And by doing that, after 3-1/2 months, I was able to lose the weight that I wanted. This change led me down a path that has been more fulfilling than I could have ever dreamed as I have helped others change their life.
I worked out and changed what I ate and after a while I had a six pack! This journey has developed into a lifelong quest to serve others by showing them the way to permanent sustainable weight loss and health.
I was with my mom at the time and I had never seen that before. So I asked her “what is that, why does that guy have all those bumps on his stomach?” And she said, “That’s a six-pack, if you work hard, and eat right you can have that too.” I took her very literally.
I grew up in a house full of girls that were extremely active but we ate whatever we wanted and we literally had Twinkies at our fingertips, so learning about health and nutrition was very empowering to me, I put that into play for myself.
I used to participate in gymnastics, I played soccer, I played basketball, I played volleyball, I was a cheerleader in high school and college.
In my case, I had more self confidence and sure enough I stopped being bullied - now, this really sparked my desire to get into athletics.
These experiences laid the foundation for the reason I have dedicated my life to helping others improve theirs.
After a year of putting on excessive weight, I had had it. I got sick of looking in the mirror and being so miserable with what I saw. Going to the store to get bigger sizes because nothing looked good because it was so tight. I just wanted to look good in the mirror and in my own skin again. I picked up a book that began to change my life. It taught about exercises, choosing this food over that and being able to know what you really should be eating.
I ended up going through college and getting a degree in Health Promotion and Education and after college becoming a nationally certified personal trainer because I became so passionate about how becoming fit and healthy had changed my life.
I am now a nationally certified personal trainer. Being able to share my own true story of real struggle with my clients has been so important – especially for them to[...].
When I started college full-time I stopped playing sports–that’s when I started gaining weight and the lack of nutrition and the increased food intake started catching up to me.
I started becoming more educated on the health benefits of maintaining a healthy weight. I began teaching others the benefit of how it makes you look physically, but even more importantly how much better you feel about yourself.
I had a very strong desire to share my experiences with and help other individuals change their lives as well.
I was always very fit growing up. I was always playing 2 or 3 sports at a time, always active but never nutritionally healthy. My breakfast would consist of pop tarts and chocolate milk and my lunches would be pizza hamburgers or whatever I wanted.