My Journey

A few weeks ago I happened to check the Do Groove web site, and was surprised to see my picture come up on the front page (I'm the second dot!!). I shared it with a few family members and Andrea threw it up on Facebook. So what took me so long to share it here? I'm not sure I guess. I think it has a lot to do with my mixed feelings about it.

One the one hand, I am proud of the changes I've made in my life. If my story motivates even one person to make similar changes, then it's all worth it. But on the other hand, I have a hard time accepting praise for essentially screwing up my life first. I wouldn't be in this video and I wouldn't be sharing this story if I had just lived my life the way I should have all along.

There are lots of people who do exactly that. People who make health, fitness, and nutrition a part of their daily life from the get go. Those are the people who should be praised. Those are the people we should look up to. The parents who give their children the SKILLS to live healthy and TEACH nutrition. The families that know the dangers of fast food. The people that know the importance of daily physical activity. They are the ones we should do videos of and learn from.

The video itself is well edited, and I'm glad it didn't paint video games in a huge negative light. Video games were simply my primary form of inactivity, but they were not to blame. There are many types of inactivity, and which ever one is your favorite, is not the bad guy. It was my CHOICE to spend time exclusively with video games, at the expense of everything else. Choice is always the key.

I also didn't talk about alcohol and my personal struggles with alcohol. Alcohol contributed greatly to my poor health, because alcohol is 100% useless calories that your body can do nothing with. Quite frankly, I was afraid to bring up the subject during the interview. I've been sober 2 out of the last 5 years and for the most part, not done much drinking this year (but I have had some). If wine is included at our "Food & Wine" vacation weekend, you can bet I'll be enjoying some! I can freely admit that at this point in my life, I'm not ready to say I'll never drink again. But who knows, after time anything can change, and maybe some day a decision like that would not be that big of a deal.

Another thing I did not mention in the video is my loathing of fast food. Obviously I'm sure I could never have gotten away with saying how horrible McDonald's food is, or how I think fast food contributes a lot to why people are obese in this country. It would have been edited out for legal reasons. And yes, I eat fast food every now and then, but when I do, I remind myself what a poison it is. The difference is now I might eat a chicken nugget or two. I can remember how 10 years ago, I would roll out of bed hung over every Sunday morning around 11am, and then head over to McDonald's to purchase 5 or 6 0.39 cent cheeseburgers. Nothing better than starting your day out with 1,800 calories.

But that was then, and this is now. I don't think anyone realizes how much change I've really made. The visible change is only the tip of the iceberg. So if you've read this far, you've gotten a small glimpse.

The whole story, my two year journey