When I started my journey of losing weight in 2014 I would have never thought that it would have completely changed my life forever. I was an overweight freshman at 5’11 and 248 pounds. All of my high school career was involved with drugs, drinking, partying, and not being active. I was the captain of my golf team my freshman to senior year before I got kicked off the team. I continued my ways all the way through summer and into my freshman year of college. My weeks consisted of drinking every night and hangover meals at Taco Johns. I was a lost soul and headed down the wrong path. School and everything that was actually important to me took a back seat to partying and having fun. I even ended up getting a minor on campus that first semester. Ouch!

That winter break my best friend died. He was working on his truck when it fell off of the lift and crushed him underneath. The day of the funeral was one of the lowest points in my entire life. It really opened my eyes to how I was living my life and the path I was going down. That night I looked at myself in the mirror and finally saw that something needed to change.  I started running and began researching nutrition. First it was just something that relieved the stress and kept my mind off of the pain. One month later I started seeing the positive changes in my body and my mood from being active and eating right again. I no longer felt uncomfortable to play basketball with friends or take my shirt off at the pool. Four months later I went from 248 down to 170. I lost a lot of fat but also a lot of muscle with it. Running for an hour on end and not eating was not the smartest way to do it. I went from big and fat to skinny fat and looking very sickly.

Fast forward to now, I am involved in Crossfit competitions, Olympic Weightlifting and have the nutrition plan to match now sitting around 195 pounds. I no longer drink and truly have a new outlook on life. I train kids on the team daily and have gotten people to look at nutrition and working out in a whole new light. Over the summer I worked in Rhode Island at a Crossfit gym helping the introduction classes with learning the new movements. My message is that no matter where you start you can get to where you want to be with hard work and dedication. The road to becoming a better person is not an easy one but one that is well worth the struggle. Never Give Up!!