Originally Published September 30, 2017
Hello World!! This is my first blog post, on my first website meant to bring you some information about my, my journey and how maybe someday I can help you with yours. Please stay tuned for weekly posts, and feel free to let me know if there are any topics you would like to hear about in the future. Enjoy!
There are three things in my life so far I have done that stand out as truly hard. Growing up as an overweight kid, that was pretty tough. Moving overseas during high school and graduating from a well respected university was also a challenge. Finding a job, advancing quickly through the ranks certainly produced a lot of stress. Although these experiences were challenging and made me who I am today, they paled in comparison to these 3 life events:
Number 1: Losing 196 pounds during my junior year of college. I was always overweight growing up, but entering college my freshman 15 turned into a freshman 50. Losing and gaining and losing and gaining, I started off junior year of college weighing in at 399 pounds. Only after placing a bet with my roommate and finding my “why” did life begin to change.
Number 2: Running the Philadelphia and New York City Marathons. I caught the running bug soon after losing weight, and I couldn’t get enough. I truly believe that most bodies were not meant to run a marathon, let alone mine. With a 4:02 Philadelphia finish and a once in a lifetime experience running the NYC Marathon, I decided to officially retire from running 26.2 miles and give my joints a break.
Number 3: Changing my life trajectory and losing 50 (and counting) pounds in 2017. The number one thing I wanted in college was to advance at work as fast as possible and make as much money as I could. Moving up through the ranks, the travel, stress and my waistline all increased together and I started to realize my true cost of success. December 2016, I was at an event and had a picture taken with Gavin DeGraw and barely recognized myself anymore. It was time to re-prioritize my life: maybe money and an impressive job title weren’t everything. So far this year, I’ve taken off 50 pounds and people began to notice. Inspired to help others do the same, I enrolled in a health coach training program that I am set to complete in January 2018 and have also started to pursue a Master’s of Science in Nutrition through the University of Bridgeport. I am truly looking forward to helping others become the best version of themselves as they embark on their own journey for health and wellness.
I will get further into these shaping stories in coming blog posts, but here is the takeaway: don’t let anyone ever tell you that something is impossible. Surely all of these feats seemed impossible at one point in time, but as Nelson Mandela once said, “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”
What in your life seems impossible? What big goals are you currently working towards?
Until next time…. Catch me in the comments!
Jon