How Party Rock Anthem Saved My Life*

Before we get too far in to this post, watch this. Go ahead. I’ll wait.

OK. Did you watch it? Did you see all the dances in there? People focus on ‘The Shuffle’ throughout that dance, and yes, it does play a major roll in that video (it’s pretty much the go-to move).

25 years ago when I was in shape (and dancing all the time), we called that the Running Man.

There are actually quite a few ‘old-school’ dances in the video. To name a few:

• The Running Man (a.k.a. the Melbourne Shuffle)
• The Worm
• The Kid-N-Play
• The Moonwalk
• The Tom and Jerry
• a section from “Thriller” (the Zombie dance)

And I could do most of them. 20-25 years ago. I danced those dances (and others) every week at Flamingo Isle…and school dances…and my room. Point is…I knew the dances and had no shame in busting them out whenever the mood or music struck.

Enter 25 years later. Add about 150lbs. (in high school I weighed about 185….this past October I tipped the scales at 330).

I heard Party Rock Anthem for the first time about a 6-8months ago and was blown away. It was the quintessential dance song. Had all the synthy-smartness of today’s dance tracks and such a stupidly Old School feel that I went mental over the song.

And then I saw the video for the first time and was absolutely gobsmacked.

I knew all those fucking dances.

All.

of.

Them.

So…next time I heard the song at my local watering hole, I was called out to the dance floor like Jason’s Argonauts.

And I busted the hell out of those moves.

For 2 minutes.

For the remaining 3 minutes of the song, I went into funky-but-decidedly-less-cardio-stressing moves. Don’t get me wrong…I still looked good and rocked the shit out of it, but it was WAY tuned down.

The song ended and I rushed outside for fresh air. I was pretty sure that the little face-huggers had visited me in my sleep and I was about to give birth to a very ugly alien bursting out of my chest. Either that or my heart was sick of being in my chest and wanted to see what the outside world was like.

Either way, the shit wasn’t good.

At all.

So…I gradually tried working up my endurance…but really could never make it fully through the song without wishing for death. And if there was another old school jam on right after it, fuggedaboudit.

Enter a couple of friends of mine with information on a lifestyle change…a program…a nutrition overhaul. It had a 24Day Challenge element. I bit. I knew I needed something.

So I did the challenge. Started on November 14th. Which put it squarely through Thanksgiving. Not my smartest move…but I figured that if I could make it through the most gluttonest holiday of the year, that the rest would be gravy..so to speak.

And I made it. I think I lost about 13 or 14 lbs on the challenge. Which is not an amazing number to some. But to me it was HUGE. It was the scale going in the right direction.

A few weeks ago I started exercising too. So now…I’m eating a hell of a lot healthier than I have in…well…ever. And I’m riding my stationary bike every morning. I walk too and from the bar most fridays and saturday nights (hey..small victories).

But that’s not the coolest thing.

It’s been about 3 months since I started this journey.

And I’m below 300 lbs. THAT, my friends, is huge. It’s easily been 10…maybe 11 years since that was the case.

AND….(to me, this is even bigger)….the last few times I’ve danced to Party Rock Anthem at Brew-Stirs….I have NOT been winded. I felt good. I wanted to keep dancing.

I made it through the whole song…shuffling my formerly fat ass all over that dance floor.

And damn it feels awesome.

So…did Party Rock Anthem actually give me a cure for my lard-assedness?

No…but it was a hefty, albeit, unusual motivator.

I have an autographed picture that my sis-in-law got me of Redfoo. She doesn’t know how cool that really is to me (well, she might know if she reads this). But it’s cool because it’s a reminder. A reminder that every day I’m shuffling.

Shuffling that lard ass away.

Peace

-Todd

PostScript:(I’ve been posting on Twitter with the hash tag of #nomorefattodd come along for the ride!)

Find me on Twitter

Talk to you soon!

Todd

PostPostScript: If you want to learn the ‘routine’ that they do after Redfoo and Sky Blu are turned in to Zombies, this is a pretty kick ass tutorial:

Alright now I’m done.

Have a great day, peeps!