Archives for October 2019

A handful of people know the story regarding my battle with the scales, but over the next few weeks I will share some of the story that you may not be aware.

It’s a war that I declared victory on November 17, 2017, when I reached 175 pounds. But my nemesis, seems to never completely go away, the battles continue. The day to day challenge with weight has never been about the food on my fork or the next push up but will always be about my will to stay the course. The will that I speak of begins and ends in the mind. The course isn’t flat and straight for anyone. It has turns, some sharpe, it has hills, some are mountains, but it’s the couse that you and I have a choice to remain on.

Stay the course between the lines as you press forward!

On March 2, 2017, the day after my wife Angie and I celebrated our 31st wedding anniversary, I stepped on my bathroom scale, something that I felt so defeated by and seldom would do. The number that I expected was somewhere around a whopping 290 plus pounds, but the number that stared back at me that morning seemed like so much more than 10 extra pounds, the scale read 304 pounds.

To be over 300 pounds, appeared to be such a disaster at the time, and it was.

Even though my health was relatively good for a 55 year old man, at 5’11” tall and 304 pounds, I knew that I was living on borrowed time.

As I stood there for a few seconds, it seemed like an eternity. I thought of the literally thousands of senior citizens that I had sat with selling life insurance over the past several years and I could not recall one man that was 100 pounds overweight and at least 65 years old. I am sure they are out there, although the numbers are likely few, not because these men are hiding, but because these men are dead.

Standing on the scales I realized that if I didn’t change I would likely be dead in less than 10 years. A death sentence of my own making , not a medical diagnosis. All of those tasty bites, all of the,  “Oh what can it hurt, it’s just one more scoop, or the I’ll start a diet tomorrow,” seemed to have just piled on the scale with me.

It was a complete disaster, again of my own making.

Then I did what any 21st century smart phone owner would do, I took a picture of that scale. I guess that I just wanted to mark time with that event. I had no idea what would follow.

There it is, it was all about time, it was never about the weight, it was about the time that I was willingly trading for my lack of self control with food.

I cannot help but think of the people that have been given news from their doctor, that they have only a few months to live. How they must long for the ability to do something about their situation, but cannot.

 I was literally giving myself a death sentence one bite at a time. How selfish that was. I realized then and there that I was in control, it didn’t have to be this way.

Next week I will continue with the account of my journey out of obesity.

Staying the course is likely to never be comfortable.

Comfort is overrated.

Put every aspect of your life on the scale and weigh daily.

I facilitate a mastermind for overweight men that believe that their weight is holding them back from living the future they were destined to live.

It focuses on changing the mindset to shed the weight while creating accountability, and community.

It’s called the From Fat to Fulfillment Mastermind.

If you are interested in applying send an email to

It has been 2 years since our daughter had a life changing day. This post hopefully captures the gravity and hope that can be gained through what others may call a very unfortunate day.

On October 6, 2017, while driving home from work, I received a call from my wife Angie, that during a routine physical, our 15 year old daughter Ashley’s pediatrician, Dr. Elmarie Sabban, spoke these words, ” Go to Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital Emergency Room in Jacksonville now, I have called ahead and there is a team waiting on Ashley to arrive.”

That day Ashley was diagnosed with Type One Diabetes, she was ( and still is!) a beautiful, intelligent, healthy, fit, kind, and did I say beautiful, young lady.

Her pancreas just decided to quit. I’m not going into an explanation of what Type One Diabetes is, please understand it isn’t Type 2. Google it if you don’t understand, but there is no cause and currently no cure for Type One Diabetes. Type 2, while very serious, is not the same.

What I am going to explain is the incredible opportunity that our daughter Ashley was given that day. Most people would think that I am crazy for making a statement like this but stay with me.

In a million, trillion years, I would not wish for Ashley or anyone to be diagnosed with any disease, especially a disease that is so challenging. Every day Ashley and over 1 million others with Type One Diabetes face countless blood glucose ups, blood glucose downs, injections of insulin, and finger pricks to check their blood glucose levels. They face it in the middle of everything else going on in their lives. While most of us that don’t have Type One Diabetes, complain about any and every inconvenience, Ashley and others with T1D just push through facing everything that you and I face plus the challenges of T1D. So when you think that you cannot press through whatever challenges that you are facing, think of each and every person with Type One Diabetes.

While in the hospital that weekend in 2017,  the gravity of the changes that lie ahead for Ashley were beginning to sink in to her. 2017 was the same year that I lost 129 pounds publicly posting my scales daily to Facebook and while weight loss and obesity normally do not belong in the same conversation with T1D, it caused me to realize something, within every challenge lies the seed of tremendous opportunity and hope. My obesity was completely self inflicted but Ashley’s Type One Diabetes diagnosis had nothing to do with anything that she did or didn’t do. It came from a crummy pancreas. However both had the seed of opportunity.

Today because of my self inflicted obesity I help men change their mindset to lose weight.

Ashley’s diagnosis has given her the desire and motivation to go to medical school and find a cure for this insidious disease.

While she was sitting up in her bed at Wolfson’s Children’s Hospital 2 years ago, I spoke these words to her,

“Ashley, maybe not today, maybe not next year, but some day in your future you will look back and realize that you have reached a place, a good place, that without this diagnosis, you would have never reached.” I believed that then, I believe it today. She is a spectacular young lady with a magnificent future and will achieve more, not less because of the diagnosis.

Be grateful for life’s obstacles, within them are life’s greatest opportunities.