Joyful Miles Blog

Last Sunday was the Oscars. The Oscars are our friend Justin's biggest day of the year. We have a party every year, a black tie affair. This year we received swag bags with items that represented some of the biggest movies of the year and we had to guess what movie each item represented. We had bubbles, chicken noodle soup, garlic, a penny, ramen, a Modelo, and a ping pong ball. We also received our ballots in the bag. It is always such a great time trying to fill out these b

Picture it! Saginaw. 71 degrees. In March. Not a cloud in the sky. It was a perfect day! After work, Rhiannon and I decided that it was the perfect day to walk the path by the river behind our house. This is the path that Rhiannon has walked every year with our friend Dani (and her dog, Artemis). I have never been on this path, again, I never walked unless I had to. The route that Rhiannon and Dani take is a little over 3 miles, virtually a 5k. We all know I am not there yet.

February was not what I had wanted it to be when it comes to this journey. I walked on the treadmill a couple of times, but my health anxiety really took a toll on me in February. I started the month off sick with some kind of respiratory infection that took me out for the first two weeks. After I got better, I was terrified to start walking again. I think I walked on the treadmill twice after that. I did, however, start walking outside of the house a little more. As I mentio

Mariska Hargitay Victoria Will https://time.com/collections/women-of-the-year/7377898/mariska-hargitay-interview/ So, I was going to talk about how great it is that the sun is out and it is 50* in Michigan. I was going to talk about going on a walk outside with my wife for the first time since starting this journey. But then we got the news that Mariska Hargitay made TIME's Women of the Year list for 2026 and that shifted everything. I have debated writing about this because

Credit: https://www.instagram.com/p/COSprFNDGAJ/ Well, this day snuck up on me. It is a day I have thought about for the last 4 months, but now that it is here, I have a lot of feelings. As I mentioned, 4 months ago, my mother decided that she was done being my mom. Over the course of 34 years, she has been in and out of my life more times than I can count. I finally reached my breaking point and have decided that no matter what happens, I will not and cannot let her back in.

Trigger Warning: This post will have mentions of sexual assault/abuse. I was sexually assaulted as a child by one of my stepfathers. I have recently (about a month ago) began to unpack this and start to heal this decades old trauma. Yesterday, I had a massage that's sole purpose was to help me start releasing the trauma of that assault. The massage itself was helpful, but the real impact came when talking with my friend/massage therapist afterwards. I shared with her that whe

Every New Year's Eve, Rhiannon's best friend comes over and we celebrate together. Every year we make bingo cards full of goals for the next year. This year, I had two goals surrounding sports on my card. The first was "learn how to watch basketball" and the second was "attend more live games". Hockey, Baseball, and Football are all sports that I know very well. I grew up in a hardcore SEC football household. Football was my mother's religion (except on Easter). Although, I d

This has been a ROUGH week. I walked on Monday and was feeling good. That night I had the worst tooth pain and didn't sleep the entire night. All day Tuesday, I nursed my tooth and by Wednesday, I had a fever. I talked to my doctor and was given some antibiotics. The rest of the week was spent getting over the infection. I finally felt good enough to get off my couch on Saturday and was able to walk again. I felt guilty all week for not walking 3 days, but I realized that not

I have had this question asked several times since I have announced this journey. The answer is easy...I believe in the work they are doing. The Joyful Heart Foundation was started in 2004 by Mariska Hargitay, who is known for playing Olivia Benson on Law & Order: Special Victims Unit. After learning the statistics of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse in the United States, she began receiving fan letters of people telling her their stories of survival, some f

Whew! We made it through the first week. This week was a lot for me, mentally. As I mentioned before, I have HORRIBLE health OCD, so the idea of starting to work out terrified me. I was so afraid that I would have a heart attack just because I was so out of shape. This week I was so full of anxiety, not just around walking, but just in general. I've talked to a lot of people this week who have also said that it was a very anxiety ridden week. I have no idea what is going on b

I have mentioned a few times that I am hoping to find myself on this journey. You may be wondering how I lost myself....well let me tell ya! Last year started out strong. My wife and I decided early on that we were going to move to Orlando, FL. We wanted to be closer to my family in Georgia and Florida. We wanted to be near Disney and Universal (we love theme parks). We wanted to have a winter without snow and ice. We planned to move in November, the weekend after Thanksgivin

Good question. I don't know. After deciding to start this journey, I started looking more into the NYC Marathon. I am not going to lie, I almost backed out the first day. Instead of giving up, I started telling people my plan. One thing about me, I always have these grand ideas that I don't usually follow through with...but I have learned that if I tell people, I am more likely to stick to it. The outpouring of support was incredible. I figured that everyone would laugh it of