There was one major catch, though. I knew that to change my life, I had to change my lifestyle. And that meant giving up my job as The Enquirer's baseball writer covering the Reds. It's a fun job, a dream come true for a kid who had spent his summer afternoons lost in a Wrigley Field fantasy, longing for the smell of half-cracked peanuts and the sound of balls popping in leather mitts. It was an easy decision, and one I haven't regretted.
Life is too precious to waste in a press box.
I still cover sports, but my bosses were kind enough to carve out a new niche that would allow me to do what I had to do and still have a job. Still, I knew my journey would be tough, that I had grueling physical work and strange emotional changes ahead of me. I set a goal to lose 145 pounds, thinking it would take about two years. It was an arbitrary figure, perhaps a ridiculously high goal, but I wanted to shoot as high as possible. It became the focus of my life.