Ok everyone, now that you have heard from A I guess it's time to hear the man's side of the story. When Audra and I meet I was a very active and competitive person. I was into every sport imaginable when I was younger and my body paid the price for it. In my sophomore football season (before Audra and I met) I blew out my knee. Now remember I am a very competitive person, so I wasn't going to let this injury keep me from sports. The doctor I saw was very conservative and didn't want to cut on my still growing knee. So, I was sentenced to rehab until my knee proved to be strong enough to play sports again (or so we thought). I missed the winter season of sports that year due to rehab, but come spring time I was ready to go. I joined the track team and started training to pole vault. About a week or two into the season I vaulted and landed wrong…as I am sure you can guess my knee was gone again. Back to the doctor I went, this time he decided that he had no choice but to surgically repair my ACL. After this surgery, more rehab, this time the sentence was much longer and put me out of sports completely….until my senior year. As soon as I was cleared to go and truly felt strong enough to compete again, I decided that I was going to wrestle again as I had my freshman year. Once again I trained hard and got ready to be the best 140 pound wrestler in the state. I was well on my way until (yes it happened again!!!) I got my knee bent the wrong way and POP I was out again. I was absolutely devastated I knew that this was the end of my high school sports career. I went to a new doctor who was more aggressive and had my ACL replaced with a section of the ligament that holds the knee cap in place. More rehab and I felt that my knee was stronger than ever but it was too late high school was over.
Audra and I met in the spring of our junior year and she was with me for the final downfall of my high school sports career. For the next several years we did all the things that young people in love do, and the majority of that included in taking lots and lots of good fatty food. During this time, Audra also encountered one of the hardest things a person ever has to deal with, but I'll let her fill you in on that. The point is, that all the food we had been eating started to take its toll and the weight started to pile on. I had given up on being able to play sports and my activity level plummeted. I gained the freshman 15 and then some (Dang all you can eat college meal plans), but I was happy with myself or so I thought. We finished college and began to search for careers, luckily it didn't take me long to find out what I was meant to do with my life. This was to become a firefighter, just like my dad who has been in the fire service for 30 plus years. When you think of a firefighter I am sure you think of the models in turnout gear with no shirts…. this is not the case for most. The fire service requires a certain level of physical fitness to do the job, but many firefighters slide by with being able to do the minimum and I was no exception. Another thing you may or may not know about the fire service is that we cook ALOT, and the department where I started cooked really good food. We would also usually cook enough to feed the entire US Army (LOL). If you have ever watched a typical fire dept. meal prepared you would know that there is a lot of butter and oil and frying that is used to make this delicious food. When I first went on shift my co-workers told me that I would pack on weight fast if not careful. Well, I was not careful. When I graduated high school I weighted 155 pounds and during all of this time I got up to 200 pounds. People started making comments about how I had gotten "big"(this meant fat) but I thought I looked pretty good. I thought I had lots of muscle under a little pudge and that's why I was big, boy was I wrong.
I slowly began to realize that I was fat, lazy, and really unhappy with the way my body looked…..something had to change. One night I was watching TV and saw an infomercial about p90x and I thought "I could do that stuff easy and it would probably help me trim down some", so I ordered it and got started. I started strong and began to see results fast, but I was just not committed and soon stopped the program. Remember, I am a very competitive person, and I had just failed, this ate at me bad and I knew I had to redeem myself, so when A told me one day that she wanted to start the program and she wanted me to do it with her, I jumped at the chance. This time was different and I committed 100%, both to the workout and the diet. I never cheated on the diet and would not let myself go even one calorie over my set limit. The results came and they came fast, I dropped all the way back down to 145 pounds and 5% body fat. At the end of my first 90 day cycle I had a guy at work tell me that I needed to do a bodybuilding competition (did I mention that I am VERY competitive). I decided that I would do it and continued on my hardcore diet for a while longer. I placed 3rd in the Novice lightweight class and 4th in the open lightweight class. I was proud of myself and the work that I had done and I finally allowed myself to eat some good fatty food for two days after my show. I then went back on a very strict diet until our scheduled beach trip that year (I had to look good on the beach, right). While I was at the beach I gorged myself with as much food as I could and it was so good, but I felt very guilty as soon as the trip was over. This caused me to go extreme again for a while and I was barely eating enough to live normally. You see p90x is an extreme program designed to give extreme results and it works, but it is not designed to stay extreme for a long period of time. At this time I had been eating a very low calorie diet for about 7 months. My body hated me for it, but I couldn't stop because I was scared I would get fat again. I decided to switch programs and try a program designed to build muscle (Body Beast), the problem was that I was still on a very low calorie diet. I stayed very committed to this diet even though my body was telling me it was time to stop. So my current program is a weight lifting program that I hope I gain strength and lean size from. I realize that I need to eat to grow both strength and lean size. I am trying to up the calories slowly and keep the fat down. My calorie range is finally back to a reasonably, healthy level though, its still a little low (but I am working on it), and my weight is up to 147 on a good day with most still being in the 145 range. I am also trying to stay off the scale because at the first sign of weight gain I tend to think I am getting fat (stupid I know).
Wow, this post it getting really long…lol… I guess I better wrap it up. Audra decided in February of this year that she wanted to get serious about changing her body. I knew that I didn't want her to make the mistakes that I had made with and extreme diet long term (not to mention I still struggle with eating enough calories to maintain a healthy body composition), so we decided to design our lifestyle like A laid out for you in her first post. We feel that we are finally reaching a balanced lifestyle that still allows us to pursue our own fitness goals. I am also at a new fire dept. now and we are more focused on fitness and cooking good healthy food (for the most part). So, I ask you to stay tuned for some great healthy meals (some cooked, some bought), great fitness tips and stories, travel stories and of course……. CHEAT DAYS!!!!
J
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