It all started with some college friends of mine wanting to reunite for the Crazy Legs Classic, a 5 mile race in Madison, WI put on the by the UW Badger Athletic program. After a few years of training a month before the race then giving up, something weird happened.
I started to enjoy running. Desperately in need of a transformation I decided to give it a try. I had the shoes, I had some running clothes, so why not? I found when I pushed myself to run farther and faster by body responded surprisingly well. The dormant athlete inside of me was just waiting to be awaken. Granted, I am no where near as fit as I once was, but I have made huge gains in very little time.
So why did I need a change? I was a 3 sport athlete in High School. Constantly at a practice or running around playing sports with my friends. Then college came. I replaced pitching with pitchers. I went from dominating 4 quarters at a time to dominating AT quarters. I went from taking 3 point shots to Jaeger shots. You get the idea.
So my 185 lbs. quickly climbed to 230 by the time I left college. Then it was off to the real world. Maybe I would leave most of that binge drinking behind and get back into shape. Well I did slow down on my drinking quite a bit. But a new obstacle was ahead of me, an endless supply of bacon.
I know what you are thinking. What the hell is this guy complaining about? He has every mans dream, 60 varieties of Bacon at his disposal whenever he feels like it. And I am talking good bacon too. Not just the regular kind; Applewood smoked, Nitrite Free, Honey Cured, Maple Pepper, Cob smoked, Pecanwood Smoked, Jalapeno, Sugar Cured, thick, thin, anything. Basically all the designer bacon you see in your high end bistros and breakfast nooks.
And it's my job to eat that on a daily basis. About 4 times a year I spend an entire day standing next to a bottomless tray of warm delicious bacon. I have to sell it to chefs and sampling is apart of the sales pitch. But it's not just Bacon. Pulled Pork, Brisket, Sausage, Pot Roast, Proscuitto, Salami, etc. Basically if there is something that can take years off your life, we probably sell it. And on top of that I spend about 15 hours a week sitting in my car driving to and from accounts.
So my 230 at college slowly climbed to 249. I dug in my heals. I refused to hit the 250 lb. mark. It was just a symbolic number that woke me up and told me I needed a drastic change. I started to log my calories to get an idea of how much I was eating in a day 3,500 calories on average.
Something had to change. That something was me!
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