To live and Die in McComb, MS (and be reborn in New Orleans)

A year ago I started to make some changes in my life.  I was living in McComb MS and working at a car dealership....  I hadn't been on stage in months ( I used to be a stand up comic and hope to be again).   I weighed in at about 290lbs (up 50lbs from my cruising weight of 240), smoking a pack a day and I was drinking every night.  Something had to change or I wasn't going to make it.  I clawed my way out of the funk and  got serious about health and fitness.



I adopted a vegan diet and started to train for the IronMan 70.3 and things were going great.  Losing weight, feeling better physically, everything was looking up.  I started this blog and it went great for a few months.... and then depression set in.
It was not one thing (it never is is it?) but the despair rolled in and set up camp in my soul.   The tipping point for all of it was the death of my friend, comedian Rahn Ramey.

Rahn had been on the cusp of real show business success for 20 years.  For sure he was a real deal club headliner but he hadn't broken into the big time.  I was lucky enough to have him guide me a while,  I got to work with him many times over the 4 years I knew him.  He was kind of my comedy Rabbi., and he died... at 58.  Just 10 years older than me.

I looked at my life and I hated it.  The diet and exercise was keeping the wolf from the door but I as unhappy as I have ever been. I hated selling cars, I HATED Mississippi. I missed stand up. I was a constant source of disappointment to my beautiful wife.  I was 500 miles from my son for what?  Selling cars?

Then it got WORSE, I was "headhunted" by a mobile home company and was about to start selling mobile homes..... Welcome to hell!

Then I had a heart attack, well I thought it was a heart attack, couldn't catch my breath, pressure on my chest, pain down my left arm... The bill had finally come for my slovenly ways.  My weight loss and exercise was too little too late.

As I lay "dying" I had an epiphany and I started to laugh hysterically.  My terrified wife asked "whats so funny?"  I replied, tears streaming,  "I'm going to die a fuckin trailer salesman in Mississippi"  Now that's funny.



Well turns out it was just an anxiety attack.  But it was enough to get me going.  Change gonna come.  Diet and exercise was not enough.  Time to shake the etch a sketch and start over.

The last 7 months have seen huge change.  I'm back in New Orleans.  I became a pedicab driver in the french quarter, I got divorced, fell off the vegan wagon and gained back half the weight I lost. But the news is all good really. I worked thru the depression and am now ready to restart my quest.

It's Mardi Gras day.  A great day for resurrection.  Tomorrow begins Lent.  40 days of fasting and self deprivation.  Tomorrow begins a new quest.

For me I'm giving up hurting myself. and that means no more bad stuff.  Like animal products, processed foods, sugar, flour, wheat, cigarettes.  100% vegan.  But first a cleansing fast.

I'll turn 50 on the 30th of this month.  I'm going to do the master cleanse from the 5th to the 30th, 25days.  I will chronicle it all and share my progress.

So that's the plan.  Midnight tonight everything changes.  The party's over and the work begins.  But until then.....

 Laissez les bons temps rouler!