The Founders Blog

Welcome!

Thanks for stopping by, before we start diving down rabbit holes. I wanted to take a few moments to explain where I come from, and why I am so passionate about health and wellness today. To understand where I want to go, it helps to know where I have been. I offer this information as a preface to sharing the ideology and the concepts behind Epiq MD. As well as why it is our goal to make access to doctors, medical experts, mental health professionals, and chronic disease prevention easily accessible and affordable for the average working individual or family. Information is power, and I want to share as much as possible with you.

At the time of going live with this portion of our website, I have lost over 200 pounds, down from my peak which is estimated about 485-490 pounds. Depending upon how this last part of my weight loss journey goes, I’ve still got about another 40 to 60 pounds to go. But you should know, this blog is not just about weight loss, it’s about transparency, about real life struggles and it’s about total health in body, soul and in spirit. Hope you enjoy it.

The Founders Blog

Progress Update: Need to Track Macronutrients

For the past 4 to 5 months, my weight has remained in the 260 to 267 pounds range (starting weight was 485 in November of 2020). Normally, I'd be stressed about this, but the ongoing reduction in inches, increased strength, and improved mobility have kept me motivated and confident for the most part anyway. I am in the middle of doing a complete 4-week reset as I write this blog.

The Cost of Chronic Diseases for Employers & How Wellness Programs Can Help

When it came to weight loss, the plight seemed futile. I made unsustainable and short-lived attempts as an adult to correct the situation, yet none made a lasting impact.

Are Your Fat Cells Talking to You?

When it came to weight loss, the plight seemed futile. I made unsustainable and short-lived attempts as an adult to correct the situation, yet none made a lasting impact.

Couple of Firsts; long time coming…

Recently, I have gone through a couple of first-time experiences in my life. Or perhaps I should say a couple of firsts that I have not experienced in decades…

About me

My father was an immigrant from Mexico, he had a second-grade education and came to the U.S. when he was around 19 years old. He would become a successful master welder and then, a struggling business owner for the latter part of his adult life. My mother’s family goes back thousands of years as natives to the U.S. and she had completed a fifth-grade education. Admittedly, they come from a different era – concepts such as wellness, mental health or preventative lifestyles were inconceivable topics at best, at least by today’s standards and definitions. The reality is that they lived incredibly active lifestyles – my father died in his 80’s with an obvious muscular toned body and my mother is still of sound mind and body, while going on 88 years old. Candidly, my father would have lived much, he was just stubbornly didn’t “trust the man”, which in this case “the man” was doctors.

I came to an understanding very early on in my life that success would not come easy for someone like me, at least not my definition of “success” at that time. I was born and raised in Denver Harbor, just a few minutes east of downtown Houston, TX. It’s a place where if you’re not careful you easily end up on the wrong side of a barrel or in prison doing a 20-year sentence, like many of childhood friends, whom I love very dearly, but unfortunately had to endure. I am lucky in that a local Sunday School program impacted my consciousness early in life and my experience at working since the age of 10 in my uncle’s Tire Shop imparted into me a desire for entrepreneurship. These two things and a very tough praying mother would keep me alive and well through my adolescent and teenage years – but make no mistake, my upbringing will put some hair on your chest as the adage goes.

In spite of my lack of college pedigree, and the fact that the last official grade I completed in high school was the 10th (I did get my GED), I have since been a founder and executive in several startup companies, many of which are highly successful to this day and of course, a few that need to be taken out back and shot – but all of it has been a great privilege for me.

I had developed an anxiety-disorder rooted in childhood trauma, which was exacerbated during my tumultuous teenage years – along with being born naturally insulin resistant like many Native Americans are, which is my dominant make up in my DNA (80% Native American) – these would be the cards that I was dealt. They were my cards, and I could not change that; it took me half-a-lifetime to understand and accept that. I would spend my entire early adult life running from these past ghosts and demons, enveloping myself in entrepreneurship, which only created an entire new set of ghosts. It was much like plugging holes in a boat with toy puddy or bubblegum. The success that I found came at a cost to my own wellbeing. Today, I believe that I am on the right path – or at least a much better and wiser path.

Having said all of this, I am proud of my lineage and my humble upbringing – whatever we lacked in knowledge, material possessions or pedigree – we make up for in loyalty and a never-say-die spirit. One would naturally surmise that if I come from such great genes, why struggle so much with obesity and type-2-diabetes. This is a complex topic and requires an extensive explanation, which is why I have chosen to break it down into small stories, experiences, and anecdotes, which is called “The 1,000 Pound Journey. This title is a reference to my life experience with yoyo dieting so much that I have easily gained and lost over 1,000 pounds during my lifetime”.

In this blog, I will share with you these struggles and their respective triumphs and in some cases the respective failures. My goal is simply to establish transparency regarding health and wellness struggles, with the goal of showing some sort of guidance, inspiration or perhaps just establish the feeling of a safe space for transparency. My journey is not just about weight loss struggles, insulin resistance, overcoming diabetes – it’s also about mental health and wellness. It’s about being made whole in body, soul and in spirit.

I invite you to take the journey with me and feel free to engage, leaving any feedback, comments or questions and I will do my best to respond accordingly. I look forward to hearing your stories and growing in this journey together!

Onward and upward.