Hello there! I’m Marlon. I’m a family guy. My wife and I were college sweethearts. We have two kids. We do our best to follow Christ’s example. We’re both teachers.
I first started blogging in 2009 to document my healthy lifestyle changes. Sadly, I didn’t really know what I was doing as a blogger, I still don’t, so I’ve started over a few times. Hopefully, I will keep this blog around a little longer. (I lost a lot of content when I migrated some of my post to this blog… I will try to restore the images that were lost as I get the chance to.)
Although I’ve lost and mostly maintained a 25-30 pound weight loss over the years, this isn’t a weight loss blog. My health issues encompass much more than my weight– unfortunately, I had become a living case study for the junior high health class I teach.
My mid-30s brought about a… not a mid-life crisis… but a mid-life wake-up call. I was dealing with hypertension, pre-diabetes, sleep apnea, & random allergic reactions. Thankfully, I was inspired by a lot of healthy lifestyle bloggers to make a change. At first, I started eating better: I left my fast-food habit for vegetarianism and, recently, I’ve started eating 100% plant-based, gluten free, corn free, and oat free. I’m reluctant to call myself vegan since so far I’m only a “dietary vegan” and still need to make the full transition to being an ethical vegan. I’m working on it.
I’ve also become more active, overall. From doing at-home workouts to running, I’ve really surprised myself. While I still have a lot of growth to do in this area, I feel like I’ve come a long way. Hopefully, now that my diet is consistent I can stick to fitness and exercise without falling off of the workout wagon.
What I’ve come to learn over the last few years is that my decisions have an impact on my health and quality of life. I want to be there for my wife and kids. Those decisions should not be taken lightly because with each choice I make, indeed, it’s me in the balance.
Me In The Balance 
Hi there! I really appreciate you blogging about this. I am thinking about trying FCT for myself and two teenagers but now I’m a little concerned about the side effects for them. Did you keep doing FCT and are you still doing it? I would really appreciate an update. Did it fix your autoimmune disorder and any other health issues? How often did you find you needed treatments? Thanks you so much!
Hi Deborah,
I apologize for such a late response. I haven’t been keeping up with this blog very much. I wouldn’t say that FCT has fixed my autoimmune issues but it has certainly diminished many of my symptoms. I’ve become less sensitive to a lot of the things in my environment that would trigger a reaction. My wife and I had our teenage daughter do FCT and she had no negative side effects at all and she felt good. I hope this helps.