Have you ever had an obese physician who reeked of cigarette smoke give you health advice? How about an armchair gym rat critique your squat?  And then there’s the perpetual member of a weight loss organization who tells you how to work that program, who reached her goal 15 years ago and is now 35# overweight… I think we’ve all known these people.  It’s kind of like the parenting expert who has never had a child.  These people know how it’s supposed to work but aren’t willing or able to do it themselves.  At David’s Way, we walk the walk, literally, the 8,9 and 10 mile walks…on our “Off Days”.  I kid you not.

If you were a fly on the wall observing our communications, you would most likely learn something about your health. We discuss the numbers, our numbers.  We discuss our body types and future fitness goals.  We discuss respiration and Vmax.  We discuss body composition and Intermittent Fasting.  We discuss the pros and cons of lifting to failure… We sound like fanatics.  Some might say that we are fanatics.  My personal goal is to live to 120 years in good health.  It is entirely possible.  We are forever trying to apply the core principles of David’s Way to every aspect of our lives because this is not just a weight loss blog.  It is a lifestyle.  Our lives are supposed to work for us.  A healthy mind and body are the beginning and end of that victory.  Without that, everything else is much harder.  While we don’t shy away from doing “hard”, it’s best to save that for the iron and make every effort to streamline the rest of our lives, reserving the adrenaline for the Valsalva, a breathing technique that assists in heavy lifting.

David is a truck driver who has one of the best, yet one of the hardest, driving jobs that I have ever heard of.  I quit Nursing for a while, not long after I got my license to drive a truck, cross-country.  I know something about that life and believe me, it’s tough.  If David waited until he physically felt like going to the gym or those long, fast paced walks, he would never go.  He has shared his history of a horrific back injury that he suffered years ago.  Those things don’t just “go away”.  He lives with ongoing pain and chooses to take no medication for it.  He chooses health.  It’s a decision that he creates on a daily basis.  He is my role model.  Since I am a nurse, I have some idea of what he lives with and what it takes for him to push himself this hard.  I have never listened to anyone else because unless a person pushes themselves, there is no way they’re gonna push me.  The respect that I have for this man is based in this determination to be healthy above everything.  He advises me and I listen.

I am never satisfied with my state of being.  I don’t think that I should be.  When I get satisfied, I get complacent.  Complacency breeds haphazard attention to detail and that leads to decreased fitness.  Decreased fitness leads to decreased health.  It’s just not happening in my world.  I catch myself lollygagging around, not tracking EVERYTHING, food, rest, activity, water…everything, and snap to attention.  That won’t work.  I work long, hard hours in a long term care facility.  I choose this job.  I am blessed beyond measure to have it, but believe me, it ain’t easy.  Sometimes at the end of my shift I can barely move due to exhaustion but guess what?  I can still squat repeatedly to the floor to the bottom of my medicine cart and I can still lift an adult if necessary.  My job is somewhat supervisory in nature but if I really want to do it well, I must be willing to get very physical to assist others in their job.  I can and I do.  No problem.  I’m the one that people come to for assistance with physically difficult situations.  They know that I’m able to do the job.  I work out hard.  Strength is everything to me.  I have recently set a new fitness goal.  I have vacillated between being super fit with six pack abs and all that goes with that or staying just a bit zaftig for aesthetics, for a while now.  I have made my decision.  If I am a voice in this industry, then must walk the walk all the way to my ultimate female form.  Anything less will not represent well.  Somehow I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that nobody has ever reached their full potential and regretted it.  I have returned to Intermittent Fasting.  This is not an easy thing and I’m not bragging.  I’m telling you that David and I take this seriously.  We are our own lab rats.  We live this life.  I have done IF before when I first started working with David and only stopped it because it’s super efficient and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to give up those last fat stores.  I know now that I do.

The purpose of this post is to give you confidence in us.  It is not to brag.  We are certified Nutritional/Wellness Consultants but unless we are willing to walk this out, to be the people that we say that we can help you to be,  none of that matters.  You must be able to look at us and believe that David’s Way is a hard core, one way ticket to the level of health and fitness that you desire. Again, this is not easy but there is a fitness quote that sums it up, “Losing Weight Is Hard.  Being Overweight Is Hard.  Choose Your Hard.”  We choose health.  We live it.  We seek it like a wisp of smoke in the night, gaining sight of it as it wafts ahead, disappearing behind trees in the forest, only to reappear again because we stayed in pursuit.  We apply what we learn.  Walk with us.  Let’s grow together.