De-conditioned to Re-conditioned

My journey from nearly 400 pounds to becoming a personal trainer.

The picture on the left was when I was around my heaviest, but my exact weight is unknown. Since my weight was such an embarrassing topic, it was also difficult to face and I would avoid actually weighing myself.

Like many people, my weight was always a problem

I remember the first time I realized my size wasn't typical was when I casually mentioned my current weight to my 2nd grade teacher and she replied, "That's what I weigh."

Whether it was incorrect affirmation from my parents, gross denial on my part, complete lack of self-awareness, or a combination of these factors and more, I wasn't aware that I was overweight or any of the issues that come with obesity. I remember when my 2nd grade teacher informed me of our shared physical similarities (I believe the weight in question was around 120 lbs) I took it almost as a badge of pride. I mistakenly took weight as a correlation to strength, which obviously isn't the case.

It was around 3rd and 4th grade where the teasing and bullying one would expect began to mount. By the time I was in 6th grade, my weight had ballooned well into the 200's. I was now fully aware and constantly ashamed. I would avoid pictures at all costs, often never delivering checks to the school for class pictures so that my appearance could never be immortalized.

Once I entered high school, my weight problem only worsened. As a result, I ignored and avoided my issues even further. I remember somewhere in my late middle school/early high school tenure, I realized that most conventional scales I saw only went to 250 pounds and were no longer able to accurately measure my weight, so I stopped attempting to even try to monitor my weight gain. It wasn't until my sophomore year of high school when several classmates asked how much I weighed and when I responded that I had no idea, they forced me onto a cattle scale in our Agricultural Department to get the answer they were seeking. The scale read around 350 pounds, which is the most my memory allows me to recall.

Even after that horrible experience, it wasn't enough to change my lifestyle or way of thinking. My weight would slightly fluctuate throughout my teens and twenties but never in a hugely positive direction. It was also during this time that I began pursuing my first passion, professional wrestling. Luckily professional wrestling was a sole physically mobilizing activity that I enjoyed, somewhat stalling my weight gain. But the physical nature of my chosen trade was not indicative of my lifestyle and as a result, my weight again skyrocketed after exiting the wrestling business in my mid 20's.

My Turning Point

As I entered my late 20's, I was becoming more mentally restless with the overall state of my life. I felt I had little to no purpose, I was dissatisfied at work, and my disgust at my own body was ever present. One day, one of my former wrestling students contacted me and asked me to come perform for a wrestling company he was starting. I knew that at my current weight, it was unsafe (at best) to enter into a ring. So I knew I had to drop a decent amount of weight to make wrestling even a consideration. A major issue though, was that I literally had no idea where to start with exercise or nutrition. The first thing I did was look up how a calorie was defined. Yes, I actually had no concept of what a calorie meant. From there I researched hard, and worked even harder, to get down to the goal weight I had set for myself. An interesting byproduct of my weight loss was that I began being approached by friends and coworkers, asking advice on how they could do the same and how my weight loss was inspiring them. It was at that point that I discovered my true underlying passion was simply helping people. So I kept studying and working until I took the dive and obtained my Personal Trainer Certification through the National Academy of Sports Medicine.

My Unlikely Destination

If I had been told as a depressed, overweight child and young adult that I would one day be guiding people on their own weight loss journeys, I would have dismissed it as crazy talk. But through a very specific set of unlikely events, I took a path in life I could have never foresaw. Despite years of ridicule, self loathing, and unhealthy living, it was a random re-connection to a previous passion that led to life altering changes. So I guess, to sum it up, inspiration can be waiting around the corner in the most unlikely of places. But don't try to force inspiration. It has to come to you organically, and you'll know when it does.