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Jeff Hagen
Jim Ballard
Fantasy Healthball was conceived by Jim Ballard and Jeff Hagen in October 2006. Jim and Jeff have been best friends since they met in the fourth grade. Jim has lived his life in top physical condition, while Jeff has suffered with type 2 diabetes and obesity. These are their stories:
My story is becoming altogether too common. On January 11, 2002, I went to my family doctor for a standard physical. I hadn’t been to my doctor regularly because I felt that I really didn’t have a need. I was 33 years old and had put on some weight in the 12 years since college, but I felt fine. I only went in at the urging of my Dad to “get into a good adult habit” of establishing a relationship with your family doctor. In retrospect, I am convinced my father knew my life habits were on a path to destruction. It was from this physical that I was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.
I was in shock. In some ways, I feel I remained in shock for a good five years. How did this happen? I’ve always been in good health, haven’t I? I’ve loved and played sports my whole life. I had not even had a tooth-cavity or a broken bone!
And through the many years of playing tackle football, basketball, hockey, baseball, anything with a stick and a ball -- always with the intensity and fever-pitch competition which my brothers and friends only knew -- this was nothing short of amazing. This couldn’t be happening to me! But it did.
From that day, I started a journey toward self-understanding. I had lost track of myself somewhere. My opinion of myself was still the 20-something athlete who could run and play all night. Now, I realized, one fast-break down the basketball court has me wheezing.
It hit me like a ton of bricks: It’s not just a few pounds put on since college. I am not just overweight…I am obese and my health is deteriorating.
So, I started to fight back. My doctor referred me to an Endocrinology and Diabetes specialist who I have been faithfully seeing multiple times a year. I joined a local gym and started working out again. I took educational classes on managing diabetes. I saw a nutritionist and learned how I could start eating better. I quickly gained as much knowledge as I could.
After three years passed, I had gained another 25 pounds and was still losing the battle.
I painfully realized just how hard it was to break bad habits formed through 20 years of adulthood. I could not maintain the consistency required to make a true difference in my life. Intellectually, I knew what to do. But it takes much more than that to really win. It is an emotional, physical, and spiritual battle. I often feel like I am at war with myself.
But, that is also where this story starts, and continues to this day. It is a story of life-long friendship and hope. Jim and I share a passion for football and competition. And it is through this passion that we put Fantasy Healthball together to help me. But it is much more than a game.
It is truly a life-changing program that can help anyone that has allowed poor health habits into their life.
And it is working for me. It provides a structure that makes me want to pay attention to my daily health choices. By tying my passion for NFL football, and specifically fantasy football, together with specific health-related challenges and setting it up as a competition, I pay attention to it every day. And I enjoy doing it!
Plus, I simply don’t want to lose. My weekly Healthpoint score has become just as important to me as my fantasy football team result, and the results are paying off. I started the 2007 NFL season at 275 pounds. I lost a pound a week during football season and, more importantly, I have brought healthful disciplines into my life that will remain long after the end of this football season. Rather than being a roller coaster diet, Fantasy Healthball requires lifestyle changes that promote sustainable weight loss and good health for a lifetime.
This journey is not over for me. It is a life-long journey and every day is a struggle. However, it is a struggle I now know I can win. And I invite all our readers to join me and together put winning seasons into the scorebooks of our life. If I can do it, anyone can. And we can have fun along the way!
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First, I love football. I don’t know anything as sweet as a Walter Payton leap into the end zone or a deep Dan Fouts bomb. Second, I care about my co-author Jeff. Jeff and I grew up together in suburban Chicago and as kids we played football like our lives depended on it. We drilled and practiced until our parents had to drag us inside.
We were never greatly talented, but we played with the passion of superstars. By endless hours of hard work, we got better than most of our friends. It got to the point where no one would play backyard football against us if Jeff and I were on the same team. Later, we even both made our high school football team, leaving us with vivid memories of great plays that we carry with us today – and the bad knees that come with them.
Just before finishing high school, my parents moved us to California and Jeff and I attended colleges two thousand miles apart. My healthy lifestyle continued to find new passions. I found myself wind surfing in West Africa, sand-surfing in Brazil, kayaking in Hawaii, trekking in Thailand, rock climbing in Yosemite, mountain biking where the sport was born in Marin County, and spending a good amount of time in health clubs and health food stores.
Jeff’s life was taking a different route. Fast forwarding to the near present, Jeff has a wonderful wife, three great kids, and a house in suburban Chicago. The other main thing he has is type 2 diabetes and at his heaviest he was 115 pounds overweight. Over the past couple of years, I have tried everything to get him to eat right and exercise.
I tried encouragement. I tried shame. I got mad and yelled at him. I tried levity. I said to do it for me. I said to do it for him. I said to do it for his family- who would rather see him alive. I tried horror stories about people that died from diabetes. I tried competition – trying to get him to compete with me.
Nothing worked. He continued to eat poorly and gain weight and his doctor had to prescribe more and more advanced medication.
Finally, I had the idea that turned him around: channel his love of football into the driving force behind his health. Fantasy Healthball was born. Today, Jeff has his diet under control and exercises regularly. Instead of just watching his favorite NFL team win on Sunday, now Jeff wins too. This book is for Jeff, but it is also for the 15 million fantasy football players out there who may be tempted to just sit on the couch and watch. Don’t just sit there, play!
It is also for the 21 million Americans with diabetes and for the two-thirds of adults who are considered overweight or obese. Fantasy Healthball will turn your passion for football into your passion for great health. Don’t just be a spectator, be a player, be a winner!
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