Every day for three years, an Arizona man was seen coming to and from his local Walmart store. He didn’t work there, but he was regular in his habit and often made the trek more than once a day. After strangers noticed something amiss in his routine, his shocking secret that he was hiding at the store was finally exposed.

Pasquale “Pat” Brocco (left), Avondale, AZ Walmart (right)

Every day for three years, an Arizona man was seen coming to and from his local Walmart store. He didn’t work there, but he was regular in his habit and often made the trek more than once a day. After strangers noticed something amiss in his routine, his shocking secret that he was hiding at the store was finally exposed.

Pasquale “Pat” Brocco has probably been one of the Avondale Walmart’s most regular customers, but it wasn’t until employees noticed something different about what he was purchasing that they put the pieces together about what he was up to. Three years after his secret began, Pat stunned his community with what he had been doing for all this time.

The store wasn’t too far from the 31-year-old’s house, but rather than taking his car, he always walked the 2-mile round trip to and from. Pat became a daily sight for commuters who would see him walking regardless of the heat, which in Arizona would often be above 100 degrees. It almost seemed dangerous for a man his size at 605 pounds, but for Pat, there was one reason why it was worth it.

After an eye-opening visit to the doctor, Pat learned that his health because of his weight put him in grave danger of serious complications. If he didn’t do something about it, he could die young. He had lost track of how obese he had become as well as the gargantuan diet he consumed every day, which included 100 chicken nuggets, just to start. Having heard his physician’s warning, he didn’t know how to start, so he just went with the first unusual idea that crossed his mind and stuck to it.

Pat Before/After

“My stomach was down to my thighs. My chest was hanging down here,” he told ABC News, as he pointed to his stomach. “I was disgusted.” The first thing he did was rid his home of all the food and decided that when he was hungry, he would walk to Walmart and only buy a single meal, but it had to be healthy.

It was a mile walk each way, which he often did three times a day for his meals, totaling 6 miles a day. “You walk to Walmart three times a day, and you end up walking 6 miles,” he said. “It’s amazing because I never walked 6 miles in my life, and I was doing it every day.” After sticking to this simple plan for 2 years, he was down a whopping 200 pounds and kept at it for another full year and has now lost another 100 pounds.

Having lost so much weight, he gained the ability to do more exercise, which he previously was unable to do, like weights at the gym. He dropped another 30 pounds and gained muscle and now looks like a completely different person from when he began. More importantly, he’s healthy, more productive, and proved to himself and others who he has inspired with his progress that all it takes is deciding to start and taking that first step. Instead of excuses, Pat made changes, and that’s something everyone can learn from no matter what challenge they’re facing.