From Fat to Fit: How I transformed my mind and body, and how you can too

     I want to motivate others who find themselves in need of a drastic change in their lives to actually make it happen. I’d like to show you how I did it, and how you can too.

     First, understand that any change you want starts within you. A simple truth that I hope to help you realize by sharing my journey is that you are in control of yourself. There are things you can change, and things you have no control over. When you try to change someone else it’s almost always a fruitless effort. But that’s not the case with yourself; you get to determine your own actions… nobody else can do that for you. You make decisions every day that shape who you are as a person, physically, mentally, spiritually and emotionally. Often you don’t even make them consciously, you just go about your daily routine on autopilot. Maybe you sleep in as late as you can, eat a breakfast high in sugar (or don’t eat breakfast at all!), don’t get any exercise throughout the day, eat junk food, drink a few beers before going to bed too late, and then repeating the same thing the next day. But there is a better way, and it is to live intentionally. You can envision exactly what you want, that you have control over, and through sheer force of will, you can make it happen. Do you want to have a high level of energy and develop the kind of strong and healthy body you’ve only dreamed of? Do you want to lose fat, pack on muscle, and feel a new zest for life? Do you want to be a published writer, or run a successful business? You absolutely can do any of those things, and much more. Even if you don’t currently feel that power pulsing within you, it is there. It always has been; you were created with it. I assure you; no matter who you are, you are capable of drastic change. You simply just have to decide what actions to take that will lead you to your goals, take them every day, and refuse to stop until you get what you want. Easier said than done? Perhaps… but then again the change you want might come faster and easier than you dare imagine.

     So here’s my story. A couple decades ago when I was 22 I had just finished a 4-year enlistment with the Marines and I was in excellent shape at 240 lean pounds. I could run, swim or fight for hours and do more than 30 pullups without stopping. I’ve always been a student of the martial arts and I regularly competed in combat sports matches all my life through my early 30’s, and I did well. Fast forward to my mid-30’s. I racked up a few injuries that really slowed down my activity level, to include surgeries on both knees and for a hernia. Through lack of discipline I developed unhealthy eating habits. As my activity level dropped, my waistline grew. My energy levels plummeted along with my motivation to get off my ass and exercise through the pain of my injuries. The bad eating habits compounded my problem. Finally by the time I turned 40 I had ballooned up to nearly 350 pounds. I had to take pain pills and ice my knees daily. I was always tired and didn’t have the energy to do much of anything. Physically, I was miserable.

     Now I should mention that I’ve always been a generally a positive, happy guy. I’ve always felt blessed to be alive and been one who looks on the positive side of things. In my mid through late 30’s I had two great boys that gave me motivation to set a good example for them. I knew they would likely follow my lead, for better or for worse in many areas of my life. By the time I turned 40 I was disgusted with myself physically. Some stressful personal situations I was in didn’t help either. I can’t blame it all on my injuries or my stress though; the truth is I could have gotten right back into exercising after I had rehabbed from my injuries, but I just didn’t do it.

     Finally, I hit the breaking point. Staring into the mirror at my bloated 350 pound body just before my 41st birthday, I had enough. As angry tears welled in my eyes, I thought to myself, “Who the hell are you?! What is your damn problem?! There’s no way this is me… this looks like a stranger in front of me wearing a fat suit. I don’t care what life circumstances or decisions have led me to this point; that’s it. THAT’S IT!” I yelled at the mirror and tears came out as I almost punched my image. My mind continued to race and I spoke out loud with determination. “I am not this weak fat ass standing in front of me. I know my inner strength. I know the hard charging Marine is still inside of me. I know that I can do whatever I set my mind to… and now, dammit, I will. I will! No more will this be me! I WILL change who I am. I will get fit and healthy again. I will set a good example for my boys; they deserve that and so much more. I will prolong my life through the changes I will make. I will make my body strong.” I really meant what I was saying. There was a passion burning inside of me. I had reached the end of my rope. I stared into the eyes in the mirror staring back at me with anger. I was going to beat the hell out of this guy. I smiled, knowing the beating was definitely coming; I had set my mind to it and I’d die before I quit on my goal. I didn’t know exactly how I would do it, but by God I knew I would. I would take this very seriously; no more excuses. There was also a fear inside of me. I felt as if my life literally depended on it… that if I didn’t do something now, I never would. The years would keep rolling by and I’d get in worse and worse shape, and suffer all of the associated health problems with such a decline. My quality of life would continue to decline. For me, and for my boys, I couldn’t let that happen. I couldn’t have that life.

     That was the point that a switch turned in my mind. I suspect that for some people, that never happens and they just continue to live in whatever miserable condition they were in. But staring there at my reflection, I knew change was coming; I would have to make it happen. Nobody else knew it just then. Hell, nobody would have believed me if I’d told them anyway. After all; what’s the best predictor of future performance? Past performance. My past decisions and actions had led me to the miserable state that I found myself in. My future decisions and actions would be my salvation. I felt comfort in knowing that my resolve was real. I knew the fire that burned in me. The realization that nobody… absolutely nobody could do a damn thing to affect change for me except me, hit me like a brick to the face. It was all up to me. I’d either do it or I wouldn’t. Talking or complaining or giving in to any excuse, legitimate or not, wouldn’t help me a damn bit. Only I could do it, and in that moment when I’d reached the depth of my disgust for myself, I clinched my fat jiggly jaws and decided right then and there that I would make a real change. I can’t emphasize enough that there has to be a moment like this for you in order for you to ever make any real change. You have to reach a point where you just refuse to take anymore of whatever problem you are dealing with. There has to be a point where you absolutely decide that you will do whatever it takes to make the real change in your life that you need. Nobody else can do that for you… it’s all up to you. You either will, or you won’t. Nobody else’s intentions for your life mean a damn thing.

TIME FOR RESEARCH

     My moment of deepest disgust was a few months before my 41st birthday, so I decided to research how I could make this change, and I vowed that I would jump into it with both feet the day I turned 41. I marked it on my calendar as “My new life of fitness begins”. How would I do it? Well I would make the obvious changes first. I’d fix my diet and get on a good exercise program. So I began researching. I got a lot of great info from the book “Starting Strength” BY Mark Rippetoe and from the website “Stronglifts.com”. I highly recommend both of those sources to people looking to make a physical change by implementing weightlifting. For me, weightlifting was the way I wanted to go. I knew that muscle burns fat and I wanted to turn my body into a fat burning machine by building up my muscles.

FIXING MY EATING HABITS

     My eating habits were horrible. I’d swing by a fast food restaurant almost every day on the way to work. Sweet tea or soda, three burritos, and three chocolate chip cookies was a typical breakfast. Then I’d get three or four cheeseburgers for lunch and dinner later. Then I’d eat another meal when I’d get home. Sodas, cookies, candy bars and the like filled the spaces between meals. Looking at my eating habits it wasn’t hard to see the changes that I needed to make. I started by taking those obvious, simple steps. I remembered a book I’d read by Bill Phillips years earlier called “Body for Life” in which he advocated one cheat day a week. I decided to incorporate that idea, which ended up working for me. It enabled me to be strict with my eating throughout the week, knowing that when my cheat day came I could enjoy all the things I’d denied myself. So when I turned 41, I cut out the junk. I didn’t know much about healthy eating, but I learned as I went. I started by simply making healthier eating choices. I replaced sodas with diet tea and water. I started planning my meals out ahead of time, ensuring I got a gram of protein per each pound of lean body mass that I weighed. A few months into my transformation I began preparing my meals for the week ahead. I would take a few hours on one of my days off each week and fill my fridge will dozens of healthy, easy to grab meals in plastic containers. Each had a portion of protein in the form of chicken, fish, lean burger or turkey. Each meal also had a healthy carb in the form of a sweet potato or rice. A few months later I cut out white rice and ate brown rice only. And finally each meal contained a healthy serving of vegetables. I also began drink meal replacement shakes mixed with extra protein powder after each workout. Now I will admit, I still don’t feel like I’m an expert on healthy eating, but the obvious changes I needed to make in my diet didn’t take an expert to recognize them.

ADDRESSING MY MEDICAL ISSUES

     I had other issues to deal with besides unhealthy eating. Before I began my change I saw a doctor and had some tests run. The biggest predictor of low testosterone is a large waistline. Umm, yea, my test was damn low. So I began a new phase of my life that involved poking myself with needles weekly. At first I couldn’t imagine how I would be able to do it. I didn’t want to imagine a life dependent on access to testosterone and jamming myself with needles. But then again, I had decided that I would do whatever it took to get back to being strong and fit, and this was a necessary part of that process.

     Testing also showed that I had developed sleep apnea. Apparently having a big fat neck makes it hard to breath properly at night; who knew? So after getting on a sleep apnea machine and getting my testosterone levels up to normal, I began feeling much better. I felt the motivation to go to the gym and workout growing in me, where before there had only been daily exhausting and lack of energy.

TIME FOR ACTION

     So finally the day of my 41st birthday came, and it was time to take action. I’d been thinking of my commitment every day from the moment I’d made it until then. I’d written it down and was absolutely determined to make a change. I stepped into the gym, wide eyed and a bit intimidated. I hadn’t lifted weights since high school, but thankfully with a little planning and some help from the friendly gym staff and other helpful weightlifters there, I quickly got into a rhythm of what to do. I hit every body part once during four weekly weightlifting sessions that lasted about an hour and 20 minutes each. Plus once a week I did a core body workout in my home dojo. After every session, at least four days per week, I did about half an hour of cardio. At first it was on the elliptical machine, but eventually I switched to swimming and found that I preferred it. I took two rest days per week, which my sore body desperately needed.

WRITE IT DOWN!

     In hindsight I see that writing down my exact plan of action; the schedule of exactly when I would go workout and what I would do, was vital to my success. It is one of the most important things you must do to begin and stick with your plan to make any real change in your life. Make sure you write down your plan in detail, particularly to include exactly what you will do and when you will do it every day. Doing that made it easy for me; I knew ahead of time when I would be in the gym and it was a pre-determined, pre-scheduled thing. I wasn’t a morning person, but I had to start working out in the mornings before work in order to fit exercise into my daily schedule. That meant a few hours less of sleep. At first it sucked, but that didn’t last long.

MY PROGRAM

     Here is the weightlifting program I stuck with for the first year of my transformation.

Most exercises are five sets of five repetitions. I started light and added five pounds each workout (that idea came from the Stronglifts program). On many of the accessory exercises I would do around 15 reps.

Day 1- Back. Always deadlifts, and then three other accessory exercises such as Roman chairs, lat pulldowns, pull-ups (assisted at first until I got strong), upright rows, cable rows, etc.

Day 2- Core. Ab wheel, hanging knee raises, planks, sit-ups, leglifts, etc. 40 minutes total in the form of one minute of exercising and one minute of rest.

Day 3- Shoulders and Biceps. Always overhead press and curls, and then two other accessory exercises such as shrugs, lateral raises, hammer curls, barbell curls, etc.

Day 4- Legs. Always squats and calf raises, and then two other accessory exercises such as leg extensions, leg curls, hack squats, hip abductors/ adductors, etc.

Day 5- Chest and triceps. Always bench press and another chest exercise, and then two other tricep exercises such as dips, skull crushers, standing tricep extensions, etc.

Then I’d rest for two days and begin the week of workouts again.

     Working out so hard pretty much naturally made me eat healthier. How could I go eat like crap when I knew I’d just be paying for it in the gym later? Before I began lifting I had been drinking the equivalent of 3 or 4 cans of soda a day. Cutting them out and drinking a lot more water made me feel so much better. I didn’t realize how addicted I’d become to the sodas and the sugar. Other simple, healthier eating choices came as well. Sitting down stuffing my face with cookies and other junk? Gone- except for on my cheat day. Even on my cheat days I couldn’t stuff myself like I used to, and I found I didn’t want to anyway.

     I’d get up, eat something small like a banana or some oatmeal and down a bottle of water, and then I’d be at the gym within an hour of waking. My whole routine at the gym took about two hours to include cardio and showering afterwards, and after that I was off to work. By getting it done first thing in the morning I eliminated any possible excuse later in the day that could prevent me from skipping a workout. However I was firm in my commitment to not skip them. I truly feared that skipping one could be the slippery slope that led to me stopping this journey I was on. No way was I going to let that happen.

THE PHYSICAL CHANGE

So as I began putting the two together; sticking with a total body exercise program and eating healthier, amazing things began to happen as I got used to this new life routine. To my surprise, within two weeks it wasn’t hard to get up and make myself go to the gym anymore. My sleeping schedule got adjusted and I got used to it quickly. Amazingly, I had become a morning person! Within three weeks my workouts had become something I was really looking forward to. Those first few weeks were hard and I was sore, but I stuck with it. The soreness told me that I was making progress. Those first few weeks flew by, and suddenly I was feeling much better than I had in longer than I could remember. I stuck with it and kept grinding. I would often remind myself that I was determined not to quit; that my life depended on it. The weeks and months began rolling by, and I never missed a workout. Fat began practically melting off of me right from the start, and I began to see muscles appear that I hadn’t seen in years. Seeing the changes and feeling the new energy coursing through my body was great motivation. Getting the juices flowing and feeling a great pump in the gym was addictive. No way was I going to turn back! In the back of my mind the fear of getting injured and quitting this journey I’d started was there, and I constantly told myself that I would not stop this great thing I had started no matter what. Within three months I’d lost several inches off my waist and put on some noticeable muscle. I probably lost 10 pounds a month those first few months when I had so much extra fat to lose. Over the first six months I had made a serious transformation that I would say was about 75% of the total physical change I made over that first year of my new life of fitness. I went from wearing size triple extra-large pants to size XL. I had fallen in love with weightlifting and how it made me feel. I constantly researched better, smarter ways to workout and eat healthier, and made little changes along the way. My energy levels and motivation were through the roof. One year after starting this new life I’d lost 70 pounds of blubber and put on 20 pounds of muscle, to end at my new weight of 300 pounds. I’d lost nine inches off of my waist. I was a new man. My blood pressure had gone from too high to very healthy. I’d gone from having a keg on my belly to practically a 6-pack. I’d made myself stronger than I ever had been in my whole life. I’d become a beast in the gym, and there was no way I would stop and go back to my old life.

THE MENTAL CHANGE

Explaining the process I went through, and the physical change I benefited from isn’t enough. I want to explain the mental change I’ve experienced. I don’t know if I can accurately describe it, but I’ll try. This journey has been extremely empowering. I have always been a confident person, but what has come over me is greater than confidence. I know that I can do anything that I set my mind to in a way I’d never fully realized before. I feel unstoppable and nothing can stand in my way. I refuse to stay miserable in any situation in my life. Life is too short and there is too much potential for happiness and the realization of your dreams to settle for anything less. I look at myself now and can only chuckle, wondering what in the hell took me so long. I should have done this a long time ago. Excuses don’t matter… it was always up to me. I am aware that my time in this world is a gift from God, and not a day should be wasted. I’m done wasting my time. The realization that I only live once… that I only get this one body to live in while I’m here, stays in my thought often. No more will I just flow through life on autopilot. I’m taking charge of every day… of every aspect of my being. No one will or can do that for me except me. I’ve become more aware than ever that my own happiness in this life starts with me. It depends on the attitude I choose and the deliberate choices that I make every day. I have wasted too much time being concerned with making others happy, when in the end that choice is theirs alone. I won’t do that again. Now, the flowers smell sweeter. The sunsets are more beautiful. Music is more amazing. I have within me the capacity to live and love more completely. Life is so good when you’re making progress every day… when you’re striving to become a better person. I know I’m not perfect, but I am becoming a better version of myself every day. Goals that I long ago set aside have come back to me. I wake up every day with a zest for life that I haven’t known before. I am excited for what the future brings, and armed with the knowledge that I will overcome any obstacle thrown at me, I smile at the thought of each new day. I thank God for this life and the many blessings he has given me, and continues to give. I have a new faith that everything will work out for the best in the long run. I will just continue to take action on the things that I can control, and I won’t worry about the rest. I pray that you make a similar change happen in your life, whatever that change may be.

CREDITS

Body for life: 12 Weeks to Mental and Physical Strength. By Bill Phillips and Michael D’Orso. 1999

Starting Strength, Basic Barbell Training, 3rd edition. By Mark Rippetoe. 2011.

www.stronglifts.com