Why I Do This

I’m dedicated to learning, implementing and disseminating the best practices for ensuring health and wellness throughout the entirety of one’s life.

Although I have always tried to live a good life, the sickness and death of my

My sister, my grandfather and me. I suppose this is probably 1991 or so?

grandfather from 2006-2008 put things into sharp relief for me. I first learned of his sickness in 2006. I dialed my voice mail one evening and was greeted by the voice of my grandfather, his typical booming voice tinged with sadness and worry. The call was to let me know that he had cancer. I nearly dropped my phone with shock.

When we’re young, our parents and grandparents appear to use as larger-than-life figures; strong, wise, with a lifetime of experience, knowledge and wisdom that we have yet to realize for ourselves. They are strong and seem like supermen (we all have the strongest grandfather, don’t we?) they seem like giant, spreading oaks when they grasp our hands, tiny, soft,  in theirs, expansive, gnarled. As we  grow older, some of these notions vanish with the years, the awe changing to respect, but the love remaining. Throughout all of it, I believe that there is still a part of us that maintains that childlike innocence and naivete, the part of us that expects them to be there for us with the same strength and vitality as when we were children.

It was painful, visiting at successive stages as the cancer ate at him. With

I shot this photo in June 2007, about ten months before he died. I was using an ancient East German "Praktica" camera of his, loaded with film that had been in the camera for at least ten years. I still have the camera.

every successive tip, he seemed a little smaller, a little weaker, a little more of his vitality sapped. My last visit was shortly before his death, in the palliative care unit of the University of Alabama, Birmingham. His voice, once strong, deep and vibrant had been reduced to a breathy quavering croak, and it seemed like mere millimeters of flesh covered his once strong frame. His skin was like parchment as I held his hand – now weak, shaking – in mine – now the strong one. It was tragic, and my heart broke like it never had before. I can say one thing though, his spirit was never dominated and his mind was razor-sharp, a scientist to the end.

I am convinced that what happened to my grandfather and to so many in our country was through his lifestyle. All throughout his life he had a pathological relationship with his food, and struggled his whole life to lose weight. Reading about his condition helped me understand things, and the more I read, the more I was astonished at how things just didn’t have to happen the way they did; that it wasn’t the natural, inevitable course of things, that had he done simple things differently, he might still be here today. I gradually became convinced that there was a better way. Ever since his passing, I’ve dedicated myself to the pursuit of knowledge about health and fitness. Not necessarily to keep the reaper at arm’s length – he will come for us all – but so that we can live out our days with health, vibrance, and the joy of living life rather than the despondency of waiting patiently for death to come.

The greatest harm that we can do to our friends, families and the ones we love is to subject them to the horrific sight of wasting away in front of them, to watch the light fade from our eyes, the strength from our bodies. By the same token, maybe the greatest gift that we can give is that of our healthy, loving presence, for us to be present for them in mind, body, and spirit through their triumphs and losses. For our children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. For us to give them memories of us that are ones of strength and health, not sickness and sorrow. This is the gift that I hope to give to the ones I love, and one that I hope to help others discover as well.

It isn’t easy to do all of this, but I do in hopes that I will be able to be around for my friends and my family, my children and grandchildren – hell, maybe even my great grandchildren – as vibrant and alive as I am today. I hope to do whatever I can for other people, so that they can enjoy the same benefits. In our society, we have long begun dying in what should be the middle of our lives. We settle for a slow, gradual decline in lieu of what should be our

Out last photo together. I will always miss him.

best and most productive years. We prepare for it, expect it. But does it have to be this way? I’m convinced that it does not. We all have the ability to eschew the path that society has set out for us, with dietary and exercise protocols that encourage and foster our now normal multi-decade morbidity period, and to instead live out our lives with vibrance and health until the day we die.

That is my journey, to find the best ways to do that and to share it with others.