I guess as far as my story goes. I should start as far as I care to remember. I had always been an athletic person. I was a three sport athlete in high school and played D-3 Football. In college, I was 6’5 280, and during a game in college, my knee went through a defenders helmet. It was a freak accident that required 68 stitches to close. (44 of them were inside stitches). So, that put an end to my athletic career. From then, I grew lazy, and felt sorry for myself.

After that, my weight ballooned to an insane amount. I was over 400 pounds, but I never felt I had a problem, because of my height. I never weighed myself in the beginning. Because, quite frankly, if I knew exactly what the weight was, I would have been so depressed I might not have started. Then a few years ago, my college roommate, Mike, asked me to be in his wedding. I decided at that point I did not want to look horrible in a suit, so I decided to try and lose weight.

It was a struggle going to the gym every single day. Finding the desire to leave my bed, put the video game down, or stop binge watching Netflix was a constant struggle. But, I was constantly reminded of how I would look in those wedding pictures so I found the motivation.

I have been a lifelong wrestling fan, and during workouts at the gym, I often would listen to podcasts. I heard Chris Jericho’s podcast about DDP Yoga, and I said “I like wrestling, Jericho, and DDP, so this gives me another option to do instead of the gym.” So I gave the DVDs a shot. DDP Yoga gave me extra motivation I needed. I could not believe how easy the workouts were. The modifications that DDP has shown for each yoga position made the workouts not only worthwhile, but also fun. I grew tired of the gym and the same workout every single day. This at least changed the routine and allowed me to set my pace and push my body to levels I haven’t pushed myself since I played college football.
I was so happy that before the wedding when I stepped on the scale I was just shy of 320 pounds. Sadly, I never got to look at those pictures of myself in that tux for the wedding. The day before my college roommates 28th birthday, he lost his battle with Leukemia.
However, I kept at it. I felt like I was in the best shape of my life. Now, at age 30, I am almost 2 and a half years into doing DDP yoga. I am currently at 241 pounds. I am doing things I never dreamed of doing. Competing in 5ks, cosplaying at comic cons, teaching history at my dream job, and getting back into athletic competition. I am however, one goal shy. That goal is playing competitive ice hockey. I have been using my DDP yoga more, with the full goal of this winter taking the ice skates I bought and learning how to skate, getting on the ice, and eventually playing.

I would like to thank DDP for creating this program, without it, I feel I would have gone back into my lazy mode of not wanting to get into the gym, for years of entertainment (Ready to Rumble ruled… Jimmy King forever!), and for getting my ass into gear. Chris Jericho, for his podcast, without it, I wouldn’t have learned about DDP Yoga the way I had. Jake Roberts and Scott Hall for being so accountable as to showing how this product works. And lastly and certainly not least, Mike and Liz, for trusting me enough to put me in their wedding, for being people who felt that I was a good enough person to be in their wedding and for being one of the first people to notice everything I was doing was working.