AGE:  44

PROFESSION:  Public radio producer, musician, fire lookout

HOMETOWN:  Chicagoland, IL

COLLEGE:  Boston University ’00

FAVORITE FOOD:  Ethiopian

FAVORITE PLACE VISITED:  The archipelago of Socotra, located in the Gulf of Aden off the coast of Yemen and Djibouti. It’s most famous for its endemic dragon’s-blood trees, but it has nearly 700 species of flora and fauna found nowhere else on Earth. And the people are just lovely.

PLACE YOU WANT TO VISIT:  An old friend runs a scooter-based touring service which runs along the coast of West Africa from Senegal to Mauritania and Mali and other points of interest. I’ve spent some time in Mali already (2011-2012), and the idea of scooting through the Sahara on two wheels sounds impossible to resist. Whenever it’s possible to do such things again…

FAVORITE MOVIE:  A German film originally called Der Himmel über Berlin, which was renamed Wings of Desire for the English-speaking market. Loosely speaking, it’s about an angel who comes to Earth and falls in love with a circus acrobat. But of course, that’s just the framework for a bigger story.

FAVORITE SINGER:  Just one? Elizabeth Fraser of the 1980s Scottish band, The Cocteau Twins.

HOBBIES:  Cycling, open-water swimming, backpacking, volunteerism, audio archaeology, songwriting and music production.

BACKGROUND:  My fitness background? I weighed 250 pounds in high school until I took a nutrition course at a local hospital my senior year. I lost probably 50 pounds and shed the rest once I went off to college. After being so heavy for so long as a young person, my weight has been a yo-yo over the ensuing decades, but my life was changed by boot camp-style workouts, which I was in from 2011-2015 until my former boot camp went out of business. Since joining Sonki’s class in May, I’ve lost 28 pounds. I’m looking to shave off another 10-15 if I can get away with it.

What is your current exercise routine?  Three days a week of Sonki Fitness; a training ride of 50-60 miles once a week; and leaving my car at home as much as possible to run errands on my bike.

What is your motivation to stay in shape?  When my last boot camp shut down, I coasted for a while on the physique I’d worked for, but then suffered a pretty terrible lower back/spinal injury after a few months of doing elevated treadmill sprints with terrible form. My back gave out one morning in late 2015, and at the same time, I started suffering from severe plantar fasciitis. The next year, one of my shoulders went wonky. As all of this was happening, I realized that the thing which had kept my body from succumbing to middle age was the boot camp workout. In addition to a dedicated yoga/stretching regimen, I depend on Sonki’s class to keep me away from the chronic daily pain I suffered for nearly six years. Also, of course, vanity!

What is your greatest challenge to staying in shape?  Personally, having to constantly re-learn and re-train myself around mindful eating. Emotional eating was planted in me from childhood, and it’s been a constant process of staying aware of those unconscious patterns. I’ve been fairly aggressive about tracking my intake since rejoining boot camp, which has contributed greatly to my results, I’m sure.

What is your key to success?  Just doing the work and not overthinking it. Boot camp keeps me out of my own head and focused on my form, performance, and endurance. It’s a bit like going into a trance for an hour in the morning. All I have to do is move as instructed, no other thoughts or input required.

What do you like about Sonki Fitness Boot Camp and how has it affected your life?  I’d say it’s the best of all the things that make boot camp attractive in the first place: small class sizes, a sense of shared purpose, the variety of terrain, a constantly-changing set of exercises, fresh air and sunshine and the quiet of the morning. Plus the fact that you’ve knocked out a great workout while other folks are still slugging down their first cup of coffee.

What advice would you give to others about fitness?  Well, I would never presume to tell other folks what fitness should mean to them, but I think the journey is about finding a movement-based outlet that feels natural to you, and committing to doing that thing. You don’t have to love it every single day, but if it’s too inconvenient or too hard or it makes you hate your life, you’ll give up quickly and be glad you did. So don’t do those things!