Today we’d like to introduce you to Brandon Westover
Hi Brandon, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
I can summarize my growing up story into these traits: active, athletic, competitive, hardworking, and junk food!
My passion for being active began at an early age. I grew up in a farming family in a very small town near Centerville, Indiana as someone who was always very active/athletic just by being around many brothers and constantly competing against each other. The farming aspect of my early childhood taught me a strong work ethic – things that my kids I’m sure get tired of hearing me repeat when they complain about doing what would’ve been considered a simple chore when I was their age.
It was also during my childhood that habits were formed because I was so used to going to school, straight to whatever sporting practice was going on at the time, and working after – all while always making sure my grades were good. When adulthood hit, it was very easy to stay busy and continue to push myself to do difficult things. The constant competition from my brothers, my uncles, my close friends and especially my grandfather really proved the ‘iron sharpens iron’ proverb to be accurate.
Now to the junk food….my parents separated when I was very young and when you grow up in a household with 4 young boys and a single father who is out farming most of the time – you don’t have great odds at developing the greatest eating habits! We were pros at microwavable and boxed foods as it was a strong staple of our youth and honestly, I can say I was in pretty incredible shape regardless of all the junk I was putting in my body (tip: don’t try this at home!).
Fast-forward many years later to when I get married (she’s the creative and artistic one behind the business’ logo, clothing, and all the graphics for transformations!) and have 2 amazing kids and that activity level just kind of naturally drops off. I still had fairly bad eating habits, but it wasn’t for a lack of trying – I’d try every fad diet there was, and I was religious about trying to do everything they told me to do to the letter and it never really paid off (shocker!). I’d still exercise often (there wasn’t a video exercise program I wouldn’t try – every P90x that was out, Insanity, GSP’s Rushfit, etc.), but it was always difficult to do and never fully getting me to where I wanted to be, and it was especially difficult to sustain.
I started doing Crossfit in Orlando around 2015 (I’ve been to numerous gyms/boxes in the city) and loved the camaraderie aspect of it — and of course the competitive part helped! There were so many things to learn and it didn’t matter how much you practiced something, there was always a way to do it better – so it kept me REALLY busy for years.
Things really started to turn for the better for me when I moved to a new house on the East Side of Orlando in 2019 as this eventually led me to a gym right down the street called United Front Crossfit (it has since changed names to United Front Community Fitness). It was here that “Shark Camp” was started – where the overachievers at the gym who always wanted to push themselves harder and longer joined together. This was generally the same staple of people – 2 owners, 1-4 other people, and my brother and me. I was putting in easily 2+ hours a day of intense exercise and these guys were all bigger and stronger than me, so it forced me to get used to pushing myself harder. We then started doing monthly team challenges in the gym that could be done whenever, this was a blessing for me as I had a cheat code – I worked from home, and I always wanted to do well in anything I signed up for. This was having me do things I never would’ve thought possible – I ran over 250miles in one month as a non-runner and had never even heard of an ultra-marathon at this point!
Then COVID came crashing down and we were being told that we couldn’t even workout in a gym…huh?! Luckily, there were some loopholes about exercising outside and that same gym let us borrow some equipment (talk about going over and beyond for your customers!). This catastrophe turned into a blessing for me as I had so much more free time. During that free time, I ran into 2 books that were very instrumental to my present day – Allen Carr’s “Quit Drinking Without Willpower” and David Goggin’s “Can’t Hurt Me”! The former allowed me to open my mind to not needing to drink and it honestly wasn’t very hard at all to stop – which just opened even more free time! The latter opened my eyes to badassery that I wasn’t sure existed other than in movies or tales. It spoke to me in ways that no other book had in that I had so much more in me to do that I wasn’t tapping into and eventually into an arena of Ultrarunning that I can’t imagine being without now.
I started using my free time in more productive ways by reading more materials online and by deep diving into YouTube videos around nutrition, running, lifting, etc. I had background in IT/Security, so I was already really good at researching complex/unknown things and ascertaining what/who to believe as well as always looking up multiple sources and staying up to date because new information comes out every day. Who needs these expensive colleges when you have all this information at your fingertips AND you have already trained so many years in Exercise and Dieting for what does/doesn’t work to put all the pieces together?!
My first attempt was on myself and my brother…success, then my wife and some other relatives and friends, success. The funny thing is that if you are good at researching, this information is out there and has been for years – but the hard part is sifting past the bad information and then putting all the good info together in a way that is consumable/repeatable for any person. I then asked for volunteers at the same Crossfit gym free of charge to help test out the plan that I had devised – BINGO! This trial phase also helped iron out any kinks for FAQs, how long the program should be, and to get the documentation in a manner that would benefit any type of learner.
It was at this point around the summertime of 2020 that my side business, Fittest Me by Coach B, was formed. The business was designed to help with 2 main areas – helping people manage their weight while eating foods they enjoy and to try to emphasize the necessity to move more. Most of my early clients were Crossfit people – ranging from being more athletic than me to just being glad to get their first box jump. 4 years later and almost all my clients come by word of mouth – with the majority being related to the Darting community (steel or soft-tip darts that you find in your local bar) because that’s another hobby of mine and sitting in bars daily is not the healthiest habit! I have coached so many great people throughout that time – ranging from ages 18-70, achieving many new personal records!
I use inspiration gained from working with these clients succeeding in all areas of their lives to also accomplish personal records for myself: completing a 100 mile ultra race, Georgia Death Race, many different ultramarathons (even winning one!), first place in a 6 hour obstacle race, 3rd place overall in Hyrox (1st in Age Division), a Guinness World Record, and at one point the World Record for 24-hours of the Murph Hero Workout (look it up to see how fun that one is!)
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
Overall, from the business side it’s been fairly smooth because I am not solely reliant on the income for my side business. I’ve had times where I was working full time and coaching close to 20 people and that I had to dial back a little as I work very closely with my clients so up to 10 clients is the sweet spot for me.
From a personal side, I’ve developed injuries here and there early on from exercising excessively (spelled UNINTELLIGENTLY) and I’ve gotten that perfected to this point to continuously doing many ultramarathons in a year without any major injuries.
During my Murph World Record in 2020, I did end up in the hospital for a week with Rhabdomyolysis (Rhabdo) that was pretty severe from a creatine kinase test standpoint (even though I felt fine other than being really sore). I am going from memory, but I think I was told mine was the 2nd highest they had ever personally seen around 500k U/L (healthy range is less than 1k). I’m not kidding the doctor says, “well we did find a case study where someone in Africa was recorded around 1million U/L and they survived.” Umm…I think that gave the opposite reaction the doctor had expected as I was now more nervous than before. Thankfully In the end, I got fully rehydrated and was back to doing crazy feats in a few weeks – so lesson learned (I think)!
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
The main areas I help clients with are breaking down all the complexity of nutrition and exercise as it can be very confusing and when something gets difficult – the average person gives up. I am used to dealing with very complicated technical information from my normal 9-5 of Cybersecurity in that it comes very naturally to find ways to explain this to anyone in ways that allow them to easily understand and put it into practice.
I am consistently complimented on how easy my program is compared to various diets/programs they have tried over the years.
My program differs from many others out there in that I focus solely on what matters most as it relates to health and weight management and don’t push any specific diet – so it doesn’t matter if someone is a carnivore, vegan, intermittent fasting, hates vegetables, craves any specific junk food constantly, etc. It also doesn’t matter if you come to me with certain physical limitations or health ailments as I always find ways to work around each client’s abilities. Any diet can work, but if you can’t sustain it forever then it’s only served a purpose for a short period of time. My program runs for 90 days specifically so that it gives clients enough time to become experts at handling anything life throws at them (sickness, vacations, etc) and the goal is that they are self-sufficient by day 90 to do this for life. I’m also readily available as I work with my clients through whatever messenger they prefer, and I generally answer really quickly – always within 24 hours but usually within a few minutes and I have found my clients really enjoy that. My program is designed to teach you how to eat foods you actually enjoy (think burgers, tacos, ice cream, pizza, French toast, pancakes, etc) and find activities you like doing (even if it’s just walking more) as that is the key to succeeding for the rest of your life. Many clients tell me this is the first and only diet that the food actually tasted really good (many start out telling me they are VERY picky eaters to quickly find out this is customizable to anyone)! Even better, many of my clients have other family members do it alongside of them for free and the whole family benefits at the same time! I have a regular job, so my program is very affordable (usually told I should charge more) as I’m more excited about turning people’s lives around than trying to make a quick buck.
I’m most proud of the reviews/comments I get during or after my program that it has changed the lives of the client and their families forever. I could go on for a while on these (you can read them for yourselves as I post the reviews for all to see on my Instagram), but these range from being pre-diabetic to now well under, not being able to have kids for a long time to finally having one, having issues doing activities without pain to now golfing or regularly running races, and on and on.
From a personal achievement standing, I’m most proud of my 24-hour Murph record (I believe now I only hold the North American record as an Aussie overtook my World Record). It’s one that takes serious dedication, training and skill to accomplish – enough that it would require a huge reward for me to undertake that challenge again!
Have you learned any interesting or important lessons due to the Covid-19 Crisis?
Covid brought about a very mixed bag of responses. I had many clients join during or after this and most of the comments mentioned that they had put on a lot of weight or were less active during this time. For these folks, it was very understandable as many people went from moving around and exercising often to now they are at home on devices for the majority of the day eating and not moving.
The other side of the coin that I have noticed more with Ultrarunning folks is that I’ve heard a good amount of people stopped drinking during this time and with that they needed to find something to fill the void of time with and they gravitated towards running. It was something that you could easily do all throughout Covid and it’s a free activity (ok, well free’ish as the merchandise pricing can get quite crazy with the special shoes and accessories…but you get my point).
I think this helps hammer home the point that you are the only one that can control how you respond to things around you and with the right mindset, you can accomplish anything regardless of what’s thrown at you!
Contact Info:
- Website: https://fittestme.us/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/fittestmewithcoachb/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/FittestMeWithCoachB
Image Credits
IG ko_kollectives for personal photo and photos 7/8
IG misty.dawns for photo 3
FB yarelisheddrich for all other photos
