
“Do one thing every day that scares you” (Originally Posted on July 30, 2024)
As I look back on my journey, one of the biggest keys to its success thus far is overcoming fear. Fear of trying, fear of failing, and even fear of succeeding.

Legally Fit at One Year — Win the Day 201
When I recently told a friend that tomorrow marks the one-year anniversary of when I launched Legally Fit, she said, “Wow, that went by fast!” My response, “Not for me, it didn’t!” This is my 45th post of the year – far more than I ever imagined when I set out to do this. It added a whole new layer to my life – all while working my day job as a lawyer, maintaining a very active fitness routine, and living life to the fullest. And as I reflect back to where it all began, it so appropriately started with my Win the Day post.
Of all that I’ve shared over the past year, there’s no method, concept, or mantra that I find more important to the success of my journey than winning the day. I really do ask myself every day what it takes to win it. Sometimes I win and sometimes I lose. But focusing on what winning the day means each day is more about being in the frame of mind for success than it is about the actual wins or losses. I win more days because I define it at the beginning of the day than I would if I simply looked back afterwards and only then thought for the first time about what winning meant.

Work and wellbeing
There’s deep meaning in the name of this blog – Legally Fit. The big picture is that it felt like a name that defines my journey – one of a lawyer who managed to change his life from sedentary to active all in the context of a busy work schedule. At its core, this is a fitness blog where I share all that I have learned on my path to a heathy lifestyle. But the lessons in here speak to much more than advice on working out and eating. They come from years of struggling with balance between work and life. And that is why the very first word in the name is about work. Everything I’ve accomplished or failed at in this fitness journey is in the context of managing my career as a lawyer.
Complacency
One of the themes I wrote about last week was trying to get better today – every day. But let’s be real – that’s easier said than done. In fact, it’s virtually impossible mostly because we’re human. We fail, we have setbacks, and we just have some bad days. But even when we are killing it, there’s another natural response that has real impact on our potential— complacency.

Compete!
I love competing. I always have. Both personally and professionally. I especially love to win, but recently I’ve come to think differently about what winning means. Many of the sports I play – which are largely individual competitions – are designed for losing. There’s only one winner among the many who participate. I’d sometimes look at the format of a competition and wonder if I should bother joining it when I have little to no chance of coming in first – and in fact, have a much greater chance of finishing last. But what I’ve come to realize lately is that, in all these endeavors, the real competition is with myself. That doesn’t mean I always win, but it does mean that, at times, it may appear that I was nowhere near the top of a leaderboard, yet I still crushed it!

Climbing season! A social media diary . . .
My past weekend was quite full balancing work (Sunday) and fun (Saturday), both of which took priority over the blog. Still, it won’t take long to share all that I need to this week. My outdoor climbing season began on Saturday, and I am as inspired as ever! I can tell this story here through the social media diary I’ve put together . . .

Learning from our parents doesn’t always mean listening to them
If we’re lucky, we get to a point in life where we watch our parents age. Mine, like many, can’t move the way they did when they were younger. In fact, lately it’s clear they can’t move like they did five years ago, or even one year ago. Some of this is due to medical issues beyond their control that would set anyone back. What I’ve learned from this is that things will happen as I get older that might weaken or limit my abilities, but the fitter I am going into it, the better I will be coming out of it.

Man plans. God laughs.
Having just been caught in the moment of New Year’s and setting our goals for 2025, it’s now time to toss them out the window – if we haven’t already. I mean, seriously, when it is a challenge to even predict a day ahead, how can we possibly predict the year ahead? We can all probably look back to one year ago and see how impossible that is. As the old Yiddish adage goes, “Man Plans. God laughs.”

Legally Fit — Finding My Passion Project
Full disclosure . . . Legally Fit did not begin because I wanted to share my story. In fact, I never wanted to do that. Looking back on where I let my body get to was not something I enjoyed thinking about, and I rarely if ever spent time reflecting on it. Those were not my happiest times, and even now as I write about my story here each week, reliving many of those moments brings back memories of embarrassment and shame.
The blog began simply because of my passion for fitness. That’s what I wanted to share. Over the past 11 years on this journey, I’ve learned so much while taking on many new activities and challenges, and I love everything about it. But given that I am not a certified personal trainer or a professional athlete, I realized that the perspective I bring is one that must involve my story. I am a lawyer who has learned the value of incorporating fitness into my busy schedule, and my life was forever changed by that lesson.

Listen to your body (Part 3) – Lessons I still need to learn about injuries
I alluded to this last week, but I’m currently dealing with an elbow injury that came from overworking it. It’s not serious, but it is enough to sideline me from many of my favorite activities, and there’s a lesson to be learned here, not about overcoming setbacks, but about avoiding them.

Rock climbing - A journey within my journey
This year, almost out of nowhere, I became a serious outdoor rock climber. My first time ever climbing was Summer of 2023 while on a cruise to Alaska. I signed up for it because it was the most active excursion that day, but I was terrified of it. I didn’t understand anything about it – especially the safety aspects – so I did the bare minimum almost as if I just wanted to be able to say I did it and be done. After all, it was cool just that climbed for the first time at almost 49 years old, and I could check it off my “do something scary” list.
But something nagged at me afterwards. I began to wonder how much I held back and whether rock climbing was really something I could do. Or did I just want the photo? Perhaps if I understood how it worked – the belay, the technique, and the repel – I might trust it enough to be able to try harder? Or perhaps the minute I faced the opportunity to do more, I’d panic and be done — but with no regrets? At no point did I ever think that I could fall so in love with the sport that it would change me (and my fitness routines). But that happened – or better yet, it’s happening.

Work hard, play hard
Finding balance between work and play is important to both my mind and body, but balance does not have to mean sacrificing one for the other. I’ve found over the years that the harder I go at one, the harder I can go at the other. And of course, the driving force that allows me to do it all – and to do it harder – is fitness.

How I make time for fitness
The idea of telling someone else how to fit fitness into their schedule seems a bit preachy to me, and that’s certainly not what I am aiming for here. Everyone is different and there’s no one size fits all answer. But there are some common elements that fit most of our routines that can help work fitness into a busy schedule.