Fit at (Almost…) Forty

My first time into the gym I nearly had a panic attack.

I disguised it as laughter, but there was real trepidation as I was being led around and introduced to coaching staff.  To this day, the hardest thing I’ve ever done at the gym was walk into it for the first time.

A bit of background:  I stepped away from a role in a family business shortly before my wife and I had twins in 2013.   The previous decade saw me working out occasionally at a local gym, walking my dog daily, but spending nearly every other waking hour at a desk.  Having twins only added to my health woes, as I could now add perpetual insomnia to my repertoire.  At the time of life when health and wellness suddenly became critical, I found myself at my lowest ebb.  I felt nauseous all the time.  A visit to my GP produced a diagnosis of Fatty Liver Disease.  I was nearly 50 pounds overweight and thinking of my father, who had passed away in 2011 due to liver cancer.  I joined Blended in 2016, desperately needing to turn my health situation around.  

Everyone’s experience is different, but I took to the instructor led classes like a fish to water.  I’ve never been an organized sport person, and no one would ever consider me an athlete.  I needed the motivation of the class and the coach in order to keep moving.  In addition to 3-4 classes a week, my diet changed.  I started picking one bad food to get rid of per month, and never picked them back up again (mostly…).  Watching the scale became hypnotic, though the biggest change wasn’t physical.  As my overall health improved, it’s not a stretch to say that every facet of my life became better.  The creeping anxiety that made it difficult for me to try new things became background noise.  As my health improved, my energy levels increased, and I became a better parent.

50 pounds lighter and with a newly positive mindset, I joined our local Volunteer Fire Department.  Today, I’m a Lieutenant at Station 13 in Dartmouth, and have a whole new suite of both friends and responsibilities that I never could have taken on without making those initial steps into Blended Athletics. 

Even three years in, I’m still intimidated by the skill and strength of our advanced members.  I struggle with my double unders (and so much other stuff!), but that makes it all the more special when I can knock out ten in a row.   Today, the act of going to the gym is routine, but far from boring.  Some days I lag on the warmup as I wave and say hi to all the friends I see streaming in and out of the building.  People no longer comment on my weight loss or general fitness level because it has become a part of my identity.

Thankfully, I also no longer get panic attacks whenever I walk in the building (though I do come close when I see Karen written on the WOD board). 

Joel Miller is a stay at home dad and volunteer for numerous organizations who writes whenever he gets the chance.  He is generally very friendly unless he has to do wall balls.  Feel free to interrupt him at any time if you see him on an Airdyne.