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Basketball, life balance have strong connection

25 May 2010 No Comment

I love to play basketball. I always have, yet there have been a few incredible gaps in my lifetime where I simply did not include basketball in my life. From my early college years to a couple of years into my career as a sportswriter, I did not play much at all. Upon further reflection, this is no surprise since physical fitness had zero priority in my life for that five- or six-year period.

Taking care of obtaining my degree from the University of Missouri and working my way through school was all of the time I was willing to commit to pursuits outside of free time activities. I was always plenty busy, but I was not going to find a gym or court and play hoops when there was always a party or happy hour to find once free time was available.

I re-discovered basketball while working for The Sporting News in the late 1990s, and played off and on for a couple of years but once again gravitated away from the orange sphere around 2003 when I focused on freelance work to supplement my full-time job. It has always been a time issue, as after all three of my St. Louis job layoffs I have dove back into basketball.

That is a light, transparent view into a much more complex issue revolving around job loss, health, weight loss and mental, physical and spiritual health – but should suffice as enough for me to move forward to where I am at currently. I started playing basketball twice per week around 14 months ago, and this time it is firmly entrenched into my life routine.

Despite the fact I eat very healthy, exercise regularly, avoid nearly all unnatural foods and count calories, it is not as if I am living a super clean lifestyle. I love beer, liquor and partying. So I just try to strike an acceptable balance between indulgence and healthy living. In the past 14 months, I have dropped 45 pounds. So, on one hand, that counts as a success. On the other hand, my love of well-crafted beers, IPAs in particular, and vodka may be considered problematic by certain health view points.

As I strive for balance, and maintaining my health for the sake of my beautiful, loving family, it is a battle to curb appetites across the board, whether it be food, drink or anything else that can provide instant pleasure. I feel I am doing ok, and looking back at the past 15 years, I may be slowly making solid progress.

I’ll leave it at that … but my next post will dive into my basketball routine, how I shoot 3s, a certain number of free throws, etc. and make it a very nice workout. That is actually what I was going to write about, but …

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