Editor's note: Jeff Dauler, a radio host from Atlanta, Georgia, is one of seven CNN viewers selected to be a part of the Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge program. The "Lucky 7" is in Hawaii this week as part of their training for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon this September, alongside Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

My CNN Fit Nation teammates added a fourth "sport" to our triathlon while discussing the impact our shared journey was having on the people around us.

Denise Castelli's father was starting to eat healthy and lose weight. Carlos Solis' students were participating in a 100-mile club at his school. Glenn Keller's hometown of Burleston, Texas, created an entire 5k in his honor, to encourage the whole community to get healthy.

Swim. Bike. Run. Inspire.

This adventure isn't our own, but is shared with people within our reach. We were all thinking pretty selfishly when we accepted Dr. Gupta's challenge, and we've all been surprised by that aspect of the program.

My reach is a bit larger than the others on the team. I happen to be a personality on a radio show that's currently heard in three cities, and (knock on wood) does pretty well. Dr. Gupta joined the show in the studio this past January to announce my participation in the challenge, and the listeners responded in a big way ... but not really as I expected.
FULL POST

Glenn Keller is one of seven CNN viewers training to race the Nautica Malibu Triathlon with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This weekend, the team and Dr. Gupta will head to Hawaii for a training trip. Keller just completed a 5k held in his honor in his hometown of Burleson, Texas.

I heard it said that everyone gets 15 minutes of fame in their lifetime. If this is my 15 minutes, it is creating a lifetime of memories.

On Saturday May 5, 2012, there was a 5k race in Burleson, Texas. This 5k was different from every other 5k that I had ever heard of. The distance was the same. The rules were the same. The difference is this 5k was called “Let’s get started with Glenn.”

Mayor Ken Shetter has a health initiative that he put into place in Burleson. When he got the news of a local resident being selected for The CNN Fit Nation Challenge, he and the administration started planning The Be Healthy 5k.

Nothing so far has compared to having family, friends and neighbors come together and do something of this magnitude in my honor. More than 100 of my neighbors registered and turned out to participate.
FULL POST

One of the first things you’ll want to do after deciding you want to be a triathlete is pick a goal race so you can plot your course of action.

We recommend starting with a sprint-distance race (or even a shorter super-sprint), which will offer a solid challenge to newbies without being too overwhelming.

Your race choice should be guided by answering a few other key questions:

What’s your athletic background?

Perhaps you are a runner who’s grown weary of pounding the pavement and want to mix up your training and racing. Or maybe you’ve been inspired to do your first triathlon after watching the NBC broadcast of Ironman, athletic prowess be damned.
FULL POST

Adrienne LaGier is one of seven CNN viewers training to race the Nautica Malibu Triathlon with Dr. Sanjay Gupta. This weekend, the team and Dr. Gupta will head to Hawaii for a training trip. LaGier set a personal goal to focus on her diet in the month leading up to the flight.

Four weeks ago, my friend Susan posted in her Facebook group, "The Truth About Exercise," that she had lost 25 pounds since the New Year. While working out had been one of her main focuses, she recently adopted a vegan diet that catapulted her weight loss.

Up until then, I had not been focusing on my diet in this triathlon journey. I would justify going out to eat and eating what I'd like after finishing 2 to 3 hour workouts.

After reading Susan's post, and realizing I had four short weeks until leaving for Kona, I decided to give no meat and no dairy a try. And while I was at it, no caffeine either.
FULL POST

Editor's note: In this post from Triathlete magazine, pros Julie Dibens and James Cunnama share five rules of a successful open-water swim.

Rule 1: Keep your space

“In the pool, you’re in a lane by yourself. In a triathlon, you have 50, 100, even 200 people trying to get to the same spot. It’s hard to stay in a straight line. You have to figure out how to make the most of it and get a draft,” says Dibens.

“Don’t hang on to a boat, kayak or buoy [before a deep water start],” adds Cunnama. “It doesn’t make a good start because something is in your way. It’s hard to get a good kick in. Get some space.”
FULL POST

Nancy Klinger is one of seven CNN viewers participating in the CNN Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge. Klinger applied to the Challenge after experiencing various personal setbacks, including a separation from her husband of 26 years.

Depression is a challenging, albeit important, discussion. It is even difficult to write about.

I am one of many who occasionally suffer from depression. It is usually just a minor case of the blues, but on occasion it turns into all out sadness - so much so you ache.

You purposely stay away from things that make you happy, you don’t like yourself, and you cry a lot (when you’re alone). You hate yourself for feeling badly while really being so incredibly fortunate.

My guess is that this fact would be a shock to the great majority of people who know me or work with me because I hide it so well. On the outside, I am always thought of as the happy one, the positive one, the person who is always smiling. If I were in a beauty pageant I would be in the running for Miss Congeniality!

On the inside, my life is filled with pain and emotions that are either incredibly high or incredibly low. It’s exhausting.
FULL POST

Less than a month from now, Adrienne LaGier of Maryland and six fellow participants of  CNN's Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge will travel to Kona, Hawaii, for a week of intense training. LaGier, a busy mother who teaches journalism, weighs her successes and challenges while simultaneously training for the Nautica Malibu Triathlon and preparing for her wedding day - which is only two weeks before the competition.

One month until Kona, signifying the half-way point of my CNN Fit Nation journey. What have I accomplished? What do I still need to tackle?

Successes:

1. I’ve gone from sporadic walking on the treadmill to working out six days a week including three days of at least two-hour workouts. I’ve completed my first two 5Ks. I’ve gone from not being able to complete one length of freestyle to being able to breathe every five strokes doing four lengths of freestyle without stopping. Our family swims together three days a week.

2. My journalism students traded junk-food-laden deadline nights for fruit kabobs and salads (mostly).

3. Instead of going home to Buffalo over spring break and enjoying pizza and wings and mom’s chicken paprikash, I joined my sister at the gym for spinning.

4. I’ve lost 15 pounds.

5. I worked out in Central Park with my students.

Challenges:

1. I’m scared of my bike and have a lot of practice ahead of me to successfully ride around my neighborhood clipped in. Spinning bikes are not the equivalent of a racing bike. Not even close. This is the first bike I’ve owned that I can’t touch the bottom of my feet on the ground while on the saddle. That’s what freaks me out. I crave that sense of safety and control. The bike they gave us is this awesome sleek Cannondale machine. I make one rotation and fly down the street. The few times I’ve ridden it with just my running shoes on, I find myself gripping the brakes because I’m going so fast (not the front brake though, as a friend warned me doing that will send me flying over the handle bars). I need to learn how to shift gears. And I need to learn how to turn the bike around without basically coming to a complete stop. The few times I’ve tried this I’ve been completely wobbly. I also need to find a non-scary place to ride. A co-worker of mine says she only rides on bike paths because a friend of hers was killed after being hit by a car on Route 4. That means making time to drive 40+ minutes to a bike path to ride in complete comfort/safety. Making that kind of time right now scares me, too.

2. I need to get strict with my eating habits. I’ve let myself rationalize my eating choices: “I just worked out for 2.5 hours, of course I can eat whatever I want for dinner.” Our dinners are still rushed, as now we are fitting in two swims during the week and Pilates while juggling Girl Scouts, soccer 3 times a week, and piano lessons. I think we eat at Panera at least three times a week, plus we visit Ledos, the local pizzeria, Wednesday nights after swimming because it’s convenient. After watching Dr. Sanjay Gupta's "60 Minutes" segment on how addictive sugar is, I realize I’m way too lenient on what I let my six-year-old girls consume.

3. Round one of wedding dress shopping was a fiasco. I wanted to wait until July to try dresses on, but for a September wedding, I’ve learned that’s not advised. I imagined the bridal consultant having the super powers of being able to pick the perfect dress for me just by hearing about my wedding and looking at me. Guess that just happens in reality shows or fairy tales. She didn’t ask me about my wedding; she didn’t recommend any particular style for my body type. Plus, she had to tend to a few other people while helping me. When I was in front of the mirror in each dress she asked me what I liked and didn’t like. When I couldn’t give specific answers, she scolded me and said she couldn’t help me if I didn’t know what I wanted. I want you to tell me I look good. But that didn’t happen. The experience ended with tears in the dressing room and more time off of the dreaded “pick-a-dress-or-be-destined-to-buy-off-the-rack” clock.

What I’m going to accomplish by May 12th, our departure date for Kona:

1. I’m going to learn how to ride my bike. Not an option – gotta be ready for the 20-mile ride in Kona.

2. I’m going to make vegetables the main focus of lunch and dinner while cutting out red meat, dairy, and sugar as much as possible. I’m going to meal plan for the week ahead and will eat out no more than once a week. I’m going to write down what I eat and e-mail it to my trainer. I’m going to get rid of all the sugary, processed foods in our cupboards and only offer my girls healthy snack options.

3. I’m going to write down each day what I’m grateful for. It’s easy to take this amazing experience for granted, as now it’s a seamless part of my life. I want to savor every last moment of the next six months.

4. I’m going to create and design my wedding invites with my girls, and I’m going to mail them before I get on the plane for Kona (early, I know, but the resort has another wedding the night before and will sell out of rooms soon). I’m going to focus on enjoying the process of planning for our wedding weekend rather than worry about superficialities. The dress doesn’t matter. Enjoying the weekend with our family and friends and the process of getting there does.

One month. Four measurable action items. Totally doable.

Nutrition is key to becoming an overall healthy triathlete, but it becomes even more important on race day for fueling performance, avoiding GI issues and recovering from your efforts.

Follow this sample menu, suggested by nutrition and performance coach Krista Austin, Ph.D., for guidelines on how to eat on race day.

You will want to test-run your nutrition/meals during training so there are no surprises. A cardinal rule in triathlon: Don’t do or try anything new on race day.
FULL POST

Glenn Keller is one of seven CNN viewers participating in the 2012 Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge. At the beginning of the challenge, Keller weighed more than 300 pounds and suffered from sleep apnea due to his obesity.

Little Rock, Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, Roanoke, Carlisle, Allentown, Hartford, Boston, New Haven, New York, Dover, Baltimore, Washington, D.C., Richmond, Charlotte, Spartansburg, Atlanta, Birmingham, Jackson, and Dallas.

In case you're wondering (and you probably are), those are the places I get to see in any given week.

You could probably say I get around - but that would be an understatement. It is the life of an "over-the-road trucker." Earning a living means being away from home and those you care about most. In most instances it means being away for over 250 days a year - and as many as 290 if you want to increase your profit margin.

Things like weather, road conditions, and traffic can make it dangerous to drive at times, yet we do what we have to do.

Have you ever heard that "if you got it, it came on a truck"? The men and women that do what I do ensure that grocery shelves are filled, those new cars are on the lot and everything else you want or need is there when you want and need it.

I've been driving since the late 1980s and I'm sure I've driven over 2 million miles. Our work weeks are 70 hours and that's because they're regulated by federal guidelines. Couple that with conducting a live prayer line three times a day, seven days a week using my cell phones and one could reasonably conclude that I am a busy person.

When I got the call from the CNN producers one of the very first things we discussed was if I could do the Fit Nation Triathlon Challange and drive my truck. For me it wasn't a matter of if I could or not because I needed to! I knew it would indeed be a challenge but I was already over 300 pounds and counting.

FULL POST

Rick Morris is one of seven CNN viewers participating in the CNN Fit Nation Triathlon Challenge. He quit smoking on an episode of "Sanjay Gupta, M.D." and has been smoke-free since.

About two months ago, I quit smoking. At the time there were many reasons influencing my decision to finally choose a smoke-free lifestyle. I was worried about my health. I had high blood pressure. My doctor and everyone I knew was encouraging me to kick the habit. My family history is one of lung cancer and diabetes. The list goes on and on.

Now that I've been without tobacco for the past couple months (63 days, to be exact), I've noticed some changes in the way I'm living.

All are positive and are in direct relation to my body's depletion of those nasty chemicals I've called friends for the last 12 years.

FULL POST