Wake Up & Be Happy Challenge 

My name is Alex Nugent and this is me and my journey in health and fitness...

 

I'm 24 years old, 6 feet tall and current 192 pounds which I try to keep at mostly muslce mass. My introduction into the health and fitness world was somewhat of an easy one; I've never been over-weight or delt with weight issues and here in-lies the irony.

 

While I've never personally struggled with obesity I know many people who have. About half of my family has delt with diabetes, though not necessarily adult-onset. My uncle in fact had a large stroke over a year ago and I can say without a doubt that it was due to his diabetes. He has since lost weight and (as far as I know) conquered his battle with biabetes. 

 

I started becoming interested in fitness in the summer of 2012 during my summer job in the woods of northen Wisconsin. I hated running as a child but in my late teens and early 20's found a love for running, especially over the summers that I spent on the lake in Door County, Wi. It was here that my love for fitness and exercise. Through my own research I found out what supplements I liked and what was necessary and what wasn't. Currently I only take protein shakes with creatine mixed in and BCAA's (base chain amino acids). I've come to realize I should have been an Exercise/Sports Sciene major in college. 

 

While, as I've said, I havn't delt with obesity I have had my share of body image problems. There was a time when if I did have a rock hard stomach I'd starve myself of carbs and run myself ragged. It hasn't been until recently that I've really gotten to a place where I'm happy with my body even when I'm not at 6% body fat which just goes to show that body image problems aren't soley an obesity problem.

 

The biggest thing I've learned from lifting and taking up a bodybuilder lifestyle is that no amount of training can counter act a bad diet. While my lifting stats aren't amazing I would say I'm more active than 65% of the American population. I believe there is a problem with our government and our food industry in that they keep telling us that more exercise is the answer to the obesity epidemic. This couldn't possibly be the answer. We've seen more gym memberships than ever since the American Obesity Crisis and our waist lines are not growing smaller but bigger! There can only be one answer, it's what we're being fed....

 

That's why I'm here and that's why this challenge was started, to raise awareness to the true cause of obesity which is sugar. Sugar is in every processed, non-fat food product because it has to be for it to taste good enough to eat. It is sugar, which causes the same receptors to fire in the brain as if it was on cocaine, that is the real culprit and subsequently the major food companies that are responsible for our current state. 

 

So take the challenge, change your life.... Wake Up & Be Happy! 

 

Thank you for taking the time to make your life better,

 

Alex Nugent