About Me…

Well, welcome to the blog! I’m Eric and Guy vs Diet is my site and my life’s ongoing challenge. I started this site because I face a ton of issues with health, both physical and mental. It’s been ongoing for a while and for once in my life I feel the need to change and finally get in the shape I dream of. If you’re new here, welcome! It’s a brand new site I’m building for the end of 2025 into 2026. I plan on blogging, figuring out food choices, lifestyle changes, what I do in the gym, what my body stats are, and how it changes throughout 2026. Let’s dig into my past…

Growing Up…

Let’s just say it was interesting. Well, I was insanely shy; I could barely speak to my own parents or friends, let alone girls. I got scolded in preschool for not talking to anyone or responding when asked a question. I was withheld from going out to recess so they could have a talk with me about being shy and not talking. And there was some anger involved. Not on my end—I really had no idea why they did that. I kind of was happy I didn’t have to stand alone during recess. That’s right, I was the guy who couldn’t work up the courage to speak to anyone, so I stood alone until recess would end. I would be too shy and embarrassed to get anywhere near the playground to try to have fun.

Start of Early Life

Around 2nd or 3rd grade I finally gained a friend. Most attempted friendships were when my parents had other kids come over to play, and I really wanted nothing to do with that. I had zero social skills and no clue what was going on. Having a friend was great and scary for me. It got me out of my comfort zones and opened me up a little bit. However, by 5th grade I moved away. I was sad to lose a friend but happy to leave the school I was in. I think I was happy because I had failed a test just prior to leaving and was relieved my parents would not see that grade.

A Wake Up and Slap to My Face

My welcome to a new school was somewhat devastating to me; it was huge compared to where I came from. My first day in class was one of my most relieved nightmares… I had to read in front of the class. Now, I had never read a book out loud in school before, especially being somewhere new and scared of everyone. So it came my turn. I started reading and they started laughing. Yes, everyone was laughing at me. Apparently, I was a super slow reader and couldn’t pronounce anything. I shut down and just stopped reading. The teacher got up, went into the room next to us without saying anything while everyone continued chuckling. She popped her head out and said, “Eric, get your stuff and come over in this room; this is where you belong.” I heard continued laughter after I entered the next room. It was a room with only 5 people in it including the teacher, so I sat down.

Same thing happened. I read a different book and laughter filled the room. I was devastated and just wanted to leave. What a horrible school and what a horrible day. Well, it was the next person's turn. After hearing him read, my thoughts froze and a new thought of hey, he reads like me appeared in my head. They didn’t laugh at him? Why? Then the next person read, same thing: slow and couldn’t pronounce certain words. This went on until they got to me. Well, same thing happened! However, no one laughed at me again. I felt like I fit in better. That was a huge relief! That’s when I found out I loved small classes and hated larger ones. But that has stuck with me forever, replaying over and over in my head. There was more laughing in other classes when I spoke. So the best time of the day became the second I got off that school bus!

A New Journey, Same Bullshit

High school wasn’t much different,same stories. Though I had some friends finally, it was nothing like my friend from before. High school was rough but so much easier than middle school for me. I also got into vocational school my senior year learning carpentry and woodworking. That clicked with me; for once I actually understood and knew what was happening. I felt much more involved and connected. The reason I entered that class was because I was failing science and history. Science I failed hard at; I just couldn’t follow along. In one ear, out the other! At one point I asked the teacher for help and he told me to go sit down. I gave up at that point. I spent so much energy just working up the courage to ask a question and got yelled at for asking for help. Again, no one wanted to work with me in groups—they all complained when they got stuck with me. And when it came time to work in a group, no one would allow me to participate. I was so glad when I found out vocational school was so much better! I wish that’s all I had to go to. Anyways, let’s move on!

Free from Hell

I worked over the summer in construction and liked the trade, mostly because I really didn’t have to talk to anyone. I could just work, and that was nice. I felt like I fit in; no one yelled at me or told me I was stupid. Well, I did go to college and got my associates in carpentry and construction. That was a great experience. I also got to ride my mountain bike for most of the days, and that was a huge stress relief ever! It was absolute freedom to me. Yeah, I was huge into mountain biking as a kid; that started around age 15.

Wake Up and Get to Work

Mountain biking to me was an amazing sport and it relieved all my stress and anxiety that I would carry through school. However, soon after college I crashed hard trying to train myself to jump better. Wrecked my front wheel upon landing and walked away with a busted knee and shoulder. I couldn’t move my fingers for a week… My parents were pissed. My dad didn’t even ask me if I was okay. He was just pissed he had to pick me up from the hospital and the fact I couldn’t get a job. So the whole month I was recovering and on lots of Vicodin and pain killers. All I heard was him stomping around the house, pissed off. I had to go to job interviews while I was on crutches. Needless to say, I never landed any of those jobs.

At that point in my life I was decently fit and never really thought about diets, training, weight loss, or body image. I weighed around 180–190 pounds, and that seemed very comfortable to me.

Time to Learn About Stress

Well, I finally got a job and worked there for about 12 years. I started putting on some weight there—not much, just enough to feel the extra pounds. After that job, the next one was brutal! I was the most stressed I’ve ever been and shot up almost 70 pounds! Throughout the next 2 years, almost hitting 300 pounds at one point—293 to be exact! This is where I was starting to drink way too much and my alcohol tolerance started to increase. I was basically drunk every night and worked every day, filling myself with pizzas, subs, bagels, any fast food I would drive by when hungry. It was bad; I couldn’t touch my toes, tie my own shoes, or walk far without breaking into a full sweat. I was miserable. Luckily I got laid off. While others who got let go were upset, I was the only happy one! That’s messed up to say, but such a relief!

At that point in my life, I started noticing all the bad health problems I had accumulated starting to show themselves…

Work Meets Freedom

I started to drop some weight the second the stress of that job had left me. Drank a little less for a month or so and managed to get down to 270. At that point I started my next semi-long-term job. It lasted 3 years… Then they went bankrupt. First job I loved for two reasons: first, it was 4-day weeks; second, it felt like a family there. Okay, three things: third, I didn’t have to think about what I was doing, so everything came easy. That was great for mental stress relief, and working only 4 long days a week while having 3 days off helped my depression a lot. I also met someone who became a good friend and got me back into mountain biking! So that became an obsession. However, alcohol still had priority. I did lose enough weight at that point to almost get down to 235 pounds. But booze and constant food kept me holding onto my weight.

Oh Shit

Company shut down… now I was forced into working as a subcontractor, so stress naturally took a toll again. Working for yourself is torture when you’re a shy guy—not the working part, but the selling part, keeping in constant contact with leads, homeowners, bids, everything was a nightmare to me except doing the work. I was stressed beyond belief. This year I quite possibly had a mini-stroke… had all the signs but was told it was bad vertigo. My main doc said he thinks it was actually a mini-stroke due to stress, high cholesterol, pre-diabetes, and being overweight. That was about 6 months ago. I’ve quit drinking for the most part. I just drink NA beers now. My weight is the same because I can’t control my eating now.

Today

Today is December 25th, Christmas Day, that I write this. There is so much more I could write, but I don’t want to get into all of that in one long page. I’ll break things apart into posts so you could read more. This is my life and I’m willing enough to share it. Learn from it, grow from it. I’m still shy but don’t mind blogging about myself.

Thank you!
Eric
Guy vs. Diet