Please allow me to reintroduce myself...

So I guess I should let you know what me and this blog are all about, as every superhero has a pretty sweet origin story with tragedy, inspiration, and eventually, triumph. Well chapters 1 and 2 are closed for me and I'm currently writing the third.

My upbringing wasnt much different than most kids from where I'm from, except for the fact that I went to Roeper, a school for gifted kids. With that came alot of pressure and expectations but rewards as well. My favorite reward unfortunately was food, and I was rewarded ALOT. As a kid, being fat is no big deal but once I got to highschool and girls and sports became my two main focuses, well let's just say this is where the "tragedy" part begins.

Like I said, I was always chubby as a kid, but I didnt reach my heaviest until highschool when I peaked at 283 pounds. Now I always had friends, I played 4 sports a year and lettered in all of them, but none of this mattered because none of the girls I liked, ever liked me back. Looking back on it now, it seems juvenile and stupid, but as a teenager, highschool is EVERYTHING. Not being able to get the girl I wanted or seeing her date one of my friends was like getting punched in the stomach, every day.

It didnt stop there though, because of my weight and constant rejection in highschool, I developed some serious self-confidence issues and carried it with me, like my weight, everywhere I went.

While i continued to be active after highschool, playing in multiple basketball and softball leagues, my weight never really changed. In fact, although I did lose weight after highschool, it was only because I stopped lifting weights so my body suffered quite a bit of atrophy.

Fast forward afew years, february 2008, 2 days after my birthday, I had to have an emergency appendectomy, with a follow up surgery a couple months later. I was basically bed-ridden for 3 months, gained a ton of weight and began to really HATE looking at myself.

One day I was just fed up, I immediately went out, joined planet fitness, and starting hitting the gym HARD. I ate chicken and brown rice every day and spend hours working out. 3 months later I was down 30 pounds and almost 10% body fat.

I spent hours a day on Google and YouTube looking for different workout routines, equipment reviews, and healthy recipes. It began as an interest, and soon became an obsession. I began missing social events to spend time at the gym, all of my money went to workout gear and supplements, even my conversations would start about other subjects and end being about health and fitness.

While this may seem like a bad thing, there were alot of benefits. My confidence level skyrocketed, I finally began gettin the attention from females that I had always wanted, even my grades in school went up. It was then I decided that this would become as much a part of my life as my own family.

So today, my passion hasnt changed at all. In fact, I've decided that once i graduate from college I'm going to get my certification in personal training and nutrition and hopefully someday own my own training facility.

I'm more confident than I've ever been, but also more critical. My body is still a work in progress and every day I attempt to make strides in my endless pursuit of perfection. Deep inside me, still lives that shy little fat kid with low self-esteem that loves food and sometimes eats just because. There are days where my past comes back to haunt me and I'm struck with a bout a low self esteem or attempt to eat my emotions but all in all I'm in a much better place.

Here's a picture to show you just how far I've come on my journey

2007-2012



Now it's not all rainbows and unicorns, eating healthy and working out isnt always easy. There are days where I just wanna plop down in front of the tv or xbox with a pizza, pop, and package of oreos and trust me, it's one hell of an internal struggle to keep myself from doing it. I get alot of grief from people around me too, I get stares when I show up to work or school with a gallon jug of water and a huge lunchbox, my friends get annoyed when I have to rearrange social plans because I have to hit the gym after work, and my mom gets mad when I dont eat the dinner she cooked because in her words I'm "on that diet thing".

Eating healthy is expensive too, its no wonder why there are so many fat broke people. you can go to McDonalds and spend a couple bucks for a quick meal, I spend nearly $100 a week just on food for myself; and that's not even counting supplements.

All that aside, I love the satisfaction that comes with being dead tired after a tough workout, I love the looks from the ladies, i love enjoying buying new clothes, and most importantly, I love not hating myself anymore and I wouldnt give that up for anything.