To start off, I need you to know that I am in no way comparing myself to Batman but thought the quote from Alfred in one of the movies seemed fitting… “and why do we fall?” … We will get to the rest of that quote here in a little bit but first I want to cover a few things. As I have mentioned in previous posts, there has been unfortunately more than one occasion in my life where something has happened and I allowed it to knock me down. Of course, by this I mean in a figurative manner surrounding my health and fitness. So why or how does a guy who has spent the majority of his life physically fit and active allow life and those uncontrollable things that come up knock him on his fourth point of contact (a little Airborne humor for you)? That is a good question and one that I have finally come to the realization that I need to spend a little more time looking into.

Throughout my life I have been active doing things like playing basketball (just not very well), lifting heavy things, running, paddling, hiking, climbing, and peddling my way through the years. For the first 30 years of my life it never seems to have much of an effect if something would come up that might keep me from one of those activities and since I had youth and a high metabolism I not only ate whatever my little heart desired but also maintained the same size of jeans I wore throughout high school. This of course set the stage for a few things to happen… the first being that I was taking advantage of my youth and not decisively taking control of my health. I mean if you can eat a large meat lover’s pizza and nothing happens then why stop? Oh, if I could only have a word with that young 25-year-old stud.

It is now 2017, and I am 41 years old and frantically trying to get myself healthy. I’m not just talking about ripped six pack and a body that would rock a euro cut… although I’m not saying I’m opposed to that. I’m talking about fixing someone that all of a sudden had borderline high blood sugar, high cholesterol, and blood pressure. Now I say borderline because that was where all my stats were just four weeks ago when I had blood tests done. I can count in the last 10 years at least three times that I have allowed myself to go to the point where my body weight was at least 30 pounds heavier than it should have been. Each time has been worse than the time before and I know that each time I play a dangerous game that I will eventually lose. The gift of youth was squandered and now I must face this challenge hopefully wiser but a little more worse for wear.

At this point you might be asking yourself, why is this guy rambling on about something already in the past and nothing can be done about it? Well that can be answered with the two reasons this blog and website even exist. First is that I hope by sorting out my past and not what I did or didn’t do but why, that I will break the cycle before it is too late. The second reason is that hopefully I will be able to help someone else who might be struggling with this or a similar issue. I am not trying to compare myself or any issues I may or may not have with anyone else and I know we all have our own challenges and struggles we must choose to face… or not. This is what I need to do and hopefully by jotting this down I can accomplish both.

Now let’s get back to our rubber body suit, stylish mask, and cape wearing hero and his wise mentor. “Why do we fall? So, we can learn to pick ourselves up”. Now if that doesn’t make you want to get up and get at it by either fighting crime or fighting love handles I don’t know what will. I hope that by examining what happened each time I “gave up” on my health that I can identify and fix that issue so the next time a similar situation arises I don’t figuratively throw my hands up. If not, each time I fell it was for nothing and eventually I will have the health I deserve instead of the health that I need.