Healthy & Handsome

Posted by: Gabe Goreham on: January 9, 2014

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Celebrating holidays with family.

During my earliest recovery days in Florida, I became VERY overweight. I had more chins than should be legally allowed! At the youthful age of 23, I was weighing in at about 240 pounds! (And remember, people – this is with no legs!)

When I came back to New Jersey last spring, I felt pretty disgusted with the state of my body. As I began to get my life in order, I became more and more convinced I had to do something to get my health back.

Now, my weight is at 168 pounds! I bench press 315 pounds! I’m stronger now than I have ever been. I’m well on the road to a very healthy active life, eating well and feeling great.

How did I get here?

In the first few weeks after I arrived in NJ, I started edging into physical activity by doing pushups on chairs in my room, shooting baskets on my neighbor’s driveway, and pushing my wheelchair up and down the hills around my mother’s house. It was very tough to make myself do this at first, but I just kept pushing myself forward. I started to enjoy the way I was feeling from exercise.

I had fallen into a typically poor diet of junk food 24/7, but I started making changes, eating more vegetables, cutting out simple, processed carbohydrates and lowering my sugar intake.

It wasn’t long until I could tell my weight was starting to come off.

In a couple months, I was able to sign up for a gym membership. This is where my real change started happening! I didn’t have a car, so transportation was dependant on my mom and friends over the summer – but that turned out to be a good thing. I’d be dropped off at the gym in the morning, and just stay all day long until I could get a ride home at night. I had nothing to do but work out, so I would force myself to continuously exercise throughout the day. By spending lots of time learning from other guys and pushing myself, I learned how to truly work out and train.

I did this from June until September! I lost about 70 pounds of fat and gained at least ten pounds of muscle. Looking good, yeah!! Losing that excess weight is a big help in moving forward with walking on prosthetics, as you can imagine. I continue to work out steadily and have begun spending time on my prosthetics regularly.

Another huge health issue was smoking. Most people in recovery smoke for a while. It seems to be part of the ‘recovery club,’ and when you are a member of that club it feels like smoking is almost a requirement. Everyone in rehab would sit around and smoke. I was never happy with myself because I knew better from the get go NOT to smoke!–but I still let myself feel part of the group around me, and took up the smoking habit at the time.

As I started to get back in shape, I knew I HAD to quit smoking. I was smart enough to know for sure that I would never reach my exercise goals while smoking cigarettes. I overheard two guys talking at the gym about how they had quit smoking, and I realized that if they could do it, I could do it! So I decided to stop. It took me a little while, but I went from a pack a day to zero. I just quit without any aids, which I think is the best and easiest way, instead of fussing with gum, patches, or other half steps. Just stopping was the best way for me to quit.

Thanksgiving was a real joy, because I had so much to be thankful for. I thought back to where I was a year ago, and wow – I came a LONG way! I spent an amazing Thanksgiving Day with Greg’s family, and feel honored to be getting to know new family members and build relationships. I felt so blessed to also have been invited to friends houses for the holidays, too. I was also lucky enough to see what seemed like my entire Voorhees High School class the night before Thanksgiving. It was such a fun night, and so great to see everyone. It felt good to simply be myself, inside and out, and for the first time since my accident I felt comfortable in my skin and proud of what I am becoming.

Gabe heads off to the gym.

I would not be here today if it was not for all the support I have always been blessed to receive. I am so grateful for your interest, and I am reminded of how lucky I am during this holiday season.

If losing weight or improving your health is on your list of New Year’s resolutions, I’m here to tell you: Go For It!
If I can get the job done, so can you! And it feels so good, so worth it. Don’t let anything stop you!

In my next post, I’m looking forward to sharing my career path. You’ll see how my experiences so far are leading me into wanting to help other people…

Thanks for reading, see you back here soon.
–Gabe