I was the seat belt extender guy.

For most of my life I was a 350 pound couch potato. I wore slip on shoes because I could not reach my feet. I custom ordered my clothes because no store had anything on the shelves to fit me. I thought that was just the way it was for me. Fat, sick, weak, slow, low energy. The genetic cards I was dealt.

Finally sick and tired of being sick and tired, I poured every bottle down the drain and started walking. Every single day. Rain, cold, heat, exhaustion. And I committed to real food. Nothing from boxes, bags, or windows. Just honest food, mostly from the outside perimeter of the grocery store. No gym membership. No weird diet. No shots, no pills, no surgery.

Four years later the sleep apnea is gone. The high blood pressure is gone. The pre-diabetes is gone. At 51, I look in the mirror and sometimes my brain does not register that the lean, muscular, athletic man looking back is actually me.

Now I walk with a handful of men at a time, the way I wish somebody had walked with me. A witness, not a warden.