8/17/2010 – 53 Pounds Lost – 2 Pounds to Go – 4 Days Left

I usually do not write this much – but today I have some things I must get out! I do believe that Friday morning when I weigh myself I will be at 190. This dream of mine is about to be reality. It has been one very hard road but I am finally here. Someone said to me recently, "Wow you did this in such a short period of time". I said to that person, "Hold on a second. If there was some miracle pill you could take and only have to workout one time a month then yes three months would be a short period of time. But for me, I woke up every morning and rededicated myself to this effort and my goals. EVERYDAY. That is extremely difficult to do and it has been a long road for me" (FYI, she agreed and took her original statement back and added a sincere apology).


If you take a look at the timing of it all – I will reach my goal one day before judgment day. That fact is actually interesting because I will not be weighing myself on judgment day. Judgment day I will be on a beach enjoying my vacation with my family. When I set my goal date of 8/21/10 I had no idea that I would be on vacation on that very day. It is funny how life works out sometimes because it is almost as if it was a cosmic alignment of fate for me to reach my goals on the very day I will be on vacation on a beach with my wife and kids. I won! I don’t need to actually weigh myself on that day and have to worry about my weight because I have already won. The icing on the cake is that I actually got down to the weight I wanted to get to.


I do have a new life and I feel like a completely different person.


Case in Point:
I was at best buy yesterday checking my wife's computer into the geek squad. She and the daughters downloaded a virus that fried her lap top. The geek told me that the virus is an extremely common one downloaded from facebook. If you have read my blog you will know that I believe facebook is the devil (thanks for the quote Kathy Bates). I have been saying over and over again facebook has no real purpose but to keep people from the past in your life and waste your time. I digress… So the geek was telling me some other things that are wrong with it. They will need to send it out for repair as well as charge me 200 bucks to remove the virus and reinstall my operating system. On top of all that I had the three youngest kids with me. They all were on some sort of sugar rush being very demanding while I was in line and while I was speaking with the geek. So right before we were done he said to me, "I can't believe how well you are handling all this. I have seen so many people in your position dealing with kids and horrible news about their computer and they get red in the face and begin yelling and being rude with us." Most likely that would have been me 4 months ago but now I see a bigger picture with life. My energy needs to go to positive causes and building a long fruitful life for me and my family. I do not have the time, energy, or emotions to waste on geek-squad folks. Who by the way, have nothing to do with why I am in front of them at that particular point in time. I do feel different. My actions show it.


I have had two signature lines in my e-mails over the past few years. One is from a movie and the other is an original saying that I authored.


1st – "There is a difference between knowing the path and walking the path"
– Laurence Fishburne, the Matrix.


2nd – "If you have the desire to change your thinking followed by the motivation to act achieving is inevitable"
– misunderstood and admired.


For the first quote, I honestly believe there are billions of people walking the earth who think they know what life is about and are very good at telling other people what they should/need to do. However, walking that path is rarely seen. Some start down the right path but don’t remain on it for long. It boils down to actions - not talk.


For the second quote – I was sitting in my bed on Sunday 5-2-2010 and I realized that my life was going nowhere fast. I had a couple choices; one, get away from my wife and family so they can have a chance to grow and prosper in life or two, make a change. Make several changes actually. I chose the latter. As I sat in my bed looking up at the ceiling I had no idea how I was going to make all the changes I wanted to make. Lose weight, stop eating fast food, slow down on drinking, repair my marriage, and fix the family dynamics that were tearing my family apart. This was a huge undertaking and the weight of it all seemed unbearable and unrealistic. My thoughts soon turned motivational. I understood that the mind is a powerful tool and I needed to use it for positive growth. I said to myself that I do really desire to make these changes. I really didn't have a choice. I was failing and soon would not be able to repair what I was destroying. I also knew that I have been extremely motivated in the past – my degree from the University of Michigan is a perfect example. I dropped out twice and still managed to pull myself up and get my Engineering Degree from a very prestigious engineering school. It dawned on me that as long as you have those two things working for you – Achieving… Just… Happens!!!