Howdy All,

My name is Ken Ray. I along with Tammy would like to create a site to help people have a forum for their healthy needs. I am a program director for the YMCA. In my tenure there, I have learned that becoming healthier is more mental than physical. I, being the Health and Wellness Director, saw that the people with the most success have strong health networks. I want to provide an avenue, for people who do not have a personal trainer or Richard Simmons on speed dial, to ask questions… get information… gain extra motivation… or even support others on their journey towards health.

I, unlike Tammy, never liked exercise! I loved to play… loved practice… but did not enjoy exercise for the sake of exercise. I had always been a big kid… in a big family… with not a lot of direction from my role models when it came to health issues. I would yo-yo on my weight and never really got a handle on it until I started hanging out at the YMCA. My biggest weight was 272lbs. I can clearly see that getting to that weight was a product more of my mental state than anything physically. I always had intentions of working out… I’d even start for a couple weeks and be doing great! But I would get bored, make up excuses and chalk it up to I wasn’t ready. Or I’d lose 15-20 lbs. and say that was great and I’ll never let myself get back to that again and before I knew it I would be 5-10 lbs. heavier.

What changed? I decided to be healthier… I was not trying to lose weight or get a quick fix… just get a little healthier. It was a slow process; I really didn’t notice a difference in the mirror… but when I would look at old pictures and compare them, wow! The mirror lies; you only see the difference from yesterday to today. I began to log my weight loss in picture form. I had something else different too, I developed various support structures to keep me motivated, accountable and interested in being healthier. If you’d like to know more about my journey, just ask! I want this forum to be an open, honest dialog about the realistic journey towards a healthier you… whatever that entails.

I hope you get some valuable, useful and long lasting information out of the website!

Today is Ken's birthday! Happy Birthday, Ken!!! Everyone please help me wish Ken (Y's Guy) a happy birthday!

Happy Birthday Ken
Do you know that life begins at 32!!! lol. Notice any of those little gray hairs popping out anywhere on your body yet??

Thanks for all the interesting advice and info you have posted on Healthy Pals. Hope you have a nice day today and lots of cake and ice cream. Yep, today is the only day it's ok to eat cake and ice cream and not feel guilty about it. You deserve it.

Hi Ken
happy belated birthday, and I appreciate your intentions to launch a health forum. I've a suggestion, if you ever do it try to create as many categ as possible. like there should be separate sections for young, old, kids, everyday health advice, and teens; coz I've seen webmasters never try to categorizez forums with respect to developmental milestones.