Nick’s Story
Hey guys and girls, Nick here. A while back, right around the time we started this blog, my wonderful wife Christina wrote about her journey in weight loss and how she landed on IIFYM (Christina’s Story). After getting things rolling with the blog, I never got around to doing the same. So here goes nothing…
The Macro Bug
It has taken a few years, a couple trials and many errors to go all-in with counting macros and living the If It Fits Your Macros (IIFYM) lifestyle. With that said, I’d say I got the macro bug a couple years ago when a good friend of mine’s brother in law started tweeting and posting all over the place about it. At first I didn’t pay too much attention, but then I’d notice some of the pictures he was posting. First came the pictures of all the food he was consuming. From homemade pizza, to tacos, to protein baked goods; it all looked more than appetizing. It also came with the disclaimer of having to track everything. At the time I wasn’t all that interested in keeping track of everything I ate, so I wasn’t drawn in completely. Then came the progress pics. The man was shaping up! Within a month or two, he was dropping weight, cutting up, and eventually competed in a bodybuilding show. Once I saw that IIFYM was legit from the process to the product, I was hooked. I started doing my own research and slowly implemented the principles into my diet and lifestyle. Within a few months I, too, began to see results. I wasn’t shredded by any means, but I could tell that what I was doing was working.
Along with diving into IIFYM, this was a time in my life that Christina and I were getting quite serious. We had been dating long distance for about a year and I was about to make the move to her hometown after accepting a job in her area. After all the long distance dating, spending a night or two together during each week, I was VERY excited to finally be able to share a home with my lady. In terms of my diet, I figured this could only help, too. How couldn’t it? I would be traveling less and would be able to plan more accurately for things I’d be eating. But then…
The Job That Squashed My Macro Bug
I am forever thankful for the job that I took to get me to Christina’s neck of the woods. It erased the “long distance” from our long distance relationship, paid well enough that I could afford to buy a ring (within a week of moving I might add), and I met some great friends in my time there. Unfortunately, the job was much more demanding than I had expected. The hours were long (easily working 12 hours most days) and the work itself was taxing. I was teaching at a charter school in an urban area with some students that needed me to be on my game every minute of every day. Truthfully, I learned a lot from a professional standpoint. I grew as a teacher because of the hard work I was putting in. The flip side of that is that I had little to no time to hit the gym. Any time that I had outside of my job I wanted to spend with my now-fiancée. I went from tracking what I ate everyday and hitting the gym 4-5 times a week to stress eating during the day and relaxing the night away with wine and comfort food. I donated $30 a month to LA fitness for 4 straight months. My weight shot up and my stamina shot down. I was running out of gas and fast.
Getting Back On The Horse
After 4 months of working my ass off at the charter school I was provided a Christmas gift in the form of an opportunity to teach at a great high school in a district closer to our home. It paid less money, but it was an opportunity to be paid with time. My days were MUCH shorter. This gave me the opportunity to not only get back in the gym but spend even more time with Christina. It was an absolute win-win. I took the job and ran. This also coincided with both of us wanting to get serious about getting in shape for our big day. I got back to counting macros, dropped 15 pounds the year leading up to our wedding and felt great doing it. Our big day came and we couldn’t have been happier! We had our friends and family gathered around us and we celebrated just as we had hoped. We seem pretty happy right?
Falling Off Of Said Horse
Coming off of the wedding, we were on a high. A high that lasted a couple months. A high that made us feel like we could eat and drink as we pleased. Okay, so maybe it wasn’t as much of a high as it was just entitlement. We felt like we deserved to indulge since we kept our appetites in check leading up to wedding. We ate and drank like royalty and didn’t care who knew it. “Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels”. Bullshit. You know it, I know it. It’s just that we came to realize that any progress that we had made was washing away. QUICKLY. We enjoyed ourselves through the holidays and decided (as everyone else does) to get it back together in the new year.
Okay, Okay, For Real This Time
After watching my weight and diet yo-yo for the better part of two years, I REALLY wanted to make this New Years resolution stick. I was tired of looking back and seeing that I could do it, but I had failed to keep up with good habits. For the first few months of 2016 we plugged back into the macro game and-wouldn’t you know it!-we got results. Weight was being lost, weights at the gym were feeling lighter and lighter, and all felt right in the world. Without the end goal of a wedding or a vacation in the near future, we weren’t as all in as we had been, but we were making slow and steady progress. To be honest, I have found that those events (weddings, vacations, etc.) hold you accountable. If you get off track, you’re motivated to get back on track so that you can look great for the event. With the lack of such an event in the near future for us, I was curious what to do about accountability. That’s when I had the idea to start this blog. This way we can share what we’re up to, recipes that we’ve tried and also interact with other like minded people. It has been an awesome journey so far, and we look forward to what lies ahead.
Well that’s it for my story! I hope you guys enjoyed reading it and that I may have found some folks that relate to the ups and downs of the diet and lifestyle. Enjoy the rest of your weekend my friends!
-Nick
