My road to discovering and learning how to apply nutrition principles in my daily diet habits has taken place over a number of years and still continues. In fact I’m constantly learning better ways of applying the nutrition principles I’ve learned so far. Here’s a glimpse into my past and where I’ve come from so you can get a better feel for where I’ve come from:
2004 to Present – Eating Nutritiously being Married with Children: Now that I’m married and have 4 children I find it even easier to eat more nutritiously which is probably a surprising statement to hear for most people. My wife is an amazing accountability partner and is a firm believer and implementer of healthy & nutritious eating. Both of us make an amazing pair in a lot of ways but especially when it comes to enforcing healthy habits in our own lives and the lives of our children.
In 2005 I began learning about the principles of prosperity in a major way from this guy named Rick Koerber (a.k.a. The Free Capitalist). He hosted a very inspiring radio show where he taught and discussed the fascinating world of the benefits of living a principled life. I experienced a major paradigm shift at that time that inspired me a do even better at basing my life upon principle. I’ve learned that striving to base my decisions each day upon principle will guide me (and all of us for that matter) to a positive result each and every time. Do I make mistakes, of course, all the time! I’ve found though that living by success principles doesn’t remove necessary struggles in life that allow us to get stronger but rather instill within us a unique type of assurance, trust & knowledge that the decision being made at any given moment, if rested upon principle, will always lead to a positive and beneficial outcome.
College Years: During these years I graduated from LDS business college and studied Nutritional Science at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah and loved it! Getting a specialized education helped a great deal about helping me choose wise food choices, how to understand the negative and positive benefits of food on our bodies and much more. I have to say though most of what I know today about nutrition came through my own study outside of BYU. I am a voracious reader, especially when it comes to self help and nutritional books. I’ll develop a list of the books I’ve read and placed them on this site so you can refer to them.
1998 – 2004 – Nutrition Entrepreneurial Ventures and College: The first book I read that placed me on the path of nutrition wasn’t even a nutrition book! It was called “Don’t Sweat the Small Stuff” by Richard Carlson. In his book I recall him recommending joining a network marketing company to get on the path of generating passive income. That concept intrigued me so I began searching out a network marketing company that I could believe in to promote. I ended up joining a networking marketing company called Equinox International with Bill Gould as the founder and CEO of that company. Equinox promoted top of the line nutritional water filters and vitamin and mineral supplements that I thought were outstanding. Despite the management at Equinox turning corrupt and the FTC shutting them down over night this experience set me on a path of learning more about the effects of nutrition on our health. I began to research nutritional topics all the time each week and since then I’ve always had some type of nutritional book to read, trying different nutritional approaches and experiencing some amazing health miracles in my life. What I still didn’t have though was an understanding of what a principle was and how that would help me make sound nutritional decisions. I later on joined USANA and was impressed about their systems and product but decided it wasn’t for me and moved on. Taking supplements was a regular occurance since that time after being involved with Equinox and USANA. Working with these two companies nudged me in the direction to dig deeper into understanding more about the effects of nutrition in the human body.
1996-1998 – Living on my Own: During this time I served a full time mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints in the Dusseldorf, Germany mission. While I was there it the first time I was completely on my own to fend for myself, to eat whatever I wanted and make my own choices. Because I didn’t have all that much knowledge about nutrition principles I consumed a lot of pastries that the Germans so wonderfully create in their Delicatessens 🙂 Had I not of been so active as a missionary, walking around every day, riding bikes, running to catch buses, trains and getting to appointments on time, I would have easily gain 50 or more pounds! In retrospect the diet of a missionary in German wasn’t all too bad, but I still could have enjoyed a higher quality of living while I was there had I possessed the knowledge of what nutrition principles were so I could make better food choices for my body.
1988 to 1996 – Junior and High School and Nutrition: This is when I really started to hit the gym hard every day either at school or at the gym down the street. I started using weight gainer and protein powder along with my daily diet which was good but not as good as it could have been because of the common reason you’ve learned about so far which is nutrition education. a little bit, but not too much and still got fairly good results. I was 145 benching 250lbs. Back then your bench was the stat that everyone looked at and seemed to be the primary measurement that determined if you were “buff or not” 🙂 At home I had my own old school weights with the cement center…remember those? good times. This is when I really started to turn weight lifting and exercise into a way of life. Since then I’ve never stopped. There have been times where I haven’t consistently worked out, but for the most part I’ve kept at it primarily because of where my life core values lie which are keeping healthy and loving a good challenge that I can control. I’ve never been interested in becoming grotesquely enormous or into extreme body sculpting or competitions. I am however in very interested in reaching my personal fitness goals which I’ll share on this site and share my progress with you.
1977 to 1988 – Childhood and Nutrition: Ever since I was young I’ve been involved with eating nutritiously thanks to my parents. As most kids though I didn’t really know how to appreciate what they provided to me growing up, especially when it came to nutrition. My Dad always planted a great and amazing garden in our back yard full of all types of amazing plants ranging from tomatoes, jalapenos, green bell peppers, licorice herb, carrots, beets, bamboo,lettuce,grapes, etc. My Mom would create tasty meals and us kids (I’m the oldest of 6) would scarf them down like no ones business. During these years if the food was in front of me I ate it. Then I would burn it off by playing hours and hours of basketball with my friend or working at various jobs including my lawn mowing business. If I had educated myself back then about the power of nutritional foods there’s no doubt I would have been able to do far greater things physically. Despite the lack of nutritional knowledge, I had a wonderful childhood thanks to my parents watching out for my best interest.