Eating healthy and getting fit are saving my life.

My name is Bill, and I’m an alcoholic.  Like many others it took a lot of mistakes and hurt for me to come to that realization.  My story isn’t all that dramatic--I drank to escape the stress in my life and avoid dealing with emotional situations.  There were times when I would drink to the point of blacking out while doing a lot of stupid stuff along the way.  After each occurrence I would try to quit or slow down; but after a few weeks it would gradually begin to build up until I would have another incident 9-12 months later.  I never thought of myself as an alcoholic and would lie to myself in attempt to rationalize my drinking.  The reason I bring this up on a health and fitness blog is because 2 months ago I finally admitted to myself that my life had become unmanageable and off-track.  On that day I made the decision to get healthy mentally and physically.  I began treatment for the alcoholism shortly after, but I didn’t just stop there.  I wanted to get healthy in every sense of the word and made the commitment to eating a healthy balanced diet and participating in a workout program.

As a result of these decisions and commitments, I have been sober for over 2 months and have already lost 26 pounds (231 to 205).  The changes in my life have been nothing short of amazing.  I now have a ton of energy that was lacking when I was overweight and drinking.  I play hockey, and I’ve quickly gone from a skater who is huffing and puffing after every shift to a guy who can double shift if needed; in fact, I have enough energy after each game to play again (“Let’s play two!”).  Also, I’m starting to compile a collection of clothes that are too big for me rather than having a collection of garments that are too small.  The physical transformations are awesome; I can’t help but smile every time I see my reflection. 

(Yes that's the same shirt, but minus 26 pounds)

The best part of all this is how great I feel about myself.  I have a self confidence and drive that have been lacking over the past year.  In addition, for the first time in a long time I am actually thinking clearly and am selfless when it comes to my decision making.  It’s no longer all about Bill--my thinking has gone back to 6-7 years ago when it was what Bill can do for others.  It’s the same Bill that worked fulltime while going to school fulltime so that he could make a difference in the world and educate our youth.  The same Bill that went out of his way to help his unemployed friends find work out of state and get acclimated to their new lives.  The same Bill that was easy to get along with and the same Bill that his wife fell in love with.

Now I’d be remiss to just simply paint a rosy picture of my life.  There has been damage done to people I was close with, and it pains me to say that some of that damage may be unrepairable.  For instance, I pushed away a friend of twenty-some years because of my awful attitude and uncontrollable drinking.  This same friend ended up marrying a fine woman that I helped him get with and deservedly, I wasn’t invited to the wedding.  It really pains me when I reflect upon what I’ve missed out on and the damage I’ve done to people that have truly cared about me.

But all is not lost; some of the damage can be repaired and things can and have turned around.  In these past two months I’ve already had a remarkable amount of positive events happen in my life and I’m knocking on wood that it continues.  I’ve come to believe that good comes from good and I’m confident that despite some negative events that may happen as a result of my previous behavior, good things WILL continue to happen for me.

So why am I writing this, aside from the obvious therapeutic benefits?  Well, I hope to inspire others to make positive changes in their lives as I have in my own.  I’ve found throughout my new journey that helping and motivating others has really inspired me to stay focused on my own personal goals.  I want everyone who is reading this to know that what I’m doing isn’t all that remarkable in the sense that you can replicate my early success.  Over the next few weeks I plan to write more blogs that will explain the steps that I’ve taken to create this transformation in myself and some tools that have helped me along the way.  So if you like what you’ve read here, be sure to keep an eye out for future blogs (and I hope there will be many) as writing is something I’ve always enjoyed but previously never made time for.  Finally, I want to encourage you to keep in touch with me through any or all of the sites at the bottom of my page.

(Full disclosure: I am an Independent Team Beachbody coach and while I may from time to time encourage the use of their products, as they have worked for me, I will never try to “sell” you on anything or send you unsolicited info on their products.)