Private Training sessions with Mel Menor

About three years ago, I was at the heaviest weight of my life (215 pounds at 5'5"). 

Though I was an avid weightlifter, I hated running and most other cardio exercises.  Adding on top of that, I had a really bad diet that often consisted of two fast food meals daily.  As a result, I had high blood pressure and high cholesterol for which my doctor was about prescribe medication.  I was 25 at the time.

I had always wanted to do some sort of martial arts/self defense, so I figure doing boxing would kill two birds with one stone.  I checked out three different boxing gyms around the San Diego area and I found that the Boxing Club had the most friendly trainers as well a relaxed environment.  After the very first one hour class with Lawson (one of the trainers who is an active professional), I was hooked.  I had never workout so hard in my life! 

After just doing the group boxing classes for about 6 months, I was able to drop 20 pounds without even changing my diet.  At that point I started private training sessions with Mel Menor (world champion kick boxer) and eventually felt confident enough to go in the ring for some sparring.  Once I started sparring, I was motivated to try my hand at one amateur fight and that motivated me to try to drop a few more weight classes by starting extensive running and dieting.  In the past I could never keep up any running or dieting program because I didn't have any goals other than losing weight.  This time the motivation was not having to fight a 6'3" cruiserweight in my first amateur fight!  Because of that goal, I kept up the running and cleaned up my eating habits.  It certainly wasn't overnight, but over the next two years I dropped 40 more pounds and fought my first amateur fight at 155 pounds!

When I went to my doctor for a physical, she was pleasantly surprised that my blood pressure and cholesterol were all within the normal range.  It sounds pretty cliché but it is really true in my case.  Boxing completely changed my life and probably added a few years to it!