As many of you know, I used to be very active in High School and my early years of College. I played many sports at the High School level and many intramural sports at the College level. I entered college at 205 pounds and a 34 waist.
As college became more time consuming and I slowly crawled toward graduation (a lot of people go to college for 7 years), my activity decreased and my metabolism slowed down. As many of you know my eating did not slow down during that time, so that slow crawl to graduation was accompanied by a slow crawl to 265 pounds and a 40 inch waist.
I stayed at that weight for a long time and around 2003 I hit rock bottom when I made a trip to Eagle's Deli in Boston, home of the Godzilla Burger challenge (which I think is now the Reilly burger challenge). I proceeded to finish a 3 pound cheeseburger (six burnt cheese topped patties) and a couple pounds of fries. It wasn't the actual event that made me acknowledge my weight gain, so much as the pictures of myself afterwards.
I started small with what I call the duct tape diet, where I basically just taped my mouth shut to prevent overeating. That got me down to around 245 pounds or so over the next year. Then my Trina and I joined the YMCA in Hilliard to start shedding more weight and to just get into better physical shape. I saw some small gains in fitness during that time and a little bit of weight loss. I was still a size 38 waist and was probably closer to 235 at that time. My biggest problem with the YMCA was not that the facilities were bad, because they were fine. I just did not have a true workout regiment that I followed. I just did some basic machines and about a half hour of cardio on an elliptical a few times per week.
It was after about two years of this that I realized that I had plateaued and was not making anymore progress. I began looking into ways to get into better shape, and to lose some more weight. I came across P90X and this really intrigued me. So I bought into that system and started doing it. Honestly, I can say that I did not do it religiously at first, maybe 3-5 times per week at most... and if I skipped any days it was usually the legs and back day, and the yoga day. Those I missed consistently. I was also travelling for work a great deal so P90X allowed me to even work out on the road, which fit into my working lifestyle really well. Even with only working out 3-5 times per week on P90X, I was able to shed some serious weight, getting down to a fluctuating 205-210 lbs, and a waist size of 35. This seemed to blast me past the plateau of not having a true workout scheme. I did this for a couple years and realized that I was feeling better, and becoming more active. I was now regularly playing basketball on Tuesdays and softball on Sundays and feeling better than I had in years.
Again, from a weight perspective, I began to plateau again. So I looked into P90X2, which became an instant addiction for me. Instead of just moving extreme weight around in my basement, I was working more on core movements that felt like a mixture of Pilates and P90X due to the complex motions and balance that was needed at every stage. While I did not see much of a change in weight during this time, I was able to get myself into a size 34 waist.
A friend of mine introduced me to Visalus shakes after about two rounds through P90X2. Between getting bored with the P90X2 and staying around 205 lbs, I was willing to try something new. I started doing the Visalus shakes for breakfast, and sometimes lunch, and within a few months was down to my lowest weight since before college. I lost about 13 lbs and that got me down to my current weight of 194 lbs and a size 33 waist.
I was ecstatic about my weight loss, but as I mentioned I was getting bored with my workouts. I had purchased a Groupon for a ten pack of visits to a local Crossfit gym in Hilliard and instantly fell in love. The place was not the greatest, but the coach and the camaraderie was amazing. This was exactly what I needed. The problem was the cost. I was already doing a membership at the YMCA and could not afford both, so I just kept up with my P90X and hybrid workouts I had created.
Then the coach from the Crossfit gym I went to started a new gym in Hilliard called Endeavor Defense Crossfit and Fitness. Wanting to support this local business and enjoy the benefits of Crossfit, I canceled my membership at the YMCA and got my wife and I a membership at his new gym. Since March 2nd, I have been going religiously 5-6 times a week (minus work travel weeks). I have also participated in a 5K mud run, a Tough Mudder, and some other standard road races. I have to say I have never been more addicted to working out and staying fit than I am at this moment. So I am hoping this blog finds its way in front of people experiencing something similar and can use this as inspiration to find their own Crossfit gym and join the fun!!! I am committing this blog to my adventures in Crossfit and my workouts. Hopefully I will start having some pictures to post as well.
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