Myself, Experience, Credentials

My name is Kenny. A little over two years ago I decided to make a change in my life, because I was depressed and unhappy. I did not know at that time that the changes in my life would lead to where I am now, and my desire to continue the path and goal to grow stronger, bother mentally and physically. I had two major problems. One, I hated myself because of where I was economically, and mentally. The second is I hated myself because I was over 400 pounds (6'6", 427 pounds). I remember when realizing how big I had gotten when I was at the doctor's office and they had to weigh me. I had avoided scales, most mirrors, and wore clothes that were excessively large and baggy, to easier hide the fact that I was big, bigger than I had ever wanted to be. In fact I had made myself a promise that if I was ever as big as I got that, I didn't want to live. I wasn't suicidal, but it made me more depressed.

I waged mental war with myself (I actually made a written promise to myself on January 1st to change things, to make myself better), for several months I struggled to make myself feel better, but I couldn't. I didn't know why then, but I do now. In April, I decided to lose weight. I quit drinking soda, and for my first step, it was the biggest for me to overcome. I was drinking soda, by the liter daily, excessively, and slowly killing myself. Then I started browsing the internet, finding information, on dieting. I was a beginner, but my mom had struggled with every diet, that can be imagined under the sun. Cabbage diet, lemonade diet, low fat diet, calorie counting, if it existed she tried it. So everything I read I was dubious about, and very skeptical. I latched onto the idea that I needed to stop eating sugar, and that was what caused my weight gain. I found the Keto diet, and it fit, and almost instantly I felt that this was the thing that would work for me. It wasn't late until I found out about the Paleo diet. I did come to learn a lot in the last two years, but it has become important to me... Keto to lose, Paleo to maintain.

I ate, no bread, almost no fruit (avocados, and a very rare berry occasionally), cut starches, rice, cereals and sugars. I started losing weight, faster in the beginning, and it slowed down eventually reaching plateaus. I cut calories as well, and lost more weight, but every time I cut my calorie intake, in the long run it made me more tired, and less wanting to do any kind of physical activity, and so my metabolism got lowered. Before this started happening, when I was at about 325 pounds, (or 100 lost), I went in for a activity test by the Melbourne Police Academy. I was last in every test. I did just over 20 situps, 2 pushups, ran 1.5 miles in over 24 minutes (which ended up me walking 80% of the time, and even that was a miracle at the time). Despite that I had lost a lot of weight, and still continued, I lost muscle too, but it was part of my bargain with myself, and I made myself promise that I would work back muscle after I lost most of the extra fat weight.

About 5 months ago, September of 2012, I started working out, instead of just dieting (after I tried a extremely low calorie diet (1000 calories a day), and I started feeling dizzy and light headed, and was not losing weight anymore. I started training pushups, situps, walking, and running in very short intervals. It was very hard, but I kept at it. As time went on I worked out more and more. Before I left Virginia for New york, I was walking 4+ miles a day, doing 8-12 pushups and 25-30 situps a session. It may seem like not a lot at the time, but it was a big improvement and it was only getting better. In New York, i continued. I run almost every day now, I can do 25-30 pushups, 50-60 situps, run 1-2 miles on the street and 4-5 on the treadmill. I have lost 190 pounds, and continuing. I am building muscle, and I want to keep feeling stronger.