My name is Geoff Clarke. I’m a 45-year-old stay-at-home dad transitioning to a career centered around nutritional science and personal training.

“So, what’s that all about?” you ask. Well….

All of my life I was one of those guys who ate whatever he wanted with little to no consequence…”was” being the operative word. Somewhere in my early-thirties something changed: my metabolism, to be specific. Not quite ready to address the issue at hand, however, I did the next most practical thing: I bought a larger set of pants.

This little dance went on for a number of years. I experienced “sympathetic weight gain” when my wife was pregnant with our first child.   Though while she shed her pounds quickly after birth, mine remained. Undaunted, I stuck to my guns and kept buying larger pants. That is, until the birth of our second child.

At that point I was at my heaviest—235 lbs. (While that may not seem overly excessive, bear in mind that I’m 5’10” and weighed a whoppin’ 125 lbs. when I graduated high school.) Additionally, I had also just been informed by my doctor that I was “pre-diabetic”—a nice way of saying that type 2 diabetes was in my future if I didn’t change things.

So I decided to change things.

Not for me, mind you, I decided to change things for my kids. Certainly, I wanted to ensure that I was in good heath so that I could be there for them as long as I could…but it was more than that. I wanted them to know that one simply doesn’t have to accept adversity at face value…that even if not readily armed for the task, one can start chipping away at a problem…that, if determined, a once-daunting obstacle can be reduced to a harmless mound of chips over time.

The funny thing is, in the back of my mind I always knew there would be some motivator that would literally get me off my butt—I just didn’t know when it would manifest. And while I make no claim of being the perfect parent, this desire to teach through example is likely my favorite aspect of parenthood.

Anyway, my youngest is now 8 years old. Over this time I have transitioned from an inactive guy in his late-30s who ate poorly and drank too much, to a guy in his mid-40s who attempts to feed his family with as few processed foods as possible and participates in 12-mile mud runs for fun. Not only do I feel great, I have the confidence that only comes through knowing I could whup my 25-year-old self. Take that, youth!

As I embark upon my new career path, I’ll be using this blog to process thoughts and information. I would love to say that it was my idea, but really, my wife suggested it.

Thanks for reading. I hope you continue to do so.