Skip to content
If you follow this blog, you already know about the other-worldly transformation of my younger brother, Josh Hewlett, VP of Cardio Miracle.
Yes, I’m talking about the guy who went from 480 pounds to under 260 pounds in about two years, with no surgery, injections, or medical tricks. Just sheer determination, healthier living, consistency, and one step after another.
I wrote extensively about his incredible transformation in our New Year’s post earlier this year, which you can read in THIS BLOG POST. I highly recommend checking that article out because Josh’s story is one of the most inspirational transformations I’ve ever witnessed.
But apparently losing more than 200 pounds wasn’t enough for him.
Fast forward to July.
Josh texted me and said he’d signed up for a marathon. I reminded him that he’s a strongman and that training for a marathon is essentially the opposite of the type of training he’d been doing for years.
I also kindly informed him that a marathon is 26.2 miles of RUNNING!
He responded with a laughing emoji and assured me that he was aware. Apparently, unbeknownst to me, he’d already been training for months, jogging through the hills and mountains around Salt Lake City, sometimes with a weighted vest.
Then, after we’d gone quite a while without seeing each other in person, I saw him again and was stunned. The transformation had continued. Josh had gone from a 480-pound strongman to a guy who had lost more than 200 pounds but still carried that big, strongman build, and now he looked completely different.
Athletic. Lean. Statuesque. More like a marble carving of David than a Renaissance painting of a wealthy guy sitting on a couch eating grapes.
This was a different Josh.
Fast forward to Friday, October 2, 2026.
The day before the marathon, Josh drove four hours from his home in Salt Lake City to one of the most recognizable red-rock destinations in the world: Moab, Utah. Slickrock Country.
And because simply running a marathon apparently wasn’t difficult enough, Josh hadn’t chosen a traditional road marathon. He chose the Arches Marathon, a trail race through the rugged terrain surrounding Moab. Uneven terrain, rocks, hills, obstacles. The kind of course where finding a comfortable running rhythm isn’t exactly the point.
Naturally, I was concerned. I know my brother. I know his determination, and I know that when Josh decides he is going to accomplish something, stopping him is nearly impossible.
So I said to him, “Remember, surviving until tomorrow is more important than being the hero today. Please return alive and as uninjured as possible. It’s more important to be a father who’s around for a long time than to push yourself so hard that you seriously hurt yourself trying to prove you can finish.”
I reminded him of the summits I’ve turned away from over the years when weather conditions changed on the mountain. Sometimes reaching the top isn’t worth the risk. Our families need us more than the ’Gram does.
He agreed. He had a plan, he knew the circumstances that would tell him it was time to stop, and he was prepared to bail if he needed to. But he was also confident. He had trained, he was determined, and if you know Josh, you know there’s not much stopping that mindset once he has decided where he’s going.
I didn’t sleep much that night. My concern for my brother was too great knowing what he was about to attempt. Running a marathon has never even crossed my mind as a reasonable recreational activity, especially after severely injuring my leg four years ago and being told by doctors that I might never run again.
No Hewlett in our immediate family had ever attempted something like this, so all I could do was pray for his safety.
As it turns out, Josh wasn’t sleeping much either. He later told me he got less than two hours of sleep that night because of the nerves. But he had trained for this, and he was ready.
On the trail.
Saturday, October 3, 2026
At 7:00 AM, on next to no sleep, Josh filled his hydration bladder with Cardio Miracle, stepped onto the course, and began his 26.2-mile adventure.
He sent us the tracking information that allowed us to follow his progress throughout the race. His family, friends, and so many people who had watched this journey and were cheering him on spent the next six-plus hours watching those checkpoints and hoping he was okay.
Then the message came: he had done it.
Just over six hours after starting, Josh Hewlett crossed the finish line of his first marathon. When his wife, Laura, texted me that he was okay and had finished, I broke down and sobbed in my office. Partly because I was relieved that my little brother was safe, but mostly because I understood what that finish line represented.
This wasn’t simply 26.2 miles. This was a man who once weighed 480 pounds, a strongman competitor who completely changed the way he trained, ate, moved, and lived. A husband and father who decided to make changes one day at a time and then kept making them when nobody was watching.
One step after another, just like this journey began, until those steps carried him across a marathon finish line in Moab, Utah.
We celebrate Josh and this incredible chapter of his journey. There cannot be many people who have gone from where he started, at the weight he was, competing as a strongman, to completing an entire marathon. What a story, what a guy, and what an example of what can happen when you make a promise to yourself and then keep showing up for it.
We’ll invite Josh to share more of this journey himself in a future post because there is so much more to this story than one finish line. For now, I simply get to be the proud older brother.
Congratulations, Josh Hewlett.
The Marathon Man.
A Father’s Perspective: Another Cardio Miracle Close to Home
By John B. Hewlett, Founder of Cardio Miracle
There is something especially meaningful about watching a Cardio Miracle happen close to home.
The Cardio Miracle journey began 14 years ago, after more than four years of consulting with some of the top experts in the world. In the years since, I have heard countless stories from people whose lives and health journeys have been impacted. But some of the stories that mean the most to me have happened within my own family.
When Josh was just 24 years old, newly married, the father of an 18-month-old son, and expecting his second child, he began experiencing horrific symptoms. Testing revealed 26 lesions on his brain, and he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis.
It was devastating for our family. We were looking at what could potentially be a debilitating illness for our young son, husband, and father.
During that time, Josh became incredibly focused on his health. Alongside the medical care he was receiving, our family rallied around him. I encouraged him to focus heavily on nutrition, nitric oxide support, antioxidants, and other healthy habits, while his mother prepared a juicing regimen for him. Within six months, follow-up testing showed that the lesions were no longer present, and his doctors ultimately questioned the original diagnosis.
Years later, Josh faced a very different health challenge. For a combination of personal and physical reasons, his weight climbed until he was approaching 500 pounds.
Eventually, he committed himself to something remarkably simple: walking. He began an aggressive goal of 12,000 steps every day and, more importantly, kept doing it.
This past weekend, more than 220 pounds lighter than when that journey began, Josh completed a grueling mountain trail marathon, covering more than 26 miles in just over six hours.
His transformation has been one of the greatest demonstrations of discipline, focus, and goal-setting I have ever witnessed. I have watched my son transform himself through bodybuilding, weight loss, cardiovascular training, and an extraordinary commitment to his health. Today, he is in the finest health and physical condition I have seen in his adult life.
There is a reason we talk about Cardio Miracles. For me, this is one of them.
Not simply because Josh crossed a marathon finish line, or because of the number on a scale, but because of everything those things represent. I have watched my son face frightening health circumstances, enormous physical challenges, and seasons of life that could have defeated him. Instead, he continued to choose his health, his goals, and the people he loves.
As Josh’s father and his partner at Cardio Miracle, I am proud beyond belief of what he has accomplished and of the dedication he has shown to creating a better life for his wife, his children, his parents, his siblings, his friends, and himself.
Congratulations, Josh. What a miracle it has been to watch.
