I Am Ivan

Meet Ivan Garcia. The 26-year-old waiter and bouncer aspires to be a police officer, but one thing stands in his way: his weight.

The restaurant where Garcia works is located in Scotts Valley, California, near CrossFit Headquarters. When Garcia’s mother approached CrossFit HQ trainer Jenny Lau about training her son, Lau was ready to help Ivan reclaim his body.

“My shoulder hurt really bad, my knees hurt really bad, my back hurt really bad,” Garcia says. “Yeah, I felt strong, but day to day I was very weak.”

Lau faced challenges of her own.

“He just didn’t seem really into it,” she says. “And I was like, ‘Hey, this is optional. You either want to be here or you don’t want to be here.’”

When Garcia decided gastric-bypass surgery was the solution, Lau questioned him.

“If you’re putting 100 percent good food in your body 100 percent of the time and you’re in here giving me 100 percent effort, why aren’t you losing weight?” she asked.

“I figured I was doing CrossFit so I could keep eating junk food and choose bad habits,” Garcia admits.

Lau enlisted the help of friend and registered dietitian Logan Vanderpool, and the two asked Garcia to reconsider invasive surgery at his young age.

“I decided I wanted to eat clean, I wanted to be a healthier version of myself … . I didn’t want to do (the surgery) anymore,” Garcia says. “I wanted to do it on my own with the help of Jenny.”

At the time this video was filmed, Garcia had lost 102 lb.

Video by Jay Vera and Irvin Anfoso.

9min 59sec

Additional audio: “CrossFit Radio Episode 264” by Justin Judkins, published Feb. 25, 2013.