We, as men, are almost programmed to keep going, ignoring what might be wrong and just get the job done.  It doesn't matter what it is.  I was no different.

This picture is the day all of that changed for me.  Me and my guys carrying a strongman yoke in a parade.  It was all fun and games until someone (me) has a fatal arrhythmia and dies.

That's right.  I interrupted the whole parade to have the paramedics, fire department and the police have to shock me like they do on television.  I woke up in an ambulance and changed my life in an instant.

Over 20 years as a champion weightlifter, strongman, and powerlifter.  I owned a gym and coached hundreds of athletes to titles in weightlifting, powerlifting, and for sports like football, basketball, softball, tennis and many others. 

Yet, the whole time I was pushing my own health to the back burner.  I put my work ahead of my workouts.  I ate burgers and pizza with the kids and enchiladas with my wife instead of eating the foods I needed to get healthy. 

It was as if I was training for something bad to happen.  Shitty sleep habits.  Shitty nutrition habits.  Shitty self-care.  Until something did happen.

I wish I could tell you I put my Badass Boots on and revolutionized my life from that moment on.  I wish but I can't.  I actually slipped backward and spent the next two years wrestling with more health complications and depression so deep it threatened to swallow me.

But I found something simple.  Just a basic idea.  Eggs for breakfast.  Everyday I had eggs for breakfast.  If I just had eggs for breakfast with some vegetables I could say I had a healthy meal.  I could say I ate healthy.

Then it was just do 10 squats and 10 push ups.  It was exercise.  I could be a feature of the couch all day but if I did those squats and those push ups, I would have worked out.

Then it was simple.  Make it one point for eating healthy and one point for working out.  Now it was a game.  Score more points.  At least one point a day.  

Soon it was a weekly point total.  Five one day and one for five days still makes ten. Now I had momentum and it just got stepped up again.  20 points became 30 and without realizing it.

I LOST 50 POUNDS, 8 INCHES OFF MY WAIST, AND WAS OFF MY BLOOD PRESSURE MEDICATIONS!

I had another set back with this Coronavirus.  Even though I tested negative in April, there is a theory that I had it in early January and that is what sent my heart into its erratic behavior.  I spent February until May in quarantine and avoiding all of the behaviors that brought success.  

Now though, I am ready to get started on my next challenge.  Lying in the hospital last week, I made myself a couple promises:

All of those success habits I had used to lose that fat and inches are going to get built back into my life.  I need to be there for my daughters and for my wife.  My wife's father I never got to meet.  I know I regret that but his absence from my children's life and the simple fact he didn't get to walk my wife down the aisle shows the hole left behind when a man loses his health.  

I am not taking mine for granted any longer.  Neither should you.

Up until now, the leading cause of death for men like us was accidents, suicides and homicides.  Once we pass 40, it becomes heart disease and cancer.  Add to it diabetes, liver disease, stroke and lung disease and you realize the majority of the things that take us away from our families are dramatically improved by diet and exercise.

It is time for me to step up and act like a man.

It is time for you to as well.  You won't have to do it alone.

I lost friends I grew up with.  I was almost one of them.

Kids losing their dad.  Wives left to raise the family alone.

If I can slow that even by a fraction, I will do what I can.  

Dunlap (as in Dun Lapped Over My Belt) Syndrome, as I like to call it, is a real risk to your health.  It raises the risk of cancer, heart disease, type-2 diabetes, and high blood pressure. But it has numerous other side effects that are slowing your brain and body down, unbalancing your hormones (testosterone anyone?), on top of making you look like a Dad.

• It increases inflamation in your body.  Arthritis, bursitis, and tendonitis all hit guys our age and make us feel like a 40-something.
• It puts us at a 50/50 risk of getting deadly cancer in our lifetime.
• It is an indicator of heart disease which kills almost 400,000 men every year!
• It actually shrinks your brain and increases your risk of Alzheimers!
• It puts strain on the heart and reduces blood flow which causes erectile disfunction.

But those markers eventually get called and you end up getting a ride in an ambulance.  I'm putting this in your face because I care about you and what happens to your family.

As much as I didn't want to deal with it, I really wish someone called me out on it.  Grabbed me and said, "Look man, this is serious."

Because that fire and determination that made me a champion and allowed me to bench over 600 pounds would have pushed through and made changes when it would have made a difference.  I would have taken the chance you have today and made a commitment to a new lifestyle.

This whole letter comes down to this right here:

Look, man, this is serious.

You got a lot of people that need you,

that want you at their graduation,

and to walk them down the aisle at their wedding.

You've got a chance to make the changes 

that will make the difference, 

IF YOU ACT RIGHT NOW!