I am an average guy (who just turned 50) working a 40 hour work week that has struggled with health my entire life. I started my journey with health and fitness at 14 years old when I was called "chubby" by friends at school. This lit a fire deep down inside and I started lifting weights in my basement. Arnold Schwarzenegger quickly became my hero when I got the book Arnold: The Education of a Bodybuilder. For 8 years I hit the weights consistently. I went from a out of shape140 pound 14 year old to a buff 22 year old weighing 225 with very little fat.

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  At 22 I got my first "real job". It didn't take long before I quit going to the gym. About 6 months into my job i was "too tired" or made up other excuses to not go to the gym. It was around 2 years later and my weight went from a lean 225 to not so lean 255 pounds. Not only had I gained 30 pounds of fat but I lost a lot of muscle.

 

  I turned this around when i moved to a small town and while driving home one day I saw a Taekwondo studio. Enter into my Bruce Lee days. I fell in love with martial arts and read every Bruce lee book ever written. In about 6 months I went from 255 to a very lean 180! I couldn't get enough of martial arts! In about 6 years I earned a blackbelt in Taekwondo and Hapkido while also doing Tai Chi training on my own at home.   Around 30 years of age, I moved from my small town to a new town and my martial arts training stopped. Again, fast forward a few years and was tipping the scales at 235! I made excuses for about 3 or 4 years why I couldn't work out. "I don't have enough time", there's "no gym here" and "i will get back in shape next year". 

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  About the age of 34 I discovered mountain biking, bought me a Specialized Hardrock mountain bike and soon Lance Armstrong was my new hero. Did you know riding research has shown that riding outdoors can enhance mental well being and increase cognitive function? After a few months of riding the trails in Ohio I was down to a lean 180 and logging 100 miles a week. I completed my first "century" (100 mile ride) in the first year of getting my bike. Biking was my new passion until I discovered running.

                                                                                                                                                                                        I had never really tried or wanted to try running, until I read the book Born to Run and the next thing you know I was running barefoot! The author, Christoper McDougall explains how we are designed to run but have been doing it wrong for years. He explains how the "running" shoes we wear are deigned to allow you to heel strike which is terrible for the body over time. Running completely barefoot didn't last long before I discovered Vibrams (you know, the shoes with individual pockets for each toe?) Boy did those shoes get a lot of weird looks but they worked for me. Did you know a heel strike produces 3-4 times your bodyweight of impact on your joints? This is probably why 50% of serious runners report injuries every year, the most common being stress fractures and runners knee. Thank goodness I never got injured from running. Was it the shoes?  At this point, I was running about 20 miles a week and biking about 100 miles a week which got me back down to a very lean 175 (again) but only lasted about 4 years before (you guessed it) I quit.

 

  Enter into my 40's and boy did things change. Not only did my metabolism start slowing but my drive to workout was fading. I moved again, got a new job and started making excuses of why I couldn't work out (again). I tried biking and running several different times in my 40's but couldn't stick with it and the weight kept piling on. My new job was allowing me to sit more and for some reason I kept eating the same amount I had in the past while I worked out. Did you know you would burn about 100 more calories a day if you stood rather than sat? You can't eat like an athlete if you don't train like one! Lesson learned.

                                                       

  Fast forward to the present (I just turned 50 in February 2024) and I'm 100% dedicated to never getting out of shape again. My goal is to help you figure this stuff out with everything I have learned and continue learning. God knows I have learned a lot! I will help you understand health and fitness and how to get and/or stay in shape so the remaining years of our lives we can thrive and not just survive!