Nate Pontius

by saying that that chapter of my life, just to paint the whole picture, I was riding a bicycle.

A bicycle was my transportation getting out of the Marine Corps.

I'd actually gotten a DUI shortly after my combat deployment and shortly before getting out.

I was just kind of a

wandering aimless drunk on a bicycle that was moderately enthusiastic about competing at a high level in fitness and

You know, whenever you're in the military, all your chow is taken care of.

You got a chow hall or MRE is always taken care of.

So I was like trying to set up shop of like figuring out where I was going to be getting my food from, riding a bicycle around, half drunk all the time, homeless.

And yeah, I just, I had seen this diner that slang these massive portions of food and these skinny fashion girls never ate all their food.

So I just started swinging in there and getting some extra food to keep in my backpack and

I guess to, you know, just paint the catalyst from like drunk bicycle riding, scrap trash eating Nate's beard to like competing at a moderately high level in CrossFit.

I don't want to say CrossFit was like a saving grace for me by, by any means.

Cause I, quite frankly, I hated the culture.

I hated CrossFit.

Like,

I hated the CrossFit Kool-Aid.

I really just, I liked the aspect of exercise as a competition.

And I'd kind of like fostered this deep appreciation for training hard in the Marine Corps because I was a scrawny, weak dude that just couldn't do the things that were required of me in training.

the Marine Corps, so I got really into the physicality of doing the things that I needed to do to get strong enough to do my job as an infantryman.

I saw the recon guys doing kipping pull-ups and thrusters with barbells and all the cool stuff, and I thought that'd be really neat to chase after, so that...