My Story: How Fitness Changed My Life

My Story: How Fitness Changed My Life

When I was thinking what to write about the other day, I realized I’ve never shared my transformation story on my website.

If you think everything has always been easy for me, you haven’t heard my truth.

I struggled more and for longer than just about anyone I know.

I did dozens of workout programs and attempted all sorts of nutritional approaches, but I still couldn’t seem to make the changes I wanted.

Growing up, I was never one of the bigger, stronger kids in school, so I wanted nothing more than to gain muscle size.

In high school, I watched as just about every other guy in the gym got way bigger and stronger than I was. I wondered how some of these guys got so strong. My sophomore year, I could barely bench press 100 pounds one time!

During high school, I started losing confidence in myself, and I became very shy and introverted. I never spoke in class, I had very few friends and I stayed home on the weekends instead of hanging out with kids from school. Even as I got to college, I isolated myself from everyone else. I had very few friends and kept to myself most of the time.

I didn’t like who I was becoming.

I continued to lift weights when I got to college. I made some decent gains, but I still couldn’t figure out how others in the numerous gyms I attended continued to develop more muscle and greater strength while I plateaued. After all, I never missed a workout. I was working just as hard as everyone else, if not harder, yet remained basically the same.

So after a while, I finally decided to do what I should have done long before – get my pride out of the way and seek help. One day, I logged onto Google and began actually searching for tips on exercise. During the searches, I found many “mind-blowing” bits of advice.

Don’t bench press every other day. Keep your workouts shorter. Train your legs more often to improve your upper-body muscle mass.

So using these newfound bits of advice, I trained consistently for a few years. After a few years, I had put on a decent amount of weight.

When I graduated high school, I was around 150 pounds. A year or two after college, I was up to around 185 pounds.

My confidence steadily increased.

Since I loved fitness so much, I decided to pursue it as a career, even though I had a degree in journalism.

So I became a personal trainer and fell in love with the profession.

However, even after becoming a personal trainer, I quickly realized I still didn’t really know how to transform a physique.

It had been a couple of years since I had built my body up to 185-190 pounds, and I hadn’t put on any more muscle since then.

I also never really had visible abs, and I felt like whenever I put on more weight over those couple of years, I put on more body fat than I wanted.

I was teaching others how to transform their bodies, but I couldn’t even transform my own.

I felt like a hypocrite.

And while I didn’t realize it at the time, I had developed an unhealthy relationship both with food and the weight scale.

I focused for so long on eating “clean,” and I used to freak out when I went on vacation or out for dinner because I thought eating some of those meals was going to completely ruin my progress.

Also, I unknowingly used the scale to determine my self-worth. If the scale said what I wanted it to say, I would be happy. If it didn’t, I would be frustrated.

Not only did I feel like I had no control over the state of my body, but I felt frustrated because no matter what I did, I didn’t see any results.

So I decided to do something about it.

I realized I had never really built the body I wanted, so I decided to pursue something I had always resisted because I thought it would be too hard.

In early 2016, I decided to train for a bodybuilding show.

I attempted to do things on my own the first couple of months because, after all, I was a personal trainer and “I know what I’m doing.”

But after a couple months of failing to see much, if any, progress on my own, I decided to do what I should have done a long time before – hire a coach.

And in just five months of working with a coach, I made more progress than I had the previous nine years attempting to do things on my own.

In October 2016, I competed in my first bodybuilding show in the men’s physique division.

For the first time in my life, I felt like I was in complete control of my body.

I went on vacation with my wife and didn’t freak out in thinking I was going to ruin my progress.

I developed a much better relationship with the scale, and I no longer defined my self-worth based on the number on the scale.

For the first time ever, I truly felt “free” because I was allowing flexibility in my life and still seeing results.

Two years after competing in a bodybuilding show, I still maintain a healthy relationship with food and have a positive body image.

While I’m not sure if I’ll train for another show, I’m so thankful for the experience because it truly changed my life.

While I had many struggles along the way, I want to point out two things I did well.

1. I never gave up

Even though I failed to achieve my goal with my body for years, I never stopped moving toward it.

To this day, I haven’t missed a scheduled strength training workout in nearly nine years.

Even though I have a wife, son, my own business and a full-time job as a personal trainer, I still make my workouts a priority every week.

Also, I stayed with my nutrition the entire time I struggled. I didn’t have weeks I just gave up and ate whatever I wanted.

I persevered.

Making changes in any area of life (relationships, career/finances, your body, etc.) take a long time and are hard work.

If getting fit, getting rich or having an amazing relationship were easy, everyone would embody these things.

It’s my firm belief many people give up way too easily.

Chase your dreams. You’ve got one life to live.

If you use the right strategy and stay consistent for a long enough period of time, you’re probably going to be successful at whatever it is you pursue.

2. I asked for help

For years, I thought it would mean more if I transformed my body on my own.

I thought asking for help would make me look “weak.”

I couldn’t have been further from the truth.

Seeking guidance from others isn’t a cop-out and it isn’t taking the easy way out.

If you’re frustrated with yourself and your own results in an area of your life, why would continuing to struggle make things better for you or anyone else in your life?

If you’re frustrated and not showing up as the highest version of yourself, you’re going to be less useful to others.

So, in reality, not seeking the guidance you need and continuing to show up as a lesser version of yourself is a very selfish thing to do.

Imagine what would happen with your body, your relationships, your mindset and your finances if you became the best version of you because you got help.

Everyone else in your life would thank you!