We’ve been getting a lot of great comments and support from our viewers lately. I can’t express to you guys enough how much we love hearing from everyone. It awesome when we get viewers contacting us about their great stories.
The Transformation
Meet Keigan, a man behind a kick-ass success story that needs to be shared with the world. Keigan e-mailed us about the epic transformation he put himself through over the past year. Keigan told us ever since he could remember he had always been that chubby kid who carried his weight well, never really got the girl, was never the All-Star athlete, and hid his personal shame behind a fake smile. Little did he know that he would be able to push himself to success and become so involved in fitness and nutrition.
These stories are what keep us motivated to push you to success. So, we sat down with Keigan to find out what kept him going. If you have a story to tell, we would love to help you tell it.
When did you decide to take control of your weight problem?
Spring of 2011. I decided not to go back to college for my second semester because I really had no vision or direction of where I wanted to go. Secretly I was broken inside fighting my own feelings of always being tired, no motivation, and no discipline for anything (let alone a healthy lifestyle). I would eat to find comfort and happiness and follow this with my only love, video games. Needless to say this lead me deeper and deeper into a spiral headed nowhere but lower than where I was before. Thankfully something clicked inside and I decided that I was going to join the military and become some hero all while making something of myself. I started to research what I needed to do to be a military member and found out that I was overweight around 40lbs. I set this as a goal and on May 1, 2011 I began the journey.
So passing the fit test for the Military was your goal? It looks like it worked.
It did! I just started at the basics of what I knew- Eat veggies, restrict calories, cardio is good, limit carbohydrates. I started seeing results relatively fast and thought how cool it was that I was actually doing this. In just around two and a half to three months I reached my goal of 40lbs of weightloss. I couldn’t believe it! I started working out harder yet, pushing to become the most fit I could for that day I left for bootcamp.
Awesome! You accomplished your goal. Then what?
I was medically disqualified by the military that prevented me from joining. I was devastated. How could I come so far….do everything right….become so fit and then only be told I was unable to be accepted due to a surgery I had undergone at only 4 years old? I sat in my room just silent for about an hour doing nothing and thinking about all the food I should just start eating again to comfort myself. It was just not fair. I took one good look in the mirror and convinced myself I needed to prove the military wrong and become everything they wanted in a recruit. I did what I had found as a new means of comfort; I laced up my shoes and ran.
Wow Keigan, I’m proud of you for pushing through it. How did things change after that?
Once I knew I was doing this for myself I started to gain all the knowledge I possibly could on nutrition, supplementation, and fitness. I would literally spend hours upon hours just Googling nutrition facts on certain foods, finding out the benefits of certain vitamins and minerals, and seeing where I could improve on my diet to make me reach and exceed my goals I set for myself. This has lead me to be the fitness and health freak I am today. Now I can tell you just about anything you could want to know about nutrition from how you can break down proteins into carbs through glycogenesis or how arginine can be beneficial for nutrient shuttling, as a pre-workout supplement, and even for males with sexual health problems or what a mono-unsaturated fat is and what foods they are found in.
“Knowledge is power.” is that your secret?
I can honestly say that it is. I have lost around 90-95 lbs (going from about 285 lbs or more down to 195 at my lowest) while adding on a decent amount of strength and muscle. I wish I honestly knew the exact percentage and amounts of fat I have lost and muscle I have gained but I would never, in my wildest dreams, guessed where I would be today so I never thought to record measurements and body fat percentages.
Anything you want to suggest to others?
I urge anyone reading this to seriously start on a healthy lifestyle. I used to be the laziest person you could imagine but now I literally get anxious to hit the gym. Set goals and don’t let anyone let you believe you cannot reach them. YOUR hard work and dedication are the only way that you will get your desired results and the results you get are more worth the hard work than you can ever imagine.