I figured, with the launch of this territory, I'd share my fitness journey and the origin of the Aardvark handle.
I have always loved eating, and still to this day, it's my biggest vice. I was able to quit smoking 11 years ago, and even quitting drinking alcohol wasn't that hard for me, but I still love to eat myself absolutely sick.
Because of my eating habits, and complete lack of exercise over the years, I got myself up to nearly 300lbs, which brings us to January 2020. I was 38 years old, had bad knees, and plantar fasciitis. I decide to make a goal for myself, "fit by 40" and bought an adjustable set of dumbells. Luckily I bought them when I did because covid was right around the corner, and when the gyms closed, it was impossible to get strength training gear anywhere.
Very shortly into my journey I was ready to quit, I wasn't seeing immediate results, and I figured that I'd never accomplish my goals, so why bother. But for some reason when I was lifting my little dumbells something popped into my head.
I'm very close to my siblings but I remembered when I was very young (maybe second grade) my older brother and younger sister would sing a song to pick on me. It was childish and stupid, but for some reason I remembered it. The lyrics: You're an aardvark your big and strong, your an aardvark you think your king kong.
For some reason that stupid childish taunt ran through my head right when I was going to quit, so I said fuck it, be the aardvark.
I looked up Aardvarks and it turns out they are revered for their work ethic, they eat over 50,000 bugs per night. So every time I wanted to stop i just kept telling myself "Aardvarks keep digging" I figured that I may never be the best looking person, or the strongest person, but I can work harder than anyone, so that's what I did. I kept digging.
In the course of 11 months I lost over 100 lbs, and over the past 5 years I went from not being able to do 1 push up, to bench pressing 300lbs.
I've spent the past 5 years of my life dedicated to learning about diet, nutrition, general fitness, and strength training, which has given me an incredibly low time preference.
So if you have any goal at all, no matter how big or small, just keep digging, if you stick to it the results will come.