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50 Lbs. of Foley

Posted: Apr 6th 2016 By: Mick Foley

Hard to believe that it was EXACTLY four months ago that Avril Coakley, a high school friend I hadn't seen or been in touch with for 32 years (she didn't even know I'd been a wrestler until 5 years ago) came out to Long Island from the Ruidoso Athletic Club in Ruidoso, NM, with the express goal of getting me moving. I weighed 338 lbs on December 6, 2015 and had barely exercised in over four years - since being on the receiving end of some disappointing X-Rays and MRIs that revealed there was significantly more damage to my spine than I had previously believed.

Althought I enjoyed traveling the country and parts of the world in subsequent years performing my own shows, and loved making my yearly appearances as St. Mick, those X-RAYs and MRIs had pretty much ruled out any hope I had for a bighter physical future. I might have given up on myself, but two significant people refused to give up on me; Avril, the long lost high school friend, and Diamond Dallas Page, the master of the Diamond Cutter (and DDP YOGA).

The workouts may not have seemed to be anything dramatic at first ? nothing that was going to look great on an infomercial. Nothing "insane". Just a really overweight, beaten-up guy trying to balance on one knee, trying to raise a leg, using a fitness ball to develop strength in long-ignored core muscles. But I'll be darned if I didn't start showing some improvement.

By the end of Avril's week with us, I surprised my daughter by running up and down a flight of stairs ? something she had not seen the old man do since she was a child. I changed the way I ate ? nothing too drastic; cutting way back on foods with added sugar and processed flour. Eating smaller, more frequent meals. Sure, I fall off the wagon once in a while (you don't think I made it out of Texas without a #Whataburger, do you?) but I try to climb back on as soon as I can. Usually, it's a given that we will pack on a few pounds during the month of December. It's especially a given for a guy like me who loves Christmas and all the awesome, awful food choices associated with it. So when, instead of picking up the customary holiday 10lbs, I dropped 15 big ones, I thought to myself, "I can do this!? Then I said it out loud. "I can do this!" Then I wrote it down a bunch of times, too! "I can do this!"

A week later, at Avril's urging, I joined a local health club with a swimming pool ? and began trying to undo so much of the damage that long distance elbows on concrete floors can cause. Water aerobics, swimming laps, range of motion exercises. Maybe it's not the type of thing you expect from a pro-wrestler when he walks into a gym...but it's a HECK of a lot better than the old alternative: exercising in a counter-productive manner, getting injured while trying to train for matches, and letting my ego get the better of me to impress people I didn't' even know. So, if someone wants to look through the window at the pool, and see The Hardcore Legend with his arms in the air, hands turned into the shape of a diamond, yelling "BANG" into the air, than so be it. Last week, Avril returned, to get me ready for Mania and kicked my butt in that pool every day. If any of you were impressed by the forearms I threw at Sheamus in front of 101,000 fans, thank Avril for all the rapidfire uppercuts and hooks she had me throwing underwater at 30 second intervals in front of NO ONE - sending my heart rate into the stratosphere, but, through constant repetition, getting that heart rate back down to normal quicker and quicker ? which is really the name of the game when it comes to fitness.
It's funny, because my kids look at the text messages I get from Avril, and think she is a pain in the neck.
"Are you drinking enough water?" "Are you sleeping enough?" "How are you feeling?" Last night, on the way home from Dallas, I asked my son Hugh if he thought Avril was a pain.
"Yes", he said, immediately.
"Do you think I would have been in that ring last night at WrestleMania without her", I asked.
"No."
"Me neither", I said.

Sometimes being a pain in the butt is not a bad thing; it's a good thing.

But if Avril has been a pain in the butt for the past four months, the inimitable DDP has been a pain for considerably longer ? constantly reminding me that I have never been beyond hope. At a certain point, he stopped nagging me ? but occasionally made it a point to remind me that he was there for me whenever I decided it was time. So, after that first month of exercise, I began incorporating what I had picked up from DDP YOGA during my visits to the Accountability Crib ? and my kids would be stunned to see me dripping sweat while seeming to be standing still. That's part of the beauty of the program ? you can do it anywhere! Personally, for a guy with as many hip, butt, and knee issues as I have, swimming laps and exercising in a pool is always going to be a valuable part of my fitness regiment. But, brother, you can't just snap your fingers and make a pool appear before your eyes. But I can find 50 square feet to employ the things I have learned from DDP Yoga to get a workout that makes me feel great in a fraction of the time, without changing clothes, public nudity, toweling off, and the long drive to the gym.

Now that I have had a couple lessons under the direction of the guru himself, I have learned how to incorporate the heart monitor and the DDP Yoga app for a workout that gets me into the heart rate zone that is best for me. The truth is, without the heart monitor, I'd been straining too much - still kind of caught up in the idea that exercise can't be working unless it is positively miserable to endure. I was very happy to see that DDP YOGA, when properly utilized, is both more effective, and more realistic over the long-haul and I am excited to see where my combination of swimming and properly executed DDP Yoga can take me in the future. Unlike the old days, where I would have a big match, and then immediately revert back to all the old bad habits ? this time I'm looking forward to a future where I can be more active with my kids, where people don't feel sorry for me when I walk through airports, where I can continue to get rid of those horrible suits I wore when I was the general manager of Saturday Morning Slam, because they just fall right off of me.

50 pounds down. Current weight, 288. Next stop: 275 by my birthday!