Mike's Incredible Journey with Body Beast

I’ve known Mike for a few years now and I am so excited to share with you his awesome transformation and inspirational story! Despite his very reserved demeanor, Mike is an incredibly hard worker and is always looking for areas to improve. Originally, when Mike shared his story with me, there were some aspects of his story that I had not known and hearing them now, makes me really grateful to have him as a member of our team.

Let’s hear directly from Mike on where he started and the journey that he has taken to get to where he is today.

Here is Mike’s story in his own words:

My life was in a downward spiral and wasn’t looking up anytime soon. I was smoking 2 to 3 packs of Marlboro a day, drinking at least a six pack a night and eating like it was my last meal every meal. I began having panic attacks, I couldn’t function. I couldn’t do anything. Everything I did, I’d be afraid I was going to die or be seriously hurt and so I would grab a smoke and a drink thinking it would take it away.

It took me a good year to figure out that weighing close to 250 pounds and drinking and smoking don’t mix well. So, one day at a time, I first slowly quit smoking. That was a nightmare probably some of the worst weeks of my life coming off of cigarettes.

Next, was the excessive drinking. Honestly, that was easier than the cigarettes. After I kicked the alcohol habit, I began to eat more and more. At least I wasn’t using these other things to try and cope with the anxiety attacks.

Later that summer, during my son’s Baseball game I was coaching, I started to have heart attack symptoms. I ignored them and after the game I tried to drive home with my son in the car with me. I almost passed out and had to hurry and stop at someone’s house to get help.This was pretty scary but it made me look at how far I had let myself go and made me start to think about changing my life.

Not long after that incident, I slowly began to make additional to changed. I started by dropping caffeine and only drinking water! This actually killed the anxiety attacks. I have no idea why…but it did. I then began to try riding my bike every other day. I think I did this for a couple of months and maybe lost 10 or 15 pounds still topping 230 pounds. Probably another year went by and I was still trying to motivate myself. In the spring of 2013, my brother and I started a golf league at our church and needless to say I was too out of shape to play golf, even with assistance of a golf cart.

The golf league is where I met Chris Coburn for the first time and I think this may have been what somewhat motivated me to try and get serious about bettering myself physically.

However, by this time I had started smoking again and week after week I watched myself begin fall apart. I still participated in the golf league even though I couldn’t really enjoy it physically. After last week of our golf league, I got serious I quit smoking and began running every morning. I started with 1 mile every other day and worked my way up adding at least a half mile extra every two days. I also signed up for a membership at Planet Fitness and this place was like my second home. I would lift weights for 1 hour then run for an hour everyday and take the weekends off. I was in great shape but still pushing 200 pounds

It wasn’t until I changed my diet that I saw real change. I was dialed in and I was able run even further, to the point of running 10 miles every other day and lifting everyday. My weight was down to about 185 pounds and I felt great until injury hit me. Plantar fasciitis stopped me in my tracks! I felt a pop, while I was playing in a basketball game, in my foot which only made it worse.

I honestly thought I was finished! I went to the podiatrist and he told me no running for at least a month! Needless to say, I was not happy. Not long after this, I saw a post on Facebook about a new group that Chris was going to be a part of and I was skeptical at first. However, I kept on watching his post on Body Beast and noticed his results so I thought; why not – I’m in. I signed up to be a member of the Year of the Beast group, committing 1 year of my life to this workout and only this workout. I also committed to using Shakeology for one year.

When I say I’m in, I’m committed – that’s what I’m doing! When this group started I was excited, I pushed my self to places I had never been. I began the group weighing 190 lb. and still somewhere around 40% body fat. I couldn’t let anyone think I did this alone, I had my wife right by my side the whole time as she made all of the same commitments I did. We both made it through and I never missed one workout!

Over the course of the year, I had a strained neck, pulled back 3 times, bruised ribs, sore elbows, and I was sick for a week! Despite all of that, I still made my workouts and kept my nutrition dialed in. I was able to drop my weight to 169 lb. and my body fat dropped to 16%! I currently weight between 170 to 175 lb. and still 16 to 18% body fat. I’m not finished with my journey. My life has changed forever and I’m still striving to be better.

Thank you Chris! Thank you for asking me to join and thank you for being there to help me when I was down. Also, I could never have made it this far without the support of my wife Nicole. I’ll end by saying; if you want to make changes in your life you have to push yourself no matter how uncomfortable it may be, just keep pushing.

Thanks for letting me share.

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