[Editor’s Note: This post comes from Colton Anderson from Relentless Fitness. Colton emailed us the story of his personal transformation and we felt compelled to share his incredible results with you.]
It was the summer before my freshmen year of college, I had always been the overweight kid. I played football in high school and I always felt that justified my size. You gotta be big to play on the line. I accepted an offer to play college football at Concordia Chicago. I was actually really terrified to leave home, go play for a college program, and meet a whole new world of people. I spent that summer before school eating everything. Every meal was my “last meal”, I kid you not the week before I had to leave for camp, I would drink coffee and eat left over pizza in the morning, lunch was usually a burger and fries with a friend, then we would go get dinner at either a Chinese place or get chicken strips, that wasn’t the end though late night I would order a pizza and eat that. Terrible choices but I was definitely an emotional eater. By the time I left for camp, I was weighing the heaviest in my life, around 290.
Freshmen year of college, came into camp terrified, hated the first week of it, but it never crossed my mind to quit or give up. Went through that season not changing eating habits, add partying on the weekends, and having meal plans at my disposal. I justified what I was putting in my body by the workouts we were doing in football. After the season, my coach sat me down and had me weigh. I was 300 pounds. Never in my life had I imagined I would see a 3 on the scale. He basically told me if I didn’t change what I was doing. I wouldn’t live to see 30.
After that Christmas break, I got serious about looking into different diets and training techniques. I lost 40 pounds between just regularly doing cardio and eating better. My food choices weren’t great but anything was better than what I was doing. I thought losing this 40 pounds was the hardest thing I had done. I even tried Hydroxycut in there and got super super sick, lost 10 pounds but would NOT recommend taking that approach. There is no quick fix to weight loss or changing your body it takes time and drive. You have to constantly see the bigger picture of why you are doing the things you are, to get where you want to be. 120 pounds wasn’t lost in a day.
I stayed around that 260 weight for the next year, year and half. Fast forward to my Junior year. I had started most of the games my sophomore year but junior year, long story short, a freshmen was brought in that was just better than me. I lost playing time, and decided I had to find a way on to the field my senior year. I went home for Christmas break, December 2015 and partied, ate mom’s amazing cooking, and failed to workout consistently. I peaked back up near 275 when I went back to school in January 2016.
In January, I made a decision that I wanted to be 225 by camp in August. I had no idea what I was really doing because just biking and eating a little better in my mind was not going to help me accomplish my goals. So I changed my class schedule around and took electives that focused on nutrition, cardio, and weight training. I learned some in these classes, the bulk of my learning came from online. I researched other people who lost weight their methods. I became fascinated with lifting techniques, fasting techniques, when and why to do cardio, all kinds of information. I couldn’t get enough. I experimented with my body and was losing weight. If something didn’t work or I didn’t feel right, I’d try the next thing. Everyone’s body is different, but the thing that doesn’t change is it takes HARD WORK and DISCIPLINE to change your physique. I hated cardio, I hated weeks where the scale would not change, I had cravings like none other, I stopped going out to parties, wouldn’t go out to eat with people, I lost a bit of my social life for awhile until people realized what I was doing, and many of them supported me! Thank you for that y’all!
By spring break in March, I was down to 235 pounds. A number I had not seen on the scale since sophomore year of High school. I continued to experiment with different techniques and eventually found the Anabolic Fasting lifestyle, through Cory Gregory. I fell in love with the gym and learning diets and techniques. I came into camp at 200 pounds and earned playing time on special teams, until I had a season ending injury. Today, I am down to 178. I don’t plan on stopping either, my fitness journey is just getting started and my goal now is to help others get where they want to be! I want to have an impact on others lives because I know the impact fitness has had on my life and know it can do the same thing for others, with the right forward momentum!
If you are struggling to get the forward momentum started, I would love to help. I know how hard and grueling the process is! Everyone starts somewhere. It doesn’t have to be Monday morning or January 1st to change your lifestyle, to set goals and REACH THEM.
GET AFTER IT!
-Colton Anderson