Losin It with Big Weather - Why I've decided to get moving...

People ask me if the nickname "Bigweather" bothers me. The short answer is: Nope. I've always been "big". Only Graham Fuller was taller than me in 4th grade. In high school, I was as big as many of the football players. In life, I see over most of the crowd. I'm okay with my size.

Recently, I've noticed something about my "big-ness." It's getting harder to do things. I used to be able quickly pop up a flight of stairs. Now, sometimes, I have to catch my breath after the steps. I used to be able to roll right out of bed and get going. Now, if I sleep too long, I'm sore... from sleeping... seriously.

So, I decided to do something about it. I've decided to get moving. I've heard the saying that little changes can lead to big changes. So I'm going to start small. I'm going to walk for 150 minutes per week. Why that number?

In a recent study published in JAMA Internal Medicine, doctors found that 150 minutes of exercise per week gave folks 31 percent less chance of premature death than those who did nothing. Though I realize the grim reaper will come around someday, I figure I don't want to give him any extra help by doing nothing.

And I'd like you to join me. If you've recently thought "I really need to do something one of these days," today is the day. We'll start small with walking. I'll update you here.

Plus, I'm tracking my daily exercise with a Fitbit. You can use whatever fitness tracker you'd like or you can manually enter what you are doing every day on their website. If you'd like to join my group, it's called "Losin' It with Bigweather". I'll also be updating this blog a couple of times per week. Feel free to share your stories with me on what you are doing. You can email them to me, message me on Facebook, or tweet. Plus, when I've "had enough", I may just have to lean on my group to get me those next few minutes.

I'm not sure where my exercise will end up or what the next step is. For now, I'm walking. If all of us make just one little change, think how many big changes that will equal down the road...

You can follow Don's progress on his Fitbit group here.