A Man Who Was Willing To Move Mountains To Make His Dream Come True

Our circumstances don’t define our fate. If we really want to achieve more with our lives, then we can, and we will apply discipline and hard work! It’s time we start retraining our minds into believing that we can be anything we want to be. We read all the time about the power of positive thinking, and there’s definitely something in this! Nothing is impossible if only you dare to dream and put in the hard work as this man knows. As Walt Disney once said, “nothing replaces hard work,” and he was absolutely right! Adan Prescott was just a normal guy, but a devastating loss changed his life, and he turned to food for comfort. At his heaviest, he weighed 460 pounds! After realizing that this wasn’t the way he was supposed to live, he underwent a dramatic transformation in order to pursue his dreams of becoming a US marine.

A Devastating Loss

Nothing can ever prepare us for the loss of a loved one, but some deaths are more shocking than others. It’s difficult knowing how to deal with the sudden loss of a dear friend or family member, and therefore we develop our own ways of coping.

Adan Prescott was just 18 years old when he lost one of the most important people in his life – his father. He was the man who Adan had looked up to his entire life and a well respected US army veteran. Nobody, least of all Adan, expected him to suffer a terrible heart attack in 2013, resulting in his death.

Grief-stricken

Naturally, Adan was broken-hearted by his dad’s death. He has always respected his dad, and the pair shared a special, loving bond. It wasn’t just the fact that he was still young and needed his dad’s help in life; he felt lost without the deep friendship they shared.

In the midst of his grief over losing his father, he was also mourning the loss of other important factors in his life. He was seeping into a state of depression and had lost all motivation in life. In an interview with Epoch Times, Adan recalled, “It was a huge shock for me. Suddenly I lost my motivation and my will to do better for myself.

Feeling Empty

Adan’s dad, Wayne Prescott, was an army veteran, who had instilled in his son many valuable lessons over the years. Wayne had taught Adan about the importance of self-discipline and hard work. He’d raised his son well, and in Adan’s eyes, he was a hero.

Wayne had spent his younger years serving his country. It’s not only sad for a good man like that to die so tragically, but it’s also an almighty shock to watch a strong person pass away suddenly. Adan said that he’d always done things to make his father proud during his life, but after his death, his motivation and discipline disappeared.

His Only Source of Comfort

Grief is a terrible thing. It can live within us for days, weeks, months or even years! While it’s important not to put pressure on yourself to overcome grief prematurely, you must remember to try and stay healthy.

Negative and obsessive habits can manifest during the grieving process. This was the case for Adan, who had turned to food for comfort. Sadly, his eating habits got way out of hand, and the teen started to pile on weight. Adan had developed a serious addiction to fast food and sugar, which lasted for three difficult years!

Eating Away His Emotions

Adan wasn’t alone in his desire to overeat after losing his dad. Studies show that there is a strong link between experiencing grief and turning to food for comfort. Nobody is saying that you can’t allow yourself an extra serving of your favorite dish or a slice of cake when you’re feeling low, but emotional eating is another matter.

Emotional eating is eating for the sake of it. It’s the act of consistently eating even when you don’t need energy and when you’re not hungry. As soon as we dive into our favorite snack and take a bite, our brain is filled with feel-good emotions, but that feeling doesn’t last, and you’re soon left feeling guilty and low afterward, and thus a bad habit begins…

Getting On the Scales

It didn’t take long for Adan to pile on the pounds through his dangerous new habit. In the months following on from his father’s death, Adan had got himself into a bad way. His weight had increased dramatically, and his health was at risk.

This dangerous lifestyle would continue for three years. The climax came in October 2016 when Adan reached his heaviest weight yet. His 3-year eating binge, consisting of burgers, fast food, and fizzy drinks, had lead to Adan reaching a worrying weight of 460 pounds (approx. 290 kilograms)!

A New Problem

On top of all of the pain and grief Adan had been feeling since his dad’s death, he now had a new problem – his own health. If he wasn’t careful, he could easily end up suffering the same fate as his late father.

Adan’s lifestyle was in a dire state! He had completely given up on life. His job didn’t help because he was working as a sedentary security guard at the time and didn’t move around much. His BMI had capped the morbidly obese category, and he was guzzling around 11 liters of sugar-laden soda on a daily basis.

A Global Epidemic

Unfortunately, obesity is a growing problem worldwide. In the US alone, the number of children and adults in the obese category has increased dramatically in recent years. Although it is partially down to self-discipline and a decent education on health, the availability of fast food and sugary drinks hasn’t helped.

It might initially seem like an innocent habit, but getting hooked on fizzy sodas and junk food is as addictive as alcohol and drugs. It’s a difficult addiction to break. Those who are classed as obese are also at a much higher risk of suffering a stroke, heart disease, developing cancer, or getting type 2 diabetes. Luckily, Adan’s story has a positive ending.

You Are What You Eat

He was still young with his full life ahead of him. Adan should have been out enjoying life, reveling in his youth, but actually, his life was pretty miserable. His weight had taken over his life, and he was now the focal point of most jokes!

Adan didn’t feel confident to go on dates or have a social life. Nobody, not even Adan, saw him as anything else anymore other than morbidly obese. The turning point came when he was delayed 40 hours while on a domestic flight because the airline staff couldn’t find an seat belt to fit him. He knew it was time to change.

Taking Control

Adan was approaching his mid-20s and there was nothing good in his life. His sole purpose was comfort eating, which seemed to have taken hold of him in the years since losing his dad. It was time for a transformation.

Adan was an intelligent guy, but his grief had masked his ability to see what was in front of him. When his moment of realization came, he knew that he had to change his lifestyle to improve his health and give himself the chance to have a future. It was what his dad would have wanted for him!

Small Steps

Now seeing things clearly for the first time in years, Adan knew that the most important thing he could do to improve his situation was just to start. He started small but kept going. It might have sounded crazy to some, but Adan had ambitions to become a US marine.

His dreams of training for the marines motivated him to be persistent. Adan knew he had a long way to go, and it wasn’t going to come easy, but he pictured himself following in the footsteps of his father and serving his country. In the beginning, he would just focus on walking his dog. He couldn’t manage much to start off with, but he didn’t give up.

Transformation in Progress…

It took time and dedication, but he soon began to notice changes. After being poisoned with junk food and sugary sodas for years, his body began to respond well to this new exercise and healthy eating regime. Adan persisted with his dog walking routine and embarked on a healthy, balanced diet too.

Adan never bothered cooking before and had lived off fast food and convenience meals. Now he had changed all that and was preparing healthy home-cooked meals. He ditched the sodas and limited his calorie intake to 1500-200 calories per day. It worked because the weight started to drop off, and Adan was thrilled!

Getting Stronger

Adan was progressing well. His dedication and hard work had paid off, and he was maintaining a 30lb a month weight loss. The results he was seeing motivated him to continue, and he was well on his way to achieving his dream of training for the marines.

Once he had lost enough weight, he was able to start incorporating calisthenics into his workout routine. Calisthenics is a form of body- weight exercise where you use your own bodyweight to burn fat and build muscle.

No Pain No Gain

But like all worthwhile challenges in life, there were difficulties along the way. Adan faced new obstacles when he began to hit a wall in his training routine, and he really struggled with losing those last few stubborn pounds.

He couldn’t give up, though, not if he was serious about joining the US marines. He pushed through and endured the pain and frustration of working out and occasionally not seeing the results he’d hoped for. By February 2019, he was in noticeably much better shape when his weight had dropped to just under 250lbs.

A Strict Regime

Adan was so close to achieving his goal weight. He’d joined a local gym to switch up his training routine. He knew that joining the armed forces would be tough, and the fitness requirements were high, so he joined a hardcore local boot camp to bring him nearer to his goal.

He’d done well. He’d lost the weight. Adan no longer had additional pounds to shift; it was no longer a mission to lose weight and improve his health and appearance. Now it was a time to get fit. Adan spent 5 months in the boot camp and had to undergo regular fitness tests to maintain his performance.

Confidence Found

Adan was no longer the lost teenage boy eaten up by grief and sadness. He’d turned the tables and had become healthier and was in much better shape. But it wasn’t just about his physical appearance. Adan’s new regime had given him the confidence to enjoy life too.

His incredible journey had proved beneficial for both the mind and body. Adan had regained a social life and was enjoying life again. His efforts in the gym were paying off in the outside world as well. He even got himself a girlfriend. Adan considers her to be “out of his league” but says that “sometimes you just get lucky.”

Running for a Healthier Body and Mind

At the beginning of his journey, Adan wasn’t physically able to run. Now though, he was in the best shape he’d even been throughout his adult life and was able to take up running. Running proved good for losing weight and staying in shape.

Running also helped with Adan’s mindset. Every time he went out for a run, he could literally sweat out his problems and anxieties with each mile he covered. Like with many runners who discover the pastime later in life, Adan learned to love his new hobby and said that it was as much like therapy as it was a sport.

Consistency is Key

But Adan wasn’t there yet. He had another 30 pounds to lose if he wanted to join the US armed forces. And of course, those last 30 pounds were perhaps the hardest to shift. This part was difficult, but he was so close…

Even though he had lost over 200lbs already and completely transformed his life, this part was perhaps the most difficult in his fitness journey so far. He would lose motivation sometimes when the weight wasn’t coming off, but at the back of his mind, his determination to join the marines remained, and he quickly found his motivation again.

Achieving His Goal

Adan’s goal weight was in sight. He became obsessed with achieving his targets and shifting those last 30 pounds that he began to weigh himself several times in an average day. He was just so anxious and focused on losing those last few pounds.

Finally, in July 2019, a whole three years after he first started his health and fitness journey, Adan was down to his goal weight of 210 pounds. He went on to pass all of the tests required to join the marines and quite rightly earned the title of United States Marine at long last!

A Complete Transformation

Upon being accepted into the US marines, Adan revealed that he was the happiest and healthiest he had ever been! He was in the best shape of his life, and things were finally going well for him in his career and personal life too!

Adan’s powerful story impressed many people, and it even got picked up by many magazines and platforms, including Men’s Health. Joining the marines is no easy feat, but Adan’s journey started long before he took the admission tests.

Slowly But Steady Wins the Race

When interviewed for Men’s Health, Adan shared that he didn’t reinvent the wheel, so to speak. He just did what the publication and everybody else is already telling us to do – to not give up. He said, “It’s never over.”

Adan went on to say that “You are never too far gone; it just takes hard work, consistency, and time to achieve anything you want. Nothing is too big if you truly want it… Just take it a day at a time.” That’s so true! It’s never too late to change things if your motivation outweighs your excuses.

An Inspiration to Others

It’s no surprise that Adan has been such an inspiration to others. He could have easily given in back when he was morbidly obese and lived a life reliant on medication to get him through the day. But he didn’t!

Adan has been a help and inspiration to his friends and family, as well as his followers on Instagram. He shares helpful advice and motivational tips to encourage others to be the best and healthiest versions of themselves. Adan’s Instagram feed is full of photos of delicious home-cooked meals – a far cry from the burgers and sodas he used to live on!

His Guardian Angel

While his grief may be at bay, he hasn’t forgotten about his father and what he meant to him. Adan has confessed to experiencing dark days from time to time, but he hopes to continue his legacy through his own work in the US armed forces.

Adan previously dedicated an Instagram post to his late father, with the touching caption: “Even in the horrors of war, you were always so happy and kind. I’ve been thinking a lot about you lately and really missing you. Love you, papa Wayne. Happy National Vietnam Veterans’ day!”

The Next Chapter

Through his Instagram content, Adan opens up his world for all of us to follow and enjoy. As soon as he achieves one goal, he is quick to replace it with another. One of his constant goals is his weightlifting challenge.

Adan recently shared that he had completed his goal of lifting 1000 pounds of weight. A video of the impressive achievement accompanied the good news. But as Adan has already proved, you have to keep refreshing your goals to keep moving forward. His next goal is to lift 1500 pounds so watch this space!

You Are Your Own Opponent

Adan’s astonishing transformation story is absolutely fantastic. He continues to inspire and encourage those he meets to live their best lives, too, and never give up. But what’s most impressive is that Adan is proof that you really can do anything you put your mind to!

Nobody did the work for him. Money wouldn’t have helped the situation either. Adan reaps the rewards because it was he who put in the time and hard work! He says: “Nobody is going to do the work for you. Nobody is going to show up for you. At the end of the day, it’s YOU vs. YOU. If you want it, you’ll find a way. Put your head down and put in the work.”