Growing up I was always overweight, and it took me awhile to realize it. Every time I asked my mom why I was bigger than all the other kids she told me it was because I was growing faster than them. I was still at the age where getting a shiny Charizard Pokemon card was the largest pressing matter in my life so I believed her and waddled off into the kitchen to eat more dino nuggets. It was not until middle school when I learned that I was fat, or I guess a better way to put it is; in middles school all the other kids taught me I was fat. They reminded me often in the form of names, jokes, and occasionally asking me to eat obscure items. Even my doctor at the time, in what I guess he thought was an attempt to motivate me to lose weight, told me I was getting so fat I was going to die. Seriously. We got a new doctor after that. High school wasn’t much better; I started playing world of warcraft and upped my intake of Hot Pockets, and microwave burritos so my quality of life improved drastically.

Life wasn’t fun around that time. At my heaviest I was 310lbs. I woke up every morning sick and threw up, I had constant joint pain, and not to mention I hated looking at myself. Life really sucked. I tried to diet but everything I tried never worked. Every time I tried to exercise my joints hurt and I felt as if I couldn’t breathe. For a while, I felt trapped in a prison of my own body. Eventually, I had enough of living the way I was and the summer going into junior year I dropped 80lbs. The feeling of going back to school and having people think I was a new student is a feeling indescribable. I wasn’t sick when I woke up anymore, I could run and I could even keep up with my rugby team! Best of all I learned how to love myself, I felt like a new man. This feeling, and learning to love and accept your body is why I love being a personal trainer; I want everyone to be able to feel that way.

So here it is, the no BS way to change your lifestyle. This is not a step by step plan nor is this a magical pill that will melt weight off you. These are tips, very similar to what I did, that helped my change my life for the better, I hope you can find them useful.

Find Your "Why?"

This is probably one of the most difficult parts when starting on a path to a healthier lifestyle, determining what are you really trying to achieve. This task might seem trivial, but “losing weight” isn’t a viable answer to this question. Changing the way you live your day to day life isn’t fueled by the spur of the moment desire to lose weight; your reason why you want to work towards change should be the fuel that starts a fire inside you. Everyone wants to lose weight, everyone wants to be rich, everyone wants to do this that and the other thing, those are goals that have no backing behind them. Seriously, why are you doing this? Don’t waste your time with a half attempt, have a reason. Are you so overweight it is starting to impact your health, and you’re afraid you won't see your grandchildren grow up? When you look in the mirror do you hate the image looking back at you? Do you just want to feel better? Those are your why’s. I want to live a healthy life so I can see my grandchildren get married. I want to change the way I live so I can love myself and be happy. I want to eat a better diet so I don't feel sick on a day-to-day basis. Learning to love myself was my why. I realized after so many years that many people are going to come in and out of my life, and the only person who is going to stay for the entire ride is me, so I might as well learn to like who I am.

Slow And Gradual Change.

Diving head first into change is the reason you’ve failed before. Change can be scary, and too much change at one time can easily overwhelm you and cause you to panic and resort back to what is familiar. Whenever I talk to someone who quit a diet or workout plan it’s almost always because it became too much for them. Too much of a hassle, too much food they did not enjoy, the workouts were too intense, it was too difficult to find foods that fit into their plan. If living healthy becomes a chore, and you do not enjoy it, you are doing it wrong. Start off making small changes, if you eat a doughnut and have a coke for breakfast everyday start there. Change the doughnut to a bowl of oatmeal with natural honey and berries and the coke to water, tea, or coffee. This is called the substitution method, each week take an unhealthy habit and substitute it with a new healthy one. The key is moderation; the change should never be too drastic. For example, if you have a desk job do not throw your office chair away and buy a standing desk week two, take it slow. Instead, take frequent breaks and go for a walk around the office, or bring a water bottle and take walks to fill that up instead. Identify the unhealthy habits in your life and supplement new habits in their place, after awhile you will amass a new healthy routine without noticing it.

Find Your Support System.

Find a group of people who care about you and support what you are doing. These are the people who will help pick you up when you fall, and help you explore new ways of doing things. These are friends who bike for exercise and will let you tag along with them on some of their favorite trails to get you into the sport, the family members who cook with all natural ingredients and can teach you new ways of cooking, or the friend who just notices your progress and comments on it. Find these people and never let them go. Surround yourself with them as often as you can, and you will find it makes the change that much easier. I was lucky enough to have friends who could teach me how to lift weights in the gym, coaches and teammates who introduced me to the amazing sport of rugby and believed in me even when I was throwing up on the sidelines after running one lap, and my family members who helped me eat healthy at home.

Teach Yourself How To Eat.

Fast food is gross; if you don’t believe me next time you go buy a burger from a big chain really look at it. Compare it to the picture they use to advertise it, I guarantee it looks like a sad deflated version of itself. The internet is a wonderful place, fully loaded with a plethora of videos comparing how slow fast food decays versus regular food and horror stories of the nastiness contained in large fast food chain food. Learn to be disgusted by fast, greasy, and overall just poor quality food. Start buying fresh produce, quality meats, and most importantly stop buying soda. Cutting soda out of your diet is one of the easiest ways to improve your life. You will notice after eating this way for awhile the smell and taste of fast food will make you physically sick, this makes sticking to a clean diet easier and helps you integrate it into your daily life with less temptation.

Create Routine.

We are creatures of habit whether you realize it or not. Forming new habits can take time and effort before they are formed but once they are they can last a lifetime. Start waking up early and forcing yourself to go for a walk around the block every morning before you eat breakfast. Not only will this help wake your mind but it will also help you jumpstart your metabolism. Start making it a habit to carry a water bottle around, sure it'll seem like a hassle at first but after awhile you will start to feel like you are missing something without it when you randomly become thirsty and you left it at home.

Learn To Love Yourself And The Journey.

A common misconception about fitness is that there is a stopping point. That there is this imaginary level where people are fit enough and are done, they have the body they want so all they have to do is just keep it where it is. Ask anyone who works out every day about their body, whether it's a body builder, model, or an athlete all of them have some sort of gripe or area they think they can improve, or they see as a problem.

"I wish my abs were more defined."

"If I could drop four more pounds I would look way more cut."

"I need to start taking more horse hoof vitamins so my but cheeks will look bigger."

"Bro get this, I drank three protein shakes last night bro, and I can still only bench 350lbs bro, like dude these shakes aren't working. My pecs are so weak bro Josh can bench 400lbs, Its just not fair."

There isn't a finish line for fitness. Everyone is in the same gym you are, all chasing the same carrot on a stick dangling in front of them, not because they like carrots, but because they enjoy the chase. Find forms of exercise you enjoy doing and stick to it. Try yoga, CrossFit, weightlifting, mountain biking, running, and playing team sports and see what appeals to you. Do it even if you suck, everyone sucks at first, but if you love it who is someone to ever try and tell you not to do what you love. My first rugby practice I jogged the width of the field for warmups once and threw up the rest of practice, but I stuck with it because I loved my team, my coaches, and the sport. Now I am so humbled to play and start on AIC's amazing D1AA program. Find what you love and keep doing it and you find that loving other things come easier, even yourself.