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Dad loses over 200 pounds; doesn’t want to be ‘400-pound pool guy’

Posted at 2:55 PM, Jun 03, 2014
and last updated 2014-06-04 20:17:44-04

IRVING, Tex. — A Texas father says a major milestone triggered a shift in his outlook on life and helped him lose 400 pounds.

Jason Criddle admitted that he wasn’t always as positive of a person as he is now. When he was overweight, he was sitting at home watching TV when he wasn’t cleaning pools for a living.

But when his daughter was born four years ago, it triggered a major shift in his life and he decided to make change.

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“I didn’t want to be the 400-pound pool guy.  I wanted my daughter to tell everybody that her dad was a hero,” Criddle told KDAF.

As a result, Criddle got into hero shape and dropped more than 200 pounds.

Additionally, he told KDAF that he didn’t just change his body, he also changed his profession — he now reshapes other people’s bodies. Criddle is a personal trainer. He wanted to transform into the hero his daughter needed.

Ironically, after shedding the excess weight, Criddle suffered a heart attack.  Doctors said his years of being overweight took a toll on his body.

“I didn’t want my daughter to grow up without me, that was it,” he said. “There was no way I was going to leave this earth and not make some kind of impact for my daughter to grow up and have her say my dad was a super hero, my dad made an impact on this planet.”

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“I didn’t want to be the 400-pound pool guy, I wanted my daughter to tell everybody that her dad was a hero.”

Just three weeks after the heart attack, Criddle started working out again and even training people again — this time at no cost.

These days Criddle travels the country motivating people to start living the life they were made to live. He has also written a book, Trainer to Trillionaire, that documents his experiences.