Featured Mr. Fit: Jess Perreca, Jr.

FFFC: Please introduce yourself to our readers (i.e. your name, occupation, hobbies, etc.).

JP: Midwest raised husband & father of two beautiful little girls. My name is Jess Perreca Jr and I’m what you would call a geek. I’m part of the infrastructure team at a Technology Company. I love sports mainly football but my love and passion is baseball.

FFFC: What sparked your weight-loss transformation journey?

JP: I’ve thought I’ve hit rock bottom in the past only to relaize that this last stint a few months ago was my worst. It’s was limiting me from doing basic functions that most people take for granted.

FFFC: What was your beginning and current weight or measurements?

JP: On March 3^rd I weighed in at 568.5 pounds. My heaviest record weight that I have known to be. In just a little as 3 months later I have lost roughly 90lbs. I’m currently at 481lbs

FFFC: How long did it take for your weight-loss transformation from beginning to end?

JP: I’m still going. Honestly I don’t think there will ever be an end. I’m always going to be battling this and will have to make health & fitness my MO. I’ve learned so much about myself in the past three months that I now know my goals are reachable

FFFC: What physical activities did you participate in during your journey?

JP: This time around a personal friend of mine who is a PT got in touch with me and stated to me that he wanted to help save my life. I took him up on his offer and have been working out with him since day one. We do a lot of strength, resistance & circuit training. I’ve noticed and seen amazing progress in the past three months.

How did your eating habits change? I’ve adapted the No Sugar No Grains Lifestyle and it has changed my life. I’ve tried a lot of other things that just weren’t sustainable for me. This has been the one program that has transformed me in so many ways

FFFC: What do you typically eat for breakfast, lunch and dinner?

JP: Breakfast: either scrambled eggs with cheese, sausage or bacon. Or I have a few hard boiled eggs and some cheese cubes.

Lunch & dinner: Meats (ground chicken, beef, beef or chicken kafta, chicken breast. Different types of chicken sausage. Salads low GI type fruits and I try to eat low on the GI list of foods.

Snacks: hummus, pork rinds, cheese, pumpkin seeds, cashews, pepperoni stick or slices

I mainly stay away from added sugars and read labels like a hawk and also try to stay below 50g carbs a day.

I also use some supplements as well. I think it’s important to get good vitamin D, Fish oil, & Multi Vitamin in to your weight loss routine.

FFFC: What is your favorite fitness activity?

JP: I love lifting weights. I can’t wait till I lose more weight and can focus on bulking up a little bit. Not bodybuilder style but just want to look in the mirror and see some tone and definition.

FFFC: What do you do now to maintain your physique?

JP: Really I’m just in a major weight loss mode right now. Just trying to get as much weight off as I can and as quickly as I can but also as healthy as I can. I regularly go to the doctor and they’re aware of the success I’ve had and are keeping a close eye on me.

FFFC: How did you develop and sustain the willpower to avoid the bad stuff (i.e. junk food, bad drinks, lack of activity, etc.)?

JP: I never was really a junk eater being as big as I am. It was really just bad food choices and not eating breakfast 7 lunch and overeating dinners and pizza. Pizza is my weakness and breadsticks. I would have a large pizza & breadsticks and a couple of two liters of soda about 2-3 times a week. Once I accepted my faults and jumped on the NSNG lifestyle I instantly just felt better, my body & mind felt better. I finally figured out that sugar & grains were destroying and killing me. That’s willpower in itself.

FFFC: What advice do you have for someone starting out on their weight-loss journey but unsure of how to begin?

JP: Honestly and this is some tough love right here. Do it for no one else but yourself. I always tried to lose for other reasons for something or someone else. Yes I have a wife & kids and don’t get me wrong they’re motivation but at the end of the day I had to choose to do this for me. If that meant sacrifices with my family 7 friends and I had to miss out on things because working out or eating right was the better thing to do then I have to be happy with those choices. You can’t fix or be there for anyone else if you don’t fix yourself first. So be selfish in your journey. Also imaging yourself in the perfect body or how you see yourself when you lose the weight. Really sit and day dream about it. If you can’t believe the dream it’ll never happen if you make the excuse that you can’t see you that way when you think about it then you’ll make every excuse to never accomplish it. This was hard for me to understand so many times before.

FFFC: What do you think is the biggest misconception about this journey?

JP People can’t believe that I can’t eat bacon, cheese, eggs, sausage, all this stuff that for ever and ever we’ve been told not to eat. Don’t eat fats, fats make you fat. While I’m here to say 90lbs down in 3 months, I’ve proven that to be wrong. I say eat real and really look at the labels on the products you’re putting into your system. Really look at the ingredients in something that says fat free and google every single one of them. When you take fat out they have to put something in it to make up for that. What that is could be destroying your success and health.

FFFC: Do you have any fitness idols? Who are they?

JP: Marc Lobliner from Tigerfitness.com, Chris Powell from extreme makeover as I was a semifinalist but was not picked to be on the show for season 3. I also couldn’t be doing what I’m doing without the social media fitness community you’re all some of the greatest inspiration and I can’t thank you all enough.

FFFC: How can readers learn more about your transformation and journey online (i.e. Facebook, Tumblr, Twitter, etc.)?

JP: My personal blog is: http://toobig.net