More of the same

I took another day off because of more of the same from yesterday... not good.
I had some doctor appointments' yesterday and today (routine stuff) but that is no excuse.
Ummm not sure what is going on with me. I will need to do some thinking...

Simple and easy today.

I did not work out this morning mostly in part to feeling lazy after a couple beverages last night. The rest feels good but it feels strange not having that afterworkout buzz right now. Anyway – it appears my friend Rapunzel is struggling a bit to find what works with food intake. The only reason why it does not appear to affect me right now is because I work out like a mad man. At some point I will need to deal with it head on. Rapunzel good luck and find what works for you! ONWARD!

Enjoy the funny! Again - please note that all comments and other videos on the page I have not endorsed. Sometimes people cannot keep it clean when commenting.

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FUNNY LINK

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191 – Outside old WW – Inside Original WW

If you remember I started off saying that my WW was going to be 188 to 192 which now seems to be more realistic. I am not sure how I got down to 186 before… I think it was making me feel weak and sick. I have held off as long as I could but I think my WW needs to be 188 to 192. I thought for a while that if I changed it, it would mean that I have been defeated. I don’t see it that way anymore - today was key in coming to that conclusion. I ate well yesterday and kept to all of my rules. I had a good workout yesterday and still I maintained a weight of 191. In the past I certainly would have lost a pound given the previous 24 hours of eating and working out. I feel comfortable changing it so it is done.

So I want to share with everyone a piece of my morning routine. Everyday I get up between 4:45 and 5:00am to begin my daily journey. I eat breakfast and then look through my trusty list (every morning) to make sure I have not forgot anything… basically this list is comprised of things I have forgotten:

Dress shoes – yeah that was a fun day wearing my gym shoes with slacks

Phones – I have a personal and work phone. My personal phone is my iphone and it holds the music I listen to in the morning so forgetting this is TERRIBLE. Forgetting the work phone makes my day impossible to get through.

Wallet – this contains my work badge so I can't get in the gates at work if I forget this. I used to forget it and dealing with security is irritating.

Money – I need a little cash on hand each day

Rings – this used to mean wedding and school, then went to just school, and soon it will mean both again : )

Chap Lip – this is chap-stick. My lips get dry a lot. I call it chap lip because of a reality show one time…

Dress Shirt – yeah that was fun having to go shopping at Meijer's at 7:30 in the morning with just a jacket on and no shirt. Sure am glad I had a jacket to wear… the sweaty t-shirt would have been awful if I had to wear it shopping. Oh yeah Meijers has great dress shirts - LOL

Head phones – I need these to listen to my music so forgetting them makes the workout harder. I need something to take my mind off the pain and monotony.

Water Bottle – ummm yeah - I will pass out if I don’t hydrate right after working out.

Towel – this was fun drying myself off with the one little spot on my workout shirt that was not soiled…

Underwear – Anyone who has seen Seinfeld will laugh because I had to go commando for an entire day at work. I did not have time to go to Meijers to get a pair. So, I kept it to myself and did not let anyone know… it was actually fun – I considered doing it full time : )

Laptop – Yeah – no work will get done without this – on that day I actually had to go back home to get it.

Lunch – not so critical but I try not to spend a lot of money on lunches it can get expensive.

This was a look into my morning – hope you had fun!

ONWARD!

191 – outside WW

I am where I thought I would be so no mad man workout today :)

Monday mornings after a tailgating weekend are the hardest to battle through. I was still feeling tired and resting off the weekend and really did not want to get up. Hard to deal with Mondays. BUT, if I successfully battle through them it makes the whole week more enjoyable. Starting off the right way carries on through the week!!!

ONWARD!

190 within WW

190… 190… what an interesting number. The same number that I spent three hard months obtaining is the same number that angered me this morning. Here is why; I dropped weight everyday this week until today where I picked up a pound. After that pound I was 190. I looked at the scale and actually got mad. I stepped off and weighed myself again. Yes 190. I was furious. This sparked the most intense workout I have ever had. I had personal bests for total calories burned on the elliptical and I increased the weight resistance on my ab, nautilus, and free weight sets. Truly a MAD MAN workout today.
WOW. I really picked up a pound and now I weigh 190. But I should be happy that I am at 190 right? This is the weight I strived for all this time. What does this mean? It means that the excessive business lunch I ate, along with the excessive dinner I ate, and finally the excessive snack I ate at 9:30pm all added up to one more pound on the books. Maybe I figured since I have been working out like a mad man this week that I would be O.K. WRONG. I am really struggling with finding my eating groove and until that happens, my weight will continue to fluctuate. At this point I do not have the luxury to take ANY days off from working out like a mad man. I would really enjoy if I could sleep in an additional 2 hours before work. That is the time commitment I need to workout. 2 whole hours. It would be nice to be able to take that two hours as sleep but right now there is no way.


Looks like I will keep the funny videos coming and I will post them on Wednesdays.


O.K. So, I will commit to everyone right now that when the time comes (which is not that far away) I will post a couple pictures and a vlog of me. I don't think I will mesh with what you may expect… it will be interesting. As far as Patrick – he could not have been any more "right on" with what I expected. I think a large part of that (no pun intended) is that I have seen pictures of him to ground my opinions.


I have not spoken about the wife in a while. I guess that is because things are going so well with us. I should post positive comments of her. So yesterday at my sons soccer game she tells me that one of her co-workers commented that she has a great man and is so nice. He is such a good thing. This statement from the coworker was brewing for a while. She has been around me at my wife's job and tailgating. But, yesterday is why it came out. My wife locked herself out of the house and I drove 45 miles (one way) to bring her a key so she could get back in the house. I had to move some things around at work so I could do it. So the wife told me the comment was made and her response to her coworker was, "yes I know. I really know." I did not know what to say but just smiled.


O.K. people – ONWARD!

189 – Within WW

I viewed Patrick's vlog and thought I may do this at some point. Really introduce you all to me… Maybe.
O.K. so tailgate weekend is coming and I have dropped enough pounds to feel PERFECT with my weight loss transgressions.
I thought that I wanted to add something to my blog because the "guessing pics" and vlog that Patrick has seem to be a hit. For me I love to see funny video clips. For me laughing is some of the best medicine. So I think I will post funny clips either Thursday or Friday of each week.
PLEASE note that you may see other videos in the list along the margins but I do not endorse any video that does not pop right up when you click on the link I provide.
If you like these please let me know I will stop if it is not taken well.
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LINK
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dd7q2dT-ls&feature=related
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190 – inside WW

So now I can see how these next couple months will go and it is just about what I expected. I will need to workout everyday if I am going to continue going to tailgates and not count calories and fat grams while I am there (I still try and stay away from high fructose corn syrup the best I can). I spent a little over three months working out everyday to lose weight it appears I will need to workout everyday during tailgate season to maintain. That does not sound all that bad. It is the sacrifice I will need to make to enjoy the tailgates as I like to enjoy them.
I am focused on one of my inventions now and you will see a lot of that MAIZE color in my business tracking chart. It feels good to "DO" something else. I am a father, husband, engineer, tailgater, weight loss story/blogger, and now I have added inventor to that mix. It gives me more of a confident feeling that I am using my time on this earth a little better than in the past. I want to go to sleep and NOT think I have wasted the time the Lord has given me.
ONWARD my weight loss blogging people ONWARD!

192 outside WW

Another good start to a good day. As you may have noticed I do not have all zeros any longer and there is more time spent on my business ideas. As I have stated before my fuel for life award winners continue to keep me focused for the time being and it feels good. I am not sure where I will be after these 90 days – inside the WW outside the WW – but what I do know is that after it is all done I will have a new perspective on where I think my life should go for the long haul.

As I was working out this morning I reached a point where I wanted to stop on the elliptical and just hit the showers. There was no way I was going to do that so I kicked the sensors in high gear to mentally log everything I was feeling and thinking. Self vs. self is the essence of life really. At that very moment I could let my physical pain and metal pain stop the workout and convince myself that some workout was better than none. I kept saying to myself how can you stop? How can you come all this way (this morning), waking up so early, battling through the "I am tired I need some more rest", and starting my workout on the elliptical just to end this effort prematurely? The feeling of defeat will feel much worse than the mental and physical pain of the workout.

People ask me all the time, "How did you do it" and I tell them the same answer; "It's simple, eat less, eat healthy, drink lots of water, and workout". Finally someone said to me – "well those are just words - how did you really do it"? My answer to that was also simple – every moment of every day you will need to fight yourself. Some battles you will win others you will lose. The key is to ALWAYS fight and ALWAYS expect to win each battle. Each time you go to the refrigerator, each time you go out to eat, each time you walk past the treadmill, each time you hit the snooze button, each time you pick up an alcoholic beverage, each time you find yourself doing something that does not mesh with your health goals you will need to go into battle. Literally talk to yourself either inside your head or out loud. Fight for yourself each and every time. The more you fight the stronger you will be.

ONWARD!

194 Outside WW

Rock and Glass – Water and Oil – Gas and sparks… None of these really go together - neither does tailgating and weight loss/sustaining weight. I am in for the fight of my life. I will need to focus and work harder than ever to keep my focus on first getting back into my weight window and second staying there for the next two months of tailgating. I find it humbling (not frustrating) continuing to document all the zeros on my charts and seeing the weight loss chart outside my WW. Is making me take a long look at myself…
Now that I have some fuel from my two favorite bloggers on the net this week started off pretty well. I made it to the workout spot and had a FULL workout. Feels good. This week should be different with my focus – stay tuned! ONWARD!

MISUNDERSTOOD AND ADMIRED - ???

MISUNDERSTOOD-AND-ADMIRED???
So what is this name "Misunderstood-and-admired" all about anyway? I thought by now I would have discussed this in one of my posts. Maybe it is because no one has asked about it but I think it is truly because I was just not ready. You see this name is very important to who I am and how I operate out in the world.
Most people who come into contact with me leave with different opinions about me. I don't believe I interact with any two people the same. However, I know that I am a genuine person and I am that person inside and out. You see everyone is so uniquely different that I feel it is impossible to treat everyone the same way. I interact with folks differently because I have so much inside of me that can relate to everyone out there. To learn the most about any one person that comes into contact with me I have to make them feel like I know where they are coming from or else I will NOT get a genuine response from that person. I have learned a great deal about life interacting with the people I meet. Having said all that; I am not a social person, I do not have a ton of friends, I don't hang out all the time, and I don't enjoy crowds where I am expected to talk to everyone there. This is why I am misunderstood because, who in the world loves to learn from people and lives for those experiences but is not a social person. Who loves to laugh and joke with a bunch of folks but does not like crowds (like tailgating) where the expectation is to talk to everyone.


Misunderstood
You see I have always been misunderstood in life because people want to put everyone in a box and label them. I fit no molds. I can't tell you how many times people are shocked when I tell them I am a father of 4 (3 adore me and 1… well… still working on that...) . People just can’t accept the fact that someone at times can seem so driven, cold, hard, angry, and frustrated but has kids that just adore him. They are equally shocked when I tell people I work as an engineer (I am decent one by the way). They just can't understand how a person so passionate, caring, unique, and artistic could be an engineer. My mother still to this day gives me this look of "you are messing up" which I have seen so many times in my life. She still cannot accept that I am just not like anyone else living and do things differently than most people.


Admired
For all the reasons I listed above (and others) – driven, cold, hard, angry, frustrated, passionate, caring, unique, dependable, and artistic I am admired because I have these qualities. What you must understand here is that every trait I listed is not admired by everyone. Certain traits are beloved by some but when they see the other traits they are confused and misunderstand who I really am. I am admired for my commitment to my responsibilities and keeping my word. Here is something I say to myself all the time and I live by it, "Do everything possible to do what you say you are going to do. And, if you don’t then hold yourself accountable AS SOON AS POSSIBLE and try to make up for it". But, when I hold other people to that same axiom they often get offended, angry, and lash out. They just can't understand why I would put them on the spot like that. People just don't walk around putting others on the spot. I hold myself accountable to the same standard that I hold other people to and for that I rub people the wrong way a lot.


Moving Forward
So how can I be misunderstood and admired all at the same time… what has been expressed to me the most is that people admire my dedication, passion, and caring but misunderstood for those same reasons – OVER THE TOP is a comment I frequently get. It's a hard life and I often get weary. On occasion I have to take a couple days off from interacting with folks to get my metal strength back. I have been told all along that I need to change things about me but at this point in life I am who I am and that is all there is to it. If you can take something away from anything I have said then I have done what I set out to do. Everyone can be a positive force in this world. My heart aches when I hear of destruction and death around the world. Someone who I admire and had the same conflict in his life (being misunderstood and admired) once said, "If you can't find something to live for then you best' find something to die for". What I took from this is that if you can't find something to live for or some positive cause to die for, then inside you are already dead. Just take a look around – you don't have to look far to see what kind of destruction people are capable of when they are dead inside.


Closing:
Inside all of us there is an energy that can be either positive or negative. What's your energy? What is the energy of the people you associate with? What kind of energy are you giving off and receiving?
Energy is a force that can build and destroy – choose to build a stronger, positive world for you and those who may come after.

New Award Recipients

I'm not sure if I am supposed to create a blogger award and pass it along – but that is exactly what I am going to do. I have had an extremely hard start in pursuing my new phase of goals. This past couple weeks have seen eating and drinking the likes of which I have not had since before May 2^nd (The start of my 50 pounds and a new life). I have not started working on my financial goals which is very important to me and family right now. That has bummed me out quite a bit. In the face of all that – there are two bloggers that need to get attention. The reality is that most if not all of you are already aware of them but need to know something that I have seen recently. Patrick and Rapunzel are two bloggers that I had as friends from the beginning and at first they were the only two responding to anything I wrote. Now I find myself feeding off their positive energy. They have found a rhythm and a groove. They are following the beat of their life which is grounded in family, friends, and a focus that I have not seen from either of them since I started blogging on May 2^nd. Just when I was ready to really start to slide backwards, these two bloggers and their positive inner energies have FUELED my empty tank. I created this "Fuel For Life" award because I wanted to honor two bloggers that have inspired me and have fueled my tank enough to stop the backwards slide and try to regain my focus on things. Thank you.

Fuel For Life Award

This award is granted to bloggers who have given someone fuel for strength so they can move onward.
I hereby grant the following bloggers the Fuel For Life Award:
Patrick
Rapunzel
Responsibilities:
1. List three things that you are happy about at this very moment
2. List three things that played a big part in your current focus on weight loss and inner growth
3. Pass this award on to a blogger that you feel really deserves it

190 – Inside WW

I'm starting to find it hard to stick to my commitments right now. I am getting up in the morning and working out but eating and all the other items for some reason are on hold. I have tried to dig deep inside me to figure out why. I have come up with a couple things. I know myself pretty well and I have decided just simply to not do it yet. Why I'm not quite sure. I have plenty of energy and desire to eat right and get my financial goals moving but the motivation is not there. I am forcing myself to look at those zeros on the charts every day and it is keeping me focused on finding that motivation to get started. I had a pretty good excuse last week (excuses are like…) but what about this week? No pretty good excuses this week.
I have told other bloggers to find that motivation anywhere you can and act on it. Time to take my own advice and find that motivation and BOTTLE it so I can have a drink of that goodness every morning when I wake up! ONWARD!

191 – Outside WW

I have struggled to get out of the blocks for the first week here… A big contributor to this has been something I have not blogged about all last week. I guess I did not realize how much it monopolized my life over the past week. What I was doing was putting together the family video for our vacation. Now if you took a look at my Rocky video I posted a little while ago you will see that I like to dibble and dabble in video production. However, this video was an all out monumental effort. There were seriously about 16 hours of video footage and 500 pictures to go through. I cut down all the video footage to a manageable amount and selected the right pictures for the movie. I was getting about 3 hours a sleep a night and just did not realize how late I was staying up. My wife finally pointed out to me on Thursday that I was acting like an idiot around the house with her and the kids because I was just not getting any sleep. The reason for the big effort was that my mother was supposed to come to my house on Saturday and look at the family vacation video. She was really looking forward to it because we went to the same camping spot that she used to take me and my siblings to. My mother decided to cancel her trip and I decided not to stop the video production but move forward. We had a family viewing of the finished product on Saturday night. We made a big production out of the whole thing… taking a video of a red carpet interview of all the vacation participants (that was fun), popcorn, candy, and sparkling juice for all. It turned out really good. So, now as I think back I can see why I did not focus on any of my personal goals last week. So now I can get down to business. ONWARD!

190 – Within WW

This 190 is within the WW but is only there because I worked out like a mad man yesterday and followed it up with a bad eating evening. This is going to be a struggle. Thanks guys for the helpful pointers yesterday. It will be a day to day struggle to maintain. I think as time goes by it will get better but for now I have to focus. The financial goals I will take a look at it all on Monday and re-evaluate where my efforts will be. Busy day today - so I will wish everyone a positive day and get to it.

ONWARD!

191 – Outside my WW (Weight Window)

Yesterday I was feeling under the weather for the first time in a long time. I did not go to work and I did not blog either. It felt strange to spend an entire weekday without checking in on my blog folks and posting something myself.
As you can see I am outside my WW. I am starting to understand how difficult this is going to be. I simply cannot keep up the workouts as they have been for the past three months. That being said I will need to watch what I eat a lot closer now. This effort is going to take a whole different kind of commitment that I have not prepared myself for. I have to spend some time thinking about how I am going to go about this because the track I am on is NOT going to work. I would like to open the floor to comments about sustaining my weight.
As far as the Business and RBD (Reading and Business Development) I am just not committed to that effort right now. I believe I have not changed my thinking yet… I have the desire right now but I have not changed my thinking on what it means to me. I have some work to do here. It is always good to be honest with yourself but today I am down in the dumps a bit because I have not committed myself to sustaining my weight, reading, and developing business ideas. My new 90 day effort has started off poor.
I have just one word for myself… ONWARD!

189 Pounds – Weight Window Maintained!

To all, I hope you had a restful Holiday. For me it was waaaaay to much tailgate food. I was surprised to see 189 pounds pre workout this morning. I ate like a mad man and drank like a fish at the tailgate. However, I did workout like a madman on Friday and this morning so I should not be surprised at my weight status.
So, today is day two of my new effort and I really did not get off on a good foot. Because I did not work yesterday I did not keep to my routine of working out in the morning and eating on a regular schedule (again – there is a lesson to be learned there). I did not do any reading or business development (BD) yesterday and I don’t feel very good about that. I am happy that I am starting my new weight goal right in the 5 pound window I want to be.
To all my weight loss people I will tell you this today – make today a day you can be proud of and smile when you hit the pillow to sleep tonight!

190 pre workout – 187 post workout… Just in time to!

I am about to enter the tailgate season for Michigan Football. I try and make it to all home games for tailgating. It gets to be a strain with the driving, parking, and late nights but it is part of who I am and this time of year is always my favorite. I said "Just in time" because anyone who has ever done ANY tailgating in their life knows there are temptations EVERYWHERE to have a bad food/drink day. The way I take it is that I will have my fun but if I don’t take Monday and Tuesday seriously in the gym and eating I will have to change the way I tailgate and that will NOT be fun. I should have put tailgating on my list of ten and I will change it now… O.K. done. Can you tell what I changed???

RANPUNZEL –Hope all is well!

193 – Back on the right track!

This morning I had a good workout and last night I ate sensible. Simple day yesterday - I will keep this post the same. Have a great Friday-eve!!!

The Humbling Scale…

The scale put me in my place this morning. Let the truth be told. I weighed in at 195 which means over the past week I have picked up 9 pounds. Even if we decide to try and lie to ourselves or even the world, the scale will never do the same. It will tell us exactly what our minds are focusing on and be brutally honest with us. The scale told me this morning that even though you have come so far you still have a long way to go. You cannot rely solely on aggressive workouts to keep your weight down. You will need to completely change the way you think about food. There is no "reward" food, there is no "just for tonight" food. There is only the food you eat. You eat four meals a day and need to make sure that you stay focused on the health content of that food. If you choose to eat something unhealthy then there must be checks and balances that forces you to make up for that with the next meal (or meals) – NOT working it off the next morning. THAT can be a very slippery slope. So in closing I have learned a lot about myself. I have a lot of work to do with getting my eating habits in line with maintaining my weight goal of 185-190 pounds. ONWARD!

I have received my first award - thanks Patrick!

Ten things I like (in no particular order)
1. That feeling of my body hurting so good after a workout
2. Michigan Football Tailgating
3. Watching Sports (Most all of them)
4. Eating at a new Restaurant
5. Playing/spending time with my kids
6. Intimate time with my wife
7. Focusing on a goal and working hard to achieve it
8. Playing Basketball
9. Playing/Watching Poker
10. Vacations – resting on a beach with my eyes closed.


Pass on to one blogger (do not want to minimize the award)
Rapunzel