Welcome to your new, fit life! We’re glad you’re here.

Whether you’ve been redirected here from GetOut! GetFit! or TakeItOutsideNC.com, or are a total newcomer to GetGoingNC.com, here’s some background about what we’re up to.

I’m Joe Miller. My job here is to help you find a way of moving that makes you happy. Fitness and good health will follow. Think of me as a kind of personal coach – except I won’t make you weigh in. (Fitness programs pay too much attention to weight and not enough to how they make you feel.)

I have written about health, fitness and the outdoors for about 18 years. At The News & Observer of Raleigh, I wrote about outdoor adventure — hiking, cycling, paddling, climbing, diving and various other adrenaline-inducing pursuits. My writing first appeared in the Travel section.  After a few years, I stepped up the coverage with a weekly outdoor adventure column, Take It Outside. Then I added health and fitness coverage in the GetOut! GetFit! column and blog.

A bit more about my evolution. Take It Outside allowed me to share my passion for outdoor adventure with others. Some of those “others” were already active. The magic occurred with those who were not, who were spurred into action by reading about a terrific place to hike, or about someone who hadn’t ridden a bike in 25 years and suddenly decided to do the MS 150 (a pair of 75-mile bike rides on consecutive days), or a 55-year-old who took up whitewater kayaking. And I was hooked by the notion of exposing people to something that could positively influence their lives. That feeling intensified when I began writing GetOut! GetFit!, which was aimed at getting more sedentary types off the couch.

I know what it’s like to be lethargic, to have zero energy, to feel like a slug. Two days without significant movement and I’m a grouchy wreck, disconnected from who I am, who I like to be. I know what it’s like to be active, to have energy, to keep up with the kids on bikes, at the playground, on the basketball court — then to sleep really well at night. I know what a difference being active can make.

When I took a voluntary buyout from The News & Observer in April, my plan was to create a web site about all the fun ways to get fit and and stay that way. Because there’s no family trust or inheritance in the wings, I needed a sponsor. Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina seemed a good fit. To me, riding a bike, going for a hike, cavorting on the playground with the kids keeps me sane. To Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina, fit and healthy folks are less likely to need a doctor, less likely to go to the hospital, less likely to file insurance claims. Pretty simple.

If only staying in shape were that simple, you say? In fact, it is. You just need to find a way of staying fit that you enjoy. Yes, enjoy. You say you’ve never found a form of sweating that makes you happy? I say you just haven’t found what pushes your adrenal button. And that’s my goal here at GetGoingNC.com — to expose you to as many athletic endeavors as possible until we hit the one that makes you stop and say, “Huh. That sounds like fun.” And fun is key, because if you don’t enjoy whatever it is you’re putting your body through, if it doesn’t trip something inside you that makes your spirit want to go another five minutes when the rest of your body is crying No mas, then you won’t keep at it. Nor should you. Life is too busy to waste a portion of it suffering from painful exercise. Likewise, life is too short to waste a portion of it suffering the ill effects of not moving.

Now come on, let’s see what we can find to help you Get Going.