Growing up, sports were a huge part of my life. I played hockey year-round, competed in tennis, and eventually played junior-level hockey. Being active and competing was something I loved, but as life went on, things changed.

In 2018, my dad passed away, and I didn’t handle it well. I carried a lot of grief, anger, and sadness that I never really dealt with. Instead, I turned to food and alcohol. Over time, I found myself in a place I never imagined. At my heaviest, I weighed 380 pounds. I couldn’t walk more than a few feet without needing to stop. Putting on my shoes was a struggle. Getting dressed was a struggle. More than the physical limitations, I felt ashamed, worthless, and completely stuck. There were moments where I honestly believed my family would be better off without me because I couldn’t see a way out.

I tried a lot of things to change. Weight Watchers. Free workout programs. Promising myself that this would be the last weekend of bad decisions and that I’d start fresh on Monday. The problem wasn’t that I didn’t know what to do. I just couldn’t stay consistent long enough to change my life. I spent years starting over.

What finally changed was realizing I was done dying. I couldn’t keep living the way I was. I wasn’t showing up for my wife. I wasn’t showing up for my kids. I wasn’t showing up for myself. I found a coach and started taking small steps forward. The first six months were far from perfect. Then during a trip with family, I found myself unable to participate in the things everyone else was doing. During that trip, and in the months that followed, I truly believe I was headed toward an early grave. I was done dying and ready to start living again.

But the biggest shift in my journey wasn’t just physical. I stopped trying to carry everything on my own and surrendered my life to God. For years, I had relied on my own strength, my own plans, and my own willpower, and I kept ending up in the same place. When I finally gave my struggles, my grief, and my future to God, everything began to change. That surrender gave me a new perspective, a new purpose, and a foundation that went far beyond weight loss. My faith changed my life. It taught me that true transformation starts from the inside out and that I was never meant to walk this journey alone.