Building Strength and Family: My Real

My story is one about being weak and tired. It’s one that talks about building back strength and family. My real-life fitness story starts the same as a lot of people in their early 40s—family, long hours, doing whatever it takes to make ends meet. It’s a story of dreams, sacrifice, and the struggle to balance it all. One day I woke up and didn’t like how I looked or felt. I didn’t like the example I was setting for my wife and our two little girls. I knew I could do better.

The difference between my story and many others is that I decided to change the narrative. I decided not to let life dictate how I would look, feel, and move through it. I chose to set a better example for my family and lead by it—because that’s what they deserve, and it’s what I deserve. This is my story.

My story picks up in 2022. My wife and I had just gotten married in 2021, and we were about to take on a huge project: building our forever home. At the time it was just the three of us—my wife, my little girl, and me. Years earlier I’d bought a piece of land to build on. We chose a modular home, picked our floor plan, secured the construction loan, and signed on the dotted line. Life was good; we were on our way to the home of our dreams.

I had no idea how much stress and work we were stepping into. Acting as my own general contractor, my dad and I began clearing the land—thick woods. I started in May 2022 and finished everything in late May of 2023. In that time we cleared the land, prepped the site, dug, built a deck and a porch, laid a lot of brick, and poured a lot of concrete. It was a massive undertaking, and it took a toll on our relationship. In the middle of it all, our second daughter was born in September 2022. My wife and I were pushed to our limits, and our relationship was very strained. We got through it and moved into our new home.

I’ve always been big on fitness and kept myself in decent shape, but I couldn’t bring myself to start a program or get motivated. Instead, I turned to alcohol and ate everything in sight, telling myself I’d start working out next month. Next month came and went. I went from around 170 pounds to 212—the most I’d ever weighed. My body felt weak and tired. I didn’t like how I looked or felt. I knew I needed a change.

One morning in January 2024 I told myself, “Enough.” I found a generic routine online and started. I used it for a few months and saw some results, but it wasn’t exactly what I wanted. So I dove into research on building muscle and losing fat and began building my own routine from what I learned. I’m 40 now, so results don’t come as fast, and things hurt more than they did at 20. I juggled work, family, and fitness and made it work.