Today is a landmark day. Today, I have lost 50 pounds. It doesn’t even sound real to my ears to hear me say it, but it’s true. I’ve lost 50 pounds. Six years ago, around this time of year, under the stress of a legislative session, I collapsed before a committee hearing with off-the-charts blood pressure. I was told by my doctor that I had a choice. I could become Lance Armstrong, or I could take pills and live my life as best I could.

I’m not Lance. I never will be. But with CrossFit Central, I’ve found an athlete inside me. Several years of work and diet have led me to now, which is 50 pounds of weight loss, the last half of which has occurred in the last 8 months. There have been many ups and downs these last six years — fortunately more downs than ups, weightwise — and several plateaus which I’ve overcome. Even yesterday, when I was sick as a dog from oak pollen overload, I dragged myself to CrossFit and finished the workout, a full 6 minutes after everyone else completed it, because I wanted to finish it.

There are many people to thank. Joe, my trainer at Pure Austin for awhile, you gave me the workout tools, which I followed for a while, but sadly stopped. Dr. Roebuck, you challenged me to become an Lance Armstrong, and I hope, when next you see me, that I’ve become as close to Lance as I can. It was, after all, on your scale that I saw the horrifying weight from which I have lost 50 pounds. Nurse Tim, you made sure I didn’t perish that day during the 2003 session. Jeremy, Chris, Lance, and Mike — you have made me remake me, and I know you will continue to push me to new levels of performance and fitness. I have come far, and I have far to go.

My employers deserve credit, too, for they have let me pursue the path of fitness, sworn also to not letting work get in the way of life. Those who know me know the stressful nature of the job — and its time demands — so it has been critical that a commitment to working out is practically invoilable. Chairman Solomons, my employer at my maximum weight, deserves credit, too, because he immediately said, do what you need to do. Without his initial support, my path to something near fitness would never have gotten off the ground.

So, I am humbled, and ecstatic, and frightened, and pleased, and shocked, and proud of the fact that I am 50 pounds lighter than around this time 6 years ago. I know for a fact that CrossFit training has made those last 20+ pounds disappear and made me stronger and fitter than ever before. The next time I see my doctor, I will tell him, I’m not Lance Armstrong, but he’s a freak of nature. I am, however, an athlete. For the first time in my life, I’m an athlete.

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