A Wellness Talk With Desmond Howard

I recently had the privilege to talk with one of my childhood heroes — NFL veteran Desmond Howard — about a topic that we both are super passionate about: health and wellness. (A quick backgrounder for those who may not be familiar with Howard: He is the 1991 Heisman Trophy winner and Super Bowl XXXI MVP. After 11 years playing pro in the NFL, he joined the ESPN network as a college football analyst, and since 2005, he has appeared on the Emmy-award winning College Game Day, while also contributing to other ESPN programming.)

With the current state of our world, we have the opportunity to take back our health and fitness in a positive way. By grounding with our mindset and sticking with the actions that yield positive changes in our lives, we can begin to reclaim our well-being. This conversation — which we had during our Instagram live episode — could not have come at a better time as we talked about how to do this and more.

Howard and I were able to cover a lot of ground in this hourlong conversation, including:

• How we both personally tackle the challenges of healthy aging.
• Ways to avoid the common excuses that many people use for not getting up and moving.
• How the circumstances of the past year — including social distancing and isolation — have taken an additional physical and mental toll on many.
• The importance of mental fitness.
• Stories about our early childhood days, growing up, and now being fathers.
• How to approach each day with some fun tips that people can apply to change their outlook on life, including these:
  • Kick off each day with the question: How will I be intentional with myself and those around me with my actions?
  • How does my health and fitness impact my family, friends, and people I work with daily?
  • Challenge yourself to be 1 percent better each day — and be sure to celebrate those wins.

We left it all out there for viewers and listeners in hopes they can apply some of the insights and learnings from our experiences in their own lives and create the positive changes necessary to become the best version of themselves. Tune in — and feel free to share your top takeaways in the comments below.