About Me

It started in the summer of 2016. I was at the heaviest I have ever been. At the time, I remember stepping on the scale and it read 254 lbs. I had gotten to a point where I didn’t want my photo to be taken because I was so embarrassed of how far I had let myself go. I was completely unhappy and my coping mechanism was to just continue eating unhealthy foods, with absolutely no activity level.

I knew I had to change. Something had to change. I was getting older, and didn’t want to spend the rest of my life overweight and unhappy. So little by little, I started eating cleaner. Getting more active, and lifting weights.

I have said it before, but most of my weight loss did come from getting my diet under control, and high intensity interval training. ON THE TREADMILL believe it or not.

It wasn’t until I kept getting injured on the treadmill, that I realized I had to figure out an alternative. I had gone on social media and started looking for alternative low impact cardio exercises. I saw swimming, rowing, bicycling, but also saw Jump Rope for the first time.

I was sold immediately, but to be honest, I wasn’t very good. I quickly realized this was a skill that took coordination and focus. However, at the same time, I was able to see rapid improvement.

 

This was huge for me - In the case of going to the gym everyday, it can be discouraging if you don’t see results right away, we kind of want that “instant gratification”. I was able to get that feeling with jump rope.

So while I still tried to put on muscle, I looked to improve in jump rope and it was that which kept me going.

With resistance training in combination with  jump rope I realized what an awesome workout it was for your shoulders, arms and core, if you train properly.

Before long, I realized my confidence came back, and I started caring less about what people thought of me. While I had made all this progress, I still felt like I was over 250lbs, standing next to some of these people at the gym (who have been training their whole life more or less).

But why did I care about these people? They didn’t know my journey or how far I’ve come. Same goes for me looking around at other people - I don’t know what they have going on in their lives either.

It was that realization that launched me to fully accept myself and be happy with who I am. I came full circle. I realized that life was much more fulfilling when I did the things that I liked, without the opinions of others affecting me. I started taking more risks, my confidence grew, and  my comfort zone started shrinking. I simply became happier. 

So in a nutshell, that’s why I created this brand. Stay Gold. It’s a saying that’s been around forever, but it means something to me, and I hope that you can find some meaning in it too.

- Jimmy