KISSIMMEE, Fla. – If you need some inspiration for 2020, 28-year-old Christian Montijo may give you the motivation you need to accomplish any new year resolutions.
Montijo just enlisted to the U.S. Army. For years, it’s been his dream to serve but one thing was holding him back: his weight.
“At the beginning, my goal was to join the army-- that was it. I wanted to lose weight and join the Army and now we are here,” Montijo said.
A year ago, Montijo weighed more than 300 pounds. At that point, the husband and father of two said enough was enough and figured it wasn’t too late to get recruited.
“I got to point to my life that I thought if I keep going on this path, I’m just going to keep gaining weight and get to a point that I’m either going to die or be in a wheelchair,” Montijo explained.
The 28-year-old changed his entire diet. He said his weight-loss method included meal prepping every week and going for walks around his neighborhood.
He said his motivation to stick to his new routine was his two small children.
"My kids are the biggest thing. They're young so I know they have a lot of energy so I want to keep up with them and that's the first thing. I want to be with them in the long run," he said.
Once Montijo started noticing the difference in his body, he went to the recruiting station in Kissimmee and even then, he still had 30 more pounds to lose.
“You don’t gain weight, 100 pounds, in a week or in a month, it’s over time. So the same way that it takes time for you to gain weight, it’s going to take time to lose the weight,” he said.
Montijo was able to drop 165 pounds and in October and was finally able to enlist.
On Tuesday, Montijo will head to South Carolina for basic training and will serve as a satellite communications systems ops maintainer.