Team Beachbody Guest

Everyone has a story of why they decided to change their life around and become healthy. It might have been because you were forced to buy more cloths that fit your size, a personal tragedy of a friend or loved one, or a medical necessity. Whatever the reason, you are here now. Don’t loose hope and don’t give up.

This is my story.

I entered college in 1999. I was in pretty good shape.

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Everyone has a story of why they decided to change their life around and become healthy. It might have been because you were forced to buy more cloths that fit your size, a personal tragedy of a friend or loved one, or a medical necessity. Whatever the reason, you are here now. Don’t loose hope and don’t give up.

This is my story.

I entered college in 1999. I was in pretty good shape. I played tennis in high school, had the metabolism of a cheetah, and I was actually almost underweight for my height. I was never really into tracking my weight, but I was 6'2'' and around 150 lbs give or take. I had never developed the habit of watching what I ate, because at that time it never mattered. Well, you guessed it. That freshman 15 was closer to the freshman 50!!! I went to college and stopped all exercise, and boy did I like to eat. I would eat all day long. It was sort of a habit while I studied. The next four years of my life went in pretty much the same manner, stuffing my face with whatever I could get in it as I read my many books. I graduated undergrad in 2003 with my biology and chemistry degree. With that being said, my activity level was next to zero, I was overweight, and without a job. I moved from Chicago to Fort Myers Florida because my parents had retired there and I pretty much did nothing for my health. I was looking for a job, and kept coming up short. My friend's father was the local county sheriff and told me he could get me a job as a deputy, so I started exercising in order to pass my physical exam. I actually did a pretty good job on my own getting into shape, but my blood pressure was around 140/95, and actually kept me off of the police force.

Eventually I landed a teaching position as a high school science teacher. Well, I sank back into my collegiate bad habits and found myself drinking mountain dew all day long, eating terrible food while I graded papers at night, and you could forget about going to the gym. Additionally, I barely ever went to the beach because of how low my self image was. The one good thing I had going for myself was that I was tall. I could hide it really well with baggy cloths, but didn’t we all do that at one point.

One night I ran across the add for power 90 at the beginning of February 2004 so I ordered the video because I had really nothing left to loose. I did not take any pictures of myself because I had no desire to remember what I looked like. At that time, I was not concerned about visual progress, I just wanted to be healthy again, lower my blood pressure, shed some fat, and feel good again. I exercised for my 90 days and did pretty well. I wasn’t totally ripped or anything but I was down from 215lbs to around 190lbs. During this time, I had applied for graduate school and was accepted to one of The George Washington Universities duel masters degree programs. Before I knew it, I was living in Washington D.C., studying both public health and medicine, with barely any time to sleep, let alone exercise.

So... I did it again. I started eating bad, didn’t exercise, and fell down my slipper slope of increasing BMI. I continued these unhealthy habits until November 2007, when I started having medical complications with my kidneys. I was passing kidney stones left and right, dumping protein in my urine, having bilateral lower extremity edema, and feeling like crap. I am in medicine, so I knew what was going on. I went to the nephrologists (kidney doctor), and they told me I “might” be going into acute renal failure. My BUN and Creatinine (labs for the kidneys) were bad, by urine was bad, and they told me that I would need to go on some medication. Well, they put me on a high dose of Prednisone. I was 27 years old, out of shape, and on a really nasty drug. This drug makes you gain weight fast and I knew it. My weight quickly increased to 215, 220, and when I hit 225 I pulled out the good old power 90. The doctors told me what I always tell my patients, I needed to “exercise, loose weight, and control my high blood pressure”. Don’t we all sound like broken records.

Therefore, at the beginning of February 2008, I hit it HARD, really HARD. I did power 90 for around 40 days and already started to plateau. Therefore, In April I purchased P90X, the pull up bar, the bands, P90X+ (still not using them yet), the recovery drink, the protein bars, and protein powder. I already own the bow flex select tech weights from a few years back, so I dusted them off and away I went. In February, I started at 225 lbs and now I am 197 lbs. I went from 26% body fat to 18%, and my diet has been stellar. I just keep pushing play and "bringing it" since April.

In addition to all these health concerns, I still have yet one more reason to be motivated to get in shape. Since 2004, I have been dating a girl named Jackie. She is the most amazing and beautiful woman a man could ask for. We are engaged to be married on November 1, 2008 and I want to be ripped on my wedding day.

So the good news. All of my healthy eating and exercise has been paying off. I am no longer on Prednisone and my kidneys are functioning again as they should. The doctors attributed this to both the medications and my rapid weight loss and exercise from Power 90 and P90X. My blood pressure isn’t perfect, but it is much better than it was. For me, this can’t be just a fad that I go through. I have to be committed to it 100%, or I might end up with kidney failure and on dialysis. If I just happen to get ripped in the process, so be it. I can live with a beach body if I have to ☺. That’s the best side effect from a prescription if I ever heard one.

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