Fitness At 40: 2016

My transformation started 3 years ago. To understand it I need to start at the beginning – hopefully my post doesn’t get to long (I’m sure it will be though).

I have spent the majority of my life fighting the Fat Demon! Sometimes I have been successful, and other times I have lost the battle, luckily not the war. I'd get focused and go strong for a few months, eat right, or so I thought, and get in a little bit of exercise only to slack off after a little bit, with the mentality that "hey I've lost 30 or 40lbs, I deserve this." How wrong that thought process was.

At 5'8" I usually fluctuated between 230 and 240, not horribly bad but not exactly healthy either. Slowly the weight crept on pretty bad over the course of 2012, and my best guess, by beginning of 2013 I was around 320lbs. My back hurt, my knees hurt, my feet would hurt after walking. Trying to exercise became a challenge in mobility. 15 minutes in to anything and my back would burn with so much pain I could barely move. I knew I was in trouble.

Then, on January 15th, 2013 my father passed away from Stage 4 Colon Cancer that they believe to be caused from his weight issues and not so healthy eating. My son, Calvin, was born January 18th, 2013; that same week. It was a very emotional week filled with overwhelming loss and tremendous joy. It was also my wake up call.

IT WAS MY WAKE UP CALL! My CORE RESOLVE!

On January 23rd, 2013 I went to my doctor and said, "Doc, I need a head to toe physical, blood work, stress test, everything!" I needed to know exactly where I stood and how broken I was. Needless to say when the results came back I was not in shock, as most of my fears, thoughts, and self-evaluations were confirmed. I was Obese, my blood pressure was almost to the point to requiring medication, I was borderline on needing a C-PAP machine for while I slept, had 3 markers for diabetes, my Gastric Reflux was getting bad, and I was constantly tired. I weighed in at 318lbs with a pants size 40.

I knew I had to make changes otherwise I’d be hurting later or worse. I didn’t take immediate action by joining a Gym or going on super strict diet. Been there, done that. It doesn’t work; I flat out failed every time. Lose 30-50lbs and gain it back the moment I stopped working out or sticking to the strictest diet in the world. Instead, I spoke with my wife and started to educate myself on nutrition, veggies, meats, learned how to read and do the math for the labels on food at the store (I hate food labels! Tricky @$$ bastards!).

I also had to work through the mixed mess of emotions that I was dealing with. Between my moms passing away in September 2009 from a Stroke and Congestive Heart Failure brought on my Obesity and Diabetes and then my dad passing in 2013 from Stage 4 Colon cancer, I was mad! For those that might be confused, colon cancer is usually brought on by pour eating habits and obesity – at least my dad’s was. I was ticked and angry, had they taken the time to change their health and eating habits they would still be around to meet my son, and now my daughter. My parents robbed my children of their grandparents. Course my fat @$$ was just as guilty and was coming face to face with the same health risks.

I spent almost a year doing learning and educating myself with the goal of kicking off the life reboot on January 19^th, 2014 – the day after my son’s first birthday. There is so much mis-information out there, that it took a long time to sort through it all; I am still learning and will spend the rest of my life learning and teaching my kids.

On the 19^th of January 2014 I cut the crap and the excuses. It was time and made the following changes:

No more processed foods, no sodas, no energy drinks. Adopted the rule “if it has to pass through a factory before it is edible for you, reconsider whether or not it is actually food.” – Practical Paleo
Portion Size – we threw away all of our large plates and kept only the saucers and salad plates. This included changing the mind set my parents ingrained on me of you must eat everything on your plate. Now it is when you start to feel full, push away!
Because of my pop’s colon cancer we went as organic and GMO free as possible. Sure it costs a little more each month, but piece of mind helps relieve stress. Stress can all by itself cause weight gain

I can exercise all I want, but unless I eat right, it won't make a difference. As soon as I stop exercising the weight comes right back. Dieting is not the answer either. Stop your diet, and return to certain eating habits and the weight comes right back. This had to be a life style change, a permanent one. Key to success on this - you have to do this as a Family! It is a life style change; everyone has to support each other. Doesn't mean everyone has to suffer, kids can still have snacks but making the choice to provide them with a healthier option is better for them and helps take temptation away. Eating healthy as a family, also helps them learn to eat right so they can, hopefully avoid weight problems later in life.

I also learned that my body loves to make carbs into fat ... BIG TIME. I ended up going Paleo/Mediterranean with my new eating life style. My wife, who is Filipina, continues to eat her rice ;) NO WAY am I asking her to give up her rice! 100lbs plus later I now only eat foods on the outside of the store (organic produce, fruits, meats, and some dairy). Lots and lots of water and no soda at all. I do, occasionally have a non-carbinated Monster but ...

Contacted my insurance again in January 2014, went in and met with my physician and a health assessment group. Weight, BMI, heart burn, minor scarring on the esophagus, and a referral to a back specialist – the entire shebang.

My heart burn had progressively gotten worse, so first thing I decided to do was get it checked out. An EGD (Scope of my Stomach) found I had a hiatal hernia at the sphincter (top of stomach opening) causing the heart burn. Found out that I had another hernia at the bottom of the stomach, a pretty nasty ulcer with lots of scar tissue surrounding it. After a few visits with the doctor and a couple phone calls, it was decided that my best option was surgery. They had to remove about 1/3^rd of my stomach and about one and a half inches of intestine. I would spend 2 months preparing for the surgery; they needed me to loose 40lbs to lower chances at infection and to improve healing. I went on a VERY restrictive protein / liquid diet. 1400 calories a day and by the end of 60 days had gone from 318lbs to 277lbs. No exercise at this point, back was still pretty messed up, I'
ll get to that in a minute. Surgery went well, took about 8 to 10 weeks to get back on semi-solid foods.

It was now time to go see the back specialist and find out that I had crushed two nerves in between T7 and T6 (Thoracic area of the back). This had caused severe inflammation and caused one disc to dislocate and another to become compressed. They tried a series of injections over the course of a year with little success. I had two options left: a rhizotomy to burn out the nerves and spend the next year or so having those nerves grow back or some pretty intense and invasive surgery. I elected rhizotomy. Simple enough procedure and was out patient. First couple days was stiff and sore but by the end of the week swelling was down and my mobility was the best it had been in years! Didn’t mean I was out of the woods and all healed but it was a great start. I had physical therapy and still have to deal with the damage that had been done to the discs. Also so you know – as nerves grow back there is some interesting and intense at times, PAIN!

Fast forward to the start of the Scott Herman’s Shred Challenge. I weighed in at 218lbs … down 100lbs over 2 years but now ready to bring it to the next level. Scott’s videos had helped me over the previous 6 months, especially with TRX conditioning and training but for some reason I never checked out his website. Then in December I decided might as well and was pretty happy that I did. His site is great for newbies such as myself or those looking for challenges and improvements.

After completing his 12 week challenge, I was able to drop down to 206lbs and get back into size 32" jeans - although my love handles were still there. Tape around my love handles says 42” – I CURSE YOU MY LOVE HANDLES! Although, they are shrinking) and my strength is increasing weekly. I am to this day, grateful for that 12 week challenge. It made a huge impact and was actually the first program I found, since high school that kept me engaged and intrigued.

As I navigated the challenge, I started reading more and doing more research. That lead me to a few individuals that I started influencing my workouts and thought process as I was looking to improve inside and out. I set a very specific goal of being 12% body fat or less by my 41st birthday. This goal had a minor set back in April after a hail storm drove us from our house for 3 months, but I will do a separate post on this.

These new influences: Steve Cook, Lex Griffin, Omar Isuf, and a few others. Their videos were real, and their exercises weren't some sales fluff.

Before Picture (June 14th, 2013):