I’ve had an interesting life so far. I’m only 22 years old, but I’ve already had my share of adventures and set-backs. For the first ten years of my life, I lived in Mozambique with my parents. My Dad was researching native plants, but also teaching the locals how to grow their own crops and raise livestock. I was just along for the ride.

We always came back to the states every summer for vacation. Just like any normal boy, I found the lure of the Golden Arches (and the prizes contained in their Happy Meals) too hard to resist. Since they didn’t have a McDonald’s in the villages of Mozambique (or even a Burger King), I had to make sure to get my fill of all that McDonalds’ goodness during these short summer vacations.

Let’s be honest. When your ten years old, who really thinks about how many calories you’re eating when you sit down to enjoy those two all-beef patties, a side of golden french fries (lightly salted) and a chocolate milkshake? Furthermore, I wasn’t really into looking good for the girls at the time (and my child modeling career was on hold), so it wasn’t a big deal if I had a little extra fat around the middle. By the time I turned ten, I was already 30 pounds overweight, which is medically obese!

In 1997, we moved to Stephenville, Texas (which was quite a culture shock coming from a large city like Maputo) and, with the move, we ended our life of exploration abroad. In Stephenville, the pressure to play football was enormous. All my friends wanted me to play and, as you could imagine, the peer pressure was tremendous. But, I’m my own man and I decided to chart my own course and gave competitive soccer a try. At that point, I joined a local youth soccer team. After running what seemed like endless laps around the field and countless sprints from one side to the other, I slowly started to lose the extra weight around my waist. Soon, I was able to bypass the husky-sized jeans at the local Wal-Mart and buy regular fit. I also found myself hooked on the game of soccer, not just the competition, but the way it made me feel – more confident, athletic and alive.

My passion for soccer continued for eleven more years (although I still had to keep my love for a McDonald’s Super Value meal in check). During these eleven years, my team practiced six days a week, played up to two soccer matches on the weekends and traveled across Texas every weekend to play games. One year, I think we may have put over 15,000 miles on our family’s red Toyota Sienna minivan. The hundreds of hours of practice, competitive play and all-around hard work paid off when I was recruited to play soccer as a freshman at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. Although my collegiate soccer career was unexpectedly cut short because of academic pressures beyond my control (Southwestern is hard and my grades suffered due to the time constraints), I still played club soccer every weekend in between countless study sessions.

In 2010, I was graduated from Southwestern with a Bachelors of Arts in Kinesiology. As excited as I was to get out of school once and for all, I think my parents were even more delirious knowing that they would no longer be on the hook for the expensive private school tuition.

Now, I get to start a new and exciting chapter in my life and I know that anything goes. Although my dream of playing on Chelsea (a professional soccer team in England) may be over, you will still be able to find me out on the local Austin soccer fields playing my heart out every Sunday. I am also ready to start helping other people find their passion for athletics and living a healthy life. I was lucky. I learned early. But, I realize that it’s never to late to make that life-changing decision to get off your butt and start living your life to the fullest. I decided to join Human Machine Athletic Club as a personal trainer in June of 2010. Since starting with Jon and Pat, I have received my Personal Trainer Certification from the National Strength and Conditioning Association and have takenall the information that I learned in college and translated it into real world solutions for my clients. I’m excited about starting this new journey.