Firefighters Eat Gooooooood.

That's me. This was last January, when we were still living in Texas. I was a good 2 years out of the Army at this point and working for the Killeen Fire Department. It was a great job, some really great people, and some really great food. The pace wasn't terrible, with only a few fires every month and while the EMS was a bit more busy, you didn't expect to do much in the way of heavy lifting during your shifts on the ambulance. Did I mention the food was amazing?

In the end it was the food that got me hovering over 200 pounds of not muscle. While on shift, if you could, you rested as often as possible and for as long as possible. You never knew when the next big call was coming in and didn't want to be burnt out by the time you got to the scene. The thinking obviously flawed, but man, it sure was nice to sleep while you're at work!

Quickly, I fell into a work out slump. With the longest I was able to keep my active streaks going being two weeks at a time, followed by another month or two activity drought. Soon enough I was feeling gross and fat and tired.

Throw a good helping of school in there, I found myself clamoring for some sort of workable routine. Unfortunately it never manifested.

The first time I hit 205 I could hardly believe it. I was always hovering at 175-180 when I was in the Army. Working out every single morning will help keep you in shape, even if the workouts aren't exactly amazing. But back then I had all the energy in the world, could go for as long as I needed to push myself and hardly felt any of it an hour later. That day I looked down to see the scale tipping into unexplored territory, I didn't have any of that.

So what changed my outlook? Hockey!

During the post season last year, my friend PJ, who I'd played so many games of street hockey with as a kid, told me about this team I should check out, the Capitals, particularly a player named Ovechkin. I had been out of the sport for a long time at this point, with no appreciable knowledge of the NHL. I decided to check out the playoff games and suckered my wife into watching with me. We were instantly hooked. The team was dynamic, fast, hard hitting, and the goals were oh so pretty. We even took time out of our vacation to South Padre to watch the last of the Caps playoff run. While Game 7 was a bust, it was the start of a reawakened love for a game that has always been in my heart.

When we moved to Maryland, Hockey was high on the priority list. October 11th the Caps played the Islanders and I got my first taste of a live NHL game. We went home and set about finding the next game we could make that night.

I soon decided to take up the sport again after those first few games. I felt like such a kid the first time I stepped out on the ice this winter. It's an amazing feeling to awaken that preteen joy in yourself after so many years. A good amount of public skates later I was fitted for skates and my wife was keen to pick them up as a Christmas gift.

I've watched what I eat a little, hit the gym a lot, and put the skates to good use when I could. More of the later two keeps me happier than the first of course! With all of that, after only about 3 months, and I'm walking around at 191. And it feels good.