Thread: Where did your life change?

Unfortunately I'm neither a model (but I married a lady who sure could be ) nor competitor ... but I am a different breed. I've been boxing, running and involved in martial arts since I got out of highschool. In highschool I was playing basketball. My main goal in life was to never have a pot belly.

Recently, I haven't do so much sports - but have gravitated towards weights. I don't want to be big like most here ... I'm just interested in avoiding the pot belly, wear a belt because you have to syndrome.

I got into it after working at a high stress job and gaining lots of weight. I finally got sick of it, quit my job and started to work out five days a week while I was on unemployment. I'd always enjoyed being active, but hadn't had the time for several years.

I guess the turning point was when I took a good look at myself in the mirror and didn't like how I looked anymore. Lost 60 pounds and decided to make this my career. Went back to school and got a diploma along with my university degree and started reading everything to do with Fitness and Health I could get my hands on.

Now I'm a certified trainer, nutritionist, fitness instructor, spinning instructor and I've competed twice as a fitness model. Now I'm getting into multisport events...fitness and health are all about evolving, setting new goals and surpassing what you have done before.

Growing up, I was always scrawny and hated that. I always wanted to have more muscle but never did anything about it. When I was in college, I worked three jobs and was a full time student, paying my own way through school. One day, I graduated college and got my first "real" job. I had gotten very used to running around between classes and jobs while cramming studying in there as well. I was EXTREMELY busy. When I finished school, I suddenly had all kinds of free time and I got bored quickly. I decided to join a gym to keep myself busy. That was about seven years ago, and I have not stopped since.

Funny...finishing college not only got me started on a good career, it got me into the gym too.

WOW, thats amazing. Its truly amazing. Ive been to different boards and I hear all these people talk the talk and never carry through. Or people that are so obsessed and opinionated without any room for differences - which in my opinion is not truly KNOWING what they say they know.
This board from everything Ive read is remarkeable. Especially with the transformations and the day-to day REAL lives. This board is an amazing inspiration, that the minute I read one thing, I was dying to know how everyone got involved. You can really tell who is loyal and sincere and who is just here to be here.
Amazing. :o

For me, I was always an extremely competitive person and I wanted to be an athlete throughout my entire life, I never wanted to just be doing nothing. Basketball was always my first love and I was a baller, but unfortunately I wasn't blessed with the genetics for height so that didn't last much past high school. Then I went through a phase where I was doing alot of self destructing behavior, doing drugs and getting into trouble all the time, I just didn't give a fuck and saw no reason to not do these things. I was introduced to weight lifting by a friend whose father was a top notch power llifter, so my influence to the gym from day one was always much more extreme than most. I wasn't taught to go in and pussy foot around and not be productive. I was taught to bring the intensity from day one. I was rtaught the research was just as big a part of the game as the training was, and the fact that I was always around hardcore lifter pretty much made me hardcore. I started to string time together and as the months stacked up, the more hardcore I got about BB. Now BB means everything to me, it has truly shqaped who I have becoime as a person, it has taught me lessons that can be taken over into the real world too which is great. Dedication, hard work, short and long term goal setting, and the ability to take on honest look at yourself in the mirror.

My lifestyle change happened after I graduated from college. When I was in high school and college I played all kinds of sports. In high school, it was football, basketball, and baseball. In college I mostly played basketball and volleyball. I was always in shape from all the sports I played. Then I graduated and got an computer job sitting at a desk 8 hours a day. After a few years of just sitting and doing nothing but an occassional pick-up basketball game the weight was beginning to add up. During this time I was engaged and fixing to get married. One day I was getting ready for work and realized all my pants were to tight. (On another note about me, I'm extremely tight, don't like to spend money on needless things like clothes). I also took a real close look at myself and seen that I actually had a nice beer gut starting. So instead of going out and buying a new wardrobe I decided to lose weight. My determintation was to look the best I could for myself and my future wife on our wedding night and our honeymoon trip to Hawaii. I bought the Body For Life book and lost 35lbs and actually gained a little muscle. I then found this website and haven't looked back since. That was 3 years ago. Still learning and still loving it.

What inspired me was I did not want to look like ALBOB. j/k with ya big guy. lol

I have been dedicated and focused to bodybuilding (including weight training & my diet/nutrition) since I was around 16 years old.

One year (I think my 17th birthday) my mom said she was having a family party for me and I told her that I had to work-out and would not be home until around 7pm. She did not believe me, so I missed my party...she was VERY hurt and pissed off. Of course I look back on it now and feel bad, but that is how dedicated I was even as a teen.

Ash, sadly, my life has never changed. Ever since I found the computer, I became a whore.

Fat gutted 30yr old turns into muscular fat gutted 32yr old

From when I first browsed the site up until when I joined I have never been more inspired. i would love to hear more stories.

Summer of 2000......................several friends had mountain bikes. So I decided I wanted one. Of course I always want the best. I believe you get what you pay for. So after several months of studying and looking I went and purchashed a Cannondale Jekyll 700sx. After I made a few upgrades, I have about 3k in it. There is a place called Tsali in the NC mountains near Fontana lake at the foot of the Great Smokey Mountains. I decided to go up there one day for a ride around one of the 11/12 mile loops. That is when I found out how out of shape I was at 37 years old. I have always been active and enjoyed hiking/backpacking but needed to make some changes in my life. I was about 200lbs. So I decided I needed to loose some weight. Dropped 40 lbs in 6 months and had bf about 9%. Started lifting weights and wanted to get huge. So now about 3 years later I am back up to 192+, but with tons more muscle and lots less fat! Best thing I ever did and I know I won't quit! It certainly is a lifestyle now!

For me, my whole female side of my family is over weight, even my cousins who play every sport in the boiok and I was always kinda chunky as a kid. Not ever ft, but if I did not start on a healkthy lifestyle before I quit sports I would definitely join the ranks of the rest of my family. I played soccer, I swam, played softball and downill ski raced up through high school all competitively, and then when coillege came and working full time also, I rna out of motivation and time for competitive sports. But by the time I was 16 I had started going to a gym, for the sports then but after those two years in high school it had become habit to go. So I was going to the gym and going to college never really understood the diet aspect. Then I met a great friend who introduced me to the world of dieting and how to train and eat correctly. I had been doing ok for on my own, but ever since then i have never looked back. As of right now I am 6 weeks out from my first competition and more excited then I have ever been with this way of life. Good luck ashtyn

thanks shortstuff, my story is semi like yours though my immediate family isnt over weight, my cousins and aunts and uncles are, so i know whats in my genes! LOL im not a crazy hardbody like the rest of you but i have changed my life in making wiser food choices. i just know i can never deprive myself or else i will binge myself into the ground LOL

dg, 40 lbs in 6 months is unbeleivable, do you have any progress pics? im sure they will force me to put up mine LOL

I have always been in shape to a degree but I went a little overboard in my last relationship, as far as not sticking to my goals. I would eat a lot and as a result I weighed around 225 after weighing 200 when I met her. I then quit going to the gym because she wanted to spend more time with me. I would run but not work out. She left me for my "supposed best friend" and I lost my job in successive days, so I turned to dieting and working out once again to make me feel good about myself. I would say it's doing the trick. I weight 208 now and I am leaner than ever. God, I love this stuff!!!!

GO DJ!!!!!

There are several members with incredible weightlose stories here. Personally, I've never heard DGs story .. DG. DJ ... yours is just as impressive!!

Like I said, I've been lucky that I've never had to loose any large amount of weight. For those that have and continue, I do take my hat off to you as it's something to be extremely proud of!! It takes a certain type of person to put a plan together, make it work and have it continue to work!!

to everyone

Ashtyn, there is one here........http://www.ironmagazineforums.com/sh...ighlight=dg806 after I lost weight. I look so small in that pic compared to now. I don't have one of before. Have to see if I can find one.

a cop! an in uniform LOL, too much clothes LOL j/k of course everyone has such great stories and nt, your the breed im sure we all envy LOL and dj great story. woa ive almost converted LOL

Thanks guys, you make me feel amazing with your compliments.

I realize that I am happier when I am in the gym, eating right, running, etc. I love being athletic. I have played many sports in high school.....Baseball, Football, Basketball, Track....I went on to play baseball at Florida State for a year and then got out of baseball. I then began weight training and was hovering around 195-200lbs. for a while then I met my ex and my weight ballooned. I didnt look too bad, I was really big but I had a gut. Nowadays, buhbye gut!

you know when i was dating my then serious boyfriend we both gained weight. we became homebodiies and put on a few pounds. ever since we split up i can focus again except its really discouraging not being able to fit in clothes you used to wear before them LOL

Ashtyn, look on the second page.

oh. LOL very nice dg. looking like authority with great buns LOL

Originally posted by Ashtyn
you know when i was dating my then serious boyfriend we both gained weight. we became homebodiies and put on a few pounds. ever since we split up i can focus again except its really discouraging not being able to fit in clothes you used to wear before them LOL

Yeah I have found that I get lazy when I a serious partner. Not a good sign. I have been able to finally fit back into most of my clothes. I can't fit into the ones I really liked though......
Oh well......

LOL relationships ruin everything! j/k of course. its great when you do it together too. all these stories are really setting my mind to a different path, you should all be the real stories of the miracle workouts and diets. all those tv ad's have to say is come on IM LOL

Originally posted by Ashtyn
oh. LOL very nice dg. looking like authority with great buns LOL

oops, you wasn't suppose to see that!

I will be the next inspirational story on IM

i think i am starting to feel that way about myself too LOL