For many, the first steps into fitness are taken at an early age: Children down bowls of Wheaties and slices of orange, don cleats and long socks and head off to the pitch for a day full of practice or competition. For others, however, adopting a fit and healthy lifestyle is much more elusive and can take years – or even decades.

For Rafael Lopez, owner of a graphic design company in San Diego, a regular exercise routine didn’t find a place in his life until he was 36. Lopez, like many others, had been blessed with a hard-working metabolism as a child which gave him the leeway to eat as he liked without concern. “I was always a skinny kid,” he recalls. “I did play outside, but I was never involved in team sports or anything like that.” He was able to maintain a healthy weight until he set off on his own to earn a college degree. Unfortunately, however, despite his mom’s many efforts to introduce healthier alternatives into his diet, the lessons never took and he opted for less healthful choices. Such choices continued on as he graduated from college and began working as a graphic designer, which translated into many hours sitting face-to-face with a computer screen. “After 10 hours at work, I would come home mentally fried and all I wanted to do was watch TV,” he says. He was well aware of the importance of adopting a healthy lifestyle, but it wasn’t until his mom was diagnosed with diabetes that he began to take action. “I bought a treadmill and started walking on a regular basis,” he said. “It was never very intense; I’d walk for no more than 15 or 20 minutes each time.” He also made small attempts to improve his diet, but it seemed to him that these changes didn’t elicit the improvements he anticipated, and thus continued a cycle of stopping and starting before he resigned himself to stop for good. “One day I realized that this was just my life. I couldn’t change my diet. I couldn’t exercise and I didn’t want to hire a personal trainer. Since my mom had developed diabetes, I just sort of figured that this was my path too.”

After several years working as a contractor for various wireless technology companies, Lopez went to work for IDEA Health & Fitness Association, a membership organization that provides education for fitness professionals. “Before I started with IDEA, I knew the basics. I knew that you had to go to the gym to lift weights. In my mind, it was always all about getting big muscles because big muscles meant greater health. Big muscles also meant that I was going to be more attractive to others, which meant that I would feel better about myself. Let’s be honest, this isn’t the most forgiving community when it comes to physical appearance,” he says. “Looking back, I realized this was such a deterrent because I knew that I was never going to look like the guys you see in the movies or on magazine covers, so I just thought, ‘Why try?’” But over time his exposure to the fitness industry – and his colleagues at IDEA – helped him realize that adopting a healthy lifestyle was within his grasp. “I had anticipated that my co-workers would all be crazy health nuts, but I was wrong. They don’t necessarily have the best physiques and they’re not fitness fanatics, but they do lead healthy lives,” he says. “They showed me that fitness was about a constant journey to greater health. It didn’t have to be as goal-oriented as ‘I have to lose 40 pounds and then I’m done.’ I learned that it was entirely possible to adapt fitness to my life, and that on the path to becoming healthy, you start to look good and feel good. So, I decided to try again.”

After years of struggle, something finally clicked and Lopez dusted off his running shoes, set up the treadmill and off he went. “I started getting up earlier and spent about 45 minutes on the treadmill each day. I exercised with more strength and intensity than before.” He acknowledges that it wasn’t easy to maintain focus at first, so he used the television as a tool to keep his mind engaged while his body burned the calories. After only one month, he dropped 10-15 pounds and was hooked. “I began feeling better about myself, had more energy and was so proud that I was doing this and that it was working.”

Although he had witnessed significant change, like so many others in a similar situation, he found that his motivation began to lose steam and that he was dangerously close to quitting once again. But instead of giving in to his fears, he decided to take a more proactive approach and hired a personal trainer. “I must say that if I hadn’t gotten professional advice, I wouldn’t have known which way to go. I wouldn’t have tried different things.” So he put away the treadmill, bought some resistance tubing and a stability ball, and he and his personal trainer headed to the park to devise a suitable strength training routine that he could perform twice a week. “I knew that trying something new would be hard, but I also knew that if I was able to get this far, I was definitely capable of greater challenge.” Along with his twice-weekly strength training routine, he began to exercise at the Morley Field Parcourse (a 2.5-mile outdoor trail that consists of 18 different strength- and flexibility-training stations) on a weekly basis and, like his co-workers, traded fast-food lunchtimes for a canyon jog three times a week. Lopez also focused on amending his eating patterns. He eliminated soda from his diet, reduced his intake of fast-food and generally placed more awareness on his consumption. “Exercise and healthy eating definitely go together,” he says. “After I started to exercise, I realized the last thing I wanted to do was ruin things by putting a bunch of crap in my body.”

Lopez concedes that one of the main reasons he was able to begin a program and stick with it was the knowledge that fitness and healthy eating was a lifestyle change and that, since there was no finish line, he didn’t have to rush himself. “One thing that really helped me was an understanding that if I was going to do this, it was going to be for life. I wouldn’t have been successful if I’d put an end goal in mind, because once I reached it, I might have stopped. Fitness is a process.”

Once afraid of fitness and certain he was resigned to a sedentary life, Lopez has become a shining example for those who have shared similar experiences. “If I was able to turn my life around at a time when I had decided that I couldn’t change, anyone can,” he says. “The key is to not expect too much right away. Little by little, the body will respond and improve, and each small improvement encourages you to go a bit further. Just because something is hard today, doesn’t mean it will be hard tomorrow.”

After a year and a half of consistent exercise, Lopez is now 40-pounds lighter and has traded his size 2XL clothes for a size large which, he enthuses, has made shopping a much more satisfying experience. He also has found great joy in learning that his successes have provided a side effect he many not have anticipated: inspiring his friends and family to follow suit. “Growing up, my family always skirted the issue of healthy living,” he said. “Now we talk about the way we eat and the way we exercise all the time.” He states that his sisters and brother have followed in his footsteps and made fitness a part of their lives. His reach goes even further as he has managed to convince a handful of friends to meet him for the parcourse on Saturdays, while several co-workers accompany him on his lunch-time jogs through the steep canyon trails. “Right now I’m trying to make it all the way up the canyon without slowing down,” he says. “When that happens, I guess it will be time to find a bigger canyon.”