I’ve always fought with my weight since childhood. As an adult it went up and down like a yo yo, my heaviest being 212 pounds. At 5’4” I was basically a beach ball with arms and legs haha! Then I would drop down to the 130’s and shoot back up in a couple of months. It was a vicious cycle that I couldn’t break. I’ve always been quite active but the nutrition part was the biggest hurdle – I’m addicted to salty snacks, especially Doritos; my kryptonite so to speak. I hit my 30s and was given a gym membership by my employer. I went pretty die hard with it for quite a long time and I lost weight, got the nutrition under control and felt great. Then, BAM, life went off the rails. I went through a divorce and had two small kids to look out for. They became my focus and I kind of lost myself, put the weight on and stopped working out. As much as I was angry, disappointed and quite disgusted with who I turned into, I did nothing to fix it. I knew what I needed to do to fix it, but made every excuse in the book not to. Then along came karate. As I rose through the ranks I fell in love with it. It became my passion. I knew I wanted to one day obtain my black belt but there was no way I could do that if I was in such poor shape. So now I had motivation. It was a struggle, but I managed to get stronger and lose weight (not a lot, but I was on the right path). I made it through my grading and felt fantastic! For those who aren’t aware, a black belt grading is hours of intense physical and mental torture (in a good way). But once again I lost motivation and put the beef back on. Trying to stay motivated by yourself is extremely difficult. There’s nobody to give you a nudge when you fall off track. Years passed and the yo yo kept on yo yo’ing. Then as I was teaching my students one day, and preaching about being fit and healthy, I realized that I needed to practice what I was preaching. I jumped on the health wagon and got back in shape. I wanted to be a role model for my students, friends and family. I’ve fought through health issues as I got older, but I kept going. My orthopedic surgeon said it best “you can keep mobile and live or give up and be old before your time”. That really hit home with me. No way in hell was I going to be a decrepit old man. I had way too many things left to do before my time on earth was done. Then I met my best friend, soul mate, and the love of my life. She was/is a very active person and if I didn’t keep my shit together I would never be able to keep up haha. I’m thankful I have someone in my life that loves to be active (we motivate each other) whether it’s playing slow pitch on a team together in the summer, hiking, or working out. It makes it enjoyable and not a chore when you can share a love of fitness and a healthy lifestyle with someone. I’m not far off from turning 50 and I’m in way better shape than I was when I was a young man. Besides, I need to keep up with the young ones, I’m too competitive not to!