Editorial

Eating Healthy Is The Best Choice You Can Make, And I’m Living Proof Of That Fact

David Hookstead (Credit: David Hookstead)

David Hookstead Sports And Entertainment Editor
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Cleaning up my diet was the smartest decision I ever made in my life.

Last night, I was looking through some old photos from a couple years ago from between 2016 through 2018. To put it simply, I was very fat. (RELATED: David Hookstead Is The True King In The North When It Comes To College Football)

I wasn’t just fat. I looked like a guy who hadn’t gotten up off of the couch in the better part of a decade. About two years ago, I made the decision to eat much better.

The first thing I did was cut out soda completely. The last soda I ever drank was when Syracuse played Clemson in football back in 2018.

I sat on a couch shoving my face full of Taco Bell and hammering Mountain Dew. Haven’t touched it in nearly two years, and I don’t think I’ve had Taco Bell since that day either.

Next, I stopped eating chicken wings, pizza and junk food around the clock. You wouldn’t believe how bad my eating habits were.

I used to eat Chipotle everyday, drink about six Mountain Dews, snack on chips and literally never touch vegetables. It’s now a joke in the office how I used to start the day by cracking open a Mountain Dew at six in the morning.

Now I eat lean meat, only drink coffee, water and beer, don’t ever touch a snack and eat at least one bag of broccoli a day.

I used to joke about I was never going to eat healthy, and to a certain degree I meant it. I was born on third base when it came to my DNA and genetics, and that allowed me to eat trash and never really worry about it.

Those genetics are the reason why after cleaning up my diet I’m back to the same size I was when I was 18, have less than 10% body fat and am in the best shape of my life.

Looking back at 2016-2018, I was very stupid with my health. I should have eaten better the whole time, but you can’t make up for time that has already passed.

If you only learn one lesson from me, take care of your diet. It’s shockingly easy to quit the bad stuff. It might seem hard, but it’s not. I never even have the urge to have a soda, and I don’t miss any of the other junk.

Do yourself a favor, folks. Eat healthy. Load up on meat and vegetables, cut out the sugar, never touch a soda again and I promise you’ll all be better off for it.

Finally, a lot of people ask me how much weight I’ve lost in the past 18-24 months. I’m not going to say because it’s not really important. All that matters is we’re back to business booming in my health department. I’d encourage you to all do the same.