Hey There!
My Name is Broderick. I’m a health and fitness enthusiast trying to fit too much activity and information into not enough time.
My goal is to create a collection of easy to follow health and fitness best practices that I can fall back on and people can incorporate into their life.
How it Started
I have always been active, I played multiple sports in high school and was always in motion. In 2011 I started practicing the Afro-Brazilian Martial art of Capoeira and continue practicing to this day. After college I started putting on some weight. I felt slow on my feet and wasn’t as confident in the mirror as I had once been. I had assumed this was just part of the aging process and there was nothing I could do.
The turning point came when my job installed a blood pressure monitor on their ground floor cafeteria. My father used to struggle with high blood pressure mentioned his eyes would hurt when is blood pressure was high. I was sitting at my desk and noticed some pressure behind my eyes that had become more regular and I took the opportunity to walk down and check. I was hypertensive before I was 30. Sitting at a nice 150/93 (Stage 2 Hypertension).
This sent me into a spiral. I thought I was doing everything right and clearly I needed to re-evaluate. So I did what anyone would have done in my situation. I went to the internet. I tried every trick in the book. I started reading Men’s health, I started eating more salads, started running. Nothing seemed to work. It was frustrating to see influencers everywhere talking about their 3 easy steps.
So I spent time looking at fitness books and found the Bigger Leaner Stronger Series by Michael Matthews. Matthews broke down basic fitness and body systems into something I could follow. He provided guidance on physiology, nutrition, the science behind muscle growth, how weight loss and gain works, and provides workout plans for all levels. It was here that I thought I found the answers. So I read his information, put together a workout plan, and proceeded to do everything incorrectly.
in 2020 I was 215lb/100kg at around 25% body fat. I learned that if I ate less than my body needed in a day I would lose weight. I didn’t worry about protein intake, or macros, or energy balance. I ate less than I burned while starting to lift weights, and after a year I was down 46lbs/23kg to 169lbs/77kg.
I felt terrible. I was gaunt, I was temperamental, I had no energy, and I had lost a LOT of muscle. I was faster now without all that weight but I couldn’t take a hit like before either.
Back to the book. This time in earnest. I started tracking my calories and my macros, and my workouts started to improve. I started to build up my weight in a healthy way and my energy came back full swing. As I was learning more about how to eat right, I also started becoming curious about the rest of my health. Then came the next bombshell.
While looking into my bloodwork I found I was at early risk for a heart attack due to an extremely high LDL cholesterol. So even now that I was on the right track, there was more to be done. This is when the snowball gained its momentum. I started keeping track closer track on my health and my body and have been steadily making progress ever since.
Where its Going
Now I am sitting back at 200lb/90kg at around 18% body fat. My cholesterol is down to a fraction of what it was and my Blood Pressure is at an infant level. I am sleeping better and able to maintain my activity level without burning myself out.
My goal for this blog is the following:
- Provide clear easy to follow scientifically backed information.
- Establish a list of my own Protocols that can be used as a live example.
- Help others achieve their health and fitness goals
- Work towards a Long, Happy, and Healthy life.
I don’t have all the answers. But I will have some of them.
If my content is something that has helped you, please connect me to others so it can help them too.
Please note I am not a doctor. I do not have a PhD, and I am not interested in pursuing one. I am a NASM Credentialed Personal Trainer, and I take my health very seriously. Everything is harder when you are not healthy. So my goal is like so many others before me. Chasing the secrets of a long, healthy, and happy life.