Joe ROCKS P90X

Joe just recently joined the RIPPEDCLUB ranks but has been applying the principles that we KNOW get you extreme results, for some time now. Joe is looking to become a law enforcement officer and now doubt these results are only going to help him get there. Phenomenal work my friend. I’m gunna let him tell you his story in his own words below.

I’m going to be honest. I got fat doing things that I loved. I still love them, honestly. I like the feeling of a lazy evening watching TV. I like eating my wife’s chocolate chip cookies. I like Taco Bell.

I have three brothers, and growing up I was always the “fat” one. At least I was picked on for being fat. Looking at old pictures, however, I wasn’t any more or less chubby than the rest of them. That being said, after we all hit adulthood I DEFINITELY became the fat one. I had a shoulder injury in high school that I allowed to sedate nearly all my activity in my entire 20’s. Coupled with my love for eating and doing nothing, I ballooned to 230 lbs on my 5’11” frame. On my (intentionally) infrequent trips to visit family, each of my brothers took various opportunities to sit me down and give a serious talk about my weight. I was in serious danger of ending up like my father and all of my uncles.

But I resisted, having no idea why. What I didn’t realize at the time was that my weight was not a reflection of doing the things I loved, but a result of avoiding the things I was afraid of.  It was a result of being totally out of control, and it served as a metaphor for the rest of my life. Financially, emotionally, spiritually, I was totally out of balance. I had gotten so good at hiding everything, however, that the only indication of any of that chaos was my weight.

Fast forward to 2013. After a bit of a breakdown, and a realization that certain things I was clinging to so tightly were neither necessary or beneficial, my wife and I sold our house, moved into our apartment, and finally made real changes. I started with a mail-order nutrition system. It was a good for me to have a total shift in my nutrition. I ate nothing but what came in the box every month, and with the help of my health coach for accountability, I lost 40 lbs in 3 months. After I transitioned off the system, however, I failed to learn how to get back to eating real foods, and how nutrition could work to support my body, rather than just to drop weight.

After failing a law enforcement physical fitness test for the second time, my wife and I had a heart to heart conversation. If I wanted change, I needed to change. I remembered that we had purchased P90X but I had failed out after three weeks because I got sore and tired. This time I read through all the materials. I had learned that I needed total commitment in order to be successful.

I began the program and for the first 30 days really eased into it slowly. I did not over-exert myself as to avoid injury, but I was definitely committed. I failed to see the results I was looking for. It wasn’t until about day 35 that I came to the realization that I was committed to the workout and pressing play every day, but not to eating the right things. So I sat down with my wonderful wife and made a plan.

BOOM. Results. It’s almost as if they knew that eating the right things would work. I kept track of my nutrition meticulously. I knew exactly what I was eating and why. I was able to make minor adjustments to WHEN I was eating certain nutrients in order to maximize the effect.

I now look at before and after pictures with a whole different perspective. I realize that I was looking at the left and right as the success stories. In most of them, however, that little line in the middle is the real story. It’s the repeated failures. It’s the “slip-ups”. It’s the fight for something better.