In May 2019, Jose Cordero completed a grueling 3-mile obstacle course, climbing over walls, hanging from ropes and swimming beneath underwater barriers — despite being afraid of heights, scared of water and once having weighed 550 pounds.
“It was amazing,” Cordero, now 220 pounds, tells The Post. “It showed me [I could do] a lot of things that I didn’t think I could do.”
Completing the course, which was part of the Spartan Race series, was the culmination of a dramatic 11-year transformation for the 45-year-old from Elizabeth, NJ. Heavy since childhood, he grew up with an Italian mother, a Hispanic father and lots of food in the house.
“It was always eat, eat, eat,” he says.
As an adult running his own IT company, late-night fast food became his go-to. By his late 30s, he tipped the scales at 550 pounds.
“I couldn’t sit behind counters or drive certain places and sit in certain cars,” he says. “It came to a point where enough was enough.”
In late 2008, he underwent gastric bypass surgery, even though doctors cautioned that he’d likely only lose 100 pounds and his family worried about the safety of the procedure. “I was completely afraid,” he says.
The first month of recovering from the surgery was very difficult. He could only consume liquids and subsisted mostly on broth and Crystal Light. He started walking and lifting weights a couple of weeks into his recovery — although doctors wouldn’t officially clear him for activity for a month. Initially, he could only walk about a mile, but he gradually built up to 4 miles. His days consisted solely of going to work and exercising in his home gym.
“It was a lonely journey,” says Cordero.
After five months, he’d dropped 100 pounds, working out for hours every day and primarily eating yogurt, baby food, rice and vegetables. By 2010, he’d reached his goal weight of 170 pounds.
His social life was also transformed. “I [became] a ski instructor,” says Cordero, who is currently single after ending a 3 ½-year relationship in 2018. “I started working out at the gym. Before I was afraid of showering, anything public.”
Of course, losing the weight is only half the battle. Keeping it off is an ongoing challenge.
“I cannot deviate from [my routine], even to this day,” says Cordero, who currently weighs 220 pounds. He works out for 90 minutes six or seven days a week, doing both cardio and strength training — sometimes on his own, sometimes with a trainer. Breakfast is always two eggs and a couple of slices of bacon, lunch is a salad with chicken, dinner is some kind of protein and veggies. He never eats after 7 p.m.
“I don’t miss anything,” he says of his healthy lifestyle. “I can pass a fast-food restaurant … without looking back.”
In 2017, he started working out with a trainer at Life Time Fitness who competed in Spartan Races. Eventually, Cordero started working toward the goal of doing one of the obstacle-course races himself, taking Life Time’s Spartan classes, which feature intense cardio, body-weight exercises, team-building and the use of heavy sandbags. Setting goals, such as doing the Spartan, have been key to his success.
“My motivation comes from accomplishments,” Cordero says.
Since he completed his first Spartan in May, he’s done two other races, and he’s signed up for seven in 2020, including the longer, more challenging, 13-miler known as “the Beast.”
Asked what he likes so much about the obstacle courses, he puts it succinctly: “Adrenaline.”
After feeling isolated when he was heavier, he also loves the camaraderie of the Spartan world, whether training with others in classes or competing alongside them.
“You’re gaining community,” he says. “It’s indescribable.”