The average month has 720 hours, and I wasted a lot of them in my life.

My diet was trash, and my health was in a steep decline and growing exponentially worse with each passing month.

No one would have accused me of being addicted to fitness at 42 and over 300 lb.—officially morbidly obese, with a BMI of 49.9. It was painful to walk, and I usually didn’t. When we stopped at the grocery store, I would wait in the car. Painful hip joints, painful knees, plantar fasciitis and minimal capacity to breathe all dictated a sedentary life. I could see the future: I knew I would be on a mobility device in the next few years, and I knew my quality of life would continue its downward trend.

I had paraded binge diet after binge diet through my life for most of three decades. Lose 30, gain 40. Lose 70, gain 100. Lose 3, eat an entire pizza.

The first day I saw the sign for CrossFit Fixx, in Tucson, I was hoping it was a new restaurant.

The gym was just 4 miles from my house and right across the street from my office. When I realized it was a CrossFit affiliate, emotions coursed through me. You see, for nearly a decade I had been stating that I would try CrossFit “as soon as I get in shape.” When I first started saying it, I “only” weighed about 250 lb. As the months and years added up, I said it less and less.

Kai Rainey before CrossFit.