Becoming a Healthier You

Growing up in “The South” brings great joy, but it also faces challenges. Amongst the beauty of the south, the charm, and the hospitality, lives a monster that plagues many families. It’s a generational thing that is passed down the line, in many cases. It’s what’s become normal in our society.

“He’s a growing boy” and “He’s big boned,” are two terms we often hear growing up as children in the south. The way of life we’ve come to know as adults has lead to obesity, and a multitude of health issues in America. We don’t live like we use to a century ago. Farming, hard manual labor, walking to destinations have been replaced with home delivery services, automation, and ride share services. We’ve made life easier, but in turn we’ve done nothing to improve our health by offsetting those changes. We can talk about the foods we eat in America, how they’re processed, full of sugar, and stripped of fiber; but at the end of the day our bodies store what we don’t burn. Calories in vs calories out.

I remember growing up under the “He’s a growing boy,” mentality. I ate whatever I wanted, whenever I wanted; unbeknown to me that this would lead to a journey later in life. A journey that would teach me a great deal of self-discipline and self-respect.

See, I was the kid that swam with his shirt on. I didn’t change in the locker room during PE. I wasn’t happy with my physical appearance, which lead to lack of happiness within myself. As a young cadet in the fire service, I struggled physically in the pre-hire physical test, failing the first time and barely passing the second. During recruit school I failed the minimum run requirement and had to retake the test. Again, barely making it.

At some point in my career I got to noticing one thing about public safety in general. A lot of people that retire from firefighting, law enforcement, and emergency medical services don’t live far past retirement, compared to other “normal” jobs. If they do, it’s often a retirement riddled with medication and constant doctor visits.
(Source: eye witness)
Some things aren’t preventable, like the carcinogens firefighters face, the stress of law enforcement, or the sleepless nights in EMS. Unfortunately, at one time I fell into all three categories. I had to do something. I tried things on my own: diets, 20 minute workouts, fat burning supplements, you name it. I did implement strength training, but I wasn’t eating right.

That’s when I found a good friend that connected me with a nutritionist. This all came at about the same time our daughter came into this world. I didn’t only have to do this for me and my wife; I had a daughter to raise and give it a good shot at being in her life for a very long time. I knew I needed help. The experience was eye opening! Seeing my transformation take place was inspiring. But it didn’t last long…

I had this crazy thought: “I’m skinny now, so I can eat what I want.” Little did I know this mentality would come to haunt me. It seemed to happen over night: my weight gain. All the hard work, meal planning, and sacrifices were like they never happened. I had gotten burned on eating the same thing, day in, day out, so I failed.

Enter the runner of the family…

“Not only was this good for my body, it was good for mental well-being.”

My wife had gotten into running. Something I’d never do, “unless someone was chasing me.” Turns out, if someone did chase me, they’d likely catch me quickly. I was reluctant, but finally gave into the idea of a little cardio. Another eye opening experience! Something that I thought I’d hate, became an enjoyment in life. I started to notice something… I was losing body fat. Interesting… who would have thought?

Calories in < Calories out

Turns out this was an essential part of not only heart health, but a key to staying in the shape I wanted. Running, along with strength training, was really shaping up to be the golden ticket. Not only was this good for my body, it was good for mental well-being. It gave me time to tune out the noise, think, and enjoy the outdoors more often.

I really took into consideration that generational thing I spoke of: Our children… they watch us. They see what we do, what we say about ourself, and they often mimic our lifestyle. Me and my wife are really good about not making our daughter finish her plate. If she’s full, she’s full! We never offer seconds; we wait for her to make that decision. Another struggle I had as a kid was constantly eating junk food. I was very picky, or so I thought. We took a different approach with our daughter. …If she’s hungry, she can eat what we’re eating. This alone has brought so much joy in finding places to eat when we eat out. …no more eating strictly off the grill cheese and chicken nugget menu. She likes veggies, grilled meat, and most healthy options. Sure, she’s a kid so chicken nuggets live in our fridge. I’m even guilty of snacking on a few Dino-nuggets myself! …but at the end of the day, we limit our intake to what we need, rather than what we want.

“Turns out the eyes can be deceiving!”

I began to really dive deep into not so much what I ate, but how much of it I eat. I still strive to track protein, fats, and carbohydrates, but really the simplest form of success for me was how much I ate. I started weighing foods, just to get a general idea of how many calories I was eating each day. Turns out the eyes can be deceiving! I don’t weigh everything, but if I have scales at the ready, I try to maintain that standard. Over time, I was generally able to have a better guess as to how much I’m eating, based on the repetition of weighing.

Sure, I’ve had people throw negativity my way. As with any success in life you may face, there will be people that try to kick the chair out from under you. The good thing is: This isn’t for them. This is for a better you!

Sure, life can hit hard. There are people that are physically fit that wind up with medical problems, but one things for sure… if something unforeseeable happened, I knew I was fighting the odds and perhaps prolonged the healthy days. BUT, the “what if” doesn’t give us a reason to give up trying!

Turns out a better me reciprocates to a better marriage, a better family, a better lifestyle. Having the cake and eating it too is possible! …the slice of cake just doesn’t need to be as big as it once was. ;)