So you’re a truck driver and want to lose weight? Is that even a question at this point? We are beyond lazy but I don’t blame you, it’s way too easy to get comfortable. The combination of too much sitting, too little exercise and an unhealthy diet can lead to serious health issues down the road. high blood pressure, diabetes, sleep disorders, heart conditions and so on. We move too little. We eat a bunch of crap. Rising rates of obesity and diabetes amongst truck drivers are through the roof. Most of ya truckers can’t even look down to see the blessing God has given you. Personally, I look so abnormal that when I step into a truck stop or when I walk into a shipper’s office, they say to me “wow, you don’t look like the average truck driver”. Believe me, I’ve heard that more times than I can count on both my hands. And that’s what you should strive for. To not be a normal truck driver. The average trucker will usually have at least 2 of the following: Overweight as a mother trucker, looks homeless wearing pajamas in a work environment, head full of outgrown hair and ungroomed facial hair, wears sandals outside the truck, breathes likes he’s a few breaths away from passing out, or has the body odor of a wet dog. If you have any 2 of those at any given moment outside your house aka outside the truck. Which is seen as completely normal by today’s industry standards. You are an average truck driver, nothing special about you.
The last thing you want is to be seen as a normal truck driver, and the most basic/simplest step you can take towards becoming above average is to lose weight. if that’s not what you want, to be above average, no problem, skip this video. If you want to become healthy, you are at the right place. More than likely you are seriously out of shape, uncomfortable, on the verge of facing serious health issues and for some reason you just can’t seem to stop eating greasy, juicy, ultra processed burgers with french fries loaded with extra sodium. I am here to help you change all that. I’ve been there. I understand your pain and sorrow. I know what it is to look at the mirror in complete disgust. i Lost 70 lbs over the span of 2 years. That’ll turn you into a completely different person. Not even my own dog recognizes me. The trucker’s muffin top I was carrying around looked like the baker, me, didn’t know when to stop pouring the mix in, didn’t know when to stop eating the candy bars, the late night snacks that turned into late night meals.
The trucking industry is at a point where most of the drivers are overweight, I’m talking about clinically obese. According to a survey done by the fmcsa, compared to the national working population, they found that for long-haul truck drivers: obesity is twice as high (69% vs. 31%). morbid obesity is twice as high (17% vs. 7%). self-reported diabetes is elevated (14% vs. 7%). Over twice as many drivers are not covered by health insurance or a health care plan (38% vs. 17%). A lower percentage of drivers perceived their health status as excellent, very good, or good. We are at the point that we have to start talking about serious health issues: type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cancer, depression. The average truck driver knows this but chooses to brush it under the truck. To turn a blind eye to the potential problems that are bound to come sooner or later down the road.
when we go take a shower at the truck stop and look at the naked person in the mirror, we feel like crap about ourselves. Why? Cuz we know there’s a serious problem going on but refuse to deal with the issue. It is much easier to take a hot shower, get dressed, walk back to your truck in a turtle pace, climb under the sheets, turn on netflix, watch a few episodes with a character you wish you could be and then cry yourself to sleep cuz when everything turns off, that’s when reality sinks in. when you can no longer distract your brain from all your inadequacies, that’s when your real emotions start to creep in. You can’t even sleep comfortably at night anymore. You can either be humble enough to take full responsibility on how you gotta be so trucking big or you can let emotions get in the way and make up a ton of excuses for your shortcomings. The whole trucking industry is only getting fatter, and with autonomous trucks right around the corner, we are bound to look like the people in the movie Wall-E.
So how do you change? How do you become part of the 2%? How can you be included in the club that welcomes everybody, but only a few truckers make it in every year? And yes, according to me from what I’ve seen, out of all the thousands of truck drivers that i’ve seen, only 2% of them i would consider healthy, even a smaller percentage that i would say they are fit. That means for every 100 truckers I see, only 2 of them are healthy. It’s not like the club has some harsh rules and regulations to get in, it is that only an extreme minority has the will and power to stay active and discipline to eat an apple instead of a candy bar. Both have sugar, that’s what you want, that’s what we all want. Everybody loves sugar, but only one has the proper nutrients and healthy calories that the body needs. We need to start making better choices.
In order to lose weight and keep it off, you have to make small changes to your everyday behavior. As lame and boring it sounds, it’s really that easy. If you’re looking for a magic pill, a trendy diet, or the mysterious secret the internet nut guru found, it doesn’t exist. Everything begins with your daily habits. Your habits are what will help you reach your goals. We all know what to do. We all know that an apple is way better for you than a bag of m&ms. The benefits of exercising are not exactly breaking news. We all know that water is a much healthier choice than a 32oz coke. It’s not that we don’t know what to do, we just don’t know how to make ourselves do it consistently and automatically. In every adventure there are highs and there are lows. There will be days that you will feel amazing, you will think that this is easy, that there’s nothing to it. But there will also be days when you will feel like crap, you will want to give up. There will be days where your energy levels will be so low you will almost start to feel depressed. That maybe eating your feelings away will help you, but it won’t. After you finish that late night snack, that small tub of ice cream, you’re only going to feel worse than how you started that morning. You need to learn small daily health habits.
By the end of my first year of being over the road, I literally blew up like a balloon. That person I knew before I decided to go over the road, I ate him. The amount of weight I gained was unbelievable. Everytime i went home, which was every 3-4 weeks, I kept adding more weight to the scale. Month after month, little by little, my weight just kept going up and up. 3 pounds here, 5 pounds there. If i didn’t take control of what i was shoving down my throat, I would have eventually popped. Sometimes I look back and I am amazed at how fat and round I got. Nobody around me would tell me anything about my weight. No one would make or say comments about my body. That made me think i was normal.that the guy in the recent pictures was the new me. I made my brain think that it was perfectly normal that this new body that I was in was completely normal. It wasn’t until I started looking at old pictures of myself that made me realize what the deal really was. And I was reminded every time I looked in the mirror. I would look at myself in disgust but I would say that it was okay, that i was a truck driver, the size i was at was normal for this industry. I fit right in. It comes with the territory of being a truck driver. Things I would tell myself to make me feel better about myself. But reality doesn’t care about how I was feeling. You’re either fat or you’re not. You’re either healthy or you’re not. You either change direction or face the consequences. One thing I love about reality is that it’s not subjective. There are hard lines. It’s either a yes or no, you’re either on the right side of the line or the left side. You’re either a triangle or a circle. Are you going to start taking responsibility for your actions or do you prefer to be normal, to be average, even though deep down in your soul, you’re going to feel like a failure. But i’ll tell you what boy, that whopper with extra fries and a large milkshake, sure did hit the spot after driving all day long. Good times.
By watching this video, you have made a conscious decision to try to change your ways, to have mental freedom, and a body you can be proud of. Imagine this, you wake up with tons of energy, get dressed with some nice fitted clothes and you are amazed by the person you see in the mirror. You go on to have an incredible, energetic day. You can eat anything you want but you decide to eat something healthy that not only is going to taste good, but it’s going to satisfy you. You will be in a better mood overall and have more confidence. Not only that but your whole family will start to shift their habits with you. I’m telling you, being a leader in a group of wanderers, goes a long way. People tend to follow the lead of good leaders, and you have to lead your house to make better choices. It is so hard to find someone with good leadership skills, humans yearn for a captain that will drive them to the end of the road.
Whenever I eat, I never feel stuffed or like I’m still hungry. I eat just the right amount that’s going to keep me going. I used to eat so much where I couldn’t even move anymore. The amount of food I consumed made me ready to take a nap in the middle of the day, and if that wasn’t enough, I always had a sweet treat waiting for me to devour it. It would just sit there and beg me to open the wrapper up, and little by little, I would finish the entire king size candy bar right after the 3000 calorie lunch i just had. But it was normal, that’s how truck drivers eat, I would tell myself
This journey that you want to embark on has to start with your mindset. The boring stuff that no one wants to hear. But if you skip this part, you will get a flat tire before you even start driving. We need to get clear on why you want to lose weight. Then you have to understand that it is a feeling you are chasing, not a number on the scale. You don’t want to lose 20lbs, you want that feeling of what it’s like to lose 20lbs. The feeling of strength and confidence. Then I will teach you exactly what you need to do to lose 20lbs. I will give you the road map. It is up to you to follow directions and guidance from the map. Deviate from the map, and you might end up circling around to where you started. There is a tough road ahead of you, but you are not alone. I will be here every mile of the way in case you fall off the truck. So buckle up mother trucker, your journey begins now.