Personal Trainer / Nutrition Coach / Professional Star Wars Geek.

I was always the bigger kid growing up, though when you’re in America, that’s not unusual, unfortunately. 

I’ve always thought about my appearance; ever since I was in kindergarten, I’ve always felt disgusted when I saw my reflection. Growing up, I chose to always wear thick attire via sweatshirts and sweatpants irregardless of the ambient temperature to hide my body because I felt like I didn’t match the same shape as everyone else. 

I wasn’t skinny.

“Skinny” to me was something I wanted to be to an obsessive extent. I’d spend every day thinking about my weight, I’d spend hours straight sucking in my gut to give the illusion that I was thin. 

But despite my constant fear of gaining additional weight, overtime that’s exactly what happened. With every year passed, it felt like I increased my radius more and more. 

I didn’t know anything about nutrition. I heard about calories a couple times from doctors, but I was never informed on WHAT they were and why they were important. All I knew was that if you ate too many, you gained fat.

I even remember a time in middle school where during gym class, we were exercising in our school’s weight room. I was doing 100 lbs on the lat pulldown machine when a teacher came up to me and told me not to lift too heavy or else I’d get too bulky. 

“Bulky” to me at the time sounded like “fat”, so this freaked me out from lifting.

It wasn’t until 8th grade that my gym teacher recommended I’d play football in high school. 

Big kid = Good Lineman 

I thought about it, but since I knew nothing about the sport, I shrugged it off until the end of my freshman year of highschool. At the start of the year, I weighed in at 282.2lbs but continued to balloon up. I’m confident I surpassed 300 at some point, if not more. 

At that point, I was fed up. I’ve spent my whole life judging myself and hiding away due to shame. I was done and I was pissed. 

And I was also determined. 

So in a completely random on the spot decision, I decided to cut everything out cold turkey.

No soda, no processed foods, no fast food, no sugar, no fatty foods, no salt, no nothing.

I went on a complete 180 w/ my diet. From 2+ liters of soda per day to 0, from eating out 4x per week to 0, from eating mostly prepackaged foods to solely self cooked.

In hindsight, this was NOT AT ALL a smart decision, but because my only knowledge of nutrition was essentially just  “processed bad, unprocessed good” and “calories made you fat”, my rational was buy cutting as many calories as possible while eating as many whole foods as I could, I’d lose weight.

And boy did I lose weight. 

Ran every day, regardless of the time or weather. Even the 2015 New Enlgand blizzard didn’t stop me. 

By the time I finished high school, I was a completely different person. I’ve lost roughly 95lbs and for the first time in my life, I felt happy with myself. 

Now for the fun part!

Like many other teens, I didn’t know what I wanted to do after highschool. I’ve thought about college, but I feared going into tens of thousands of dollars in depth for a degree I’d regret. Our education system pushes you to go to college and rains down the belief that if you don’t have a degree, you won’t be successful. 

Load of Shhh in my opinion.

But at the time, I bought into it and like many others my age, I was freaking out as graduation was approaching, so in a last ditch effort to seem like I knew what I was doing, I signed up for the military.

Went to my local Marine Corps recruiter and signed a 4-year overseas contract. Did all the processing, and within a year and a half, I was off to Parris Island, South Carolina.

I don’t regret this at all, as I've made amazing relationships along the way, plus this decision led to me eventually working my dream job as a personal trainer.

But up until this point, I did a good job at hiding that I was in a constant deep stress regarding nutrition. I’d avoid social gatherings and eating out because something had “too much salt, or “too many carbs”, or was “too processed”. I’ve developed a deep fear of anything I didn't deem healthy, which to me meant anything that wasn’t lowcarb, low salt, low sugar, lowfat, and/or low calorie.

So went I went off to bootcamp, and I developed a purely vegan diet. I’d avoid meat because someone online said meat can kill you. While I don’t have a quarrel with the vegan diet, eating low calorie diet when I’m burning 2,000+ additional calories EVERY DAY was not a good combo. 

In essence, I became very gaunt. I’ve lost pounds of muscle and because of that, I’ve lost a high percentage of my strength. Came into bootcamp doing 7 pullups, couldn't even do 1 two months later. My endurance tanked and overall, I couldn't continue. I came home from bootcamp in a severe depression as I believed I'd failed. Not only failing bootcamp, but life as a whole.

Sounds extreme, sure, but at the time, my whole being was dedicated towards military service. I had no backup plan so when I came back, I didn’t know what I was going to do.

I came home feeling empty, I went into my room, closed the shades, and only left the house a handful of times. I basically hid myself from the world for over a year. 

Again, seems extreme, but when I look back into my state of mind at the time, by this point, I was conditioned to believe from school that in order to have a successful career, you NEED to have a degree. 

And I didn’t have good grades either. Being diagnosed with ADHD + Tourettes Syndrome made it very difficult for me to learn and hold onto new information. And with a subpar grade point average, I feared I wouldn’t qualify for any scholarships. And because I had no backup plan, I wouldn’t even know where to begin.

This was the darkest point in my life. I’d wake up, not eat, sit in my room, and fall asleep. And when I did eat, the food I had came from a list of foods I knew wouldn't kill me. 

This went on for a long time. Through this process, somehow I transitioned from vegan to omnivore, keto, lowfat, and to even carnivore at some point. 

It wasn’t until one day where I was scrolling through random podcasts that I came across the Swolenormous podcast. I listened and instantly became hooked. What got me wasn’t just the host, but the community built around the show. There was a whole facebook community of people who’d post transformation stories, talk about nutrition, and support one another. 

I became infatuated with this community and I’d tune in to every livestream to talk with them. Listening to all the health stories sparked a memory I forgot about; when I was my happiest.

Training with the football team in the gym during highschool.

Another memory was sparked as well.

My original dream job from back in middle school.

To be a personal trainer. 

To help people transform their lives. To be a positive influence. To shoot the shit and be in the gym. 

Instantly I searched up various personal training certifications. With my mother’s help, I got certified within 4 months, and immediately began applying to every gym in my area. 

At this point, it’s February 2021, just after the lockdowns, so gyms weren’t exactly in the best place hiring-wise. 

I eventually landed a job working at a local YMCA 10 minutes from my house. And from here, the trajectory of my life instantly changed. 

For the first time, I’d wake up in the morning excited! I would eagerly drive down, train, and come home with a smile on my face. 

The amount of joy and sheer happiness I felt to finally get out of that pit isn’t easy for me to articulate in words, but trust me, it was nice. 

Was I the best trainer first starting out?

NO

I’ve personally navigated through the Dunning Kruger Effect. After my initial cert, I thought I knew everything and acted like it. This didn’t lead to a lot of sales.

But once I delved into the world of nutrition/exercise science, I realized just how much I didn’t know. My confidence dropped as it was a bit overwhelming, but I was determined to make this work.

As I became more knowledgeable, my views on nutrition went from radical to relaxed. I understood that everybody is different and nutrition is a highly nuanced subject. Same with exercise. 

This boosted my effectiveness in helping others. And overtime, helped me as well with my own nutrition. I no longer feared carbs, fats, salt, or even processed foods. I learned to include a variety of different foods into my diet and when I didn’t keel over dead after biting into a banana, my whole paradigm practically shattered. 

I became obsessed with learning. Listening to over 50,000 minutes (34 days) worth of educational material that year alone! 

Along with audiobooks and podcasts, I took time out of my day to research different subjects and amalgamate them into pdf guides, which would eventually lead to me creating HeneyFitness.

HeneyFitness is essentially a time capsule for all the things I’ve learned about; a hub of free, high quality information. I wished I had something like this back when I was 14, so being able to create something that I know has the potential to really help someone, gives me purpose. 

That’s my story! Going from a high bodyfat % to an unhealthily low % through various diets paired with chronic intensive training. From a deep state of depression to working my dream job! It’s been an interesting ride, but the coaster hasn’t ended yet. 

I’m still a young kid writing this, I’m only 23 and have a ton of time to further grow and learn. My goal is to reach as many people as I can before I kick the barrel. 

I want to thank you, really, for taking the time out of your day to read this.

Means a lot!

In fact, in my gratitude, here’s a cookie.