I did some things today that resulted in me failing miserably, but I’m hoping they will be learning experiences for me.

The first thing I did was get my cholesterol checked. While I’m not sure when I’ll get the results, I’m sure they will not be good, which should come as a shock to no one.

When I post food pictures on social media I often get comments like, “How do not weigh 300 pounds?” or “You have to have the metabolism of a hummingbird!”

I usually respond with, “I don’t always eat like this, but when I do I take pictures of it.”

For the most part that’s the truth.

I do love to eat—I inherited that from my Pappaw—but I really don’t always eat terrible. When I do it’s usually the weekends, but I tend to eat so bad then that it wrecks any “good” I did through the week.

Through the week my meals consist of the following:

Breakfast: Egg whites with turkey sausage and mushrooms (maybe once every two weeks I have waffles with Smart Balance Peanut Butter and sugar-free syrup)
Lunch: Leftovers from dinner (four days a week)
Dinner: Grilled chicken, pork, turkey sausage/burger, steak (not very often) with at least one vegetable like sautéed green beans, roasted Brussels sprouts, asparagus, squash, zucchini (all with sautéed mushrooms), corn (the only thing canned) or other steamed veggies.

I eat out once a week (Friday) with my coworkers, then Tammy and I usually go out once a weekend, sometimes twice if we go to The Green Beetle.

It’s the choices I make during the meals when I’m not at home that would make Charles Barkley ashamed and that has me worried about my results.

It’s not like I didn’t know this test was coming—I scheduled it six months ago—but as it got closer I just accepted that I was going to fail.

That’s not what I should be doing at 41 years old. Now I’m waiting to see how much damage I’ve done and use that as motivation to start making better choices.

I’ll still have my cheat meals (and I’ll still post pictures), but I need to make sure I limit my bad choices to 1 or 2 a week instead of 4 or 5. I’m at the age where failing to make changes could have very bad consequences and I’m not ready for that.

 Failure #2

When I got back to the office I was telling a couple of coworkers where I had been and that I got “stuck” so they could check my cholesterol. Then I failed for the second time.

Me: I was thinking I was going to get prodded somewhere else today.
Coworker: That’s never good.
Me: I know, right? I’d have come in today and wouldn’t have been able to look anyone in the eye.
CW: (laughing) People would be asking your puppy died or something.
Me: I’d just hang my head in shame and walk away.

I regretted saying that seconds after it came out of my mouth.

Here I am ramping up another Movember campaign and I’m making jokes about getting my prostate checked. I felt horrible about it.

Getting your prostate checked is not fun—I know from experience—but making it seem shameful and embarrassing is part of the reason men don’t want to have it done. Making fun of it is not me helping raise awareness for men’s health issues, like prostate and testicular cancer.

Movember is way more than just growing a mustache for a month, it’s about making sure guys know it’s important—and not shameful—to get those areas checked.

Prostate cancer is the 2nd most common cancer in men in the United States and 1 in 7 men will be diagnosed with it in their lifetime—1 in 36 will die from it. Testicular cancer is the most common cancer in young men aged 15–35 years.

Today I failed to shine light on the importance of those tests, instead opting for cheap laughs.

I will do better and I’d love for you to help me.

I’ve created MovemberMania (formerly Bloggers for Movember) as my Movember team and I’m looking for a few good men (MoBro) and women (MoSis) to help me spread the word. Head on over, sign up and join the team to help me not only raise money, but also awareness.

We raised over $900 in 2013 and I’m hoping to bust through $1,000 this year. Movember kicks off in 16 days, so get ready to get your Mo on!