My Story

My story and fitness journey…where do I begin.

My name’s Colin Strong. I’m 5’10”, 195lbs, currently at 15% body fat.
Growing up I was always active. I played sports of all kind including soccer, baseball, basketball, football, lacrosse, rugby, and I love skiing in the wintertime. I participated in Boy Scouts and earned my Eagle Scout ranking at age 15. I have loved the outdoors and participated in recreational activities for a long time with one reservation…being self-conscious.

This was me starting the chunky life strong, at a young age, with Michelin tires for legs. Everyone’s body is built differently and I have come to appreciate the way my body has developed over the past few years. I have always been on the heavier side ever since I can remember.

I never really considered myself “fat” or unhealthy until the jokes and day to day being made fun of, started in middle school. Throughout middle and high school, I have fluctuated in weight gain from 200-240lbs. I quit football in 8^th grade because I was so busy working and putting my time toward other things. As I entered high school, I never was involved in weights class or double days with football so I missed out on a great opportunity right there. I never wanted to take my shirt off swimming, during summer time especially, and looked down on myself for having an awkward body type.

I started to attend a gym with my mom and visit with a personal trainer on occasion. I was roughly 24% body fat at that time and didn’t have serious goals to decrease that percentage at all. I worked at a pizza parlor all through high school, so my diet was quite poor at times. I finally graduated high school in 2010 and weighed around 240lbs. Even after having a membership to the gym wasn’t enough. At the time, I was not aware of how my body worked with calorie intake vs. calorie expenditure.

After high school, I attended college and lost a few pounds here and there from eating less and working out to the best of my fitness knowledge. I always saw others around me who were stronger, more fit, and seemed much happier with their body. I was disappointed every time I looked in the mirror, especially without my shirt on. I struggled with self-confidence and attempted to look on the bright side. I had bad memories from high school and throughout college from people making fun of how fat I was and it was extremely discouraging to hear on a regular basis. Looking back, the reason I never took any pictures of my body, was because it was not a pleasant sight to see myself. I saw others who were much more fit than I was and it made the negative thoughts about myself only worse.

After a year of school, I decided to serve a church mission and was assigned to Las Vegas, NV area. While I was on my mission, I found one of the reasons to lose weight. I wanted to impress my family and myself, when I returned home with the significant transformation that was taking place. I left home at 218lbs and about 18 months later, I returned home in a new fitted suit at 177lbs. This transformation took dedication, motivation, and will power to get the results I wanted. I wanted it bad enough that I went out and got what I always was in search of…a body I was comfortable in. I still had flaws I recognized every day and couldn’t fix immediately, just like my weight problem. My next stop was consideration of plastic surgery.

At one point before my weight loss, I made a visit to a local plastic surgeon to see if I could receive a nipple reduction. As I had been larger for most of my growing up, my chest and nipples were stretched out so much that I made poor comments to my mom how I wanted to get rid of them so bad. The one self-conscious issue I had the biggest problems with was my chest. If I could change one thing about my body, my chest is the first thing I would’ve changed. Instead, I continued to push forward thinking, “One day…I hope these will go away”. I believe I have gynecomastia to a degree and am embracing it day by day.

Let’s fast forward a couple years to today. Here I am, back at college, in the best shape of my life, weighing in at 195lbs at 15% body fat. I am now married to the most beautiful woman who inspires me to love my body the way it is. I have come to realize that if someone can love my body the way it is, I should be able to myself. My wife has known me since I was heavier and can now appreciate the person I have become. I have been able to learn so much about my body, new exercises, nutrition, and overall wellness. I currently go to the gym here at college, every single day, never missing a day, no matter the excuse. I have so many friends who support me in my fitness journey and that has inspired me to share my story with others. Yet I have not lost an incredible amount of weight, as many other amazing people have, I know I can help others reach their true potential by sharing my story. As life has gone on, I have learned a lot from many people in how the body works. I have tried to implement what works best for my body. It has taken a lot of time, patience, dedication, and motivation to get to where I am today.

I know each of us has a story to share because someone out there in the world, needs to hear your motivating story to realize they can do it too. Inspire others to reach their potential and uplift those around you to never give up, work hard, and get results!

Now, let me share one last thought from Eric Thomas. “If you want to succeed as bad as you want to breathe, then you will be successful”. I know there are so many excuses why you can’t do something, but flip that situation around. Make reasons why you can do something. Find the drive within you to accomplish anything in your future. When you think something is hard, man up. You will push through any obstacle in your path. Believe in yourself. Think about the people in your life that you may be doing this for, and then accomplish one more goal. Progression takes time and there is no quick fix to getting fit. Stop dreaming about how you should look and get to the gym and make that dream become a reality. Nonetheless, you will see failure, but if you never saw failure, you would never appreciate your successes.

Let your body become a never-ending passion you seek to make the best of. God has only given you one, so take care of it and live your life to the fullest. I look forward to sharing more inspiration and sharing other people’s success stories. Let me know what motivates you and follow my blog at IAMCOLINSTRONG.WORDPRESS.COM and subscribe to my youtube channel, COLIN STRONG. Thanks guys, and until next time, ask yourself this every day…”What’s your why?”