Why a health and fitness blog? Great question, glad you asked! For me, this is an opportunity to sharpen and keep current on knowledge and skills that I have gained as an Athlete, Student, and part-time fitness professional. I also see a blog as an opportunity to create community around a topic I am passionate about, and build in some accountability for myself related to goal setting and making healthy choices. As a young man and an Athlete, health and fitness to me was always about the next achievement, the next meet, and pushing the limits of whatever I had done before. Lift more weight, throw farther, get results! I did not stop to think as much about the long term picture of health until after College, because after all it was all about performance at that time, with health as more of an afterthought/an assumed reality.

After College and my completive Athletic career ended, I started to think about things differently, more long term. I lost 20 pounds in the months after graduation through a combination of more disciplined eating, and different training. From that point forward, I thought more about the long term picture of health and well-being, and what I can do to constantly make improvements as my life changes. These days, I am married, have a son, a house, and a full time job. There are times when given all of my day to day responsibilities, admittedly, making time for health and fitness is challenging…

Right, but a lot of things in life are challenging, and you can’t just blow them off (I am reminding myself of this reality). If something is important, you find a way to make the time. For me the reason why I make time for my health and fitness is easy, as a parent I am 110% committed to caring my son and teaching him all the skills he needs for life…if I am not making time to be more fit and healthy as he grows up, I am essentially setting a poor example for him, and that’s not the way I am going to demonstrate my level of commitment as a father. In writing my blog posts, I plan to explore personal challenges, goals, and my journey as someone facing many of the same scenarios you may find yourself related to staying active and healthy.

As mentioned I have been an NCAA Athlete, and also Certified Personal Trainer, Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS), and a Certified Kettlebell Instructor (RKC). As a personal trainer, I had the wonderful opportunity to work with clients from many backgrounds, age groups, and ability/fitness levels. I have not dipped my feet into the professional realm of fitness training for a while, so my written and spoken word is going to be very much from the point of view of a full time professional/parent, with a little extra knowledge. My approach with this blog is going to be to meet you where you at, mostly thinking from the lens of a full time professional who has limited time. We’re going to talk about/break down (potentially) complex information, so it is understandable and you can take something valuable away from each post in 10 minutes or less (because we are all on the go these days).

I don’t plan to be over technical or sciencey with my posts, but I will encourage you to do your own research around topics you want to hear more about and include some helpful links. These days, it is more important than ever to be an informed consumer of information. I am also committed to being available to answer messages, comments to posts, and other follow up methods to help you on your journey. I see this as a wonderful opportunity to share my experience, and develop my (currently) non-existent skills in communication through social media and web-based platforms.

So far as of 8/5/18, I have posts related to the challenges of the workplace to your healthy life style, sitting and stiffness/back pain, and lifting safely. I plan to dive into goal setting and accountability next, and I would love to connect with you and hear about your approach to this topic! If you find your experience helpful I would love if you’d encourage friends to like my Facebook page 10 Minute Fitness Take-Aways, and follow my blog http://10minutetakeaways.com. Thanks again, let’s get after it!