Brock's Transformation

This is my friend Brock. I met Brock less than a year ago after he had already lost quite a bit of weight. He has become a very good friend and I have a lot of respect and pride for him. I really admire his dedication and sincere willingness to help anyone. The following story was written by Brock and posted on his Facebook page. I asked him if he'd allow me to share his story with you, and of course he said yes. Thank you Brock!

I'm not overly sure how to begin this, as just about everyone on my friend's list knows I've gone through a rather large transformation over the last year and a half. Those that I converse with about the subject at any length know that I don't really like to talk about the weight loss part of it. There is a lot of shame in letting myself go as I did, and for as long as I did. It's taken quite a lot of convincing from certain friends in order for me to do this post. Those same people know I also LOVE to talk about the fitness part of it, and will, often to the point of boring them to tears to anyone who will listen. I am not a dietitian, nor am I personal trainer, but I do have extensive personal experience that could be quite useful.

OK, now that we have that out of the way. Yes, I do look quite different, I lost around 130 lbs in about a years time. I didn't follow any set dietary or work out plan. I did it with some great advice from my brother and encouragement from family and friends. I also had a lot of people tell me I couldn't do it. That was important. It made me wonder what they were seeing in me that I wasn't. Why did they think I was destined to fail? What had I done to lower their opinion of me so much?

Dietary intake

What I did...
I almost entirely stopped eating prepackaged processed foods. I stopped eating out (except for special occasions). I kept track of what I did eat. In the beginning I counted my calories and stayed around 1200 until Cory told me that it was just stupid for someone of my size and activity level to run such a large caloric deficit. After that, I started eating 5ish small meals a day tallying between 1800-2000 calories.

What I didn't do...
I didn't look back. I didn't feel bad if I had a bad food day. If I overate, I let it be done there. I knew tomorrow was another day, and as long as I had way more good days than bad days I was still on the right track. I didn't start up on the newest fad diet or program. Yes, they do work, but I personally don't believe they are sustainable. People always ask me "Is there anything you aren't allowed to eat?" When you decide your own dietary intake, you can always say no to that. In moderation enjoy yourself and live your life.

Fitness plan

What I did...
I set a goal. Immediately. I was going to run a 5k, I let people know of this goal. I started slow, I realized that I was grossly out of shape and to get back into shape was going to be a very long and painful process. I started out "running" until I was tired, and then walked. For people who have been to my house, it was on my driveway. It took me about 3 weeks before I could run the driveway one way (.4 mile). I let myself be open to new realistic goals. Before the 5k, for no real good reason, I just decided to see if I could run 10 miles (at a very slow pace). When I found out that I could I decided to sign up for a half marathon. After the half it became quite apparent that in addition to losing a lot of weight I was also losing a lot of strength. So I started to augment my running with a heavy bag work out (more cardio), push-ups, pull-ups, sit-ups, body weight jumping squats, etc. I still need to do more in this area.

What I didn't do...
I didn't compare myself to others. At this point, fitness was entirely a battle against myself. I didn't set unreal goals. I didn't set goals based on aesthetics. I didn't use programs like P90X, Insanity, Zumba, etc. That doesn't mean these programs won't work I just personally wasn't interested in any of them.

This is kind of disjointed and rambling, but I didn't intend for it to be polished and professional. I encourage anyone who wants to make a change, but maybe not sure how, to please send me a message. I will answer any question you want to know. If you want to make a change you can. You do not need a complex medical procedure that could potentially kill you. If you are willing to be consistent a little each day you really can change your life.