Hi Joe,

Thanks for the opportunity to share my weight loss story with other members. I love being a part of the Gilroy Health and Fitness Family and wanted to share my journey with others in the hopes of inspiring someone else that might be going through what I went through. Here's my story... I call it; 'From Fat Slob to Lean Mean Fighting Machine': 

I've always had an interest in health, fitness, and body building since I was a young boy and stayed active in school playing sports like soccer, swimming, baseball, track, wrestling, and weight lifting.  

After high school I didn't make the time for sports. I moved away to college and for the most part my activity level had dramatically decreased while my consumption of fast food, processed and junk food increased. I was starting to feel depressed and did what most people did when they were depressed. I ate to comfort myself. 

I ate top ramen 7 days a week, along with fast food and I wasn't eating many fruits or vegetables at all. I would drink Big Gulps all day because I thought I was getting a lot of value for my money. Ironically, what I didn't realize was, there was a bigger cost I hadn't even considered, my health.. I had ballooned up to 230 pounds. I gained 90 pounds!

My energy levels were way down and I felt my health was starting to take a turn for the worst. I would get tired really easily. My feet, knees, and joints were always sore from carrying the excess weight. And worst of all, my self-confidence had taken a nose dive. 

I decided one day that enough was enough. I wanted to take some steps forward and make some positive changes in my life.  

And I did. But almost immediately, I unfortunately faced a set back. My belly was so big that when I started to do sit ups, I displaced a disk in my lower back and was in excruciating pain 24 hours a day for 6 months straight. But I wasn't going to give up. I was determined to do whatever it took to lose the fat, gain muscle and get healthy.  

Because of my injury, I could not lift any weights or do cardio. I had to get creative. I thought long and hard about what I could do to lose the excess body fat and thought... Swimming! It was easy, effective, fun, and best of all, it was no impact on my injured body. I drove to the gym and I started swimming. At first I would swim for 20 minutes, the 30 minutes, then 45 minutes. The next thing I knew an hour would fly by, then an hour and a half, then 2 hours. Wow, swimming was easy, effective, fun, and best of all, it was no impact on my injured body.  

Soon after I began swimming (plus many trips to the chiropractor) I began to get healthier and started to see results. I loved the way I felt when exercising. It was like a natural high. My weight started to drop down to 210 pounds, 200, then 190 pounds. The next thing I knew I was down to 170 pounds! My injury had been healed through a combination of the chiropractor, nutrition and exercise.  

I was ready for weight lifting. I would weight lift for 1 hour to an hour and a half a day and started building muscle mass quickly. I started studying more about healthy nutrition. Protein shakes, protein bars, fruits and vegetables became more of the foods I ate while fast food and processed foods became less.  

One day I saw my gym had started a kickboxing program. I was curious and wanted to try it. The first day I showed up and was excited. Five minutes into the class I was already tired. Wow, what a shock! How could I be tired after 5 minutes of doing punches, kicks, knees, and elbows? From that moment on, I decided I wanted to change the focus of my training. I found kickboxing to be challenging yet fun and practical, effective method of working out. In one hour of kickboxing, I could burn more fat, build up endurance, have fun, get strong and healthy, and learn to defend myself all at the same time. I was hooked. I now train 5 times per week.  

Now I'm a lean mean fighting machine. I weigh 170 pounds and I'm at 9% body fat. It took a while for me to lose all the weight that I had packed on over the years but I was focused and determined to make in happen. I saw the quickest and best result when I changed my diet to: whole foods, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, and lean meats and added certain supplements to help speed up the process.  

I also saw dramatic results and fat burn off very quickly when I started doing kickboxing. The instructor pushed me farther than I normally would push myself. When I started getting one on one personal training the results came even faster than I could have ever imagined.  

It's been a fun, interesting, and adventurous journey for me. I'm so glad that I decided to make this positive change in my life. I feel so amazing and my energy levels have gone through the roof. I'm happy to be alive and live my life to the fullest with intense passion. My friends, family and members at the gym are now coming up to me and saying "Oh my God! You look amazing. You have lost so much weight, how did you do it?" I share with them a few helpful tips with the biggest smile on my face.  

If you are overweight and you want to get lean, fit, and healthy, you can do it! I did it, and I'm never going back.  

All the Best,

Brian Carnes