Gregory Damian

Greg's Story

When I was eight years old, my parents moved our family from Buffalo, NY to Huntsville, AL. Southern culture was foreign to me. To me the other kids had a strange accent and I never fit in. I was also small growing up. So, in high school, I was not involved in sports, and I was not involved in social activities either. I had terrible self-esteem and no meaningful relationships with women. I was invisible.

I stayed in Huntsville after high school and studied mechanical engineering at the local university. Math and science came easy to me, but I was not passionate about my studies. To me, finishing school as soon as possible was my escape out of Alabama. I graduated in three and a half years while working part time the entire time.

After graduating, I moved to Florida, and I started drinking regularly. Fortunately for me, I met a marathon runner who encouraged me to run with him, which I did. I was surprised how good of a runner I was. My running friend introduced me to a friend of his who was a cyclist, and I started riding with groups along the coast in Palm Beach County, which was a lot of fun. However, alcohol was becoming a problem for me. I saw that I could not run or cycle as well the morning after drinking — I had seen the effect alcohol had on my father, and now those effects were becoming real to me. I did not like it.

One Friday after work, I had a few happy hour drinks. Afterward, I was driving aggressively through I-95 traffic in my Mazda RX-7, but a voice in my head suggested that I slow down. I immediately reduced my speed to the legal limit and looked over my right shoulder to see a state trooper glaring at me. I was fortunate that I was not pulled over, as I was probably over the legal blood alcohol limit. That event powerfully impacted me, and I decided to stop drinking.

I exercised every day, and this became my new, healthier habit. As I trained, I improved my athletic performance. However, my success in athletics did not improve my self-esteem toward women or what I could accomplish professionally. I only dated a couple of times in my twenties. I even left my job to go back to school for an MBA so I could date — but I did not date once when I was back in school. What I did have was a belief that if I took care of myself, someday in the future, my time would come.

Ten years later I was on a business trip with a female co-worker…

More in my upcoming book, “Abs At 60: The Four Steps to Look and Feel Younger at Any Age.”