Ever have one of those eventful weeks where life is crazy and you think you’re going to go nuts from event overload but some pretty dang cool things happened?

Yeah, that was my week.

Here are some highlights that relate to my health journey:

• The Utah Jazz held a neat reunion for members of the 1997 team, which was the first in the organization’s history to make it to the NBA Finals. It was fun to interview some guys that I really admire, including Hall of Fame point guard John Stockton, and guys that are always entertaining and goofy like former Utah center Greg Ostertag.

One of the personal highlights was getting to shake Hall of Fame coach Jerry Sloan’s hand. He and his wife Tammy have really been supportive when they’ve seen me over the past basketball season.

Here’s the fun little conversation Sloan and I had when we saw each other: [Read more…]

I was engaged in a delightful conversation about my health journey on an airplane yesterday when my friendly seat neighbor asked a question many people wonder whether they ask or not.

“Do you have loose skin?”

So I did what you’d expect. I unbuckled the seatbelt — a More of Me to Love extender is no longer required after losing 150 pounds, thank you — and then stood up in the aisle, ripped off all of my clothes and flexed for a cabin full of awestruck passengers.

Women whistled and fanned their flushing faces. Men grunted and gave me high-fives. The captain turned on the Smoking Hot sign.

I was floating somewhere between heaven and Cloud 9. [Read more…]

There were a lot of reasons why I became 210 pounds overweight.

I had no self control or discipline. I lacked motivation. I couldn’t muster up the desire to change. I adopted an all-you-can-gorge buffet mentality anytime I was around food. I fed my ravenous emotions. I ate for sport. I ate when bored. I ate when bored at sports. I was quite depressed and, as my empty-feeling life swirled into a pit of despair, eating was the only thing that never failed to give me pleasure or comfort — temporary pleasure or comfort, of course.

The thing I lacked most? [Read more…]

An interesting phenomenon often happens when members of the human race decide to start a diet. The process goes something like this:

Step 1: Eat a half-cup of steamed broccoli.

Step 2: Run to the scale to see if you’re skinny yet.

Step 3: Groan while standing on the scale — after disrobing, of course.

Step 4: Take frustrations out on chocolate and chips — clothing optional.

If patience is deemed to be a virtue on an everyday basis, then the patience required on a diet is the equivalent of Mother Theresa.

Looking back at the last 11 months, I’ve had 13 different weigh-ins during my 141.8-pound weight loss journey that I’d consider between a slight bummer and extremely disappointing. Honestly, the struggles have been as important, if not more important, than the successes. [Read more…]

Utah Jazz forward Boris Diaw was asked who he’s rooting for in the Super Bowl this Sunday, and his answer made me smile.

The French player didn’t pick the New England Patriots, the Atlanta Falcons or even Lady Gaga.

His response?

“Commercial breaks.”

The next-best answer, of course, would be: “The food.”

[Read more…]

I was outside in the snow the other day, clearing my driveway and sidewalk, when I had a revelation.

The profound thought?

Shoveling snow really stinks.

OK, maybe that wasn’t exactly a deep revelation, but the snow sure was deep — about a foot high after a huge storm. My driveway is pretty wide and long, and there was so much snow that I couldn’t just push it to the side. Rather, I had to dig the shovel in, lift up a big chunk of snow and toss it or carry it to the side of the driveway.

The only sounds you could here in this winter wonderland were the hums of several neighbors’ snowblowers and the voice inside of my head that was loudly reminding me that I, too, have a snowblower in my garage. It works great! It takes a very labor-intensive job and makes it kind of easy and fun. What guy doesn’t like powerful machinery that launches stuff out of their way and does the hard work for them!? [Read more…]

 

I was recently attending a church function for my 7-year-old son on a weeknight when a couple of neighborhood friends asked me a bizarre question.

“Do you want to play basketball with us tonight?”

My reaction?

Laughter and a “Thanks, but no thanks” response.

They didn’t take no for an answer. My ward (local church congregation in the LDS community) had a game that night and we didn’t have enough guys to form a team without me. Truth of the matter is, the Rose Canyon Fourth Ward Elders Quorum team probably would have been better with four guys than with five guys if I was one of the five. [Read more…]

I don’t want to turn this into a bragging post, but I have some talents.

I can whip up some pretty mean dishes, from gnocchi to a killer chocolate cake (my Mom’s recipe) to tasty French toast and Genessy goulash. I can carry a tune — and, by the way, you’re all invited to my shower for one heck of a concert. I can balance objects on one finger.

I can stack a small pile of quarters on my bent elbow and catch them mid-air with my hand.

I can pop off the bottom of a beer bottle by smacking the top with the palm of my hand. (I don’t drink alcohol, so I had to do something to entertain at parties in high school.)

And last, but certainly not least, I can [Read more…]

Nine and a half months ago, I was on a plane en route to Memphis for my job when I did something that changed my life. I was very uncomfortable and could tell the passenger next to me wasn’t happy about sitting next to the fat guy on the plane.

So, being a writer, I made myself write about it.

I wrote about how miserable I was in that small seat, about how my body hurt from leaning awkwardly away from the guy next to me to try to keep my fat from spilling over the armrest, about how my sides hurt, about how I kept falling asleep while writing a blog because I had no energy, about how I worried so much about who might sit next to me on flights, about how my body was taking up part of the aisle, about how everything about the trip was agonizing from a mental and physical perspective, about how I’d like to enjoy a normal flight.

That flight was reflective of my life. [Read more…]

It’s been over a week since PigOutFest 2016 happened, and thankfully I had a pretty decent week of healthy eating after gaining 3.9 pounds in my last weigh-in.

Even so, I appreciated a simple message I received from a Facebook friend this morning after I thanked him for a compliment and his support.

“Keep it up,” Jeff Griffin wrote, “and find another gear!!!”

Interestingly, this was similar to the advice my therapist also gave me this week. Her suggestion for me was to do things I know work well (for myself and my relationship) and to keep enduring. In order to keep on keeping on and to continue to have success, it certainly helps to find that extra gear so you don’t start coasting or going backwards.

[Read more…]