About me

This comes somewhat out of order, but refer to the first post regarding stream of consciousness.

I decided if someone were to read this it would be important to share a little about myself.

I grew up overweight and not extraordinarily athletic, but was always trying to best my older brother, Alex, and that created a fierce competitive spirit within me.

Following an incident with a car that left me with a compression fracture at the L3 level, I took up martial arts.  I trained for the better part of 7.5 years (15-22 y/o) while earning my Associate Degree.  At 22 moved from my hometown to pursue a Bachelor's Degree in Exercise Science at the University of North Carolina Wilmington.

Upon the completion of my degree (Dec '14) I moved to Raleigh, North Carolina and then quickly to Apex, NC where I earned the position of Club Director at a local fitness facility.  Following, but very close to, the anniversary of my start date (Jan '15), I resigned to pursue physical therapy school.

I had 2 prerequisite courses to take along with the GRE and completion of volunteer work to be an eligible candidate.  I took one course that spring while earning the remainder of my volunteer hours and another course during the first summer session at Wake Technical Community College.  I rounded out the summer with the GRE and completed my PT school application as the deadline neared.

That brings me to where I am now: the worst physical shape I have been in nearly 13 years (things only went downhill in the last 6 months VS. a slow progression to worse health over the full time frame).

Not terribly out of shape, but roughly 6'0, 215lbs, 25% body fat.  All of which is in the realm of what is considered healthy for an adult male.  The kicker is that, for the first time in my life, I remain sedentary during the working hours of the day, which leads me to consider how my risk for cardiovascular-related diseases has increased disproportionately to how my body composition has changed.  Put simply, my numbers have went up, but my risk for heart disease has likely increased even more.

Even still, that's neither the primary reason for this, nor among the first several.  I like to be active, sleep well, challenge myself, be outdoorsy, look and feel great, and inspire others if through nothing else than the display of discipline paying off.  The notion that 'if I can do it, others can too.'

Alright.

These first two posts are longer than what I intend to write going forward, but I felt it important to briefly describe my plan, and to write this post in order to give readers insight to my background.

Best!