Have you ever thought about how many steps you take in a day? Or even tracked it using a pedometer or Fitbit? You may not notice on a day-to-day basis, but it’s amazing how far you go with in a few short weeks.

Well I didn't really know how to spell the title of my blog, but I wanted it to sound very much like the excited television announcer announcing a world cup soccer game. I recently watched my first world cup match (well okay, I watched about 20 minutes of the over 90 minute match) and was very excited when the U.S. scored a late goal and came out with the victory.

I know nobody is going to believe it, but I just recently turned 40. You are probably thinking, surely he is way older than 40, isn’t he? But my wife decorated my office with the normal black balloons and other paraphernalia that is supposed to make you feel old, so I am sure it was my 40th. Although it didn’t work as I feel much younger physically than I did 10 years ago when I turned 30. I mentioned in an earlier blog how I had lost some weight recently, and I am much more active than I was a year or two ago, so physically I feel much younger on my 40th birthday than I have on my last several birthdays.

I’ll be honest, I was putting off writing my blog today because I wasn’t sure exactly what subject to focus on. So instead of grabbing my laptop and trying to type something up, I watched a movie instead. The movie was about a woman that was battling to become sober. She found that many things and people seemed to be stacked against her efforts to become sober. Despite those many obstacles, the movie ended up with her celebrating her one year anniversary of sobriety.

As I watched the movie, I felt a definite inspiration for my blog coming over me. You see, over the last year I have been fortunate to lose over 100 pounds! I am very proud of my accomplishment, but my true inspiration for today’s blog is the unbelievable amount of support I have received over this journey of losing weight.

When you work at a company for nearly 20 years, you gain lots of stories. From humorous to heartfelt, many of the stories I’ve gained are actually learning experiences. My name is Doug Clouser and I’m the product lead at Beck’s Hybrids. I’ve been a part of the research team since 1996.

I’ll admit this first blog has me a little nervous. I can speak and write for days on product information, product placement, or even technologies. This whole idea of entertaining or educating in a blog format is a bit outside my comfort level.