>> money coach clyde anderson. if you're heading to church this morning, are you expecting your pastor to talk about sex? probably not. but coming up at 8:00 a.m. eastern time on cnn sunday morning, but 30 minutes from now, i'll speak to a pastor and his wife who say that more sex, a lot more sex, will help you build a healthier marriage. find out if they are practicing what they preach. first, football. a rough, tough game. the big hits are still affect something players long after the final whistle. dr. sanjay gupta has a closer look at concussions and football. "sanjay gupta m.d." starts right now. good morning, i'm dr. sanjay gupt a. here's a question -- have you kept your new year's resolution? dropping extra pounds without a diet. this way will make you feel better. and this boy almost drowns, and then he went on to become

the first african-american to break a swimming world record. and you submitted your ireporters -- i reports, competing for a spot to try with me. this morning we unveil the 2012 "six pack." first, the nfl playoffs are starting and after a season where the issue of player safety and head injuries landed center stage, at all levels of the game. more than 100 former professionals are suing the league over safety and health issues. one a former star on the road at georgia tech, later a pro bowl running back with the green bay packers and played for the giants and eagles. now he retired in 2004 and is now making a documentary called "bell rung," about the struggles of many former players. i'll start with a clip. you're about to see ellis hobbs talking about the hit he took running back a kickoff that ended his career. >> as i braced myself, there he was right in my face, and my next reaction was, just like last time, even worse. i just ducked, buckled in. it just so happened he did the exact same thing with his

helmet. when he hit mine, had compressed my neck down worse. when you see it on an angle on the initial camera, okay, he got hit. when they flipped it around and i saw it from the other side. my neck just slinkied and just went all the way in and, like -- right when i got hit, everything went blank. >> still amazing to hear him tell it. joined by dorsey levens. your first interview, i believe, since the lawsuit was filed. thanks for joining us. as you know, we've been staying on top of this topic for some time, and i'm very interested in it. i think millions of people probably watched what happened to ellis hobbs that time he subsequently needed an operation to stabilize his neck. was it hard getting him to open like that? >> not at all. we sat down. it wasn't scripted. i asked what happened, i let him talk. >> so he had a disc problem, from my understanding, in the

neck that required surgery. did he have other lingering affects? >> not that i'm aware of. i know he has has some pain in his neck. i know he needs another surgery to stabilize his neck, but that's all i really know about it. >> i'm always curious about what it really feels like to get hit that hard, to the point where you get a concussion, which is a brain injury, and it's worth using that term. you've had them. what does it feel like? how would you best describe it? >> never been knocked unconscious, but i've got a ton of dingers, which we now know are, as i call them in my documentary, getting your bell rung. small concussions. what it really is, a fogginess. you can't really get your thoughts together. a little blurry. you see some stars and it's just really a hard time getting yourself back to the level, mentally, that you were at before you had taken the hit. >> and you go through the line, have a lot of players coming at you. are you worried about your head getting hit? you're a smart guy. you're trying to protect yourself. how much pain are you enduring when something like this happens?

>> at the time i wasn't. i wasn't worried at all, you know, because that's the way you play the game of football. we weren't aware of the long-term ramifications of concussions like we are today. so i didn't worry about it when i played. >> as far as pain goes, i guess probably in part of same answer? >> part of the deal. comes with the territory. when you're hurt, you still have to play. >> a lot of people are paying attention to concussions, part of this documentary you're working on, you talked to a lot of players. i want to show a clip. first let me ask you, why did you start doing it? what sparked your interest? >> a high school buddy of mine, nick, he said -- he knows i was getting into the film industry. he said, i have an idea. initially, his idea do something on hockey and concussions. obviously, my background is football. i know more about football. that's the direction we went in. doing the research, we found all of this alarming data as far as what happens long term or short term to younger guys if you've had too many concussions.

i didn't leave the neighborhood to talk to these guys. there were guys lined around the country that couldn't make it that i played it i know have had concussion issues. those guys couldn't do it. i picked up the phone, talked with guys i used to train with. guys i used to party with back in the day and got all of this information in my backyard. i didn't have to go anywhere. quite alarming -- >> shows how prevalent this is. >> exactly. >> let's look at a clip and then i want to talk about the research you're referring to. watch this. >> how many concussions have you had? >> totaled them all up, probably about eight. eight to nine concussions, probably. >> probably close to 15 to 20 times. >> i don't think i've ever had one. >> i have had a few. >> yeah. i had several of them. >> i had at least one dinger, and i had more, but at least one dinger every game. >> from what they didn't tell us when we were coming in -- probably 20-plus. easily. >> you know, it's sort of interesting, because you hear

this common refrain, players going right back in. that's just the way it was. i've spoken to football players who said, look, that was part of the culture. the bigger part of what's happening, this concern the nfl knew there was damage caused to the brain. damage that would be lingering, and that that damage was hid from players. do you have evidence of this? i mean, i've been researching this for some time as a neurosurgeon and journalists and have seen studies that have come out. what happens if the nfl was hiding this from players? >> i'm in a lawsuit and can't talk about the particulars about it, but it's been a problem for a long time and hasn't been addressed. the goal here is to make more people pay attention, to focus on the issue at hand. >> balancing what you were saying earlier, the culture of football and obviously wanting to win, can you create a safer game and still win and still have football be football? >> i think you can. you know? you have to be creative. back in the day we wore leather helmets. somebody decided that wasn't a good idea.

so we made a bunch of changes. back in the day, the goal post was on the goal line as opposed to the back of the end zone. i'm not sure how, but it needs to happen. >> congratulations on the documentary. i hope you had a chance to watch ours as well. we're staying on top of this topic. hopefully good will come from it. thanks very much. >> thanks. >> you know, on his part, the nfl says there's no truth from the suggestion that it hid knowledge about long-term dangers, but it's not just the pros. there are questions about safety in all levels of football. in fact, i am just finishing a documentary we were talking about, about high school team in north carolina that's trying to turn tragedy into triumph. can they play a safer game, still win and still have it be football? "big hits, broken dreams," sunday, january 29th, right here on cnn. fresh off this surge in iowa, just how well do you know rick santorum? the gop hopeful opens up about his family life. that's next. yummy. [ woman ] lower cholesterol. [ man 2 ] yummy.

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[oinking] [hissing] [ding] announcer: cook foods to the right temperature using a food thermometer. 3,000 americans will die from food poisoning this year. check your steps at foodsafety.gov. the man with momentum in the republican presidential race is rick santorum, the former senator from pennsylvania. now, he lost the iowa caucuses to mitt romney by eight votes, as you probably know by now, campaigning hard nowadays in new hampshire. in the coming weeks and months we'll look at how the various candidates want to change your health care. this morning we wanted to share something with you you might not know about rick santorum. something very central to his life. >> we have a little 3-year-old

little girl who's our special child. she was born with a -- a genetic disorder, and is, was told, we were told that she was not live a few days. and now she is 3 1/2 years old and -- it's just a miracle every day and really in many respects the center of family life. not every life, you know, is meant to accomplish great things in terms of economics. in terms of utility that some would see to our society, but the utility of these children in showing the dignity of human life and the pure love that they emitt and how they really -- at least, i always say that bella has gentled my condition. people say, santorum is so intense. you should see me before she was born. >> now senator santorum mentioned his daughter isabella was born with a genetic disorder, an extra copy of chromosome 18. and also senator santorum said

only 5% to 10% of these children live past a year. in most cases the disease is not inherited and is rare, it only affects 1 in 5,000 children. chances increase in older mothers. thanks to senator santorum for sharing, she's just a beautiful little girl. coming up, though, the perfect time to do this. a quick check of those new year's resolution. how's yours doing? diet fads, exercise crazes. we have a guest that says ignore all of that. lost your appetite for romance? and your mood is on its way down. you might not just be getting older. you might have a treatable condition called low testosterone or low t. millions of men, forty-five or older, may have low t. so talk to your doctor about low t. hey, michael! [ male announcer ] and step out of the shadows. hi! how are you? [ male announcer ] learn more at isitlowt.com. [ laughs ] hey! welcome. i understand you need a little help with your mortgage, want to avoid foreclosure. smart move.

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every new year we promise ourselves we're going to eat better, drink less, maybe even exercise more. sound familiar? just a few weeks later, most of us are back to our old ways. almost three quarters of us. this year, things will be a bit different. i challenge you with this and want you to start with the food you put into your body. with us here, creator of the venice nutrition program, and author of "body confidence." you see it there. people should read this book, by the way. thanks for joining us. >> thank for having me. >> this is new year's resolution time. a lot of people have made them and by the end of this month, a lot of people will have already broken them. one of the most common, i want

to go on a diet, i want to lose weight. what do you say to people who say, that's my goal? >> most people, we hit our tipping point. a point where your weight's higher than it should be. clothes are too tight. and we get so upset about that we start cutting everything. if someone wants to diet, they think they have to give up their carbs, cut calories, have to ramp up exercise and as you said, 30 days later, 60 days later, life pushes back. what i share, let's get a better way. let's educate you how to pace yourself better, stabilize your blood sugar and actually teach you how to take the food you love, work them into your day and get the right exercise in. >> people think about calories and calories out. not a bad way to think about things. how important is blood sugar and then also the insulin response? blood sugar goes up and insulin response, how important is that whole thing? >> it's all -- when we talk about our first breath we take -- i want you to think about a

baby. a baby feeds every three hours. stop eating when satisfied. start eating when hungry. >> good model. >> that's how we create energy and stabilizing our blood sugar. second year of life, things can shift more to eating three meals a day, there's a cost. every time you miss a meal your body burns muscle, not fat, slows down your metabolism. when year hungry, not craving chicken or tuna, we're craving pizza, doughnuts. rather than using nutrition to lose weight, stabilize the blood sugar and use it to create internal balance, releasing stored fat. >> this is a really important point. what you're saying, if i'm hearing correctly, certainly don't skip meals. if anything, certainly eat more meals throughout the day. and when you eat the meals make sure you're not suddenly spiking your blood sugar? don't eat things that will cause sudden spikes? >> exactly. our bodies are refueled machines. the only thing great at storing

that is fat. whenever we miss meals and don't eat, calories in, calories out. if i'm eating 1,000 or 2,000 calories a day, it doesn't matter if i do it in one meal or five meals. it does matter. it makes the difference. >> it's a great read. thanks for being here. i love the fact that you practice what you preach. it's really important, and i think people will get a lot out of it. thanks so much. >> appreciate it. >> thanks for being here. thanks. every year nearly 3,500 people die from accidental drownings in the united states. when colin jones was a child, he almost became one of those statistics. thanks to a lifeguard who saved his life and some much-needed swim lessons, today he's the first african-american male to hold a world record in the sport of swimming. beijing, the 2008 olympics. colin jones wins the gold medal in the 400-meter freestyle relay, becoming the second african-american swimmer to take home gold and the first to hold a world record.

growing up, learning to swim was the last thing on his mind. >> my dad was a basketball player. i watched the nba. he was like, you want to play basketball. >> reporter: a trip to a water park at the age of 5 changed his life. >> went down this slide, and i ended up flipping upside down because i was so light. i almost drowned. my mom tried to save me. she couldn't swim. so the lifeguard had to come get me. my dad had to get my mom. >> reporter: after that, learning to swim became a priority. >> it's not easy growing up in an inner city neighborhood. >> i grew up in an area that wasn't the nicest area it wasn't the friendliest person walking around in the little brief. >> reporter: he found challenges in simply being different. >> 15 years old. dad, there's no black people here. he was like, well, if you hadn't sucked at basketball, you wouldn't have this problem. we laughed about it, but, i mean, that was a big, you know, step for me, and overcoming it was hard. >> how many of you guys have ever had a swim lesson? >> reporter: that's why it's

important to him to inspire kids like him. >> i was getting sixth and seventh place. and now it's a gold medal. there is hope. you have to keep with it and stick with it and that's what i tell kids. there we go. tell kids. tell kids. >> reporter: jones is sharing his story with kids who never imagined, getting swimming lessons from an olympian. >> i really want to make sure i give back to it and shine the path to another kid. >> reporter: and he's not stopping there. he's going for gold again. and he hopes to compete in the summer olympic games later this year in london. >> colin jones, winning in a time of 22:52. >> you can learn anything from my story. it can happen. as long as you stick with it. there are going to be rough days. i still have rough days. it is never easy but it is worth it when you can sit back and are you standing on the podium, you hear your national anthem? that's what i swim for. >> we also asked him what he does to keep his energy level up

before a race. he says he sticks to the basics -- eggs for breakfast, sandwich for lunch, always keeping an energy bar nearby and most importantly, stays hydrated to avoid cramps sometimes you get while swimming. that tip will come in handy for the participants in this year's fit nation challenge. we had more people enter than ever before. we're going to introduce you to the lucky viewers joining the team for their first tri. that's next. dad, why are you getting that? is there a prize in there? oh, there's a prize, all right. [ male announcer ] inside every box of cheerios are those great-tasting little o's made from carefully selected oats that can help lower cholesterol. is it a superhero? kinda. ♪ my high school science teacher made me what i am today. our science teacher helped us build it. ♪ now i'm a geologist at chevron, and i get to help science teachers. it has four servo motors and a wireless microcontroller.

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we are back with "sgmd." we got an exciting announcement this morning. our participants for the 2012 fit nation triathlon challenge. this is the third group we've invited viewers to join me in training for this triathlon. their lives will be changed. we'll take everyone on training trips around the country, also hook them up with a triathlon trainer in their own area. our goal -- besides changing our lives -- is the finish line of

the nautica malibu triathlon in september. half-mile ocean swim, 18-mile bike, four-mile run. several hundred people submitted entries through i-report and this is who we chose. >> my name's nancy and i am sending you this video on a really chilly november night here in minnesota. >> reporter: nancy clinger is recently separated from her husband half a 26-year marriage and though she is in okay physical shape, mentally she's finding it tough to stay motivated. >> just dealing with some life changes, some family changes, and going through a stage where i'm finding that i'm a bit lonely and i'm finding it really hard to generate the energy needed to get through the day, let alone get some really good regular exercise. >> reporter: glen keller is a truck driver from texas. he runs a calling ministry from his cell phone when he's on the road. >> i'm trying to let everybody else know what they can accomplish and what they can do, yet here i sit making this video and i'm at least 100 pounds

overweight. i think the first life that i need to make is difference is in mine and how much more of an impact would that have on others. we are looking forward to take an advantage of the opportunity to come to malibu and be a part of not the triathlon, because i've tried enough. i want to do a do-athlon. >> reporter: a tragic accident on the field forced doctors to amputate a leg. >> there is no moments to describe how you feel when someone tells you they have to amputate a limb. i was a top notch athlete and i want that back. i hope to be an inspiration somebody needs. >> reporter: growing up in southern california, carlos was headed down a bad road. drug use, gang violence, but some well meaning adults helped him get his life back on track so now as an adult himself, he's dedicated his life to helping other troubled kids but he often doesn't take time to focus on his own health.

>> i am a type ii diabetic and my doctors have told me that i needed to lose weight and diet and exercise and bring my sugars under control. as a california public schoolteacher, i want to be able to show my students that if you have diabetes or that if someone in your family has diabetes, you can break that chain of ever getting it. >> reporter: rick more nis is a web designer and volunteer firefighter in north carolina. but the smoke he's battling most often comes from his own cigarette habit. >> after my career in the army, i started smoking and quit exercising. and for the past 12 years i've eaten mostly only the things that taste good. you know, food that comes from a box or drive-up window. i've seen six relatives die from heart disease, lung cancer, and throat cancer. i'm worried that if i don't make some life changing decisions about my health i'll soon join

the family statistics. i don't want to die young from controllable circumstances. i want to live. >> reporter: and adrian, a journalism teacher from maryland, has a big event coming up. just two weeks before our big race day. >> getting married to the father of my twins, chris, after eight long years and the biggest gift i feel like i can give him is starting our life off in fitness and in health. this teacher wants to be your student. >> i can't wait to start training with these guys. last year we called our team the six-pack. well, this year it is the lucky seven. you may have noticed there were only six videos there. that's because we saved one for last because it was such a big surprise. jeff dollar is a co-host on a nationally syndicated morning radio show based here in atlanta. i've been on jeff's show but we never talked about his health or fitness. then my producer showed me this i-report video from jeff. >> i've had an interesting 18 months with a lot of personal

challenges and during much of this time i felt very out of control. i was waiting on other people, i was dealing with personal issues i didn't even know i had and i'm kind of a control freak and that bothered me a lot. i didn't like being out of control. and at some point during that process, i realized that one of the only things that any of us can control in our lives is our bodies, what we put in them and how we take care of them, no matter what's going on in our lives. >> i think a lot of people are going to relate to the issues he's facing, so we invited him as well to join the challenge. all of our new triathletes will be here in atlanta next month and we'll introduce them to you in person. they'll be your partners. join us for the ride. we'll post our regular workouts to our facebook page, facebook.com/cnnfitnation. you can always tweet us as well