Wind the clock back to April 2008, when I had to go in to see my doctor for a routine checkup. I knew I was a bit overweight at 220 pounds (to put that in context, I’m six foot one inch tall) and wasn’t in very good shape, and hadn’t been for quite a few years. Like most guys my age, I sort of let things go a bit, although I liked to think I wasn’t a poster child for Weight Watchers or anything. I didn’t worry about what I ate, and while we got outside a bit, I didn’t exercise regularly.

When the doc came in, he gave me one of those looks, the kind you definitely don’t want to get. He had my blood test results, and as he went over the figures with me, he told me that he’d never personally seen anyone with numbers that high. My scores? Total cholesterol was 301 (the high end of normal is 200), and my triglycerides came in at almost 1200 – the high end of normal is 150. My cholesterol had always been a bit high, but this was ridiculous. Not only that, it was potentially lethal, and the men on my mom’s side of the family have a history of heart disease, with her father and his brother both having died of heart attacks in their fifties.

I got the message. Starting that day, my wife, Jan, and I sat down and started sorting things out: exercise and nutrition. The doctor wanted to give me some medication, but I told him I wanted to try and deal with this first on my own. We looked at a variety of exercise options, and finally settled on Beachbody’s excellent workout programs to get us started (if you’d like more information, feel free to get in touch with my wife – a Beachbody coach – through her Beachbody coach page). While I originally tried to order P90X, which you’ve probably seen advertised, the order didn’t go through, which was a good thing. Had we started with P90X, I think we would’ve tanked right away, because P90X is not for beginners! Instead, we started with Power 90 – which was just right for us – and worked our way up to Beachbody’s tougher (and toughest) programs, including P90X and Insanity. Throw in a lot of ChiRunning, and you get an idea of what our current routine fitness activities are nowadays.

The other thing was nutrition: it goes hand in hand with exercise. We went through the house and literally threw out the junk. All of it. If you want to see something disgusting, look at just about any ingredient label on the food we eat: it’s packed with sugar, high fructose corn syrup, fat, and chemicals. Yuck. More on that later, but the bottom line is that we replaced everything with healthy food, and organic food as much as possible. Doing yourself a huge favor (and one for your family) and get rid of all that garbage. We still go out to eat and even have pizza a couple times a month (and yes, the new Domino’s Pizza is really good! LOL!), but we do it with control and don’t go overboard.

Anyway, after four months of consistent exercise and eating good food (in reasonable amounts), I returned to see the M.D. to go over my latest blood work. The results, I’m happy to say, were nothing short of phenomenal: my cholesterol was down from 301 to 178 (the lowest it’s ever been), and my triglycerides were down to 109. On top of that, I’d gone from 220 pounds down to 190. My friend, that ain’t half bad for only four months and no medication! Since then, we’ve gone on to do things fitness-wise that I’d never imagined, including running in a half-marathon (which was tough, yes, but an incredible experience!).

Let me also say that I can’t exactly be called a fitness fanatic. I have tremendous respect for people who are, but it wasn’t my goal to get down to 5% body fat and be totally ripped: it was to stay alive and stay healthy. Looking better, even if I’m not ripped (I’m at around 12% body fat right now), is a great side benefit, though!

So, there’s my story! Hopefully there will be something in there that might help or motivate you. And with that, I need to get back to working on the next book!

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