Jeff Dowdy's Blog

So as not to make an incredibly long blog post. I will break my story up into 3 parts. My early years in physical fitness, nutrition, and exercise. My end of college, getting married, and having kids part. Then part 3 will be the last 5 years.

I grew up in a small East Texas community of Fairplay which is close to Carthage, TX. I grew up in an area where we had fresh vegetables (not that I ate that many except fried okra) and hunted for some of the meat that we ate. My mom cooked alot and we had good meals. As mentioned earlier vegetables were not my kind of thing and I sat trying to force green peas down my throat several times. I only wish we had an indoor dog so I could slip my food to him. I just was not into trying new things. I loved egg sandwiches, fried okra, mexican food, and not a whole lot else. By the way we are trying to get my son to eat new things and it reminds me so much of me. I ran outside like every kid. My closest friend in that area lived about 3 miles from me so often I would ride my bike to his house. The community store was about 2 miles from my house and I rode my bike there. I was always active. My grandfather who was a farmer had me working pretty laborious jobs like building fence and hauling hay by the time I was a teenager.

My 8th grade year of football was one in which I realized that I was a beanpole. I was about 5'11" and 120 lbs. soaking wet. I was tall and skinny. I reached high school in much the same condition. I tried to put on weight by eating everything I could and even drinking weight gain drinks. I lifted some weights in off season football but that was limited. I soon quit football and focused solely on playing golf. This involved a lot of walking but not much lifting of weights of any kind. Once again I could eat anything I wanted. I remember having some friend whose parents had to restrict what they ate or make them exercise because they had put on too much weight but I was such a bean pole I could eat all things at all times. Once as a reward for good grades we got to go eat at the local Pizza Hut for the lunch buffet. I ate 18 pieces of pizza. Yes, 18!!! I did not seem to gain a pound.

By the time I got to college I was 6'1" and weight 145 to 150 lbs. I was still very tall and very skinny. When I first started college I put on a few lbs and got to 155 and almost 160. Then I got sick and dropped about 10 lbs back down into the 140's. I could still eat anything I wanted and it did not hurt me a lick.

In the latter half of my first year of college my roommate started working out in the back of Sharp Gym at Houston Baptist. Eventually they closed that area to students and so we joined a gym in the Galleria area. That was the first time I got serious about lifting weights. I was still very thin but after a year or so of working out regularly I started having some muscle tone and some abs to show for my work.

In that same year one of our suite mates who was a member of the ROTC at the University of Houston started a running club at night. We were in Southwest Houston running at midnight over three miles. We did not just run on flat ground. We might run up and down the parking garage at Southwest Memorial Hospital and then up and down the stairs all over the HBU campus. We then would run out the front of the campus head toward the freeway, down past the hospital, back toward the dorms and make a lap around the track where the apartments now sit. I got in the best shape of my life. We would run 3 miles in under 20 minutes some nights. Did I mention we ran all of this starting at midnight every night? Ah, the college days. That quarter soon ended and it was back to normal and I have never gotten back to that shape of being able to run that much ever again.

That is the early part of my story with food and exercise. Basically up this point I could eat anything, everything, and however much I wanted to and never gain too much weight. I also got into great shape through lifting weights and being in a running club.

Til later...