Ryan started at the FVT studio almost exactly one year ago looking to weight, shed body fat, and gain back the fitness he once had.

He had been fit and active in the past, but for a variety of reasons, let himself slip out of peak condition.

In the last twelve months, training at the studio three or four times per week and laser-focusing on his nutrition, Ryan has:

– Lost about 20 pounds
– Dropped over 8% body fat
– Ran a 7:08 mile for the first time since he was 18
– Is planning not one but TWO half marathons in the next couple of months

Check out the message Ryan posted on Facebook the other day copied below:

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In the FVT Nutrition Coaching Group, Forest Vance asked us to share our ‘reason why’ stories: why we’re in the group, why we joined. I decided to share it beyond the group because when others, like Erik Daniells, have shared their stories, I have always found it far more beneficial and even inspirational to know someone personally who has take control of their life, their health, and thus their future. So, here’s mine, in the hopes that someone may get motivated to take care of their health like I did watching Erik’s transformation:

The picture here is from January 2010. I weighed 235 lbs, was nearly completely sedentary, and generally in a terrible physical state and mental outlook. Just a few years before I was the most slim I’d ever been as an adult, at 185 lbs and regularly exercising, but still with some poor habits. In high school I ran cross country and track and couldn’t keep weight on from the mileage; that all changed once I graduated and stopped the activity and started a terrible spiral of weight gain, probably a mild depression because of it, and a debilitating helplessness in which I never took responsibility or action to be healthier.

At the time this 2010 photo was taken, not yet 30 years old, I was winded walking up the parking garage stairs to my car, and perpetually buying larger and larger clothes. One day in January, I read about a person in the Capitol community who’d died at just 40, quite unexpectedly. That day, after another struggle up the stairs and seeing this picture, I decided to make a change.

I began exercising again, logging my food into an app on my phone and within a few months I’d lost almost 25 lbs. Going at it solo, with no structure proved extremely challenging after a while and by late 2012 I’d gained back about half the weight. All the while, I’d watched Erik transform himself through diet and exercise and thought, “What is stopping me? Why don’t I make that change?”

One year ago today, I walked into Forest Vance Training, Inc. for a 6 am boot camp, late, having eaten hardly anything, and terrified about the physical demands of the workout. After nearly passing out more than once, I gritted through it and quite literally could barely walk up my own stairs at home from the intensity of that first workout on my previously fit body, which was in such desperate need of rehabilitation. I hurt for days, even after my second session and my third. I could barely change my clothes during the final performances of the show I was doing that weekend, but despite that hurt I felt good.

Last February I weighed 222 lbs and was nearly 28% body fat. Today I weigh 205 lbs and am 19.8% body fat – below 20% for the first time since I was a teenager, probably. Today I’m a few weeks away from my first half-marathon. Two weeks ago I ran a mile in 7:08 for the first time since I was 18. Today, I’m planning for my second half-marathon.

My reason why isn’t just one reason: there are many. I joined FVT as a client because I don’t want to die of something preventable at age 40, because I don’t want to make excuses why I can’t do something, because I want to challenge myself to do things I didn’t think I could do. My reason why is because I didn’t want to be on heartburn medicine for the rest of my life, or keep buying pants in larger sizes, or wheeze on the way up the stairs to my car.

My reason why is not to be thin or lose weight – though that was part of my goal, it is no longer the most important one. My reason why is that I want to look in the mirror and see a healthy person, who goes outside and enjoys the weather, enjoys a run, enjoys how exercise and good choices make me feel, and know that living healthy isn’t about a diet or the next 6 months…it’s about living a whole life. That’s my reason why.

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CONGRATS to you Ryan!! Awesome, awesome job. We are so happy to be a part of your progress are honored to have you as a client and friend.

– The FVT Team