In April of 2012, while driving home from picking up my four year old son from daycare, my life changed.
While driving home, I noticed something odd with my right hand. It seemed to be tingling. By the time I got home, the sensation had moved from my hand, to my entire arm. I figured it would go away and I was just tired. I hadn't been sleeping much since our second child was born, and he was going through a difficult time teething. A few hours later after putting them to bed, I jumped in the shower. I realized that as I shampooed my hair, my face was going numb, and my scalp felt tingly.
I got out of the shower and talked to my wife and let her know I was going to go lay down on the bed. She immediately told me I should get to a hospital. I told her I was fine, but after she threatened me in various ways… I decided ok I'll go to the hospital.
The Hospital
When I got to the hospital, they checked my blood pressure ASAP. I was actually pretty calm assuming I'd be fine. The lady looked at me, called a doctor, and they had me shirtless and on a bed getting hooked up to a bunch of cables, blood pressure monitors, and other things I didn't really understand (yet). I remember looking over to my phone to text my wife, but my cell phone was dead. Next I looked over to the monitor, and realized that my blood pressure said 189 over 115. Now I didn't know much about blood pressure at the time, but I knew enough to know that those numbers were CLEARLY WRONG. They weren't.
For the next four hours I sat there looking up at the ceiling while doctors took blood, ran tests, and tried to figure out what was going on.
I remember thinking to myself “For everything I've been able to accomplish for myself, my kids, my family, how have I let my fitness and health crumble to the ground like this! What if I die right here right now? My cell is dead. Nobody will know for hours…”
Something snapped in my head, and my life would never be the same again.
The State of My Health
I was 230 pounds. A much larger version of myself than I have ever been in my life. I hid it pretty well by wearing baggy clothes and spending most of my day sucking in my stomach. The first day after the hospital, I wanted to hit the ground running. Literally.
I tried to run, but after only getting to about 5 houses down my street, I turned around, defeated, and realized pretty quickly that I was in terrible shape. I went to work, and when I got there, I thought to myself “let’s take the stairs. No, let’s run up the stairs”. By the time I got upstairs, I was sweating buckets. It was only two flights of stairs to the second floor. It took me about 10 minutes to stop breathing heavily.
How on earth would I turn my life around? How could I get myself back into shape where I was proud to walk around? Where I was proud to take off my shirt again. And more importantly, how could I get back in shape so that my wife kids could have a healthy dad for a long, long time.
My Fitness Success
This blog is all about my journey from being a fat, out of shape, traveling computer consultant, to a fit, healthy, full of energy dad. In four months, I have gone from a 230 pound, size 38 wearing guy that couldn't run 10 seconds and could no longer wear his dress shirts with ties, to a guy that walks around at 170 pounds, size 30 waist, that runs 5 km 4 times a week and on occasion half marathons to kick it up a notch.
The purpose of this blog is not to brag, it is to share with you my story of how I did it, and keep me motivated on my journey to stay healthy. Hopefully I can also help you along your journey, no matter where you currently are on the path to health and fitness.
Miguel Carrasco
