Introducing the CrossFit Cervus team

My Journey Back into Fitness and Struggle with Body Image Issues My fitness journey began in January of 2014. The photo on the left is me in 2012 at close to my heaviest and I looked pretty much the same when I started this adventure. The photo on the right is more recent. I’m surprised I was even able to find evidence of what I refer to as my “low point”. You see, the entire decade prior I was the person behind the camera, taking pictures of my family but rarely ever having pictures taken of me (and if there were, I was quick to veto their use on social media). My body image issues hindered ten years of memories with my family that could have been captured in time. I was embarrassed that I had let myself go. At the time, I was ashamed of myself. In those days, the social butterfly that I had previously been wanted nothing more than to relax at home or catch up on my sleep because I was perpetually tired from “working long days”. Of course my wife and I went out for nights of partying or to restaurants, but I never felt good about being out and couldn’t wait to get back home and get back into my pajamas (the only “pants” I owned that weren’t restrictive). They were excuses. I wasn’t too tired from work. My actual job was far from physically demanding. I sat on my butt for 10 hours a day, only breaking a sweat to walk 100 yds to grab a long “working lunch” of a heaping plate of schnitzel and fries with a couple of German beers (we were living in Germany for much of that decade). My idea of relaxing was creating a horizontal Duke-sized indent on my couch. The Perinos were not participating in outdoorsy, physical family activities that our German neighbors enjoyed on their weekends. Nope. We stayed home and I laid on the couch basically doing nothing — for nearly ten years. Being that I lived a sedentary lifestyle, my body was plagued with minor injuries and normal sicknesses. These added to my excuses of why I wouldn’t bring my kids to the park down the street. When I finally decided that I had enough I was at my all time low. There was zero confidence in myself. My ability to walk up and talk to strangers no longer existed. It wasn’t that I became unfriendly, I had just become introverted. The people in my life might not have seen me that way, but I knew better. I was the one avoiding public outings and get togethers. However, I couldn’t hide from myself. In late 2013 my wife and I agreed that I would take a job in Afghanistan for a year in order to change our family’s future. It was a sacrifice of being apart in the short term to have a better quality of life in the long term. Having been deployed to a war zone before I knew I had the opportunity to focus on my health. You see, you have two choices when overseas…either you fall further into your rut by overeating and watching movies, or you spend your free time in the gym. I chose the latter. Besides, my doctors had already given me an ultimatum of “Start eating better and working out or go on medication for the rest of your life.” I buckled down, got my diet under control by watching the quality of my food and portion sizes, and hit the gym daily. Four months from my start date and I was at my target weight, 50 lbs lighter. Yes, it happened that quick. It wasn’t easy but it wasn’t impossible. It took tons of dedication, determination, and quite honestly, being sick of my current state. Fast forward to today and I’ve not only been able to maintain my body fat percentage (I no longer focus on what the scale reads, but instead how I feel), I’ve managed to increase my strength and stamina in measures of magnitude. The reason being is not so I can be proud of walking around with my shirt off, but so I can be on the other side of the camera preserving memories with my family. It’s not impossible, but you have to start in order to change. #CrossfitCervus