Ryan Ottoboni is a student/intern for the Ducks football program/aspiring life coach at the U of O. His passion for self improvement is palpable by simply speaking to him as well as his desire to help others.

Where did this journey begin for you?

A couple places. Honestly not going to prom in High School, you know, being overweight as a child, all of these things deeply affected me. And also playing these video games that required a lot of “grinding” before you achieved anything; as in doing a lot of repetitive actions over and over again and, not matter what- you can procrastinate or goof around all you want, but at the end of the day it’s all about the end goal. So I took that lesson that I learned as a kid and decided I wanted to change myself and achieve personal and physical development for myself.

When did this start becoming more than just a way to lose weight?

Really when I started seeing progress. I realized that I liked how I was progressing and growing as a person so I started going from not knowing anything about how my body worked, to trying to know everything about how it worked, and that’s why you study what I study and do what I do; because you’ll never know EVERYTHING about the body so its just a constant influx of useful information. So I sought out help but at the same time it was a lot of self-learning, which was important to me. And of course, being able to go to the beach, take my shirt off and be confident, that was also huge for me.

So you took this personal thing for your own development, and turned it around to help other people. Talk about that transition 

I just wanted people to feel how I felt you know? Just that overwhelming sense of accomplishment. One morning I got up, looked in the mirror, and broke down crying because I just couldn’t believe where I took myself from where I started. I really realized that anything is possible, that we are the marble AND the sculptor. I came from such a low- and that’s not to say I’m finished by ANY means but, I really just had a check-in with myself and found so much strength in it that I wanted to share that with others.

How do you do that?

I create fitness plans, both workout and diet restrictive for anybody who asks. The hardest thing for me, is that I care too much about it. I get discouraged and angry sometimes if I’m finding that they’re cheating or taking shortcuts because I blame myself. But I gotta realize it’s not up to me, its up to them. I’m here for support and information, that’s really it. I just want them to feel what I felt you know? But it’s also true that not everybody is me, and not everybody would feel that much accomplishment in my field of work. But anybody that would… I would encourage them to chase that, and really see what they’re capable of.