Kyle has an inspirational story. He categorizes his old habits as being good at starting something but terrible at following through. It led him to a point in his health and fitness that he desperately wanted to change. It all happened while plugging into one of my Challenge Groups, learning from the wealth of information here on teamRIPPED.com, and a refusal to let mediocrity define his life anymore, Kyle has made a radical transformation using P90X. Congrats my man! Check out this progress update he sent me last week. Then, read his story. Do you relate? Can you identify what it will take to finally get in gear and make the change you want?
Kyle Before =
Kyle After =
Wow! Now that’s a RADICAL CHANGE!! Congrats my man!
Kyle’s Story =
Hello all, my name is Kyle and this is my story.
There I was in typical fashion, standing at the water cooler to catch my breath after my morning climb up 4 flights of stairs. It became a morning ritual because I simply could not face the possibility of running into someone and not having enough breath to speak to them. It was at that point I had to reflect on how I had gotten where I was and what I was going to do about it. I had just graduated after years of going to school on and off, part time and full time. I landed a good job right out of school and my wife and I had recently purchased a new home. We even began talking about starting a family. At that point I realized that I had to do something because all of the work and all of the sacrifice would be for nothing if I wasn’t healthy enough to enjoy it all. What brought me to this point?
For most of my life I was the type of person that jumped head on into anything interesting and gave it everything I had. My problem was that most times I never had a plan and eventually gave in when things became difficult. I remember always being teased about my guitar playing because I was the guy that could only play the first 4 bars of all your favorite songs. As my interests moved from one area to the other my friends would always tell me that if I ever set my mind to one thing I would be great at it, but at the time I could never settle. One interest I decided to pursue amongst all the others was competitive long drive. During my high school years and into my early twenties I was considered one of the longer golfers in most of my groups so I decided to give it a try, but I knew I needed to get into shape. Several months before that I began a diet because I had reached my heaviest at 266 pounds and I managed to make it down to 226, but I had only changed my diet and there was no physical activity involved. I knew to compete I would need something that combined weight training and core work so I turned to P90X and again I went head first without a real plan. Sure it had a nutrition guide and I figured skimming through it would be enough, but I was wrong. I eventually competed in my first event and shortly after I had planned to return to P90X, but me and my wife were involved in an auto accident. We were not seriously injured, but my injuries kept me from working out for several months and those months eventually turned into never again.
This pattern continued to dominate my life and it was not isolated to my hobbies either. After returning to college at 25 I would attend for a semester or two and then begin to question my motives and quit for a year or more at a time. It was a vicious cycle and the entire time I ate horribly and drank alcohol way too often. School was about 45 minutes away and at times I would go to morning classes, go home, and then return in the evening. This meant I had to fend for myself most of the time and that included fast food or a vending machine for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner. Needless to say it piled up and so did the weight. At my heaviest I reached 278 pounds and the way I felt about myself was dismal. I really felt I had reached rock bottom, but one day decided I really needed to do something. I began by simply cleaning up my eating which allowed me to drop to around 250 and then I scheduled a visit with an academic advisor. I decided that if I did not finish my current semester with my current degree path, I would switch to another degree I had been considering. Eventually I did change paths and at the urging of my wife, quit work to complete it in the shortest time possible. The new program proved to be something I thoroughly enjoyed and my grades and attitude reflected it, but my body did’t. I graduated with high honors and a high BMI.
Shortly after graduation I was hired as an entry level software developer and my wife and I were on our way to our dreams. The problem with my new job however was that while school kept me pretty much on the go, I would now be doing work at a desk for 8 hours a day and I had not changed my eating habits at all. About 6 months later I found myself back at 266 pounds and catching my breath at the water cooler.
In the months leading up to that moment I had considered trying P90X again, buying supplements, and making better choices at the grocery store, but I always fell back on how I didn’t have the money and all those things were so expensive. I did that until that moment at the cooler when I realized that it wasn’t just about me anymore. Sure I needed to do it for my own health, but I also had a wife that loved me and depended on me to help pay the bills, and one day we wanted to have a child that would need their father. I now had a reason and for once in my life I decided to learn from all my past mistakes and go into P90X this time with a plan. I began by eliminating my excuses, the first of which was the cost. I looked back at my bank account for the past 6 months and realized that I had been averaging 140 to 170 dollars a month on junk food and the like. I turned that into supplements and my wife began setting aside money for the increased cost of healthier foods at the grocery store. That also became easier because the money we spent going out could now be used for groceries. We also decided to cook for four so that we always had leftovers for lunch the next day which made nutrition tracking much simpler. As far as the workouts were concerned a friend was willing to let me use his copies even though he had lost his nutrition plan, but that turned out to be a blessing in disguise. While combing the web I came across www.teamripped.com and found a gold mine of information and resources. It was also at this time that I made Coach Wayne my coach.
I now had a plan and a roadmap and on my way I went. I even found a group of old high school friends that had started an accountability group on Facebook which turned out to be an awesome asset as well. At the end of my first round I lost 24 pounds and was feeling great. People were noticing and complimenting me which gave me the desire to continue onward. Due to various reasons our group lost momentum and I have to say at the time I did as well. I began missing workouts and my nutrition began to slide, but I still pushed forward and managed to lose another 42 pounds over the next two rounds. It was at this time that I had to really evaluate myself and why my results had slowed. The most obvious was skipping my workouts and letting my nutrition slide, but I also realized that I hadn’t been part of an accountability group since round one so I joined the 2013 Team Ripped Challenge.
Since that time I have lost another 10 pounds and my motivation has never been higher. In the beginning I always wondered if I would make it and if I would be successful, but now I know better. I know that if I make a plan, set a goal, and push forward it is simply a matter of not if, but when. I’ve also become a Beachbody coach because this transformation has given me something special and keeping the knowledge I’ve gained from Coach Wayne, Team Ripped, and this experience from others would be completely selfish. I want others to feel how I feel and realize that you can live the life you want if you are willing to simply set a goal, make the sacrifices, and forge ahead. My wife made so many sacrifices while I was in school and has been so instrumental in my current transformation I was glad that I could pass that knowledge on to her along with my mother and several friends at work. In the end I would love to help people change their lives for a living just as so many have helped me change mine.
Just a special thank you to my wife Amanda, Coach Wayne, Team Ripped, GettingStrongishNow, Beachbody, and everyone that has pushed me and supported me this entire time. Also to my wife and the friends that saw what I didn’t see, that if I concentrated on something with all I had I could do great things. It all started at a water cooler because I couldn’t make the climb, but now I see that there is no mountain I can’t climb.
Need a coach?
My email: coachwayne@teamripped.com
IG: @wayne_wyatt
