“A flatbread pizza, some boneless wings, followed by a western burger, please.”

Servers always seemed to do a double take when I used to give my Sunday afternoon orders, especially when I was the only one at the table.  After the burger came dessert. A triple chocolate brownie a la mode would usually suffice to end an otherwise perfect meal.  It all tasted so good, this is what life was about, and this is what I used to love about life.  I was always looking forward to my next meal, something sweet, something fattening, something that I looked forward to letting sit in my stomach as I sat and watched an entire day of football.  Unfortunately, this is also the belief which made me the 325 pound man looking back at me from the mirror.  

My weight and self respect have always been an uphill struggle for me. I have, unfortunately, always haphazardly gained weight, with a severe inability to lose it.  I was always attempting to dieting, without any permanent results.  When I was 14, I remember giving up all carbs and managing to lose a good amount of weight. Naturally, when I began eating those same carbs which I had cut, the weight came right back.  The first time I truly lost a significant amount of weight came the summer before my senior year.  I really wanted to date a girl, and naturally like many kids in high school, I thought my body was the only thing that was keeping me from doing so.  Naturally I went with what I knew and cut carbs out of my diet.  This, in addition to working out eventually cut sixty pounds from my body, and by the time the summer was over,  I asked the girl to homecoming. She said yes, and because of being nervous I worked out twice as hard eating next to nothing, and managed to lose another 12 pounds by the time the dance had come.  I stayed in the low 200s until my freshman year of college where, due to an illness, I was hospitalized and over a five week stay in a hospital I gained over 70 lbs.

No one can truly know how sad it is to come home from the hospital and see your friend’s faces.  Most of my college friends only knew me when I was skinny, not as a 300 pound individual.  I naturally became depressed from having to throw away all of my clothing and having to purchase XXL shirts to accompany size 40 jeans.  The depression grew and with it, my weight.  I would eventually fail my classes from freshman year, and move home where I would bartend for the next three years.  

Living the nightlife isn’t a healthy way to live.  Late night cravings, mixed with sleeping until two in the afternoon, with a tendency of frequenting fast food restaurants on the way to work. My life, like my bathing habits were set to lather, rise and repeat.  The life I lived was happy though, so my lack of health rarely affected my emotional well being.  I never wanted to change the way I looked because I felt that this was who I was.  It was when I had just turned 22, that a move would occur, and change who I would be forever.  

I woke up one day and realized that even though I was making a lot of money bar tending, this was not what I wanted to do for the rest of my life.  Since I had family in California, I decided to sell all of my possessions, move to California, and to return to school.  When people asked why I decided to leave home and come to California for school, my main answer was that if I I stayed home, I would constantly be distracted, and would most likely never make the solid commitment to return.  

When I first moved to California my weight was 325 pounds. I know this, because the family who I lived with also happened to be incredibly health conscious.  This is when the greatest change in my life happened.  Instead of searching for the nearest, and best tasting friend food establishments, I instead began searching for a more health conscious alternative. I also had to make the commitment to work out with them every morning.  My family forced me to make the changes in my life, and I dropped forty pounds in a matter of months of living in California.  

My weight was not an issue for me though, because I felt good, and I was moving faster then I ever had. I was living a healthy life, though I know now that I had hit a plateau.  The family which I was working out with eventually left the central valley, and this is when I realized my life truly had changed.  

I chose to keep living my life in the healthiest way I could.  I still ate fried food but I watched what I ate and I remained active.  At this time my weight was in the 280s and I was loving everything about my new body.  It was around this time I made huge changes in my life that have managed to propel me where I am now.  
Like many people I chose to make a greater commitment to my health on the arrival of the new year.  On January 2, 2011, I walked into Muscle Max Modesto, and told a sales clerk that I wanted supplements to take me to next level.  It was then, that I learned the most important lesson to losing weight. A person’s diet, and how strictly they follow it is the most direct way to see and feel a change in one’s body.  I left the shop with a glutamine supplement, a protein mix, and a five minute conversation about healthy dieting, I now felt comfortable in my journey.  

I gave up everything I knew about food, and just started eating protein and green vegetables.  In addition I cut all carbs, including sugars from my diet, realizing that both were non essential at this point.  My friend often ask, “When are you going to return to eating normal?”. My response to them is, “When are you?”

I hear all of these excuses from other people, “I don’t have time.”, “My life is too crazy.”, “ I am too busy.”.  I just want to tell anyone out there that anyone can do it.  I am a pretty busy guy, my day is non stop from 5 in the morning to 10 at night, and later if I have homework.  You have to want it.  The best words of advice is become addicted, eat sleep and dream a fit life.  

With this change in my diet, and my extensive work out regiment, I am happy to say I weigh 235 and I am looking forward to dropping that number considerably.  I have recently taken up boxing as an extra cardio workout.  I work out as a part of every day, and now my diet is strict, and very easy to follow.  The physical results can easily be seen in pictures taken from before and after my dynamic transformation.  I also look forward to seeing where these extensive measures will take me in the upcoming year.