The recovery from the accident was rough for quite a while.
Neither one of us could move very well, and the simple day-to-day things you never think about suddenly became painful or uncomfortable.
Fortunately for Katie, she seemed to recover faster than I did.
I think a lot of that comes from how important fitness is to her.
Every morning she’s up doing a Beachbody workout, followed by either the Bowflex or the NordicTrack.
Those things are non-negotiable.
It doesn’t matter if we stayed out too late on a Friday night acting like we were still in our twenties. She’s dragging herself out of bed the next morning and getting after it.
The best part?
All that workout equipment is in our bedroom.
So you can imagine my excitement on those mornings when my head is pounding and I’m laying there listening to energetic instructors yelling motivational phrases while Katie is powering through her working out.
There were plenty of mornings where I’ve imagined throwing something at the TV just to shut it the hell up.
Actually doing it seemed like way too much work for an overweight, hungover guy in his fifties.
The reality is that Katie fights through those mornings because she values her health.
There was a time when I did too.
Somewhere along the way, that changed.
After almost thirty years together, I had let myself go in just about every way.
Mentally, I was weak and full of excuses.
Physically, I was closer to 200 pounds overweight than I was to 100.
Even typing that right now is uncomfortable.
It’s not like I was hiding it. Everybody could see it.
But there’s something different about putting that number in writing and admitting it out loud.
For years I told myself I needed to lose weight.
For years I had a reason why I couldn’t start today.
And for years I convinced myself that I’d eventually figure it out.
Then in 2020, something finally clicked.
I joined a program called Shift Set Go.
The biggest thing it gave me wasn’t special food or a secret formula.
It gave me accountability.
For a simpleton like me, I didn’t have to wonder what I should eat or what was healthy. Everything was laid out for me.
By summer, I was walking regularly and lifting weights.
For the first time in years, I felt alive again.
Between January and October of 2020, I lost 180 pounds.
One hundred and eighty.
I felt incredible.
The knee pain that had started showing up became almost unnoticeable.
I had more energy.
I moved better.
I felt younger.
Most importantly, I was convinced I would never let myself get back to where I had been.
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
Just like I somehow convince myself before every round of golf that today’s shots are going to be different than the ones I hit yesterday, I convinced myself I had this whole weight thing figured out.
Old habits die hard.
I stayed active for a while.
I ate pretty clean for a while.
But eventually the old routine started creeping back in.
A meal here.
A drink there.
A skipped workout.
A few excuses.
Then one day you wake up and realize a few years have passed.
When I stepped on the scale again, I was only about twenty pounds away from where I had started before losing all the weight.
That was a hard reality to face.
I’ve never struggled with drugs.
As much as I enjoy a drink with friends, I could walk away from alcohol tomorrow if I had to.
But I do know what addiction feels like.
For me, it’s food.
And if I’m being completely honest, it’s also taking the easy way out.
It took me years to admit that.
I still don’t enjoy saying it.
But I believe it’s true.
Around the same time Katie decided she wanted to learn golf, my knees decided they were done being ignored.
After our first golf trip together, I tweaked my right knee so badly that I could barely walk.
The next day, while Katie was ready to explore Long Beach, I was stuck in the trailer trying to figure out how to put weight on my leg.
Packing up and driving home wasn’t much fun either.
Let’s just say it sucked.
After visiting an orthopedic doctor, I got the news.
My right knee was bone-on-bone.
My left knee wasn’t far behind.
The solution was clear.
Both knees needed to be replaced.
There was just one catch.
Before they’d do the surgery, I needed to lose 100 pounds.
At first, I thought I could take my time.
The cortisone shots worked wonders.
For a while I felt like Lieutenant Dan after getting his magic legs.
I figured I’d slowly lose the weight while my knees felt better.
What I didn’t realize was that cortisone shots have limits.
You can only get so many.
And eventually they stop working as well.
After my third round of injections, reality showed up.
Not wanting to go back to the strict diet that had helped me lose all the weight before, I tried the GLP-1 route.
I stayed on it for about a year.
It helped with my appetite.
What it didn’t do was fix my habits.
At the end of that year, I had only lost around twenty pounds.
Meanwhile, my knees continued getting worse.
At the beginning of 2026, I finally went back to Shift Set Go.
As I write this today, I’m down over 100 pounds.
My first knee replacement surgery is scheduled for October.
And for the first time in a long time, this feels different.
Back in 2020, I wanted to lose weight so I could feel normal again.
Today, my motivation is completely different.
I want to travel.
I want to golf.
I want to follow the Mariners around the country.
I want to explore new places with Katie.
I still want to belly up to our favorite bar once in a while.
But I don’t want that to be the center of my life anymore.
A while back I read something that stuck with me.
When you realize that every day isn’t one more day, but one less day, you start putting more value on what truly matters.
That hit me pretty hard.
Because it’s true.
I don’t have everything figured out.
But I have more hope today than I did when I lost 180 pounds back in 2020.
Back then, I had lost the weight.
Now I finally have something worth staying healthy for.
And I’m looking forward to whatever adventure comes next.
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