Travis Oxenreider

This Pennsylvania native went from sedentary to shredded after a "rude awakening."

Written By Jim Stoppani, PhD

Updated October 8, 2019

Written by Travis Oxenreider

My story is probably similar to many others out there. Growing up in Wernersville, Pennsylvania, there wasn’t much to do, since it’s such a rural area, but I was still pretty active as a child. Being the youngest of three (older brother and sister), my parents had their hands full with all of us being active in sports and school programs.

As I grew older and entered high school, I became less active. I picked up the guitar and fell in love with playing music and video games. I became a hermit. I only went out occasionally to play a pickup game of basketball or ride bikes with my friends. I recall my father working out pretty regularly in our basement. He would always ask me for a spot and we would end up talking about me joining him. That’s all it ever was for me: talking about doing it. Even though I wasn’t very active, I kept my weight under control and never had a gut.

When I turned 17, I met my future wife, Jessica. We were typical high-school sweethearts. We loved to sit around, watch movies and go out to dinner; we lived a pretty sedentary life. At college, the saying goes that you’ll gain the “Freshmen 15.” I gained way more than that.

Fast-forward a few years, where I now have a job as a designer at an engineering firm. I purchased a home, was planning our wedding and looking after two crazy dogs. I was living a pretty comfortable life, but my health was starting to suffer. Health problems run in my family – my father has diabetes – and I was starting to show early signs of blood-sugar issues. I needed to do something. I tried going to gyms with friends, but I would always find an excuse to get out of going. I didn’t want to put in the work, and kept saying that the lifestyle wasn’t for me.

I remember walking up the stairs at my job one day and being out of breath and sweating like crazy. I thought to myself, “How is this possible, it’s only a few stairs?” That was my rude awakening. I weighed 240 pounds at 5’10” and wore size 40 pants with a tight XL shirt. I needed to make a permanent change. My first thought was that I needed to do this for my health, but I was also getting married eight months. I set my first small goal: to lose some weight for the wedding.

Knowing almost nothing about nutrition and very little on training, I did what most people do: I added cardio and restricted my eating habits. It worked well – at first. I lost 20 pounds in a short amount of time, but I quickly plateaued. I did research to try and learn as much as I possibly could about training and nutrition. I immediately needed to know more about Jim and what he was all about.

I looked at his Shortcut to Shred program and read the overview a bunch of times to digest all the knowledge I could. I decided I was going to try and follow the program as closely as possible. Needless to say, it worked. In six short weeks, I went from 220 pounds down to 195. But I wasn’t done. I absolutely loved the way my body began to look and, most importantly, how I began to feel.

I found the Dieting 101 article on jimstoppani.com and I was finally able to understand how nutrition worked. Even though I learned so much from his other overviews, this one really opened my eyes to how to dial in my nutrition correctly. I also started using JYM supplements and never felt better. I did as many of Jim’s programs as I could. In one year, I lost 72 pounds, dropping from 240 pounds to 168 pounds. To date, I’ve gained 20 pounds of muscle and currently weigh in at a lean 186 pounds.

At this point, I’ve completed eight of Jim’s programs: Shortcut To Shred, Shortcut to Size, Super-Man, Super Shredded 8, MED Training, The Daily Grind, Back and Fourth and Down and Up Mass. My future goals are to keep pushing myself while trying to help as many people as I can. Everyone is in charge of his or her own fitness and health, and I hope I can help people not only reach their goals but crush them!

I truly believe in the JYM brand. It’s so much more than just the highest-quality supplements on the market. It has one of the most respectable leaders in Jim Stoppani and the best group of people supporting it – the JYM Army – that I’ve ever had the pleasure of interacting with.

I would like to thank my family, friends and especially my wife Jessica for all the support they’ve given me through my journey. Jess helps me during my hardest of days and cheers me on during my best ones!

Keys to My Success

Here are a few tips I’ll share with others who want to change their lives through fitness and a healthy lifestyle:

Make the time to workout. I work a full-time job, take care of my animals and still find the time to go to the gym.

Consistency and variety are key. Switch up your workouts. Implementing variety in your training helps avoid plateaus, and staying consistent is necessary to making progress.

Take a lot of progress pictures. The scale can be deceiving, but a picture is worth a thousand words.

Supplement correctly. I can’t stress enough how important it is to get the critical ingredients you need for your training. The JYM supplement line is the only one I’ll ever trust.

Dial in on your nutrition. The saying “abs are made in the kitchen” is true. To make any real progress, you need to be as determined in your nutrition as you are in your training. Hold yourself accountable for your progress.

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