Andy Workman
Sports have always played an important role in my life! I started playing soccer in kindergarten and in 7th grade moved onto football. I had the typical dreams of a lot of kids in Texas… to play for UT and then, of course, the Dallas Cowboys! I was well on my way, receiving recruiting letters from most of the schools in and around Texas. Well, all the letters stopped and offers dried up as soon as it was announced that I had a career-ending back injury during the last game of my senior year. After graduating, I decided to try and walk-on at Texas Tech, but failed my physical, and it was recommended I have surgery. That was it for football….or so I thought. I was in and out of colleges for four years, but still had eligibility left, so I said “what the hell” and decided to walk-on at a smaller Division II school, West Texas A&M, and started my first season back.
After graduating from college, I joined the US Army as an Infantryman. It was a perfect fit. I loved being part of a team, and it was physically demanding. I even ran in the Seattle Half Marathon just for fun. The Twin Towers came down a year later, and a tempo I’ve never experienced soon took over my life. The training and eight deployments slowly ate away at me. Over the next 12 years, I ended up having 4 knee surgeries and one more back surgery. I retired in 2014, wasn’t on a team anymore, and was addicted to pain medications.
I was pretty low! My weight got up close to 270, and I just felt like crap. One day something just clicked, and I threw away all of my medications. Luckily I had my wife Mary there to get me through that!!! I soon started working out again, but still felt like I was missing something. We soon moved back home to Texas and I found CFRR. I found a “Team” again!!! The community has been awesome, and you find so many stories of people overcoming obstacles and surpassing expectations. You can’t help but be motivated. In my first year at CFRR I lost a total of eight pounds….EIGHT F’n pounds! Workouts weren’t enough anymore. I should have listened to the coaches a lot sooner. Nutrition apparently plays a key role…who knew!?!? After pulling my head out of my @$$, and actually tracking my food and making better food choices, I was able to lose another 45 pounds in five months, for a total of 53 pounds lost with 19% body fat. I have been maintaining the same weight for the last few months, while the body fat percentage has continued to drop.
