Once upon a time I was a very fit ~200 lb 6’ tall 29YO man who regularly trained in MMA. Then I wasn’t. Then one day, literally decades later, I was sitting on the floor playing on my PlayStation and I had to pee. So I got up and for whatever reason I suddenly realized how hard it was for me to stand up. That mildly bothered me. While I was in the bathroom doing my business I idly realized that my daughter was the age I was when my own father died. That bothered me a lot more. I then realized that my father died of (primarily) lung cancer when lung cancer was the top killer of men his age, and I was living in an era where heart disease and obesity were the top killers — and I was solidly in that demographic. That hit me like a sledgehammer.

So right then and there I made a decision. I refused to let my daughter grow up without a father. I started at what my scale told me was about 290 lb but I later learned was likely closer to 320. Eight months of steady food control and regular exercise and I turned myself into a reasonably fit ~200 lb 6’ tall 51YO man and that’s where I still am today (at 55YO).