For much of my life, I was overweight with bad posture, little flexibility, and no upper body strength. I could never touch my toes without bending my knees a lot. I have never done a push up from my feet. My family has a history with bad backs with scoliosis and being hunched over. Today’s technology is just making my back worse by being bent over due to cell phones and sitting on a computer for much of the day.

Over the course of several months in 2013, I ballooned from 180lbs to 218 lbs. I was getting a divorce and eating food as comfort food. When I lived on my own, I ate whatever I felt like because I now had no one telling me not to eat that. A whole pizza in a day, no problem. Fast food for all 3 daily meals, sure.

I’ve been a wrestling fan since I was 7 so I had always known that DDP was doing YOGA. However, I’m a guy and felt that YOGA was for women so I just ignored every article about him doing it.  I know how to lose weight and that’s by eating right and exercising. I have lost weight before by doing that, but once I got to my goal weight, it was right back to being overweight.

In late August 2013, I saw the Real Sports episode where DDP helped out Jake the Snake and Scott Hall. The same day, my uncle asked me if everything was okay because he had noticed my huge weight gain. I knew right then that I had to get better. When I got home, I did more research on DDP YOGA and saw the famous Arthur video. I decided to buy DDP YOGA right then because I figured if Arthur, Jake and Scott could do it so can I.

For me, I need a set goal date in mind to lose weight or else it’s not going to happen. So I decided that by the time of the 2014 DDP YOGA Retreat, I will get down to my goal weight of 150lbs (I’m only 5’6.5”). I ate right, got rid of the crap food, walked/ran several days a week and did DDP YOGA 5-6 days a week. I achieved my goal less than a week before the retreat.

I also was able to do my first push-up from my feet 6 weeks after I started. I can now do 30 push-ups in a row with no problem. I have better posture and even grew a half an inch. I am still a bit hunched over but am working on that every day. I can easily run a 5k and my next goal is to run a half-marathon in the next 6 months. I have a lot more energy and rarely take an afternoon nap. My overall mental health has improved a lot because of the eating better and working out.