For those that are paid subscribers to the Duck Sports Central Substack site, you know I regularly do premium recruiting updates. But I also do this cool 'reflective' weekly piece that ties Oregon football and other sports into some personal realities.

This week my thoughts on how Oregon has built the talent, recruiting machine and hype of a championship program. Now comes the harder part: carrying the weight of expectations.

Today on the Sidewalk weight loss, travel, pressure, and what lasting chage truly requires.

api.omarshehata.me/substack-proxy/articles/ducksports-substack-com-p-sunday-sidewalk-what-the-system-can.html

Yea, at this point, for me, NC or bust. No excuses. Oregon has stacked a ton of talent. From here on out, in my mind, it's all on Lanning and his staff. Injuries aside, there is no reason this talent can't win the whole thing.

Also, congrats on the health changes. It's hard to do all the things necessary, especially when you get above 50.

I am also on a health journey at 57 years old. Lost 40lbs of body fat and gained 12 lbs lean muscle bringing my fat down to 15%. Off all meds and feel 35 again. Stay with it brother. It's super hard but worth it.

2 hours ago, Log Haulin said:

Also, congrats on the health changes. It's hard to do all the things necessary, especially when you get above 50.

I am also on a health journey at 57 years old. Lost 40lbs of body fat and gained 12 lbs lean muscle bringing my fat down to 15%. Off all meds and feel 35 again. Stay with it brother. It's super hard but worth it.

That is AWESOME work my friend! I was doing great... until covid.

8 hours ago, Log Haulin said:

I am also on a health journey at 57 years old.

That is two years younger than when I started at 59, in 2010, when I couldn't get in my tux for my daughter's wedding. 16 years and 45 #'s loss later with the same 15% body fat. P.S. at 6' that gives me a metabolic age of 35.

Keep it up YOUNG man.

I went through my first transformation at 50 when I decided to 'retire' from competitive powerlifting and lost close to 90 pounds. I kept at the correct weight for about 4 years, but Covid really messed up everything (financially and health wise) for me. When we got our dog in 2022, I had worked back to being closer to where I wanted to be but - believe it or not - even though she walks like 10 miles per day, I actually started gaining weight. She took long walks, but never at pace and my sleep started to get skewed in a bad way so I was always exhausted and could never get any time to do my workouts.

10 years ago, I was still working out and I used 'green juice' to kick off my weight loss and it worked miracles. Every time I tried to get back to that starting point, the lack of time kept hitting me in the face. So this time I switched up to extending my evening fasting time from 8-10 hours to 16 hours and came up with a more disciplined approach to food that did not require excessive prep time like juicing did. I still need to get some actual workout time in, but I feel more energetic than I have in five years, so 60 is treating me well with these changes.