For me, 2009 was a year of recovery. See, in Spring of 2008, I underwent ankle surgery to repair a bone cyst, caused by the lack of cartilage in the joint. The surgery consisted of taking a bone graph and cartilage from my knee, then braking my ankle (I know, I actually allowed them to break it for me!) so that they could put it in my ankle and repair it. The post surgery rehabilitation consisted of 6, fully non-weight bearing, weeks on crutches, followed by a summer full of physical therapy and slowly working to get my body right again.

During that time of recovery, I quickly settled into a very sedentary lifestyle, with my inability to move being a convenient excuse for watching lots of television and movies. I also feel in to a pretty significant period of self-loathing and used food as a crutch. Thus, in addition to not being active at all, I was eating, a lot and not particularly well either. It was a tough time and I am very thankful I had my loving and caring partner, Jenn, there to help and support me during this time.

While I slowly began to recover and regain my mobility, the habits I developed while in the thick of it all really stuck. Sitting around and doing a whole lot of nothing was seemingly enjoyable. At the very least, it was easy, as was not paying much attention to what I was putting in my body. The rest of 2008 was spent coming to terms with this and struggling to feel good – mentally, physically and emotionally. I realized that as much as the surgery had been a major cause for my physical pain and discomfort, it was working my as my excuse to continue my bad habits rather than working to address the root causes. I made a commitment that in 2009, I would work hard to get my mind and body back into better shape and I jumped into it with reckless abandon.

While I’m sure I’ll tell you more about the specific things I’ve done in the last year, I am proud to report that about a year later, I am 45 lbs lighters and immeasurably happier. I have worked and continue to work hard to redefine my relationship with food (thank you weight watchers) while working with quite a few health professionals to regain movement in my body in order to feel good.

With that year of recovery under my belt, I see this year as the time to start establishing the norm for the rest of my life. You see, by being a featured challenger for the P.U.C. I have been thrust into the limelight. What better motivation to sustain good habits and continue to find ways to live a healthier life than to have a lot of eyes watching my and (hopefully) pushing me to do better. Among my major goals for this challenge are to improve my diet in order to improve my lipid profile and to hopefully lose an addition 20 lbs. I also hope get back into music, a passion of mine that I have done little with since finishing up undergrad. I’ve purchased an ukulele and I would like to be functional by the end of this challenge. I hope to begin taking lessons and making time to practice on a regular basis.

I cannot tell you how excited I am to embark on this journey and how happy I am to be doing it with my team. We’ve had a great time getting to know each other thus far and I can already tell that lots of new and wonderfully deep friendships will be formed as a result of this experience. I hope to see you all around campus or feel free to stop by the Student Events and Activities Center in MU 103 if you’d like to drop by and say hello. Talk to you soon!

-Danté

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