EASLEY — With both his health and career on the line, Benjie Burns decided it was time to make some hard choices in his life: Tipping the scales at nearly 400 pounds, it was time to lose the weight.
“At my heaviest, I was 375 pounds. I had high blood pressure, diabetes and was on four different types of medications,” said Burns. “I was at the point where I was going to lose my CDL because I was going to have to go on insulin shots.”
As a big-rig truck driver, Burns’ livelihood was at risk as most companies consider insulin-takers to be too high of a risk.
“They’re worried you’ll pass out or something. I drive all over the country, that’s my job,” he said. “But it can be hard to find healthy food to eat on the road, which is when I turned to smoothies. If I can drink my meal, stay on the road and be healthy? That’s a win.”
But does it work?
“I’ve gone from 375 to 255 pounds. I lost it so fast, the doctors were saying I was putting up the kind of numbers you usually only see in people who have had gastric-bypass surgery,” said Burns. “I’m off my blood pressure medication and all my diabetes medicines.
“Getting off all the medications, that was my first goal,” he said. “For my second goal, I need to still lose 30 more pounds. I want to go skydiving.”
The weight limit is 225 pounds to jump out of an airplane with a parachute.
“He’ll be there by spring,” said Mark Faust, owner of Smoothie King on S.C. 123 in Easley. “He’s dedicated.”
Burns has replaced two meals a day with Smoothie King and credits the franchise with much of his weight loss.
“I’m not going to the gym and I probably walk less than six miles in a week. This is diet,” said Burns. “And who says fast food can’t be healthy food? You have to look for it, but it’s there. In the refrigerator in my truck I carry three things: milk, bananas and Gladiator (protein powder).
“I bought these pants two weeks ago and they’re already too big. I’m going to have to take them back,” said Burns. “But hopefully, in another two weeks, the next pair will be too big too.”