"But i like to listen to my body...if it hurts stop...i have enough problems without making them worse through pain masking...such practices i believe eventually require more and more drugs to combat the pain"

That's true. It is rather stupid to play through the pain. However, it's been my motto since I was a little kid and it was necessary to compete at high levels of sports through high school. If you want to be a good athlete, there simply is no alternative. Concussions, muscle problems, spasms, fatigue, and anything else you just keep playing. Players on my team would go to a doctor and take off about 30% of however long he said we should wait before playing again. If he told is it would be 1 month, we'd come back in 2 and a half weeks. That was only in hockey though. My football teammates and basketball teammates we're much more into sticking to the doctors orders.


"I never said i didn't exercise at all.....walking is the main type of exercise for me
I do not swim due to there being only swimming pools where i live.....i much prefer the ocean"

Walkign is good. Swimming and running are better, but walking is quite good.


"not to mention a big change in my diet"

Interestingly enough when I was around 15 (14? 16? Who knows) I gave up Coke completely and lost something like 5 pounds in two weeks. That stuff was killer.