My Road to Redemption

To preface the purpose of this blog I want to give some background information on who I am and why fitness is important to me.  I am currently a fifth-year senior Electrical Engineering student enrolled in the ROTC program at LMU.  After enrolling at LMU, I began weight-lifting and regularly participating in military physical training. I continued exercising rigorously for the next four years, driven by the desire to be selected for Air Force pilot training and knowing that fitness test scores were a consideration in the pilot selection process.  During the spring semester of my fourth year, I was chosen for the highly-selective Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training.  After the completion of my fourth year in college, I was sent to MFS where I went through an in-depth physical evaluation and was deemed physically qualified to be an Air Force pilot.  However, due to an extremely heavy academic workload, my physical fitness started to decline when I returned for my fifth and final year of college.

My academic workload was the most difficult I had experienced to date.  Since I already passed MFS, grades became my main focus due to the requirement to maintain a 3.0 cumulative/semester GPA in order to remain eligible for the ROTC program.  I was not about to lose my pilot slot, something I worked to obtain for four years.  Consequently, my gym attendance became non-existent.  My diet suffered as well.  Since I was almost always on campus if it was not sleeping, I bought a meal plan and started eating on-campus meals regularly (infamously unhealthy).  During the weekends, instead of going to the gym or exercising, I chose to enjoy what little free time I had attending social events which lead to drinking (also infamously unhealthy).  I completed the semester with a 3.5 GPA, above the required 3.0.  However, it came at a cost.  My physical fitness and health decreased drastically, leaving me in the worst physical shape of my college career.  Upon graduation, I am expected to report to pilot training at the same, if not better, fitness level recorded during my evaluations at MFS. This is my goal for my final semester.  So why write a blog about it?

I still plan on eating the majority of my meals on campus (I paid for the meal plan so I might as well use it) and I will attempt to find healthy meal options available on campus.  I have also started participating in crossfit at Paradiso Crossfit located in Marina Del Rey.  I will post my weekly diet and exercise progress and share with bloggers my personal results (good or bad).  If I am successful, my posts can serve as a guide for other, less than healthy, college students looking for a realistic semester-long fitness plan to improve their health and fitness; even if they live on campus. If I do not get the results I am anticipating, bloggers can learn from my mistakes and make improvements to their own routines or provide input/suggestions along the way.  My road to redemption begins now.

Final approach in sight. Over and out.

MJH

Glossary of terms:
ROTC - Reserve Officer Training Corps
LMU - Loyola Marymount University
MFS - Military Flight Screening