I guess you could call me a slow learner on my journey from weak kid… to fat “beer guy”… to late-onset- athlete-turned-personal-trainer.
I finally figured it all out and now aid others in losing weight.
But there were plenty of mistakes along the way to discovering the only five things that really work in losing weight.
Here’s how to avoid my mistakes and go from fluffy to flexing faster than you ever thought possible.
But first, a blast from the past with…
Walking around the hallways of my suburban New York middle school, I always felt insecure. Puny, weak, skinny. I remember in the 7th grade I joined the football team. I had never played before.
During one practice, the coach yelled at us to do push-ups. We couldn’t stop until he said so. I probably got 5 or 10 push-ups in and damn near died. The feeling of discouragement by my lack of strength was so strong that I left practice and never went back.
Next, I tried working out at the school gym, but I was too intimidated by the athletes to ever stick around.
You know what comes next: basement bench presses. I bought a weight bench for my home.
But what’s a skinny, weak teenager without supplements? So it was off to GNC to buy everything they recommended for gaining size and muscle. I came home probably $150 poorer holding three giant tubs: protein powder, a mass gainer, and some sort of creatine mix.
Making the school baseball team became my new target goal. With the help of my at home weight bench and my shiny new supplements, I was bound to gain ALL. THE. MUSCLE. and crush some homers at tryouts, right?!
Not so fast.
What Happened Next Wasn’t Good
That weight gainer shake? Impossible to choke down.
Those weights? Sure I was lifting them, but I had no idea about form or programming.
Tryouts came and went and I didn’t make the team. I asked the coach why and he straight up told me I was weak.
OUCH.
He said I needed to work on everything pivotal to a baseball player: chest, legs, core, and shoulders especially.
That was the end of me trying to put on muscle. At least for the time being.
“Come on! Just have one more beer! It’s no big deal – you aren’t even paying for it out of your own pocket!”
That was the story of my life for almost seven years. It was pretty hard to escape alcohol considering my job was to sell it. This meant being in and out of restaurants and bars all day and most nights. I spent weekends at beer festivals and in grocery stores pushing samples, of which I’d obviously partake. This was going to make losing weight tough.
The pounds started to pile on. To make matters worse, I was living in Washington DC, one of the most expensive cities in the US. In an effort to save money, I ate out at restaurants that sold my company’s beer because I could expense it.
One day I stepped on the scale. 204 lbs.
Wait. What?!
It seemed like just yesterday I was 125 lbs struggling to put on any size whatsoever.
This bummed me out. I knew I had to start losing weight somehow.
I looked into a few gyms. They were crazy expensive. I opted not to join a gym and instead try my hand at running. It seemed like an easy way to begin losing weight. I kept up with the habit pretty well. I’ve always been good at doing what I set out to do, though.
The problem? I hated running.
Nothing about it was fun to me. Even as I got better and was able to run farther in less time, the PRs didn’t matter to me. I felt dread knowing the next PR meant I had to run even FARTHER than I just did. Ugh.
Needless to say, I quit running.
What next? I still didn’t want to join a gym so I tried my hand doing home exercises. I found every challenge I could – 30-day ab challenge, 30-day squat challenge, a push-up challenge, and several others. Not only did I see zero results, but it was hard to work out in my tiny DC apartment.
Now I really had a choice. Do I do nothing and suck it up? Succumb to the idea that this was the way I was going to be forever? Or do I do a little budgeting and make the gym a few blocks away work for me?
I set up an appointment at the gym. It was huge and had everything one could ask for. A full-size basketball court, an Olympic swimming pool, lots of machines and free weights, plenty of cardio machines, a turf area, daycare – you name it they had it. Would joining the gym finally be the key to losing weight?
My membership came with a few free personal training sessions as most do. I nervously set the appointment up.
A few days later I walked back to the gym, as prepared as I could be for my first session. We started our initial assessment.
I was asked to do as many sit-ups as I could in one minute. I got 20 sit-ups. Not great.
Next, I was asked to complete as many push-ups as I could in one minute. I couldn’t even eke out 5.
Embarrassing.
Finally, I was asked to push a sled with a little bit of weight on it back and forth to test my endurance. I was winded within the first 20 seconds.
Sad.
Next, we assessed my body fat percentage. I was scared of this one. After taking some measurements and doing some calculations, the trainer informed me that my body fat was at 24%.
My heart sunk.
24% body fat. That meant nearly 50 pounds of me was pure fat. I had never felt so defeated and down on myself in my life. I vowed at that moment to shed every last pound I gained. Losing weight became my top priority.
I hired the trainer. He didn’t last very long at the gym.
Great!
The gym assigned me a new trainer who had a similar style. A few months later I was told my trainer wouldn’t be coming back due to personal reasons.
Awesome!
I was assigned a third trainer in this nine-month span. I liked him. We worked together for a while, but I eventually decided to cancel the training. It was taking a toll on my wallet and I truly thought I could go it alone.
I used apps that had pre-made workouts. That only lasted so long.
I found a 3-month training template with every day laid out with full programming so I decided to give it a try. It was easy to stick to for a while. There were some results. I was definitely getting stronger. There was no doubt about that. I lost a little bit of weight. I was hovering around 185 lbs.
My body composition looked exactly the same, though. This was frustrating. I was starting to think losing weight just wasn’t going to happen.
Around this time I decided to leave the beer industry and move to Kansas City. This made it much easier to get serious about putting an emphasis on nutrition.
I joined a new gym and decided to sign up for their Orangetheory-like (high intensity interval training with different exercises at different stations) program. That, coupled with my improved nutrition, and I finally started losing weight. It helped me drop another 10 pounds. That took the better part of a year, though.
At 175 lbs. I thought I had only 10 pounds left to go since I was gaining muscle. I made two big choices.
First was to hire a nutrition coach. I signed on with Stronger U, a well known and growing online nutrition coaching company.
Second, was to stop the HIIT training and get back to strength training. I left that gym and joined Kansas City Barbell Club.
Fast forward six months and another 30 pounds melted off. I had gotten stronger than I had ever been in that time.
Finally.
The end result that I had dreamed of for so long was finally achieved.
Through my long journey of ups and downs, I learned that my fat loss really boiled down to five main points:
If you’re ready to stop wasting your time and throwing away your money on useless supplements and diet templates, let’s talk. There is no better time to get started than right now. Let’s do this!
Apply Now
© 2020 Alex Andujar Fitness | Branding and Website by Katie Harrington Design
Wow that’s ive never something fitness related that is so honest!! You are a true inspiration ???️☕
Thank you, Fiona! That means a lot to me! I wanted to be as honest as possible in my journey so that others hopefully don’t make the same mistakes I did!
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