Danny Merrell’s Big Birthday Announcement, ‘Fifty by Fifty’

Forty-nine years ago today, Daniel Kenneth Merrell was welcomed into the world as an 8 pound, 6 ounce baby boy. And now, some two hundred and thirty pounds later it's time for a reckoning.

Over the past few years I've tried my best to either ignore or find a non-logical way to explain the obvious clues, such as:

• More and more of my extra large shirts fitting tighter - hmmm, must be shrinking in the washer
• It's getting to be more of an effort to bend over and get to my shoes to tie them - or maybe it's just I'm not as flexible, certainly it's not because my tummy's getting in the way.
• My kids gleefully tapping my stomach just to watch it jiggle
• Getting out of breath when performing just basic tasks

There are certainly many other 'clues', but one of the biggest is looking at recent photos of me and thinking to myself..."Do I really look like that".

So...here we go...Fifty by fifty. I currently weigh 235 pounds, and on a 5'10" frame that would mean I'm morbidly obese. And all joking aside, that's not a good place to be. So, today, I start with baby but meaningful steps....water instead of soda, stop with unhealthy snacking, and MAKE THE TIME TO WORK OUT!

That has been the biggest deterrent, the time aspect. On those rare occasions that I can get psyched up enough to consider exercising, other events or tasks that require my immediate attention get in the way. As of today, the priorities have changed.

Over the course of the next 365 days, I will be giving periodic updates on air and online detailing my progress. I plan on keeping this fun, but this is serious business. Keeping healthy is important, and right now, I'm not.

I can explain a little more about this challenge and the reasons behind it in this video.

[onescreen item="5119394"]