Josh Alvarez
January 27, 2012 by RobZ · 23 Comments
“Lost 30 lbs, BF 24% – 6%, BF Ranking 14% – 92%”
I have always felt that being fit was an important part of a happy life. I just really never took to time to educate myself on how to be truly healthy.
My dad started working out with Rob at RobZFitness last year and I began to notice a big difference that it was making in his life, he was much happier and had more energy.
I needed to do something to become more fit myself so I decided to go in for an evaluation and sign up to workout with Rob, hoping that I would begin to see results like my dad.
Fat has been the center of my life. I’ve made a career out the topic, co-editing two anthologies—What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology—and my own writing have centered on how my body is viewed by others and by myself. I still believe in those books and the work I have published. No one fat or skinny should be judged by appearance, just as we should not be judged by color of skin or gender.
I needed to do something to become more fit myself so I decided to go in for an evaluation and sign up to workout with Rob, hoping that I would begin to see results like my dad.
I was surprised when I first went in for my evaluation. I thought I was in pretty good shape and that I would just have to lose a few pounds. I weighed 182 pounds and Rob told me that my body fat percentage was at 24.2%, I was also shocked to hear that I was only in better shape than 14% of men at my age for body fat.
It was then that I decided to truly change my eating habits immediately and to set goals for myself that would help me to achieve a healthy and fit lifestyle.
Rob worked with me and pushed me to achieve my personal best. I have learned how to properly workout so that I am able to have a safe and effective workout.
I have learned so much about proper nutrition and what it takes to feed my body correctly so that I am able to fuel my body the right way, not by eating whatever I want to eat at anytime. I need to eat to fuel my body the way it needs to so I can get the results that I set out to see.
Rob and the other trainers at RobZFitness that I have worked with (Davie, Sam & Taylor) truly know how to produce results. I have learned that if you are willing to work at being healthy and fit that you can achieve amazing results, all you need is the will to change.
Today I now weigh 152, my body fat percentage is now at 6.7% and I am in better shape than 92% of men at my age. I have never felt better.
All I can say is if you have a desire to be the best you, Rob and your new life are only a phone away. Just do it!!!!
Josh Alvarez
Ira Sukrungruang
January 1, 2012 by RobZ · 23 Comments
“I Lost 108 Pounds in 10 Months”
Fat has been the center of my life. I’ve made a career out the topic, co-editing two anthologies—What Are You Looking At? The First Fat Fiction Anthology and Scoot Over, Skinny: The Fat Nonfiction Anthology—and my own writing have centered on how my body is viewed by others and by myself. I still believe in those books and the work I have published. No one fat or skinny should be judged by appearance, just as we should not be judged by color of skin or gender.
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Despite this, after turning thirty-five, my body began to spin out of control. It was saying, “Dude, what are you doing?” I was nearing the four hundred pound mark, a weight I once imagined only the giant wrestlers on TV weighed. My body was telling me that if I wanted to live longer, if I wanted to live, I needed to do something. The path I was on, the absurd amount of eating I was doing, was destroying it. “A body can only hold so much,” it was saying.
My body was keeping me completely sedentary. Worse of all, it was taking away my mental stamina. I found myself unable to think, unable to write. My professional life suffered, and because of that, so did my personal life. I was a deeply unhappy. I never wanted to go out anymore, opting to stay at home in front of the television. I couldn’t make decisions. Self-defeating and self-loathing phrases entered my lexicon of language. I often said, “I hate myself,” or, “I’m ugly.” I lost my sense of self. I did not think I could be saved. I did not think it was possible to regain power over this spiraling and out-of-control body of mine.
What happened then? What made me start my climb out of the darkness? My wife. Yes. My students? Yes. My family. Yes? My friends? Yes. But most importantly, me. I looked at where I was and asked myself, “Is this what you want?” No. It wasn’t. It never was.
So in February of this year, I contacted RobZFitness, and a little over eight months later, I had lost one hundred pounds. I needed someone to believe in me, to give me constant motivation, to tell me that what I was doing was worthwhile. That was what was missing in my life—belief. My trainer, Sam Kicak, believed in me. The other trainers at RobZFitness believed me. And week after week—the pounds shedding, my body tightening, my energy revitalized—I believed in myself.
Soon, I was buying new clothes every other week. Soon, I was kayaking rivers and oceans for miles. Soon, I was entering myself in 5Ks. I can say with certainty that I have never felt this way about my body. This liveliness is a gift. I can say with certainty that I’m not done and will probably never be done. There have been stumbling points, and I imagine more along the way, but I have to believe that this part of the process. I have to believe that nothing is impossible.
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Ira Sukrungruang