I was not foolish enough to believe that a light would suddenly come on and I would find myself becoming some kind of gym rat that would spend every waking hour working out. If the FitBit would just remind me to not sit in front of the computer for countless hours it would be doing its job.

Instead, I find that I have become a slave of my pedometer. Every single step I take is accounted for and setting a goal of 10,000 steps a day is not a guideline as much as it has become a mandate. I have become obsessed with taking nightly walks in order to reach my goal.

Now here we are just two months later and I find that I have walked 764,181 steps, climbed 1,262 flights of stairs, and covered 372.04 miles in my journey to become healthier. To put this into perspective, since February 11, 2012 I have walked from Phoenix Arizona to Disneyland! No wonder I am tired.

Putting this kind of mileage on my feet and my shoes has taken its toll. What was once a nice pair of athletic shoes have become tattered with loose tread and tears along the side. It’s funny, I don’t remember escaping from prison and wading through the swamps and bayous to be free but from the looks of my shoes that is exactly what it appears I have done.

Obviously if I am going to continue at this pace I am either going to have to invest in a new set of shoes or call a cab because there is no way I am walking back from Disneyland to Phoenix wearing these sneakers.

I have long been a loyal Nike customer. I don’t remember the last time I bought another brand of shoe in the past two plus decades. While I have had a couple pair that I have been less than thrilled with, for the most part I have been pleased with the comfort and durability of this brand.

I went out online and began looking at new shoes. After a few hours of research I decided on a pair of Nike LunarGlide shoes. I don’t really have an ambition to go to the surface of the moon to walk but it is great to know that if I do make that trip I will be able to glide along the rocks and dust. I only hope my FitBit Ultra will be able to sync with the International Space Station so I get credit for the steps.

After ordering my shoes I will patiently wait for their delivery, currently scheduled for next week, so I can continue my nightly walks without fear of my toes hanging out the side of my shoes. Given the miles I am putting on these I may have to order a second pair just so that I have a spare. I’d hate to be stuck outside Quartzsite Arizona with a blown out sneaker walking back from Disneyland.

This is a time period I was both looking forward to and dreading. On the one hand it meant that I had reached my weight loss goal but on the other hand it meant giving up the safety net of a structured eating plan that I just had to robotically follow instead of making food decisions on my own.

Take Shape For Life had been preparing me for the past 12 weeks to begin this step by educating me in making the right food choices. There is a lot of difference between reading something in a book and actually putting it into practice.

Thankfully my health coach Amy is there to answer any questions I have and alleviate any fears I may have about faltering along the way. The transition phase is time dependent and is based on how much weight I had lost. For me it would mean that the transition would last approximately eight weeks.

The first step of transition is to slowly increase the number of calories into my diet. For the past three months I have been tracking my food intake and have averaged approximately 800 calories per day. For the first week I will increase that amount by 200 calories and introduce new vegetables to my diet.

After three months I will once again find myself eating things such as carrots, corn, potatoes, and other forbidden foods. At first I hesitated bringing those back into my diet. After all, I have been pretty happy with the results I have had the past 12 weeks and felt healthier than I have in my entire life. Why would I want to jeopardize that?

Instead of running out and stuffing myself with new vegetable dishes I’ve decided to continue eating what I have been for the past three months but adding additional amounts of those to my lean and green meal.

This transition phase is also an opportunity for me to test my portion estimation skills. For nearly three months I have religiously measured every single thing I have eaten. Now I am going to estimate how much food to eat then see how close I am to what I should be eating.

For the first couple of weeks I will put items on my plate then before eating measure it to see what deltas there are between what I thought and what reality was. Society has a way of distorting your view of the proper serving size and I need to retrain myself to survive post weight-loss.

So while I start this next phase of my journey with a little hesitation I am confident that I will be able to be successful based upon my past accomplishments and the support structure I have in place to help me lead a healthy life.

These baskets of Easter treats are typically laden with sugar and other goodness that will have kids bouncing off the walls after consuming just a few things. According to reports, Easter is now the second largest candy-consuming holiday after Halloween. That means that Easter is bigger than Christmas and Valentine’s Day when it comes to sugar consumption.

At first I did not believe that was true but after a few trips with my wife to the local stores I have become a believer. Walking down the aisles of Wal-Mart was like walking the sugar gauntlet. Everywhere you turned there were more multi-colored packages proclaiming the amazing taste of these sugary treasures.

I had very early on decided that I would refrain from any of the traditional Easter candies. That was a major milestone for me. I am perhaps the world’s biggest fan of Peeps, those marshmallow treats that are covered in colored sugar dust. Throughout my childhood I have very fond memories of sitting down with a package of sugar bunnies and chickens biting their heads off and singing about the pleasures of marshmallow.

This year I find myself remembering how great those times were yet I had absolutely no desire to open a package. Gone were the days where you sliced open the cellophane and let them sit for days until they became hard and crusty. No longer would I put a Peep in a mug of hot chocolate like some sort of confectionery hot tub or set them in the microwave and watch the bunnies grow like some sort of monster about to destroy Tokyo.

The journey towards healthy living has made me change a lot of what I once thought was natural. So while the kids each received Reese’s Peanut Butter eggs, jellybeans, and the beloved Peeps, my basket was filled with portion controlled energy bars and healthy raw almonds. Granted you’ll never see a basket like this on the Food Network but I’m fine with that. In the end I’ll feel better and not have to worry about falling into a sugar coma.

These people wait hoping someone else asks whether I have lost weight or not. It’s funny, once the subject is broached they are very inquisitive asking all kinds of questions such as how much weight I lost and more importantly how did I do it.

The second group of people is not shy about blurting out the changes they have observed. In most cases their observation is accompanied by squeals or loud announcements that they noticed I look differently. Almost as soon as they announce to the world that I have lost weight they too want to know how much weight I lost and how did I do it.

Since reaching my weight loss goal I have talked to many more people in the second group than the first but the story remains the same. I lost the weight with the amazing help of my health coach Amy using the Take Shape For Life program. I have gotten to the point of telling my story robotically since I have repeated it so often.

What I find most interesting when recounting the tale of how I lost weight is the reaction of those who asked the question. For those people who appear healthy from an outward point of view they are interested in how I am feeling and what changes have occurred now that I am thinner.

Perhaps the more interesting conversations are those I have with people who like myself were either struggling with their weight or health. They are eager to hear the details about the program and what it was like on a daily basis getting down to a healthy weight.

You can see their minds racing as they try to comprehend what a day in the life of a dieter on Take Shape For Life is like. The vast majority of these people seems genuinely interested in losing weight but most are fearful that they would not see the results I did and would be left frustrated and still healthy.

I try to layout the process explaining that by simply following the few eating rules and using small meals throughout the day they too could see positive results from the program. After recounting my story, they shake their heads exclaiming they could never give up one bad health habit or another putting artificial roadblocks in their way towards being healthier.

It basically comes down to how committed a person is to restoring their health. Is a piece of candy or a bag of chips worth the unhappiness they feel for not being as healthy as they would like to be? Would you give up a bowl of ice cream or a processed food if it meant you would have all the energy in the world or be able to spend time with those you love without the need of medication that drains you of life? Sadly for a lot of people the answer is that it is just not worth the time and effort to become healthy.

It’s funny, I used to think the same way. I would see someone I knew who had lost weight or looked happier. I would ask them for the secrets of their success. When they told me I would discount how that change could never happen to me or that something would stand in my way to keep me from reaching similar goals.

Now being healthy has almost become a religion for me. I am conscious of everything I eat and hold myself accountable for my actions whether they be activity or food based. Sure it’s a little more work than just allowing myself to eat whatever I want and lay around the house watching television. But after going through this transformation I can say without a shadow of a doubt that it was worth it and if I can do it so can you.

I anticipate that I will continue to get questions about the changes I have made and I am more than happy to share my story with others. Who knows maybe one person I talk to will understand and follow the same path I did to become healthier and that makes it all worth it.

This year as last the Major League Baseball season did not start on a traditional Monday but rather started mid-week for some. Truthfully I am not exactly sure what day was Opening Day since the Oakland Athletics and Seattle Mariners started in Japan with a regular season game in March while other teams were still playing Spring Training Baseball.

Then there was the Florida Marlins who had their home opener against the St. Louis Cardinals on April 4th but then flew to Cincinnati to play the Reds on April 5th for Opening Day. For the Arizona Diamondbacks today is the first game of the regular season and they open at home against the rival San Francisco Giants.

With a 4:10 PM start time I wanted to be there early to take in all of the festivities that come with the beginning of a new season. Teams always go all out for Opening Day bringing back fan favorites, introducing new players, handing out awards for last season, and unveiling divisional winner tributes.

For me this year I had an added reason for celebrating. Since the last out was recorded in the 2011 playoffs against the Milwaukee Brewers I was coming back to the ballpark a much thinner fan. My weight loss journey started with the goal being to be thin and trim by the time baseball season started and now here I am having accomplished that milestone.

Part of the reason why I wanted to have the weight loss portion completed by today was the fact that my life completely changes once baseball season starts. For 81 days and nights I will be at Chase Field watching and covering the team. I will leave for the ballpark usually by 4:15 PM for a 6:40 PM game and will not return until nearly 11 PM.

Having to manage around special eating times and dietary constraints was simply too much for me to deal with so I wanted to return to a somewhat normal routine for meals. Plus, I admit there are a few things that I just love to eat at the ballpark and I didn’t want to miss out.

I had already sacrificed Spring Training giving up having some of the food items that are only available at Salt River Fields; I didn’t want to have to do the same for the regular season. A funny thing happened along the way though; my food selection and dietary needs changed and I was no longer craving the foods I once didn’t think I could live without.

Stepping into the stadium you are immediately tempted with the aromas of hot dogs grilling and peanuts roasting. There are the colorful snow cones and bags of cotton candy being sold every few feet around the concourse. These are the things I had grown to love in seasons past but now I looked at them with disappointment. Sadly I didn’t really want any of them.

Sure the smells were amazing and brought back memories of sharing baseball with my family and watching history unfold on the diamond. But now I found myself questioning the nutritional value of each ballpark food item wondering what the fat content or number of sugars or how many carbohydrates were contained in each processed morsel.

At this moment I realized that the weight loss journey I had begun had now morphed into a lifestyle change that permeated into areas I did not think possible. Three months ago if you would have suggested that by Opening Day I would walk by the Hungry Hill sausage vendor and not stop to get one of their amazing Italian Sausage sandwiches with grilled onions and peppers I would have thought you were crazy. It’s hard to believe the choices I’m making have changed so dramatically.

At the time I didn’t think there was any way possible that I would be able to lose 40 pounds let alone before April 6th. Instead I hit that mark three days prior meaning today is the final day of fat burning.

After talking to my health coach Amy we decided it is time to begin the transition state. “Transition state”, that has such an ominous sound. I am in real uncharted territory now.

For the past three months I have had life fairly simple. I had five small meals consisting of meal replacements that I would eat. The only rules were that I needed to eat every 2.5-3 hours. Which meal replacements I used were entirely up to me.

The only challenge was the daily “lean and green” meal where I would select vegetables and a protein to eat for one meal. Deciding what to eat once a day worked out well. I was basically on autopilot. I had six or seven different proteins in rotation and coupled that with about the same number of vegetable choices. It became a simple matter of building combinations to keep things interesting.

Starting with the “transition phase” I will slowly be migrating away from a day filled with meal replacements to taking over and making healthy choices for most meals and “fueling breaks”. A “fueling break” is basically a small snack that keeps your body burning fuel rather than going into feast-or-famine mode.

To say I am apprehensive would be an understatement. If I somehow mess this up then all the hard work I went to over the past 12 weeks will be for naught. Given that for most of my life before going on this program I made unhealthy choices that got me into this mess I am not exactly brimming with self-confidence.

Still, this is the next logical step towards a life of healthy living and I need to take on the accountability for making proper choices. Through the education and support structure I have built up I have all the tools necessary to be successful. I just need to trust myself to do the right thing.

Today is a new day and it is the first step towards building my self-confidence that I can take control of my life and make the right choices whether that be deciding what food to eat or getting enough exercise or making sure I get the proper amount of rest.

The past 12 weeks have shown that I am capable of becoming healthy. Now it’s time to prove to myself that I can make this work. Keep your fingers crossed that the next phase will be as successful as the first one.

I never liked how I looked when the photos came back. Instead of using that as a wake-up call for me to get my weight back under control I would rationalize the fact that it was a bad angle or shadows gave the illusion that I was heavier than I was. It wasn’t until I was going through photos from our family vacation to Disneyland last fall that I came to terms with the fact that I was just plain heavy.

That realization was a real struggle for me. While I don’t like to think of myself as someone who really worries about my looks I still wanted to feel comfortable seeing myself in a picture. Those photo reminders along with my doctor’s request that I lose weight to try and regain my health were the motivation for finding a weight loss program.

After a lot of careful research I choose Take Shape For Life. That was the best decision I could have made. Along with my health coach Amy I was able to map out my goals and set a plan in motion.

At first I was focused too much on the short-term. My goal was to lose weight. Amy, with the Take Shape For Life curriculum helped me to understand that a healthy weight was only part of the equation.

Using Dr. Wayne Andersen’s Habits of Health as a textbook along with the accompanying workbook and weekly conversations with my health coach I was able to realize that without the proper preparation the weight I was losing would return if I didn’t change my behavior.

I honestly never thought about the string of health decisions I was making that led me down this horrible path. For most of my life I had skipped breakfast, had lunch from a vending machine, then came home and made a gigantic dinner filled with processed foods and sugars. As I learned more and more about being healthy I wondered how I ever survived long enough to find this program.

Over the past 12 weeks I really have transformed. My mental outlook is much better and I am more relaxed. I have more energy than I have had in years and I am able to keep up with my family no matter what activities they choose.

But it wasn’t just a mental transformation. During our trip to Chase Field this week for the beginning of the Major League Baseball season Trina took some photos of me enjoying my time at the ballpark.

I think I was more shocked this time when looking over the photos than I was reviewing the Disneyland pictures. Despite looking at myself in the mirror every morning as I got ready for work I didn’t realize how different I had become.

I had gone from an extra-large shirt and a 35-inch waist to a medium shirt and a 31-inch waist. I pulled up the pictures from before and sat them side-by-side with pictures from today. I was astonished.

In my case a picture may not have been worth a 1,000 words but it was definitely worth a few thousand calories.

A recent visit to my doctor was a wake-up call. I had two cancer scares and the doctor explained that unless I changed my lifestyle and took better care of myself I would likely not be around very long. One of the first suggestions he made was to lose some weight and begin an exercise program.

This wasn’t what I wanted to hear. I was content with the way my life was going. I didn’t think I was really that bad. I wasn’t eating breakfast and my lunch was just a bag of chips and a soda. The only meal I was really eating was dinner, which was meat and potatoes, then a snack while I watched television or worked on the computer.

Looking into the eyes of my wife Trina I could tell she was worried. If I wasn’t going to take care of myself, who would be there to take care of my wife and five wonderful children? Did I really want to give up on my life and my health and miss out on all of the memories that would come from being with my family?

It took a long time for me to convince myself that I was even capable of becoming healthier. I had concluded that age and genetics were working against me and that no matter what I tried I would not be successful. Dieting and exercise seemed like hard work and with all the stress and time constraints in my life I didn’t need to add this into the mix.

Regardless of the excuses I could come up with the fact remained I could not continue down this self-destructive path. I need to change. Given my lack of success in maintaining my health so far in my life I knew I would never be able to do this alone.

With the help of my wife Trina I began researching ways that I could regain my health. Trina contacted her niece Amy who had recently lost weight and asked for advice. Amy introduced us to Take Shape For Life. The program was not just about losing weight but about becoming healthy.

This looked like a plan I could follow. They not only helped you choosing meals for losing weight but also had a curriculum that would teach you how to become healthier. My confidence was boosted when I found that I would have a personal health coach to guide me along the way. I would have weekly checkpoints and would be held accountable for my actions where those be food related, educational, or behavioral.

The weight loss program began Friday the 13th of January, which somehow seemed appropriate. The doctor had recommended I lose 20 pounds but my goal was much loftier. I wanted to get back to a weight when I was first married.

The journey was not without its bumps and pain points. Some of the food invoked a gag reflex when I tried to eat them. There were weeks when the weight loss seemed to plateau and despite all my hard work things didn’t go nearly as smoothly as I planned.

I had set a goal with myself that I would be completed with this journey before baseball season started. There were weeks when that seemed like an eternity and times when it looked impossible that I would ever get anywhere near my goal.

This morning I stepped on the scale like I do regularly (too regularly if you ask Trina or Amy). I looked down at the dial and waited for the numbers to appear. Finally the digits came into view – 170 pounds with a body fat percentage of 15.8% and a BMI of 22.5. I had reached my goal.

I cannot describe the feelings and emotions I felt when I saw that. I did not expect that this number would make any difference. For nearly all of my life I when I would get on a scale I would read the numbers but they had no meaning.

Sadly I was home alone when this event occurred. I so wanted to share this with everyone who was a part of making this happen. I immediately contacted my wife and kids to announce the fact that I had reached my goal.

When Trina and I were talking I became choked up. I thanked her over and over for being such an important part of this milestone. Were it not for her love, understanding, patience, and hard work I would have never been successful.

I also contacted my health coach Amy to likewise share the news and express my gratitude. I know I probably have driven her insane the past two and a half months with my crazy questions, frustrating emails, and numerous complaints of having to do homework.

I also shared this with my kids who have put up with my constant talking about healthy choices and dietary changes. Losing 40 pounds is not something anyone does alone. To be successful there has to be a village of people who support and encourage you and I am blessed to have some of the best people around me.

This is not the end of my journey though. I will stay on this program another week then move into a transitional state slowly moving out of fat burning mode and into maintenance. The lessons I have learned about healthy living will act as a map to guide me through the rest of my life.

I am not the same person as I was when the year started. I am literally only 81 percent of the man I used to be. Hopefully that 19 percent was the worst part and I can now embrace a new healthier outlook on life.

I am no longer taking medications for high blood pressure and my numbers this morning were in the normal range. I have gone from an extra large shirt and a 35-inch waist to a medium shirt and a 31 inch waistline. I have more energy than I have had in decades. For the first time in my life I am enjoying time with my family being active and living life to the fullest. I am lighter but more importantly I am healthy.

It’s good to have goals and even better when you reach them. But this is not the end, it is just the beginning and I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings.

I didn’t want to have to worry about eating diet food or having my head not be in the game. I’ll be the first to admit that I love going to the game and partaking of the sights, sounds, and more importantly tastes of the game.

There is nothing quite like a hot dog, a bag of peanuts, or my personal favorite the cinnamon roasted almonds from the Cactus Corn stand at Chase Field. Those things just bring back a flood of memories of being at the ballpark sharing my love of the game with my family.

I chose January 13th as the day to start my weight loss journey so that I would hopefully be finished with the weight loss portion of my diet before Opening Day on April 6th. I could not even imagine how crazy I would be if Opening Day came and I would not be able to have a Hungry Hill Italian Sausage with sauerkraut.

Somewhere along this journey my thought processes changed. I was no longer looking forward to the things I once was. My eating and exercise habits have changed and I am now much more conscious about what I eat and drink. Still in the back of my mind I didn’t think this would affect baseball. As I inch closer to my weight loss goal and the calendar moves closer to Opening Day I find that I really have changed and today was the perfect example of the magnitude of those changes.

As my family talked about our plans for attending Opening Day at Chase Field I wondered aloud what I would eat at the ballpark. Everyone stopped and stared at me in disbelief. It was a foregone conclusion that I would begin this season the same way I have for the past several years by standing in line for a Hungry Hill Sausage.

Not so fast, do we know what the nutritional facts are on a Hungry Hill I asked? From the looks on the faces of my family you would have thought I had just announced that I was an alien who has come to this planet to try and take over the world.

For the first time in my life I have reached out to the Arizona Diamondbacks to ask for their assistance in obtaining the nutritional information on all food and beverages at the ballpark with the notion that I would write a series of articles on how to be a “Fit Fan”.

So far the quest for the nutritional facts has been a struggle. It would seem that most of the vendors do not have this type of information. That shocked me. I thought it was required that nutritional facts be available to the consumer but that may not be the case.

The Diamondbacks are now going through internal discussions with the various concessionaires to see if they can provide this information. I’m not sure how this is going to play out but hopefully the data can be made available and we can begin educating baseball fans that there are things to eat at the ballpark that will help you maintain health and still enjoy the experience at a ball game.

I now know how much losing weight has become a priority for me when it starts to change how I think and act about baseball. I’m not positive but this may be a sign of the apocalypse.

I remember one time when she was a youngster that she stood up in church and yelled, “If there is a God, show me a sign!” then fell to the floor gyrating on the ground. The old people in the congregation freaked out. I think one of the little old ladies may have had a heart attack. It was pretty funny though. Oh wait, that might have been me that did that. It was still funny though.

Through the years there have been countless pranks pulled on various members of the family. Normally these pranks can be traced back to some idea I had which at the time seemed like a good idea.

Now the kids have all reached teenager years. At this point you would think the pranking would decrease but quite the contrary has occurred. There are even more practical jokes that are played each year but I am not always the one to blame. Today the torch has been officially passed.

My oldest daughter Ashley who is currently staying with us got out of bed and made her way to the bathroom. Still half asleep she sat down on the toilet. Little did she know that her brother Dakota had already been in the bathroom before she got up.

Dakota had placed poppers that he had left from last Independence Day under the toilet seat. When Ashley sat down the poppers exploded. Fortunately she was already in the bathroom otherwise there may be a bigger mess to clean up.

While that prank was a classic, Dakota did not stop there. He had gone downstairs and taped hundreds of streamers across his sister Tiffany’s door. When she came out she was like a fly stuck to a spider’s web.

There was no end to Dakota’s pranks today. He had found Trina’s Facebook password and gone out and changed his mother’s birthday from December 27th to April 1st. When Trina logged in she was greeted by a multitude of birthday wishes. I’m not sure which is funnier that Trina had all these birthday greetings or that all of her friends have no idea when her birthday actually is.

The problem with all of Dakota’s jokes is that he still has to live in this house. Already there are plans for payback. I am now hiring myself out as a creative consultant offering suggestions of how everyone can get even. This may end up being the longest day of the year before the girls get done with Dakota. I have never been so proud.