opening up about my story

I told you all a story about someone I know earlier in the week. This week I want to share my story with you. Not everyone knows the full story. Save this email because I don’t think ill ever be this open about my past struggles with nutrition again.

My journey started back when I was about 12. I was always a chubby kid but around that age, I started getting incredibly self-conscious about my body. Over the next 2+ years, that feeling only got worse. Finally, I decided I was sick of feeling this way and I wanted to do something about it. I took out my school planner and I decided to write out a workout schedule. I didn’t know shit about working out so I asked Ant, my older brother. He set me up on a push-pull-legs split( way ahead of his time for that). I started using our home gym to lift. I was not consistent for the life of me. I would work out once or twice a week and think I was doing great, best part, was those workouts were like 20 minutes long. I dicked around with this for 2-3 years and always thought I was getting “so strong” and “so in shape”.

It wasn't until I was 16 that my dad let me sign up for a gym membership at the local gym. From there he set me up with a trainer Bert, who showed me the ropes and taught me the very basics of lifting. Again I was not consistent and couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t looking the way I wanted. I hated the fact that I was still chubby and not putting on muscle. I quit the gym probably every other week because it wasn’t going the way I wanted it to. Over the course of that year, I started to figure out that the hardest part of the gym was just going. I had built a true habit into my life for lifting and going to the gym. After about a year at this gym, I was approached by a trainer, Nick, who put me and my friend Joey through a few workouts. I was hooked on his style of training. I signed up with him the next week! ( I still go see him when I go back home, he’s that great). Nick taught me way more about training than any book, certification or course has taught me so far. This really piqued my interest in lifting and exercising. I slowly stopped caring about how I was looking and focused on lifting properly and getting strong for sports. This switch had a clear positive benefit to my lacrosse ability( I would’ve been even better if I did more cardio but fuck cardio)

I spent years 17-22 focusing on lifting properly and being well-balanced in the gym. I was strong and I felt very confident and comfortable in my skin for a good portion of that time. Then I graduated from college and started living back at home. I don’t know what sparked it but I decided to sign up at my local CrossFit gym. I had done a few classes in high school for a camp they had run and enjoyed it. I figured I would enjoy it again. Well I was wrong, I fell in love with it. Crossfit replaced lacrosse as my competitive outlet.

I was getting half decent at Crossfit for someone who never did Olympic lifting before and was an average athlete. Upon talking to some of the older guys in the 6 am class I found out that nutrition was a huge piece of the puzzle for why I never looked the way I wanted. One of them introduced me to the RP diet app. I had never counted macros before nor did I even think it was necessary. Fast forward a month from that convo and I started the diet. I was really consistent and regiment on it. After about 3 months I had gotten pretty lean and was starting to get abs. But life got in the way, I was going out more, I was driving to Boston to visit my girlfriend, and work became very stressful. So I slowly veered off that app for about 4-5 months. Then I decided to pick the app back up again. That’s right, I said “ Hey this diet worked for me once let me do it again” This time around the app single-handedly reverted me back to my 12-year-old incredibly self-conscious self. I became so anxious over every ounce of food that I was eating, I wouldn’t eat anything unless I tracked it, I was so focused on hitting my macros that I stopped going out as much and stopped enjoying foods that I normally loved. I would stick to this diet for 3-4 weeks at a time, binge eat for a week then go back on it. I was in your shoes plenty of times. I kept taking food away, doing more volume in the gym, running more, getting injured, and constantly dieting and then binging. If it wasn’t for my girlfriend telling me that things had gotten so bad that I had developed disordered eating. I don’t think I would've stopped doing it.

Finally, I decided that I can’t do this all on my own, I had to hire a professional. I forget how I came across them but I hired a coach from M2 performance nutrition. This decision changed my life in the best way possible. My coach helped me develop a better relationship with food, learn how to eat to perform better in the gym, and how to manage a normal social life while still eating for my goals. This process took me a solid 6 months to even make any real progress but once I did, the progress was rapid. I added 20-30# on almost all of my lifts across the board, I was crushing workouts and even enjoying running.

Without hiring this coach I would have never learned that I knew a lot about nutrition without realizing it. When my coach was explaining the science or the why of things we were doing, I kept thinking like “Wow this is way more simple than I thought” or “Wait I know this already”. After talking with her i realized that this is what I wanted to devote my life to. Helping others improve all aspects of their life through nutrition intervention.

This story brings me to the start of my coaching career, where most of you know me by now. I hope this story resonates with anyone who read it this far. I honestly just want to help you in any way possible so please reach out with any nutrition/fitness or even mindset questions/issues/comments. I’d love to talk about it!

-Mike

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