My name is Gareth Karpel and I am the founder of this website. My first attempt at fitness started when I was in high school. However, being young and impatient I stopped because I wasn't seeing any results. I did not know at the time what I was doing would not help me achieve what I was desiring for myself. I was 6' and weighed 165 lbs. and I can say that this is when my body image issues first started. I would look at other around me and notice there muscular development and when I looked at myself all I saw was what I felt where my flaws. I stayed away from working out until I turned 23 and that's when I met the first person who helped me to start looking at not only myself differently but the way I approach fitness all together. I worked out on and off for 11 years and thought I was doing well. That was until I had to go to the dentist for some dental work and was confronted with a scary reality. When my vitals where taken my blood pressure was so high that they wouldn't even touch me with a procedure. I was finally faced with myself and at a loss for what to do. So I took a hard look and that's when my next turn in my journey took place. Through all my own research and studying I kept coming to one conclusion and that was a complete change in diet and taken a more serious approach to fitness. I started off with a weight of 265 lbs. and at this point I was not working out at all. So I started by walking for 45 minutes and cutting out beef and pork from my diet. This change in my diet was in conflict with what I was taught growing up about a bodies needs and nutrition. Flash forward to today and I am a dietary vegan who works out for 1 and a half to 2 hours a day 6 days a week. I keep working on myself and answer questions when asked to the best of my ability. This lead me to looking at my journey and all the information I had looked at and gone through just to get to the point I am at right now. So when I first approached the idea of this website and wellness I realized that the amount of information I had access to was both vast and varied. I spent days and months trying to sift through it all to understand it. I wanted to create something that could help those focus in on what they are looking for and need, as well as have a platform to place some of my own content on in hopes of helping other to achieve their goals and ideas. Welcome to Purely Refreshed a website dedicated to the journey of self discovery.