I’ve had many ups and downs in my life regarding my weight and overall health. I was always a pretty fit and active kid growing up with the vision of being as strong and big as the hulk (the original hulk). However, right before the beginning of my 8th grade year of school, I was diagnosed with a bone growth disease within my knees called Osgood Slaughter. Long story short, I was in a lot of pain and very weak that year. My Sophomore year of HS my parents signed me up for some personal training with a company called “The Upper Limit”. There I received one on one personal fitness training that basically changed my life. By the end of my Sophomore year I was much bigger and definitely stronger. By my Junior year I was big, strong and fast and finally able to put any negative aspects of my Osgood Slaughter Days behind me. Ever since then, I have been acutely aware of how effective and beneficial a properly organized exercise and nutrition program can be in a persons life not only physically but mentally, emotionally and even spiritually.  

Almost a year after high school graduation, I went on a 2 year mission for Jesus and got really good at preaching His gospel and doing push ups but had lost some of my muscle mass by the time I returned home because of a lack of actual weight lifting. After my mission, I begin power lifting again and was up to 225 pounds within a few months. About a year and half later I married and moved to Branson MO. and kept lifting but not eating optimally. For the next few years I continued lifting faithfully and was slowly growing bigger and stronger just as I always wanted. During this time I also managed a General Nutrition Center’s store where I learned more about nutrition, nutritional supplements, and earned my Personal Training and Sports Nutrition Specialist certificates from the International Professionals Association (IFPA) and have since trained 100’s of clients for the last 20+ years. At 25 years of age I got up to about 260 lbs. and hit a few power lifting PRs. I benched press 405 lbs. and squatted 500 lbs. that year. However, after bench pressing 405 for the first time, I decided to go for a 2nd rep and tore the labrum of my left shoulder. Soon after, I started to gain some excess body fat and lose muscle mass. I tried everything to fix it without surgery but with little or no success. I built some strength back up but was limited in what I could do. 7 years after the accident, I finally had surgery, but my shoulder continued to ache when I lifted and seemed to take too long to heal. I became impatient with the recovery process and the unwanted weight gain so I switched over to endurance sports and kind of kept my overall calories within a certain range. I got down to 213 pounds and felt pretty good. But I didn’t look that healthy and friends even wondered if I was sick or something because of how much muscle I lost, specifically my upper body muscle.   

I began doing some light weight strength training again and built my body weight back up to about 240-250 pounds but most of that weight gain was excess body fat not muscle mas. The Adventure Racing and Triathlons helped to distract me from the power lifting I loved but I still felt humiliated for having lost all that muscle and strength I once had. As I kept training and competing, some of my excess fat began to melt off but much of my hard earned muscle mass was not coming back even though I was swimming quite a bit and doing some weight strength training again. By 2012 my body weight had dropped down to 230 pounds. That was my best racing year but I still wanted my 25 year old hard earned muscle mass, strength and abs back.  

In 2013 I stopped competing in those endurance sports and starting lifting again. I took my time to protect my shoulder and still swam, biked and ran often, but just for short cardio sessions and not to compete. Fast forward five years to spring of 2017, some of my former strength was back which was making very happy but I had also put on more body fat than ever before. I wasn’t too worried about it because my strength was returning and I enjoyed the feeling of lifting some of that heavy weight again even though I still wasn’t up to my PR levels. Unfortunately, there started to appear little signs that maybe this excess body fat was actually worse than I thought. My right big toe went numb for a few months, I wasn’t sleeping very well and my regular clothing wasn’t fitting anymore. But what really caught my attention was a picture of myself that my wife took on a cruise vacation that spring as I was waiting in line to use the Flo Rider. I was about 280 pounds in that picture and could not believe my eyes. That could not really be what I look like, could it? I did not even recognize myself. Furthermore, how could I, a trainer, fitness center manger and recently graduated health coach look like that and try to help others lose their weight and live healthier???!!! I had to do something and I had to do it right away.

So, I began applying the knowledge currently accepted as “truth” in our society and that I had been taught in school and as a Personal trainer and Sports Nutrition Specialist to lose that excess weight. I basically started balancing my calories in with my calories out and following the Myplate food guidelines and working out harder and longer. I was working out about 6 days a week 2 times a day on 3 of those days. Within the first month I lost 10-15 pounds but that weight loss soon plateaued. As I continued pushing forward, I began feeling extremely tired and run down. About 3 months in, fearing another injury due to the intense training regime including the “2-a-day” workouts I was following, I began searching for an easier, healthier and more sustainable program to lose my excess weight (specifically body fat) and keep it off forever. I found that program or a version of it, during my studies as a health coach with IIN and PHCI. Yes, there are general guidelines that apply to everyone but during my education as a health coach I learned that those general guidelines I was originally taught and that are still promoted by many in our society were in fact making me and many others fat and unhealthy. But most importantly, I learned better general guidelines based on ancestral principles supported by thousands of years of our existence. I also learned that these new healthy ancestral based general guidelines still must but adapted and dialed in specifically for me and my needs and that each individual would need to do the same and that those adjustments will most likely need to be tweaked regularly in the weeks, months and years to come as the individuals needs changed based on their own personals health history and goals. Even though we are very similar as a species, everyone is still different enough that what works well for one person might not work for someone at all and that it might actually harm them.  

Following these new general guidelines I lost an additional 55 pounds and have kept it off while simultaneously re-building my muscle mass and strength (DEXA*verified). These methods have gained some traction in the mainstream medical community but are still not widely recognized nor accepted. The science, research and anecdotal evidence and experiences of thousands continue to prove these ancestral principles and one day they will be accepted by most.  

As your health coach I will help you understand these ancestral health general guidelines and how to dial them in for you specifically! You can do this! You can live lean, strong and happy!

*DEXA (Dual Energy X-ray Absorptiometry) is the industry gold standard in body composition analysis.