Brian Transformation Showcase Debut
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I have struggled with my weight almost my entire life. I remember gaining quite a bit of weight in the fourth grade and starting fifth grade overweight. I was also a very bashful kid and to throw the insecurities of this extra weight on top of that made for a lot of challenges in my youth. Things like playing shirts versus skins in basketball terrified me and because of that I was constantly trying to lose weight.
I was into sports and was lucky enough to get pretty good at football and play at a collegiate level. The whole time I was playing football I would train endlessly and got into great shape, but never could rid myself of the body fat. I never ate the proper foods to do this, but I didn’t know any better. In college I was a 235lb Offensive Lineman and therefore the coaches were trying to “bulk” me up the entire time I was there. I finished weighing 285lbs with some muscle and a lot of fat from continuing to eat improperly. I continued the eating pattern after football, but the physical activity was absent so I grew up to 340lbs.
During this time I had to watch my father battle with cancer and he ended up losing a lot of his extra weight, but it was because of chemotherapy and not proper diet. We always talked about diet, weight lifting and supplements and enjoyed these discussions when I was in college and playing sports. In wasn’t until recently that I realized that I was still 300+ lbs when he passed away and all those discussions were just talk apparently. He had always lived vicariously through me with my sports and activities and I feel like I had let him down by not taking care of my body when he was going through these difficult battles with cancer. He actually had someone comment about how much weight he had lost and they asked what he had done to lose it. His answer was “Chemotherapy makes you lose weight”. Hearing that and being tired of holding my breath to tie my shoes pushed me to take action.
I was able to drop down to about 250lbs where I maintained until more recently. I did this by changing my lifestyle and eating habits and even got back into weight lifting. I had a boss once say that “sometimes to get where you want you have to step outside your comfort zone” and so I decided to challenge myself by doing a WBFF competition. Whether I would have made the same decisions if my dad was still around will never be known, but I’m sure he is proud of me. My transformation has been over a decade long and includes lifestyle changes, overcoming bashfulness and over 130lb of body fat along with the lifelong belly fat. While I was able to lose 40lbs during this last couple year battle, I plan on ending this lifelong war on the WBFF stage.
With that said, I have just completed my very first competition this past weekend and I competed in a new WBFF Division called Transformation Makeover. I was able to finish in the Top 5 which qualifies me to continue my journey to Las Vegas at the WBFF World Championships and share my transformation story with the masses on the big stage. As one can imagine this endeaver was quite expensive and I never imagined having the opportunity to take my story to Las Vegas. I have 8 weeks until I step on the WBFF Worlds stage and share my story of perseverance, but there are a lot of expenses involved and I'm still trying to figure out how to cover them.
I appreciate any donations towards my goal, no matter how small, as every little bit will help. Any proceeds above what I actually need, I plan to donate to my LCF Church Planting team that is preparing to move across the world to plant churches in locations where Christians are few and far between.
Thank You very much for you support.
Brian Cook
I was into sports and was lucky enough to get pretty good at football and play at a collegiate level. The whole time I was playing football I would train endlessly and got into great shape, but never could rid myself of the body fat. I never ate the proper foods to do this, but I didn’t know any better. In college I was a 235lb Offensive Lineman and therefore the coaches were trying to “bulk” me up the entire time I was there. I finished weighing 285lbs with some muscle and a lot of fat from continuing to eat improperly. I continued the eating pattern after football, but the physical activity was absent so I grew up to 340lbs.
During this time I had to watch my father battle with cancer and he ended up losing a lot of his extra weight, but it was because of chemotherapy and not proper diet. We always talked about diet, weight lifting and supplements and enjoyed these discussions when I was in college and playing sports. In wasn’t until recently that I realized that I was still 300+ lbs when he passed away and all those discussions were just talk apparently. He had always lived vicariously through me with my sports and activities and I feel like I had let him down by not taking care of my body when he was going through these difficult battles with cancer. He actually had someone comment about how much weight he had lost and they asked what he had done to lose it. His answer was “Chemotherapy makes you lose weight”. Hearing that and being tired of holding my breath to tie my shoes pushed me to take action.
I was able to drop down to about 250lbs where I maintained until more recently. I did this by changing my lifestyle and eating habits and even got back into weight lifting. I had a boss once say that “sometimes to get where you want you have to step outside your comfort zone” and so I decided to challenge myself by doing a WBFF competition. Whether I would have made the same decisions if my dad was still around will never be known, but I’m sure he is proud of me. My transformation has been over a decade long and includes lifestyle changes, overcoming bashfulness and over 130lb of body fat along with the lifelong belly fat. While I was able to lose 40lbs during this last couple year battle, I plan on ending this lifelong war on the WBFF stage.
With that said, I have just completed my very first competition this past weekend and I competed in a new WBFF Division called Transformation Makeover. I was able to finish in the Top 5 which qualifies me to continue my journey to Las Vegas at the WBFF World Championships and share my transformation story with the masses on the big stage. As one can imagine this endeaver was quite expensive and I never imagined having the opportunity to take my story to Las Vegas. I have 8 weeks until I step on the WBFF Worlds stage and share my story of perseverance, but there are a lot of expenses involved and I'm still trying to figure out how to cover them.
I appreciate any donations towards my goal, no matter how small, as every little bit will help. Any proceeds above what I actually need, I plan to donate to my LCF Church Planting team that is preparing to move across the world to plant churches in locations where Christians are few and far between.
Thank You very much for you support.
Brian Cook
Organizer
Brian Cook
Organizer
Roosterville, MO