Welcome to Legally Fit - Win the Day!
My Journey
Welcome to Legally Fit, my new blog — actually, my first blog. I’ve been on a journey for the past 10 years in which I have transformed my mind and body from an inactive, overweight, and diabetic workaholic to someone who is now fit and healthy all while living the same work life. In short, while my career defines me as a lawyer, I can proudly say that I live like an athlete.
Over the course of my journey, I have lost over 130 lbs. I’ve gone from being sedentary, unhealthy, and even lazy to being active and fit. I never thought this was possible, and I can assure you that I did not do this alone. I am here to share my experience and let anyone who wants or needs to achieve change — whether big or small — to know that you are not alone. I hope that I can take what I have done and show others that it is possible for you too — because, trust me, even though I don’t know you, it is possible!
To begin this first post, I will share a story of how I started this. It goes back just over 10 years ago to when my friends and I were planning a golf trip for my 40th birthday. The schedule was ambitious — even for someone that was not morbidly obese and out of shape. Playing about 36 holes of golf a day over 6 days while walking hilly golf courses was not something my body was going to be able to handle. Even our caddies on the trip mentioned that they had not done a schedule that ambitious. I figured that I would do what I could and skip whatever I needed to. But I also decided to try a personal trainer about 9 months before the trip. I went into that thinking it would fail. I had tried personal trainers before, and they made me feel fat. I felt that they wanted to be training people who were strong and healthy. As I started with my trainer that first day, he showed me how to do a squat by sitting in a chair because my core was so weak. I felt ashamed. The journey seemed long and impossible. At the end of the session, when I was about to leave, my trainer said something to me that stuck with me forever and changed my life. He said, “I just want you to know, you are the reason I do this, and it is going to be alright.” And right there, the switch was flipped. Failure left my mind. I was ready for the process. The process was long, and particularly in the beginning, I struggled with consistency. I continued to show up for the most part, but at times, I also canceled our sessions at the last minute. But since I was the reason he did this, I felt accountable, and with time, I got better. Much better. Nine months later, I still was no physical specimen, but I made it through the golf trip (barely). We played 193 holes of golf and walked 96 miles in 6 days. That accomplishment set the tone for everything else to come. It is now nearly 10 years later, and as I am about to turn 50, my whole world has changed. My life was saved by that one comment at that first training session, that I was the reason my trainer did this. Now, you are all the reason I am sharing this, and I hope to pay it forward here.
So, as I share my experience, let me first say that there is no doubt my life is different than yours. Like fingerprints, no two lives are the same. But the concepts I will discuss here can be adapted to any life regardless of age, gender, profession, or fitness level. And with that, l will share the first concept that I use as my mantra . . . “Win the day!”
When I started my journey almost a year before I turned 40, I was over 300 lbs. with very little strength or cardio fitness. My frame of mind was that I worked too much, didn’t have time, didn’t have the right body, didn’t have the right genes, and would always have to live within those constraints. I was so overweight that the thought of setting any goal of what numbers I needed to achieve — in weight, blood levels, strength, or anything else for that matter — seemed overwhelming. In fact, one thing you will learn from me as I share my experiences is that while goals can be good, they can also be dangerous. Surely, many of us have said, I want to lose [X] lbs. in [Y] days. Whether that’s an aggressive mark to set or even something well within reach, the danger here is that missing the mark — even if you do everything right — feels like failure. But surely that cannot be the case when you did everything right. So, this is where I start by saying, “Win the day!”
“Win the Day”
What does “win the day” mean? The first thing to understand is that winning the day means something different for me than it does for you. And it means something different each day regardless of who you are. But the concept is simple: End the day by saying that I did whatever I was supposed to do today. Then understand that no one, anywhere, is undefeated. But that’s a good thing too because I can assure you that you will learn much more from the days you lose than the ones you win.
Now, I just mentioned that winning the day means something different for each of us, and in order to explain that, let me tell you a little bit about who I am. I am a lawyer at a big law firm in New York. I am single and don’t have any kids, but I often work long hours. So, right away many of you might say, “well, this won’t apply to me” or “I can’t make this person’s schedule work for me,” but I assure you, I won’t give you a schedule to stick to, and I won’t give you any metrics to achieve. Your schedule, your routines, and your data, are yours alone to work within. For instance, I know that I can take my weekend days and devote them to longer workouts and higher activity. I don’t have soccer games or birthday parties to take the kids to, so I use my weekend time differently than others. I do what works for me. You can only do what works for you. I define winning the day on a Sunday by taking advantage of the schedule that I have. You should define winning the day on a Sunday within the boundaries of your schedule. What matters here are concepts, not numbers. At the end of the day, the concept for me is the same as it is for you — “did I do what I was supposed to do today?”
On the flip side, there are many examples as to what losing the day could be. Obvious ones include: I ate too much when I didn’t need to, or I didn’t work out when I should have. Other not so obvious ones can include: I should not have worked out because I needed rest, or I should have stayed out longer with friends rather than prioritize rest when it was not so needed (because time with friends can be as precious and necessary as fitness and recovery). The fact is that you are the only one who really knows the answer, and the key is just being honest with yourself about it.
More to Come . . .
Over the course of this blog, I will discuss much more about winning the day and will share — from my experience and education — what you can do to achieve a winning record. Some of the ideas involve making small changes, having patience, and constantly reassessing and redefining what winning the day means. I will discuss the tools and resources I have used to become better educated and more motivated, and I will discuss what worked and didn’t work for me — not because this is what will work or won’t work for you, but because the process of figuring that out is what is key here. Some of what worked for me may not work for you, and some of what didn’t work may be best for you. But for each of us, the key is to learn from those. Apply what works and analyze what does not.
I promise to be transparent and honest. I will discuss my use of Ozempic and Mounjaro, which began about 3 years ago and 50 lbs. into my weight loss journey when my diabetes remained out of control. For me, the medicine helped — both in getting my diabetes under control and accelerating weight loss — but by no means does the medicine tell most of my story. I’ll have more to say about that later, but I raise this here so that there is no misconception about the path I have taken. I look forward to sharing everything, and I hope that I can help others in the ways that so many have helped me.
Aaron
Left: 40th Birthday Golf Trip, July 2014
Right: Training for 50th Birthday Golf Trip, April 2024
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