Make Exercise a Part of Your Military to Civilian Transition

We have trained you to be a lean, green, fighting machine. What you do with your body after you leave military service is up to you. Most employers are not going to provide you time to work out during working hours. When I graduated from boot camp, I was at my lowest playing weight of 140 lbs.

When I left active duty, I joined the reserves which required me to continue passing the personal fitness test. It became hard to pass the test as I was not in the daily routine of exercising to stay fit. When I left active duty, I was 160 lbs. By the time I was retiring from the reserves, 8 years later, I was at my maximum allowable weight of 183 lbs.

Once the reserves were over, there was nothing holding me accountable on monitoring my weight.?I joined the Isee diet. I see it, I eat it! Before I knew it, I had ballooned up to 246 lbs. What a shame for someone who used to lead his Marines on lunch hour runs and at his peak ran the Marine Corps Marathon two times. I got so big, I did not have a suit that fit. This was a problem in that my contract was coming to an end in 6 months and my company did not have a place for me when the contract was over.

Finally, I decided enough was enough and I did something about it. Being a Marine, it is not like I did not know how to work out. But while in the Marines, diet was not a big deal.?Because we were working out daily, having a piece of cake or a bowl of ice cream just meant we should run an extra mile that day.

Working out is not easy once you get out of routine of doing it. I am here to tell you that the older you get, the harder it will be to shed the weight as well. For me, I had to join a gym, join a weight loss class that met 3 times a week and consult with a dietitian to eliminate all of the things in my diet that were not helping. It was important that my trainer Cara Monacchio was invested in my success and stuck with me through my setbacks. Slowly, but surely, at the end of 6 months, I had lost 40 lbs.?My suits fit again, but more importantly, the confidence/energy boost was apparent in my job interviews.

The keys to my weight loss were having set times to meet with the trainer.?Mentally, because I was paying, I felt an obligation to go. Weighing in at the end of each session made me accountable for my actions and I could see the effect of eliminating certain items from my diet and increasing my weights and repetitions of exercises.

So, while I know transitions can be stressful, exercise reduces stress and makes you feel good. Make appointments in your daily planner to continue working out after leaving active duty and make yourself accountable to keep those appointments, you will be glad you did.

COVID Update: With the gym closing, I ballooned up another 30 pounds. When they reopened, personal trainers made decisions to get into more stable careers. New trainers are arriving and classes are reopening. I have stopped growing. The struggle is REAL folks!