This post is part of a series that I am breaking down into chapters. I hope to offer a little insight on who I am and perhaps some valuable lessons that can be beneficial to you too.

To catch up, feel free to check out My Growing Disdain for Mediocrity (Chapter 1) before reading this.

Enjoy!
____________________________________________

My being fat was partly ignorance. Mostly it was low self-awareness.

I can still remember the day the fat smacked me right in the face. It was 2005 and I was flipping through photos of my most recent trip a few months back. I was in complete shock. “WTF! Is that me!?” It was like looking at a swollen, post-allergic reaction version of me. Not to mention how depressing it was to see endless photos of me without a single smile on my face!

I know it’s common for college kids to gain the typical “freshman fifteen” but I was no longer a freshman. Plus, I weighed myself and I was 45 LBS heavier than I am today!

It felt like it just crept up on me out of no where. As if all of a sudden I was fat and I didn’t know how I got there. How could this be?

Hmm, let’s see. Stuffing my face with a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts in one sitting. Super-sizing every time I had the chance. Ice cream sundae’s galore drenched in chocolate sauce. Some McDonald’s apple pie tossed in. Crushing Coke’s, hammering beers, drinking calories and fuelling up with fast food like crazy. Yup. That was my lifestyle.

Such atrocious eating habits. Multiply that with the fact that my body no longer burned calories like a high schooler made for a serious wake up call.

An example of one of my many epiphanic experiences that has shaped who I am today.

I didn’t know it at the time but this drive to improve my self-image was a huge catalyst towards greater self-love.

I knew enough at the time that eating fast food had to be the first thing to go. Triple-triple coffees turned into double-doubles and eventually into black coffee. I traded in my cans of pop for bottled water. I started saying no to the typical deep-fried and convenient university student diet.

Working out frequently led to my arms, my chest and my back getting pretty muscular. Unfortunately, I was barely shaving inches around the gut area. The needle on the scale barely moved either.

There was a combination of things that had to happen before I saw any acceleration in my progress: increased self-worth, education and consistent action.

After being exposed to the work of self-help guru Anthony Robbins, I quickly got a hold of one of his audio personal development programs. His exercises and tools helped me understand my self and inspired me to believe that I could actually transform my self.

I was focused on transforming my body and through this thirst to improve my body I slowly began to put a value on my self.  That’s when things really started to happen for me.

This pursuit towards a leaner, sexier me shined a light on a boundless path of growth which I had never known before. I realized how little I actually knew. About myself. About the world.

That year while my political science and other university texts collected dust, I was soaking up a book every week like a sponge! I started to truly discover a burning desire to learn. A burning desire that I never thought was possible.

Among the topics of self-growth, nutrition and fitness, I found myself drawn to books on entrepreneurship, sales and spirituality too.

I started to re-build my self. I decided to re-design my life.

Rather than be subject to the influence of the mainstream I started to finally think for my self. Diving into different views, opinions and ideas gave me a lot to consider.

This newfound knowledge alone would not be enough to manifest my goals into reality. Taking action and executing around these new concepts and ideas is what took me outside of my comfort zone and into a new way of being.

Actually trying different techniques and philosophies, implementing various strategies and doing it full on was the only way to truly know what worked. Screw what every one else says, I was determined to be my own guinea pig.

It’s one thing to read it, understand it and think you know it. But feeling it, seeing it and experiencing it your self – that is a completely different type of knowing.

So I picked up what I liked and what worked for me and left behind what did not. Something I’m still doing to this day.

Slowly and overtime the implementation of everything I learned and became aware of led to better lifestyle choices. All those new choices began to produce amazing results.

Soon enough people began to notice that I had made a physical change. My clothes started getting looser, I saw the inches melt away when I saw myself in the mirror but the validation from others motivated me the most!

This boost in confidence I got was energizing. I found myself smiling in pictures. It put wind under my sail towards growing, expanding and evolving even more aspects of my self.

It was then that I began to understand that self-love would be at the core of my existence.

To be continued…

Coming soon! The Red Pill & Getting Angry at the World