Introductions

My name is Landon and I am on a mission to help people live in command of their health and free from a worldwide plague--chronic diseases of choice.

ME
Just a little about me and why I am doing this. I am 25 years old, I LOVE food, I am passionate about living an active and healthy lifestyle, I enjoy reading, art, traveling, being outdoors, and my favorite color is blue. I am from the cute, small town of Springville, Utah where my family has owned and run a dance studio for as long as I can remember, so naturally, music and dance are a huge part of my life. For exercise, I have been playing sports and dancing my whole life, however, my involvement in sports teams stopped after my final summer playing baseball before 7th grade. I then decided to pursue dance more seriously. I started weight lifting in 8th grade and have been an avid weight-lifter ever since. I went to Springville High, so I'm a Red Devil! I am now about to finish my Bachelor's degree in Exercise and Wellness from Brigham Young University (BYU) in Provo so I also bleed blue. (Go COUGARS!) 

All I have left of college are a few more hours of internship, but with the many changes made due to COVID-19 I had to get creative. In place of a conventional internship, this blog is my culminating project counting towards my internship and you get to benefit from that! Yay!! Or at least you might learn a thing or two to add to your daily healthy habits, and I hope you don't suffer from boredom due to my writing, charts, and plans. I hope to make things at least informative, true, and entertaining. ;) Health should enjoyable, so I intend to make it that way on my blog.

The plan is to help you be in command of your life. If things go well, I hope to keep going!


DANCE
I am best known for my dancing. Truth be told, dance has been the source of some of my greatest experiences in life including finding my lovely wife. It was also the reason kids felt it was entertaining to make fun of me, but basically, I never let that stop me from doing what I loved nor intimidate me to believe I was worth less than what I knew I was. I have been fortunate to receive world-class training and recognition in various styles of dance with different groups and partners. In the ballroom sector, I am recently a three-time National Amateur Cabaret Champion, and my wife and I are National Amateur American Smooth Vice-champions. In my youth my partners and I were National Under-21 Latin champions, U.S. Representatives at in the World Youth Latin Championships, 4 times Junior Rhythm Champions and National Junior ten-dance finalists. I also got to be on several winning ballroom formation teams. Growing up I did my ballroom dancing in addition to dancing on two dance companies at different studios that emphasized ballet, jazz, contemporary and hip hop (one at the studio where my ballroom partners danced and one at my family's studio). My training pushed me to become Teen Male National Outstanding Dancer 1st Runner-up and be featured later in professional work including industrials, professional dance companies, music videos, and TV.

My childhood dancing years

My wife and me

My wife and me

My sister and me

My sister and me

I come from a big family of 10 kids (a "yours, mine, and ours" kind of deal with half and step-siblings). Here is our big happy family with our newest addition, my wife. We got married three months ago on a very windy Saturday, February 8, 2020.

I am including this one because although it only shows half of the family I think it's funny and sums us up pretty well.

I have had the chance to travel the globe as a youth for my independent dancing and as an adult with the BYU Ballroom Dance Touring Company. I served a 2-year mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Argentina. I learned in these experiences much about different cultures and the little I could about what makes them tick. I experienced changes in my body and got sick when I stopped living the healthy patterns I grew to know in my homeland which helped me perform my best in life and as an athlete and dancer. The romanticized lens of being in a foreign country, like being on vacation, left my eyes. I learned from sad experiences that the principles regarding my health and lifestyle are applicable everywhere. I can't just eat whatever is available. Regrettably, I had two pairs of soiled underwear and several days of an upset stomach to prove it.

Getting people healthy is my focus. This interest I have in health and wellness spawns from my interests in dance as well as my upbringing. Both were important in my family and both have helped me to live in control of my health. After a lengthy process of deduction of majors and careers in which I had an interest, I finally came to Exercise and Wellness. In the beginning stage of my major, I took a class called Chronic Disease Prevention by Dr. Ron Hager. That class had me set. I knew that I needed to do this.

Here in this blog, you will learn why you must change if you do not already (and unfortunately you probably do NOT know it already--but that's why I am here). You will learn the psychology behind behavior change and how to motivate yourself to live in a way that promotes your health and puts you back in control. You will also learn about tools already available that can help you on your way. I will help you through it. You can do this!