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TAMPA, Fla. – Over the years, physical limitations for Tampa<\/a> native Chris Garrido were a quiet thief.<\/p>\n “I came into 2024 weighing 440 pounds,” Garrido told FOX 13.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ: Hillsborough County recovery center aims to offer help for former inmates<\/a><\/p>\n Garrido found himself unable to fit into restaurant booths or participate in family outings.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I think people probably just assume that I am the one taking the picture,” Garrido said of various photos, featuring his wife and two boys having fun. “The reality is, I’m just not there. Because, if it required too much standing or walking or climbing, I just couldn’t do it.”<\/p>\n Garrido spent nights praying for a very specific, modest milestone.<\/p>\n MORE: Air Force veteran left in constant pain after lung cancer diagnosis gets life back through trial at Moffitt<\/a><\/p>\n “I used to pray every night that God would let me live to be 58 years old. That was a real number in my head,” he said. “Because, at 58, both of my kids will have graduated high school. And looking back on it, it felt normal then. But looking back on it, it’s heartbreaking even to me because what kind of father just prays to make it to 58?”<\/p>\n Dig deeper:<\/p>\n In March 2024, Garrido\u2019s father passed away, and watching his sons grieve their grandfather, Garrido was struck by a terrifying thought.<\/p>\n “It just kept ringing in my head like, ‘gosh if losing their grandfather hurts this much, what’s it going to be like if they lose their dad?'” Garrido said. “And so, I think that was probably \u2014 if somebody asked me what was the beginning \u2014 that was the impetus of like, okay it really is time.”\u00a0<\/p>\n He got blood work done, and after his labs came back with a\u00a0diagnosis of Type 2 diabetes<\/a> and other high markers, Garrido decided to make a change. He made a deal with himself: Give the gym at Legacy Barbell in Clearwater 90 days. If he still hated it on day 91, he could quit.<\/p>\n READ: Catholic Charities expanding mental health services at homeless shelters location in multiple counties<\/a><\/p>\n “Days one through 30, I hated. Days 31 through 60, I tolerated. And days 61 through 90, I started to enjoy it,” Garrido, who still works with his Legacy Barbell trainer, recalled.<\/p>\n By the end of that first three-month stretch, he lost 50 pounds.\u00a0<\/p>\n He also simplified his life by eating the same nutrient-dense meals at the same time every day, turning food from an emotional crutch into “fuel.”<\/p>\n “It’s funny, my taste buds have changed,” Garrido added. “I eat ground chicken and brown rice every day, and I love it. And I used to be like, I mean, I was a barbecue pit master!”<\/p>\n Big picture view:<\/p>\n Today, the 50-year-old is down 147 pounds in 17 months. His journey is the subject of his new book, “Fit by 50: My Yearlong Journey from Death to Life.”\u00a0<\/p>\n MORE: Nursing student helps save a man believed to be overdosing<\/a><\/p>\n The cover of the book is a picture of Garrido standing at the summit of Stone Mountain in Georgia in July 2025, nearly one year into his journey.\u00a0<\/p>\n Climbing that mountain would not have been possible the year before. In fact, in the summer of 2024, Garrido wasn\u2019t even physically able to go to the Birmingham Zoo with his family \u2013 “too much standing, too much walking,” he added. “I couldn’t do any of it.”<\/p>\n But by July 2025, he was already down more than 100 pounds. When he reached the top of Stone Mountain, he broke down in tears.\u00a0<\/p>\n “I finally was able to get the words out: ‘I did it, I did it.\u2019 That\u2019s all I could say,” Garrido remembered. “And in that moment, it was just like this emotional release of, like, yeah, we actually did it this time. And this time, it’s going to stick.”<\/p>\n In his book, the Tampa father writes, “to the man I was a year ago\u2026You didn\u2019t do it \u2013 you\u2019re doing it. Keep going. Not done yet.”<\/p>\n \u2018Not Done Yet\u2019 has become his mantra to keep going, to keep climbing and to keep showing up.\u00a0<\/p>\n READ: Bradenton teen whose leg was amputated during 17-hour surgery to remove tumor heads home from hospital<\/a><\/p>\n “The goal isn\u2019t to lose 100 pounds or 150 pounds,” Garrido said. “The goal is to just keep getting better every single day. And that never ends.”<\/p>\n What’s next:<\/p>\n Garrido\u2019s book, “Fit by 50,” was released in paperback in October 2025. In February 2026, it\u2019s scheduled for release on Kindle and Audible.<\/p>\n The Source: The information in this story was gathered during an interview with Chris Garrido.\u00a0<\/p>\n Tampa<\/a>Health<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. – Over the years, physical limitations for Tampa native Chris Garrido were a quiet thief. “I…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":149737,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[47,571,629,115,135,137,136,628],"class_list":["post-149736","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-fl","tag-health","tag-hillsborough","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-us"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149736","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149736"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149736\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149737"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149736"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149736"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149736"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/fit-by-50-1.jpg\")
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