If you’re a regular follower of teamRIPPED.com, you know Don J. I’ve featured his amazing before/after pics when he won the Beachbody Challenge this past fall. And he was a very deserving winner, as you’ll see when you check out this awesome video he put together!
Like me, Don knew how to get his money’s worth at a buffet LOL! But it all changed when he got tired of seeing his gut in family pictures and he knew he could make a change. Enter P90X and he’s never been the same!
Thanks for being part of our team Don, and for inspiring so many others with your own journey. Check out this video and read Don’s story below:
Don’s Story =
My name is Don Jones and in December 2013 turned 45 years old. I just celebrated 20 years of marriage to my beautiful wife Julie, and we have three teenagers (19, 17, and 15). I am a follower of Christ, and committed to my family. I can honestly say I’m in the best shape of my life even though I’m in my mid 40’s. P90X, P90X+ along with Shakeology are what I used to achieve the results you see in this photo. I have since done a round of BodyBeast and started X3. I have had such a huge transformation over the past year I still look back and can’t believe it. I’ve enjoyed the process so much that I found myself helping others in getting in shape themselves, so I recently became a Beachbody coach. I don’t claim to be an expert, but I have become passionate about health and fitness and treating my body as God intended, as a temple of the Holy Spirit.
Rewind the tape just one year ago. I was sedentary, depressed, and had no self-control. I had lost all self-respect for my body and it showed. I had very little energy to do anything. Once an athlete in high school and college, I now had become a prisoner in my own skin. It was as if I was in bondage to food. I felt terrible about my self-image but couldn’t stop eating, and my self-confidence was at an all time low. I wore big baggie clothes to hide myself, and it had gotten so bad that I wouldn’t even shave in front of the mirror without a shirt on. It was starting to affect my relationships with friends and family.
From time to time I get asked the question, what was it that caused you to change? Three things really haunt me to this day. 1) My daughter asked me to take her to the pool all last summer and each and every time I came up with an excuse. I never once took her. I was too ashamed to even be seen at the pool with a shirt on, much less being pressured by my daughter to take my shirt off to get in the pool and play with her. 2) At the end of last summer, our family was on a trip for my middle son’s travel baseball team. I had to wear athletic shorts the entire trip, and the one pair of Khaki shorts that I could wear, I had to unbutton them and keep my shirts untucked. 3) After eating more than a dozen homemade chocolate chip cookies, my wife looked me straight in the eyes with a very disappointed look and asked me if I had just given up. Besides the above events, I also had friends and family making comments about my eating being out of control and how they were worried about me. The first three items emotionally broke me, and the other comments from friends and family just made me angry; but everything combined got my attention. I deeply wanted to change but needed help.
I started out with small changes like trying not to drink cokes or eat desserts. I had challenges with family members on who would drink a coke first. I went three weeks without a coke or dessert. I was so big and out of shape I just walked for three months trying to eat better. As I lost weight, I started lifting weights at my church combined with walking. As I began to get stronger and in better shape I ordered P90X, a chin-up bar, and power-stands. P90X was hard, but I just kept pushing play. Things were going great until I severely hurt my neck doing pull-ups. Ten days without doing anything. I thought I had damaged my neck for good. Months and months of therapy with a chiropractor being told to not do them to let my neck heal and that I probably should forget about doing them again. I would go what seemed forever without doing them only to try again to experience more pain. This went on for a long time before I saw an Orthopedic spine and back surgeon that wanted me to see a physical therapist. Even the Orthopedic doc said pull-ups just might not be in the cards for me. What was different this time was that my physical therapist wanted me to do some neck exercises and then he quickly wanted me doing pull-ups. I was cautiously optimistic but within just a month or so he had me doing pull-ups pain free. I can now do 20+ a rep and 150 in the legs/back workout. What’s crazy is that I could only do one when I started.
Besides physical appearance changes and increased strength, my health in general has improved drastically. I was holding on to size 38″ pants when I really needed to be wearing 40″ and now I’m in 30-32″. I have lost as much as 55lbs but have gained a little back as I have gained muscle. My cholesterol levels have improved drastically. My total went from 190 to 153, my LDL from 130 to 83, my HDL from 36 to 56 and triglycerides from 118 to 48. I have come off several meds and snore much less (according to my wife). My body fat when I started was near 40%, and I was down to 16% months ago when tested in a BodPod. It’s much lower now. My flexibility has increased and again, I’m doing things now at 45 I couldn’t dream of doing when I was 18 and an athlete. I still get frustrated at times when I see others that I believe look better, but I have to remind myself of how far I have come in such a short time. Now that my neck is 100%, I will be able to push myself even harder. I think the thing I struggle with the most is being content with where God has me at the moment. I may or may not ever obtain sub 10% body fat, but I’m giving it all I have. I will just have to keep looking back at where I started to see just how far I have come and how my body has changed for the better.
I would like to thank my family for their patience as I have transitioned to a fitter lifestyle. I couldn’t have done this without my wife helping with all the healthier food choices in the house and preparing meals helping me hit my macros correctly. I also would like to thank my coach, Wayne Wyatt, for all his support and guidance. He has been a true blessing to me, and I have learned so much through his knowledge. I hope I can become as resourceful to others as he has been to me.
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
