My Fitness Journey Being A Christian Father Over 40
In this introductory video, Israel Loubout explains why he created his YouTube channel and who it serves: Christian fathers over the age of 40 who want to improve their health. He recounts his own 25‑year fitness journey—from early inspiration by Arnold Schwarzenegger, a high‑school mentor chiropractor, to disciplined training in the Navy that added 40 lb of muscle. He frames his mission around three impact areas—marriage, parenting, and career—and outlines three pillars he will address on the channel: faith, nutrition, and fitness. Israel offers practical starter advice (find a mentor, use “training wheels,” take the first step) and invites viewers to join a community focused on holistic, faith‑centered health. The video blends personal testimony with a clear call‑to‑action, positioning his lived experience as the authority for the channel’s content.
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Hey, it's Israel Loubout here, and if you're watching this video and you're asking yourself, why should I listen to this guy? What's the purpose of this channel? What am I here to learn, and what's the value I can gain from it? Well, I have a burning desire to help Christian fathers over the age of 40 get fit and stay fit. I'll give you a little back history and story on myself as to how I came to this point. And why it even matters. For about 2 and a half decades, I've been pursuing better health, fitness, physically to be in top shape for myself, to be able to make an impact in 3 specific areas. And I hope this will speak to you. One, in my marriage, so I can look and feel good for my wife, so I can have the energy that I need to be able to pursue pursue her and give her my best. Two, I'm a father, so I've got kids and I want to be an example to them. I want them to live healthy, physically fit lives where they have the mental energy, the physical energy, the ability to make an impact in their lives and their careers. I've got to practice what I preach. I've got to be a living example of that. And three, for my career, for my business. If I'm going to be able to give and serve my community, my customers, my team, I've got to be in top shape. There's no other way around it. So how did I get to this point? Well, I grew up in a small town, small town in Northern California, and it's crazy to think that after watching a couple movies with Arnold Schwarzenegger in it As cheesy as that might sound, I know there's some guys out there that probably thought the same thing. It was like, wow, how does that guy look like that? How did he get there? What did he do? And so that planted a seed early on of like, oh my goodness, I desire that. Now, I wasn't a believer then, so it was all just vanity and looking to feel good physically, selfishly. But that was a seed that was planted that actually motivated me to get off my butt and really pursue lifting and staying fit. I always played sports as a kid, but it really hit me when I was in high school that in order to really be better at wrestling, which is a sport I loved, I've got to be stronger. That'll give me an advantage. So I had the unique opportunity to actually connect with the chiropractor who was on our football team. This was when I was in high school. He took a liking— he took a liking to me, took me under his wing and said, hey, why don't we go to lunch? I'll drop a workout plan for you, but I'm not going to just do that. I'm going to actually go in the gym and work out with you. How does that sound? I was like, what? That's amazing. Yeah, I need some guidance. I don't know what to do. I think I was going to the gym a little bit here and there. I had no clue what I was doing. I was doing a mixture of body parts and different machines, and I was like, man, I feel like I'm making some effort, but man, I don't really see any results. I don't— again, I feel lost. I think the saying is, if you, uh, that practice will make perfect, or, you know, you'll get, you'll get better if you just practice. Well, if you're always practicing the wrong things, you're not going to actually get better because you're practicing the wrong thing. So you're actually doing behaviors that aren't going to really improve the results that you want. So I needed to have more of a perfect practice type of mentality, and I needed guidance, and I needed a mentor to come alongside me to help me. And so that basically at the time was that. He literally took me under his wing, took me to the gym, and that was what started it all. I fell in love with that, in love with the smell of the gym, just being there. It was a nice release of just if I was frustrated that day, to go there and just mentally unplug. And then when I started seeing results after a few months, I'm like, I like this. I like how I feel. I like how I look. Like, all those things just continue to build upon themselves. Fast forward to today, I'm 42. That was back in the late '90s, 1996, '97, '98. Just give you a little context, I graduated in 1998 from high school. But that's not where it all literally just blew up from there. Where it blew up was then I got serious. I made the mental shift of like, I'm gonna do this and I'm gonna do this big time. So I decided to join the Navy, went in November '98, and from that day forward I literally just hit it hard. Did I have to sacrifice things? 100%. You have to. If you want something bad enough, you got to sacrifice some things. Sacrificed my weekends, times going out with friends, but I knew the payoff would be huge. And I'm here today to say it is. And I literally put in years. Took me about 3 to 4 years. I packed on 40 pounds of muscle. Again, I'm not here to brag or to boast or have this ego or anything, but it is possible. Yeah, there's probably some elements that I'm genetically a little bit more gifted than some. However, You put consistent hard work towards something, no matter what you do, you're gonna see results. I don't expect you to wanna be 200 pounds and have a lot of muscle. Being fit and being healthy looks different for everybody. But at the end of the day, you need to be at a healthy weight. That's just goes along with the territory. So why did I say all this? The reason why I say this, because I've been here, I walked through it. I've had ups and downs. I've had years where I packed on the weight because I just got lazy, but I always had a foundation to fall back on. Now if you're thinking, wow, I never played sports, I never had a foundation of working out for several years like you, where do I actually start? You just start. You just take that first step forward and you start making progress. Now, if you're thinking, well, what do I do? Like I was when I was a teenager in high school trying to figure this out. Well, then I encourage you to get a friend. Ask somebody that you know is fit. There's got to be some fit people in your life, whether it's a pastor, it's a friend in your Bible study, it's a longtime friend, whatever it is that you've desire to want to look and feel like that, ask them. I'm sure they'd be more than happy to do what the chiropractor friend did when I was in high school. He didn't work out with me forever, it was like literally a couple weeks, maybe a month, but that was all I needed. I needed that starting foundation to know what to do, when to do it, and then I went on my own. It's like when you're teaching your kids how to ride the bike You start with training wheels, and then finally once they go from training wheels to taking them off and they are able to ride on their own, you don't need to be there every time. So that's all I'm suggesting is just go in there, got some training wheels on, start riding that bike, get the help that you need until you don't need the training wheels anymore, and start, start going after it. So that's my story. That's why you should listen to me. This is one area that I know really well, that I've lived more than half my life pursuing and accomplishing. And if you feel like that's a compelling reason of why you should stay on this channel and continue to watch and to learn, I'm gonna obviously keep bringing new content, new ideas as far as these three areas, okay? Faith, always learning and growing. Am I perfect? No, I'm an imperfect human being and I'm still working on my relationship with Jesus. 2, food. What's your relationship with food? How you incorporate it into how you're going to be healthy, because that's a big piece of it all. And 3, fitness. That's the strongest area that I can really give back and glorify the kingdom, is to help you Christian fathers over the age of 40 And that's why I created this channel. That's where I feel like my purpose is at. I've lived out this life and now I need to give back. So if you want to be a part of this community, you want to continue to consume this content because you feel like it's valuable, that's the unique element here. I've scoured the internet, looked at YouTube channels, and, uh, the biggest thing that I feel is missing is talking about faith. Really, nothing else matters because we're on this earth for a short period of time, 80 to maybe max 100 years. If you're really hitting your health hard, you're gonna add some longevity, add some more years to your life. But then we spend eternity with Jesus in heaven. But in order for you to make an impact in your marriage, make an impact with your kids as a father, and in your careers, you have to give some attention to your health. That's— that there's no way around it. You cannot operate at a high level, be able to do those things to its full capacity if you're sick and unhealthy and always in the hospital. You're sluggish, you don't have energy, you're mentally fogged. Like, all those things are gonna improve. You're gonna look and feel good, but know that you can make an impact in those areas when you allocate time, because there is plenty of time for your fitness and your health. Love you guys. Let's go!
