. I turned on Argus and found that I had walked ¾ of a mile and was quite impressed with myself. After that I began to focus on losing weight by walking and counting calories. Before I knew it, I was losing a pound a day. It sounds a lot, when you have well over 100 pounds to lose (I weighed 290 pounds). It was pretty easy to losing the first 30-40 pounds, but I had to really work at it to lose the rest. 

The big key to losing weight using Argus is to be honest with yourself. If you’re going to have a couple M&Ms you need to log it. If you’re having pizza, log it. 

And that’s what I did. I started out in the very beginning at 2900 calories. As I lose weight, my calorie count lowered, and now I’m down to 1600 calories. If I do a 6 mile walk, that’s going to equate 1300 calories burned. I find that easy. I feel like I need to walk. I walk 7 days a week, rain, shine, snow. It feels good to walk. 

I have now lost a little over 100 pounds all thanks to walking and counting calories. Before my blood pressure was somewhere around 140/80. Today it’s an average of 113/56. My resting heart rate is now around 48-50 when before it was 58-60. The biggest thing I’ve noticed that’s improved is that 7 years ago, I was diagnosed with beginning stages of Glaucoma. The eye doctor monitored my eye pressure and found it was 21 and 19 in each eye. 2 months ago I went back for a follow-up and my eye pressure is now 13 and 12. Big difference. And it’s because of the weight loss. I’m also now off most of my medications and the joint pain I used to feel in my knees and ankles are gone. 

What motivates you to stay fit? 

What keeps me motivated is (1) the weight loss (seeing how much I lose after a period of time) and (2) technology (getting real-time information). I can see instantly how far and how fast I’ve walked, how many calories I had for the day, how much sleep I’ve gotten. I look back and see what I can do better and what’s not working. 

How do you fit working out in your life? 

I do it any chance I can get. If I have time at work [as a Building Inspector for West Windsor Township], I’ll take 15-20 minutes and walk around the parking lot. If the weekend’s nice and warm, I’ll get up 7 a.m. on Saturday and walk 8 miles. By 10:30, I’ll get cleaned up, get lunch, do a few errands. come back, and walk another 2-3 miles, and then after dinner, I will do another mile. I find walking is better than sitting in front of TV, which is what I did before. i was just sitting there. I now need to do something, get out for a walk. 

I try to do a minimum of 5 miles a day. My monthly average is almost 11 miles a day. That sounds like a lot, but it’s not 11 miles all at once. I could be walking 6 miles at one time, 2 miles later on, and so on. The most I ever done in one clip is 9 ½ miles. 

What are your health/fitness plans for the future? 

I take it day by day. I’m always pushing to do a little bit better. There’s a town north of where I live: New Hope, Pennsylvania. It’s about 12-13 miles away. My goal is to one day just straight there. It’s going to be on one of those days when I wake up feeling good, it’s a nice day, and I just start walking without stopping. 

How long have you been using Argus? 

I’ve been using Argus since November 30, 2014. Argus helped save my life. Argus puts everything together so I can see my calories, the time I’ve slept, see the number of steps I’ve walked, the mapping of my walks, and everything else in one place, right at my fingertips. Argus does a beautiful job of putting it all together. I turn my phone on, go to Argus, and I see everything I’ve done for the day. If I see I have 6,000 steps, and I need to do a minimum of 14,000, I’ll just put on my sneakers and do another 4 miles. And that’s that. 

What are the top 3 things you track using Argus? 

I track my walking, calories, sleep, heart rate, and my blood pressure. I refer to the walks I do on Argus as “official walks” or “monitored walks” because I like to know the distance I’ve covered and the time it took me. Today Argus is one of my most important tools because I can use Argus to map out walks. During the winter months, when it’s really bad, I would go to our major mall and walk around. If I wanted to do 4 miles, I would have to make 4 ½ laps. I’ve even gone into major stores like Home Depot and turn Argus on, walk up and down every aisle back to where I started. I use Argus to find out how long the walk was and how many distance I covered. 

What advice do you have for new users of Argus? 

I would tell people to see Argus as fun. One of the things I liked with Argus at the beginning was how it mapped my walks. You can go back and see how you’ve walked up and down the streets or down a path. That was fun. I can walk in a pattern and spell out my name so that when I look at Argus back home, I can see that I spelled out my initials RWB. That’s fun for me. It’s technological fun. And I don’t get overwhelmed. I just take it one step at a time. 

Also, just start moving. It’s not a matter of what you do. Just start doing something. For me, it was that first walk where I did ¾ of a mile.

The Argus community is full of wonderful and inspiring people embarking on their own unique fitness journey. If you, or someone you know, have a great story to share, we would love to hear from you. Contact us at jennifer.ta@azumio.com.