Health — Blog — Evan Boydstun: The Daily Challenge

Because, why not? This is how I’m starting my blog because my life has been full of “why not?” Such a simple phrase that has lead to some of the most amazing decisions I’ve made throughout my short 25 years in life. The reason for wanting to do 100,000 pull-ups in the calendar year of 2020? Literally no specific reason. I just started thinking about how many pull-ups I’ve done so far this year (2019) and I’m at about 40,000. So why not try to do 100,000?

Before I embark on this journey, I want to share a little back story as to why I am the way that I am. Let’s circle back to 2007. Plain and simple, I was fat. I was taking down a sleeve of Oreo’s and guzzling a Dr. Pepper every single day. The only reason I would stop was when I heard the garage door open when my parents would come home from work, prompting me to hide the evidence. This had been going on for almost a year, starting in 2006 (see below for reference).

During this “pivotal” time in my young life, I was being bullied a bit at school. It never really phased me too much at first, but of course it started to take it’s emotional toll. The crux of the matter came to head in February, 2007. My younger brother and I were brushing our teeth in the bathroom we shared, when out of nowhere, he looks down at my shirtless, protruding belly and announced, “Evan, you’re fat.” *Unleash the flood gates*

I cried my eyes out that night. My mom wrapped her arms around me to console me and my dad attempted to show me what fat people “actually” look like by putting a beach ball underneath his shirt, and walking out to greet me - while chowing down on chocolate cake. Hindsight 20/20… it’s absolutely hilarious to look back on this night, but in my fit of rage, I thought my dad was making fun of me and was adding to the insults. There’s no sense of attempting to instill any source of logic in to an emotional, pre-pubescent, middle school child.

However, that night fundamentally rewired my brain in such a positive way, I cant stress enough how thankful I am to have been “fat shamed.” While I was laying in bed still sniveling, I started thinking about WHY people were making fun of my weight. I identified that it was inherently MY fault why I was chubby and starting thinking about all of the factors that have led to this moment. No more feeling sorry for myself. I realized “If I don’t want to be fat… then I don’t have to…” I made the decision to literally and figuratively “trim the fat.” No more soda (haven’t had a full soda since that night - chaser is different) no more burgers and fries (I was slamming 2 burgers a day sometimes) and no more candy (I currently have a terrible sweet tooth but I earn my carbs).

At Midnight, I jumped out of my bed, flipped on my lights, and did sit-ups till 3:00am. I’m not going to lie, that’s pretty damn impressive for a 12 year old, but it goes to show how important having control of your mind is to reach these goals. As I progressed in my fitness journey, I received a weight set for my 13th birthday at the very end of 7th grade. All summer long, I focused on my eating habits and developing baby muscles. I dropped from being a meatball at 135lbs down to 110lbs. “But that was just baby fat” yeah yeah shut up… I’ve heard it all, this is my story, not yours and my breaking point is without a doubt the most important thing to ever happen to me. I was a dumb 12 year old and made the conscious decision to get my life in order. I use that mindset STILL when I have a new goal in life. If I could do it back then, I can do it now.

Thanks,

Evan Boydstun