1. Personal background
- Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?
I’m an avid runner, lifter, paddleboarder and RRCA certified running coach. I’m 54 years old and am not retired. When I was working I was a Paramedic/Firefighter for 17 years and Deputy Sheriff for 13 years. I enjoy my family and Labradors and my friends. Running and lifting are my non-negotiables as this is what helps me to be healthy and happy. I coach a few runners but currently the past few years o am a race pacer. I pacer several marathons and half marathons all over the world. I’m looking forward to Pavo g the Marine Corps Marathon this year and next year I am running the New York City marathon.
- What got you started in fitness?
When I was in my early 20’s I was over 320 pounds and very unhealthy. My parents had passed when I was 7 years old and they were both young dying of cancer and heart attack. I knew if I didn’t make a change I would suffer the same fate. So it took me about 16 months and I lost about 200 pounds. I did it the normal way of watching what I ate and exercising.
- What were your initial fitness goals?
I have always had the all or none attitude and always was one extreme or the other. Weight being the same. Going from 320 to 120 and spending hours in the gym.
Over the years now I have learned moderation and have found many avenues of stress relief in both lifting and running. I wanted to lose all the weight as my first goal but now as the years have gone on, getting strong is even more important. Being thin just isn’t the end goal, I want people to know by looking at me that I work out and that I am strong.
I love being fit but more importantly, I live healing people get to their best life as well.
2. Fitness Motivation and Inspiration
- What motivates you to stay fit?
What keeps me motivated is my willingness to want to live a long and healthy life. Since my parents had passed away when I was 7, I wanted to make sure I didn’t follow in their footsteps.
Many believe that it’s motivation that keeps me going, but I think it’s dedication. In life there are so many peaks and valleys, it’s easy to be motivated during those “peak” times but in the “valleys” it’s my dedication that keeps me going.
- How has fitness affected other aspects of your life?
I am retired now, but when I was working it was imperative that I was in good physical shape for my careers as a firefighter and as a deputy sheriff. When working in those careers situations were ever occurring and o needed to be able to help in both a physical and mental way.
My life now is all about fitness. My health and fitness ability allows me to live a fulfilling life. I love to run, coach runners, lift heavy weights, maybe compete someday, paddleboard, and cycle.
Being the best version of myself makes being healthy my top priority.
3. Fitness Methods and Programs
- What does your current fitness program look like?
I lift 4-5 times a week, upper body 2x and lower 2x a week. I do cardio after my strength sessions. Cardio on weekends as well.
I may switch up every few months and do back/biceps, chest/triceps, legs and shoulders/abs. All these on separate days in a 4-5 day split.
- What types of training do you typically do? (e.g. strength training, cardio, flexibility training, etc.)
- Strength training is 4-5 times a week.
- Walking/hiking/paddleboarding 5 times a week.
- Racing or pacing races on Saturdays and Sundays.
- I also stretch, foam roll, and massage daily.
- How do you organize your training time and rest time?
When I was younger, rest and sleep were not something I considered much at all. Now it’s one of the things I always place a priority on.
I usually strength train 4 times a week maybe 5. Those being weekdays. So usually I’ll take 3 days off a week from lifting. I run on weekends. I make sleep a priority aiming for at least 7 hours, but try to get 9. It’s sleeping when your body is getting its biggest gains.
4. Challenges and solutions
- What are some of the major challenges you have encountered in your fitness journey? How did you overcome these challenges?
So over the years, there have been some major challenges I’ve had to overcome. Most were successful but sometimes things don’t go as planned. When you are living a healthy fit lifestyle, you must surround yourself with others who have that same outlook.
There are people out there that sometimes derail your best plans. These possible outcomes can stem from jealousy, different outlooks, and possibly on purpose. I believe many like-minded people are amazing for your physical and mental mindset.
When encountering those whom don’t “live” your lifestyle you need to make sure that you are in the mindset that this may not be one of your people. In life we have to realize that not everyone is going to like you, and that’s 100% ok. Most importantly is that you yourself understand that.
- Have you ever suffered an injury during your fitness journey? How did you recover?
I have been injured a few times. Most recently a piroformis injury and a tender shoulder. Being injured is awful.
Things that I do for my recovery are ice baths, heat therapy, ball rolling, rest, and anti-inflammatories. I also will vary my cardio if one particular part of my body is sore or injured.
5. Achievements and Changes
- What have you accomplished through fitness?
Some of my biggest accomplishments and accomplishments I’ve received in my fitness lifestyle have been losing over 200 pounds and keeping it off. Most recently though I ran 50 50k races in my 50th birth year. I literally ran 31.08 miles over 50 times in 9 months.
- What physical and mental changes have fitness brought to you?
A stronger body, mind and outlook. I don’t always have the best mindset, I mean no one does all the time and yes I do get down on myself sometimes but I’m so grateful for the health and fitness milestones I have achieved.
- What do you find to be the most rewarding part of fitness?
My biggest takeaway in my fitness lifestyle has been the ability to help others reach their goals. I don’t really talk about my successes but I live more than anything to help others reach theirs.
6. Future Plans and Goals
- What are your future fitness goals?
My immediate future fitness goals are to lose another 10 pounds and be able to maintain that loss. As I have gotten older I am finding it extremely difficult to lose and to maintain that loss. I plan on getting stronger as well and competing in a few more Spartan races and possible a Deka contest.
- Do you have plans to compete or challenge yourself to a new sport?
I am almost 55 and yes I do want to compete. The biggest downfall for me is dealing with body Dysmorphic disorder. I love the way my body looks and feels when I am lean and strong. I know that it’s impossible to keep that look year-round. I’m still trying to get my mind around gaining weight in the off-season. I’m not comfortable with the weight I am now as I have been in a building phase.
- What are your long-term plans for your fitness journey?
I would like to add a personal trainer to my resume along with being a running coach. I also want to run the major marathons. Mt first will be the NYC marathon in 2025.
7. Personal Stories and Insights
- Can you share one of your most memorable experiences in fitness?
A big memorable experience for me in fitness was being able to get in such great shape that I was able to be a competitive candidate and apply and successfully complete a law enforcement academy.
- What is the biggest thing that fitness means to you?
The biggest takeaway for me and fitness is being able to live my best healthy long life.
8. Advice and experience sharing
- What advice would you give to a fitness newbie?
The best advice I can give is to try and never compare yourself to others. We are truly all uniquely individual and you should only compete against yourself.
We are not perfect and the path to your “goal” is not a straight upward line, but a line that’s filled with many many peaks and valleys.
Try and do your best every day, but know that when you mess up, that’s life you just get back on the bandwagon the next day. It’s ok, we have all been there, shoot I mess up all the time, it sucks but mistakes happen, and we learn and keep going.
- What do you wish you had known when you started fitness?
Actually, I have a couple of things I wished I had known before I embarked on this amazing journey.
1- No matter how hard you try you can not out exercise a bad diet. Believe me I’ve tried. I’ve tried to tell myself it’s ok to have that whole carrot cake, plate of nachos, entire bag of cookies, I just lifted 50,000 pounds and ran 2 marathons. It doesn’t work like that. As much as I wished it did.
Good health truly is made 80-90 percent in the kitchen.
2- The people with amazing figures, so ripped, so cut, damn just full of muscle. That’s extremely rare and in those situations, most of those extremes are using PEDs. I never realized just how many.
I have zero issues with PEDs, I just wish I’d known that those extreme figures I love, are definitely enhanced.
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