My Fitness Journey – Part 1

On April 25th, an insurance contract nurse took my blood pressure and asked if it was normally that high: 165/93.

I remember thinking she was mostly worried about the top number. The bottom number didn’t seem that high to me — after all, 80 is normal, right? I’d seen mine hover around 90 plenty of times. I always brushed it off, telling myself I could get a “good” reading—something like 120/83—if I checked enough times and caught myself in a calm moment.

This time, though, it wasn’t so easy to ignore. I was sure it was going to affect my insurance. And it did—I was denied coverage.

Normal Day’s Diet

Most mornings, my wife made us a protein-and-vitamin shake. That was our routine, something she did every day to make sure we started off right.

Lunch was usually light, and dinner was something I typically cooked—meat with a side of vegetables. On the surface, our daily meals were pretty balanced.

So how did I gain the weight?

You can’t outrun your fork

Cheat Meals

Honestly, it wasn’t the food we ate together. For years, I’d allowed myself a “cheat meal” or two. Back in my running days, that meant grabbing something at Chili’s before a movie with my son, or hitting a local restaurant now and then.

The problem was, those meals were fine when I was running and burning through the extra calories. But I wasn’t running anymore — and I wasn’t burning anywhere near what I used to. Over time, those indulgences caught up with me.

What started as the occasional treat eventually turned into cheat weekends.

First you take a drink, then the drink takes a drink, then the drink takes you.

-F. Scott Fitzgerald

The Drinks

On the surface, it didn’t seem like a couple of indulgences could undo a week of healthy eating. But the truth was in the details:

• A few beers most nights.
• Margaritas with those cheat meals.
• Big restaurant portions loaded with calories.

My body wasn’t the same as it was in my twenties or thirties, when I could get away with two margaritas, a steak smothered in mushrooms and cheese, rice, beans, chips, and salsa. Tracked honestly, that meal alone pushes 4,000+ calories—more than two days’ worth of maintenance.

The Wake-Up Call

By August 16th, exactly four months after that blood pressure check, I’d gone from 185 lbs down to 155 lbs. My body fat in April was 29.3% and now it is 13.5%

I want to share my journey in the hopes that someone will get something from this. I do want to say that I’m still pretty deep in my journey and this is kinda a living document and may change as I change.

Chapter One: Quitting Alcohol

I knew alcohol was my biggest hurdle. I’d built a nightly ritual around it—beer at home, margaritas at restaurants. So I put real thought into how I’d quit.

• I stocked the fridge with 0% beers (and eventually got used to them).
• I bought ingredients for mocktails so I didn’t feel like I was missing out.
• Most importantly, I stopped going to the restaurant where the staff would hand me a margarita the moment I sat down.

The First Few Days

Did it make a difference right away? Not exactly.

The first few days weren’t magical. In fact, my scale showed a jump in water weight. But within a week or two, I noticed my face looking less puffy and my aches and pains easing. At first, I thought those aches were just part of turning 50. —but cutting alcohol showed me otherwise.

What I Learned About Alcohol

I also learned some eye-opening things about alcohol:

• It acts like a diuretic, pulling water from your body without actually hydrating you.
• It slows down or disrupts metabolism, digestion, and other processes while your body works to clear it.
• Sleep after drinking isn’t real recovery—it’s shallow, poor-quality rest.

In other words, while I thought alcohol was helping me “relax,” my body was working overtime to fight off what it saw as an invader.

The Bigger Picture

What really surprised me was how many different ways alcohol was holding me back. It wasn’t just the calories in beer or margaritas. Alcohol also:

• Raised my blood pressure and stressed my heart.
• Made me crave salty, fatty foods I didn’t need.
• Blunted hormones that help with muscle repair and fat loss.
• Slowed recovery, making normal aches and soreness worse.
• Increased inflammation, leaving me puffy, stiff, and older than I felt inside.

Quitting wasn’t just about losing weight — it gave me back energy, recovery, clearer thinking, and better sleep. It turned out to be the first domino that set all the others in motion.

👉 That’s where my story begins: with one decision that set the stage for everything else.