My Primal Success Story–Submitted to MDA

I just emailed Mark my Primal success story and wanted to share it on this site. If I happen to be published on MDA I will let you all know, but as of right now, I just wanted to get my story out there to my readers :) This is also the first time I’ve ever put a picture of myself up on this site. I plan to put a good picture of me up once I’ve gotten a hold of a better camera and someone to take my picture haha.

Hello Mark!

My name is Daniel Schlegel and I would like to tell you a tale. A tale, known as my Primal Success story. My story starts the same as many others: being overweight for many years, battling some depression, participating in very low amounts of physical activity, and making poorly informed decisions overall. Where my story is different, however, is that I was fortunate enough to find MDA when I was 17, the summer before my Freshman year of college.

Now a bit of backtracking. Before entering High School I was always “big boned” this meant that I was definitely overweight, but no one would say it to my face. My family never thought it was an issue and I was well-liked in school so no one ever said anything about my weight. Ultimately, I never had anyone come up to me and say “Danny, your weight is a problem.” Any remarks that may have been made were said delicately and politely, meaning they never got through to me, no feelings got hurt, and no progress was made.

I entered High School at 13 years old, 150 lbs, and about 5’6″. I didn’t do much of anything to improve my health, so the daily ins-and-outs of making poor nutritional choices (breaded chicken, fries, Friday night Pizza, and Sunday night Pasta), staying inside almost exclusively, and having a sedentary lifestyle meant that when graduation time came in June of 2009, I was now at 208 lbs and 5’9″.

Here’s a picture from around that time with my younger sister:

Here’s another picture, from Christmas time before going Primal.

As you can plainly see, it wasn’t pretty. Fortunately, the summer before my Freshman year everything changed. Through a blog I had been reading about lifestyle improvements for young men I found out about The Primal Blueprintand MDA. Needless to say, I was hooked from the beginning. It all made sense to me. I’m a logical person and the Primal lifestyle is nothing but scientifically based; whereas, everything else I tried before was profit based. I made minor changes that summer and proceeded to drop 10 lbs and I knew, that this was it.

My first day of college at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute: I was 198lbs and ready to dive right into the Primal Lifestyle. I made the decision that I would eat as Primal and clean as possible given the constraints of a college cafeteria as the major source of food. I would also go to the gym to work out once a week, and would walk down the hill from my dorm to classes, and the reverse, every day.

The first 3 months I was Spartan, I was Primal, and I finally felt alive. I lost 30 lbs in those first three months from home. When I went home for Thanksgiving, people’s jaws literally dropped and words were lost. When someone could speak, the first words were something along the lines of “Danny, what HAPPENED TO YOU?!” What happened to me, was the beginning of the greatest journey of my life. (Yes, I was still fairly Primal that Thanksgiving, although I may have had some cheesecake, minus the crust.)

I continued to be Primal (with some indulgences and regrets, such as the occasional ice cream with my roommates and the stomach pain afterwards) and proceeded to drop another 30 lbs by the time my Freshman year ended. So during a time when most people gained the infamous “Freshman 15″ I had lost about 60. In one year (summer to summer) I went down from 208 to a low of 144, still at 5’9″. To say I was a changed man is a lie because Primal helped bring me to life.

Over the course of my Sophomore year I followed The Primal Blueprinteating habits and stuck with my workout premises – HIT every Sunday – where I saw the weights I could lift and the Time Under Load steadily increase with my personal weight decrease or stay the same. Yes, it was actually effortless to maintain my weight and eating habits as it took more effort for me to cheat than to eat right. Although, somedays I would sometimes overeat, but this did not have much of a lasting effect. This is especially true due to the conditioning of the “I shouldn’t have eaten that” carb/sugar-induced pain that we all know too well.

I’m now in my Junior Year here at RPI, studying Electrical and Computer Systems Engineering, and Primal has been a major factor in keeping me motivated, healthy, strong – both physically and mentally, and sane. At a tech school (or any college, perhaps) a noticeable percentage of the students eat pizza, fries, chips, cookies, and Ramen while guzzling sodas, Monster energy drinks, Red Bulls, or beers. They also tend to sleep in late, party hard, and underwhelm in their enthusiasm and classroom settings. For me, I’ve transcended the standard college student diet. I have a Big Ass Salad almost every single day, I have omelets and a third helping of bacon or steak. I even went down to the local Farmer’s Market with a new Primal friend of mine, bought bison and tried to make a video for your Recipe Contest. The result of us cooking together for the first time was hilarious and one of the best Saturday nights I’ve ever had at college. Needless to say, I’m happier, healthier and stronger than I ever was before in my life, but I’ve still got a ways to go in terms of being my most optimal self, and that just drives me further. So now for some “after” pictures.

A picture of triumph outside:

Now for one in my dorm:

I’ll let the pictures speak for themselves (just try to look beyond the blurriness).

In conclusion, going Primal has been the best decision in my 20 (in December) years of life. It’s saved me from myself and the SAD. It’s enabled me to actually enjoy life and to actively seek out the best foods and experiences I can. I’ve even found a friend here (as I mentioned in the previous paragraph) who eats Primal, and I’m also in the process of converting several friends and family members since they’ve seen my results. For instance, my dad has currently lost over 30 lbs since he got started this past May and in a few months we may have another inspiring success story coming your way!

So, I just want to thank you Mark for giving me the information so I don’t mess up my health in my 20′s, 30′s, or 70′s and that I can make sure that if/when I ever get a family they will have the knowledge that I now have on proper nutrition and exercise.

Grok on Mark, college students, and fellow MDA readers!