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Did you know that at one point I lost 71 pounds?

 

True story.

 

Just before we opened up Yellow Rose, I was pretty miserable. I was in a serious rut, and I was masking that rut with copious amounts of meals out, and a beer drinking habit that was cleverly disguised as a “craft beer connoisseur” personality (a 6 pack of a high ABV beer was just a regular Tuesday).

 

After an anxiety attack on the plane ride home from our honeymoon about going back to my job at my old gym, I knew it was time to start our own. 

 

Then a funny thing happened. As soon as we signed the lease to 3514 W TC Jester, I felt this insane shame about my weight and the poor habits that had been built over the past 2 years. After entering the field as a full time professional in 2014, I had gone from a bodyweight of 197 pounds to 258.

 

 

Oops.

 

 

Now, there’s a whole psychological deep dive we should perhaps take in that weight gain era (it can all be found in this previous post – you’ll also learn a lot more about me so take a read ), but today I want to focus on the actual weight loss side of things. I want you to know that I’ve gone through it too. I’ve gone through the slow (ok kind of rapid) weight gain, had the “oh no” moment of not being able to do something I could do before, and realized I needed to make a change

 

But first, the before and after to garner attention (Notice how my wife is LITERALLY PERFECT in both photos).

 

Pretty big difference, huh?

(Now, let’s be clear. I’m not 187 anymore. This morning I weighed in at 207 pounds, but this is a lifestyle weight for me. I’m super healthy, but also super happy. It’s definitely not worth it to be super shredded all the time.)

 

I always carried the extra weight pretty well thanks to the years of lifting weights. I was a “big dude” and really tried to embody the big dude persona. The big dude persona is fine until it starts to affect your sleep, performance, recovery, and mental health. 

 

I was sawing logs every night (no idea how Rachel slept through that), waking up from the apnea, feeling generally miserable all the time, and mainlining so much caffeine throughout the day to boost my energy that I had to offset it with booze at night.

 

Voila, a perfect recipe to gain 61 pounds (197 up to 258)!

 

Anyway, with this newfound responsibility and sense of being a role model to our potential members, I knew I had to make a change. I knew enough about nutrition, calories, yada yada to where I could have done it on my own … but I needed to take some serious action.

 

I hired a nutrition coach. Coaches need coaches too.

 

I needed some accountability, some guidance, and some unbiased and objective look at my situation and what I was doing.

 

I tracked my food intake, my workouts, my sleep, my hydration, and even made notes on my overall feelings for the day. The goal? Find the behaviors that were keeping me from reaching my goals, and change them (aka – destructive behaviors). We knew that my destructive behaviors were the cause of the calorie surplus.

 

The destructive behaviors that I absolutely needed to change if I wanted to see sustainable changes in my life:

• Limit the meals out (2-3 times a day isn’t necessary)
• Limit the booze (20+ drinks a week is unnecessary)
• Take a more mindful approach to my actual meals (do they REALLY need to be that big?)
• Change my view of food in general, and how it relates to my everyday life (every meal doesn’t have to be a party. It’s OK to eat “boring” meals)

I slowly, but surely, whittled away at making these changes. 

I started eating most of my meals at home.

I set some rules around alcohol (cut it out for a while, and then left it to truly special occasions).

I pre-planned my day in MyFitnessPal and followed that food checklist.

I got really good at routine. I ate the same breakfast and lunch for 2 years straight.

 

Over the course of 1.5 years, I lost 71 pounds.

 

 

It wasn’t crazy or unsustainable either. There are plenty of things and habits that I learned in that first year that I still practice to this day (weighing myself everyday, food rules, mindset shifts). However, I did find that the trade offs for being very lean weren’t worth it for my life.

 

Do I still track my food every day? no. I’m in lifestyle mode now. I enjoy meals out, beers on the golf course, and I’ve put on a few more “flexibility pounds” and don’t feel the pressure to be super lean (I float around 205-210lbs).

 

Super lean isn’t worth it to me anymore. My coach says, “Most people don’t realize that 80% of their goal is probably where they actually want to live” and it couldn’t be more true.

 

The most important thing I did? I decided that I wanted to make a change.

 

And making change in your life is hard.

 

It’s easy to stay the same, and it’s painful to change. But the pain of staying the same was greater than the pain of change.

 

But now I have no pain. I’m glad I took that challenge to change.

 

I sleep great. I’m making progress in my fitness. I have more energy to be a great husband and Dad. I’m happier.

 

It was absolutely worth it, and it’s been worth it for the hundreds of thousands of people we’ve coached.

 

I write this story to let you know that I’ve been there, to let you know that I’ve struggled, and to let you know that we can help you get through it. It’s literally why we started this gym… to help people live longer, healthier, and happier lives.

 

If you feel like you’ve tried everything to lose weight but still haven’t been successful, please email me at [email protected] and we’ll set up some time to chat and figure something out.

 

I want you to sleep great. I want you to be the fittest you’ve ever been. I want you to have more energy. I want you to be happier.

 

Thanks for reading. Let me know how I can help you!

 

-Clark

^Current me. Not crazy lean, but definitely crazy happy (but mostly just crazy).