Brad Smith

For several years my doctor would always tell me that I should lose some weight and I would always say, “sure I agree”, then just go on with life.  In 2011 my world was changed when my wife was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s disease.  After thinking back on my family’s history of heart disease and my wife’s situation, I decided that I needed to start taking better care of myself, so that I could be around for many years to come or at least do what I could to have a better chance of that happening.  I tried the dieting route and could lose 5-10 pounds, but would put it back on.  It was easy to see that without exercise the weight was not going to stay off and with high blood pressure already (I had taken pills for many years) I needed something I would do and stick with.  I tried running, but got bored quickly. Exercising on my own was no fun, also it was very easy to reason why I couldn’t do it every day.  In 2012 my daughter had been doing CrossFit for 6 months or so and convinced me to give it a try.  It was hard at first since by now it had been 20 years since I had done much physical exercise.  I just had to do what I was able to do and slowly work to get better and still am.  I personally have now lost and kept off 25-30 pounds.  My doctor looks at my tests now and just tells me to keep doing whatever I am doing because it is working.  Sure I can’t keep up with the young ones, but that is not why I do it.  I do it get more strength and flexibility and better overall health.