Launching 'Take Care' series

I'm proud to announce that a long pondered idea is finally coming to fruition. "Take Care" will be an ongoing series of columns about my experience with a number of health and fitness related areas, starting with chiropractic thanks to Dr. Bill and Jennifer Simpson of Simpson Family Chiropractic.

Photo caption: Dr. Bill's x-rays tell a disturbing story of my skeletal health. Read next week's Dexter Leader and Chelsea Standard for a more thorough initial look at what's going on inside of me.

I attended the grand opening of the Simpson's Dexter practice last month. Dr. Bill gave a tour and talked about what he does and what the equipment in his office is for. It was very intriguing to listen to him talk about some of the problems chiropractic care can address.

Many of you have probably seen me in person over the three or so years that I've been the Dexter, and to a lesser extent, Chelsea reporter. Let's be honest -- I'm fat, or at least I was much moreso during the autumn of 2008, when I started exercising regularly and eating much healthier. The hardwork has taken my physicality to a place at which I would use words like "overweight" or "flabby" to describe myself now, which is good progress.

Even now my health isn't 100 percent -- nowhere near it. I won't get into my health history here, because I'll be doing that in future updates and articles in the print editions of The Dexter Leader and Chelsea Standard. I do want to say that improving your health does not happen over night.

Let's repeat that together: repairing health does not happen over night. It takes years to put on weight, atrophy muscle, become inflexible and misalign bones and joints. Please follow this blog and read my print articles as we talk about the process of improving these areas. It has been worth the effort, as I feel completely different from how I felt 14 or 15 months ago.

There's still quite a ways to go. Thank you for reading. Hopefully you will watch my journey and take something away from it. We'll talk about my first evaluation, my first adjustment and my musculo-skeletal health in next week's papers.