Persevere

Its Monday evening and there’s a new face at the gym. He’s been exercising for about a week and he knows exactly what he wants. He’s had it with being overweight. He’s had it with being unhealthy. He’s got something to prove and he’s training like it. The regular crowd is doing their thing. The posers are glued in front of the mirrors, eyes fixed as if in a trance. The talkers are standing around chatting about their lives and current events. The old timers are dutifully performing their task just as they have year after year. The new guy is different. He’s insane. He’s on a mission. He’s going to train as long and as hard as it takes to reach his goals. He won’t slow down, he won’t quit, he won’t,,,,,,,

He won’t be back next week!

How many people have you known like this?  Someone so excited about losing weight, toning their body, getting healthier.  Someone new coming to the gym ready to hit the elliptical until they are ready to puke.  Coming to work on Monday morning telling everyone about how great their new diet is and how fast the weight is going to melt off.  So eager to change his life, become a new person, regain the body he had in high school.  But two weeks later he's back to eating Jack in the Box and watching a Harry Potter marathon all weekend.

What happened?

Our friend has made an important discovery that his parents, teachers and guidance counselors who all took turns wiping his chin neglected to share with him. Life is hard and worthy goals are not achieved without effort. Exercising and eating healthy are hard work. If it weren’t everybody would be doing it.

I want you to succeed. I don’t want you to be just another fad dieter who ends up yo-yo dieting and steadily gaining weight after each new diet attempt fails. I want this enough for you that I feel compelled to share one of my greatest secrets with you about how I lost 65 pounds and lowered my cholesterol, blood pressure, resting heart rate, and liver enzymes. There is no easy way.  There is no pill that will make it happen.  There is no fad diet that will make you healthy.  There is no quick way to lose weight and keep it off.  If you aren’t mentally prepared for this truth then you might as well start pre paying for your spot in a nursing home now.

You have a decision to make. Your reading this blog because you want something. You want to be healthier for your family.  You want to look physically fit.  Are you prepared for the mental and physical challenges you are going to meet on your way towards you goals?  Are you ready to ignore hunger?  Are you willing to miss your favorite tv shows to spend time on a treadmill?  Can you pass up the donuts your coworker brought to work and eat your bowl of oatmeal instead?  Will you spend an extra 20 minutes at the grocery store so you can read food labels?  Are you prepared to set your alarm clock earlier and give up an hour's sleep so you can meet some friends for a morning run?  

Its up to you. I like success stories and have little tolerance for excuses or failure. Will you be at the gym next week?  Next month? Do you really have what it takes? It's in your head and in your hands to achieve your goals but you must understand that sacrifices do lay before you. Take pride in yourself.  You are working toward something that everyone else wants but few have the unbending will to achieve. Are you truly up for the challenge? 

Expect pain.  Be tough like Huff!

Realize Your Potential

Tomorrow morning I'll be getting up, going on a bike ride, then heading to the Woodlands with my girls to watch the athletes competing in Ironman Texas.  These athletes will be swimming for 2.4 miles, biking 112 miles, then finishing off with a little foot race also known as a marathon.  There will be professional athletes there who travel the world competing in these Ironman events, with their championship held each year in Kona, Hawaii.  But those aren't the ones I'm most excited about seeing.


The athletes I'm going to see are the people who are just like you and me.  The moms and dads, school teachers, construction workers, retired people, Walmart managers, and the (fill in the blank with your profession).  These are the people who at some point made a radical decision - that dedicating a year of their life and up to 40 hours a week of their time to train to reach their fullest potential- sounded like a good idea.


I plan on being at the course from about 10:00 am until about 3:00 pm tomorrow, but I really wish that I could be at the finish line at midnight tomorrow.  That's because there is a 17 hour cutoff to finish the race, and only those who cross before midnight get to call themselves Ironmen.  As midnight approaches there will be people who are finishing with tremendous heart.  This is the time you will see the people who were perhaps most challenged by the race.  The blind, the amputees, the Jon Blaises, the retired nuns.  How many times in 17 hours, over 140.6 miles do you have a thought about quitting?  I would think a few times, but at midnight we will see those who fought their emotions, their fatigue, their bodies, and their mental states and continued to move forward.


Throughout the evening and night people will be crossing a finish line and becoming Ironmen in a quest to reach their potential.


I want that kind of determination in all areas of my life.  A determination to reach my potential no matter what obstacles are before me.  And it doesn't take an Ironman race to do it.  But it does take the same focus, dedication, determination, and effort that these athletes apply to their training and race day.  A friend of mine posted a quote on Facebook last week that I've been meditating on since I read it.


"Remembering that I'll be dead soon is the most important thing I've ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life, because almost everything–all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure–these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.
You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart."      - Steve Jobs


One thought I've been having as I think on these words is that time is running out.  Our time on this earth is finite, and we only have a limited amount of days to leave our mark, to reach our potential.  I don't expect to be remembered by too many people after I'm gone.  I'm not looking to cure cancer, end all war, feed the world, or save the whales.  But I do want to be the best father I can, and leave a legacy with my daughters with the lessons I teach them and the example I set for them.  


Another thing I read from this quote is that I can't allow other's expectations, my pride, or the fear of embarrassment to keep me from trying to reach my potential.  Those of us who grew up on the Gulf Coast have probably all spent some time crabbing.  If you've been fortunate to ever catch a bucket full of crabs, you might have seen that the ones on top of the pile will try to reach the lip of the bucket and try to pull themselves out.  Unfortunately for them, the ones underneath them reach up and grab the ones that are trying to make their escape and pull them back down.  Many people are just like those crab in the bucket.  Once they see one of their friends starting to work towards their potential, they become afraid that they are going to be left behind.  So they try to verbally pull you back down into the bucket.  They might use embarrassment tactics, or try to transfer their expectations onto you.  You just have to remind yourself that there is nothing wrong with trying to be extraordinary.  It's okay for you to go after your dreams, and be the best person you can be.


There's more I'd like to say, but I have to get to bed and get some rest for my ride in the morning, so I'll save it for another time.  So let me leave you with this video of Jon Blaise, a 2005 finisher of the Kona Ironman who had Lou Gehrig's disease.

Youtube used to have the entire race coverage from the 2005 Kona Ironman, but it's not there anymore.  The series did a fantastic job of documenting Jon Blais' day.  If anyone ever comes across the footage on DVD, I'd appreciate a chance to get a copy.

Pie problem

I was reading poems to my daughter last night and we came across this.


"Pie Problem"

If I eat one more piece of pie, I'll die!
If I can't have one more piece of pie, I'll die!
So since it's all decided I must die,
I might as well have one more piece of pie.
MMMM--OOOH--MY!
Chomp--Gulp--'Bye.

Shel Silverstein


I want to encourage you today to not be defeated by stinkin' thinkin'.  You're stronger than that.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

A little tough love

Thought I would share something a friend recently said to me. We were emailing back and forth about how people want to look for some magical product to make them lose weight, and he ended the email with this.

"But at the end of the day, we have to accept that unbridled hedonism is not a sustainable model, and sometimes when we want a pizza roll, we need to munch on some celery, because part of being an adult is about controlling your basic impulses."

Love it.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

What's your motivation?

I'm going to assume that if you are reading this blog you either are over weight and want to slim down, or that you are sedentary and want to get fit. Either way, you are going to have to change your life to change your life. According to some old scientist, and object at rest tends to stay at rest. Unfortunately for you, that means more time on the couch watching King of Queens reruns. And that lifestyle is what got you where you are today. So what's it gonna take for you to change? If and object at rest wants to stay at rest, it's not gonna be easy at first to get moving. The great news is that an object in motion tends to stay in motion. That means that once you get yourself into a habit of an active lifestyle, it will feel wrong not to be on the go. I was playing probably 15 hours of XBox each week and watching 7 or 8 hours of tv each week. Now, I don't have time for any of that. I don't play XBox at all, and watch about 1 hour of tv each week. I actually told my daughter last week that I get bored watching tv...and I meant it! After several months of exercising 1-2 hours a day, I just don't get any enjoyment from sitting in front of the brain rotting device in my living room anymore.

But since you are (I assume) living a sedentary life now, what will give you the mojo to get moving and stay moving until it becomes a part of your life? Hopefully, you can find many reasons. They are what you will have to remember to keep you going. Because unlike what they tell you on the infomercials, it WON"T BE EASY! You've got to really want to or it's not gonna happen. I believe the easiest way to do this is to do it like you life depends on it. Don't give yourself any outs. Don't make any excuses in advance. Don't plan for failure. I can remember being afraid to update friends and family how much weight I was losing in the first few months, because I didn't want to become just another one of those people who say, "I lost 15 pounds this spring, but I've put most of it back on." I laugh inside when people tell me stuff like that. What, I'm supposed to be impressed that you were strong enough to lose weight for a few weeks, only to become weak and put it all back on?

You've got to have your own reasons, but just let me tell you what a difference being active, losing weight, and eating healthy has changed my life.

1. I used to wear XL shirts, now I wear mediums.
2. When I used to shop for clothes I looked for what hid my fat. Now I shop for what makes me look cool and young.
3. I used to wear size 38 waist pants, now I wear size 30.
4. My blood pressure used to be ~ 120/80. Now it is 110/60.
5. My resting pulse used to be ~ 65, now it is 42.
6. I used to wear a shirt at the beach or the pool, now I proudly go topless.
7. My total cholesterol was 214, now it is 151.
8. My LDL (the bad stuff) used to be 140, now it is 92.
9. I used to spend $30 a month on cholesterol medicine. Now I spend that money on clothes.
10. I used to have a fatty liver and high liver enzymes because of extra body fat and high cholesterol. Now, my liver is healthy and my enzyme count is normal for the first time in 5 years.
11. More than one of my daughter's friends have told her that I look like a teenager.
12. My wife thinks I'm hot again. (The feeling is mutual. She's lost 35 pounds herself.)
13. I can jump on the trampoline with my kids for more than 2 minutes at a time now.
14. I have more confidence.
15. I sleep much, much better. I used to take Tylenol PM to help me sleep when I worked daylights. I don't need it anymore.

So find a dozen or so things that will motivate you in your own life. You're gonna need them when everyone else is eating Thanksgiving dinner and all you are eating is turkey breast and deviled eggs with all the cream scooped out (that's how I spent my Thanksgiving last year). Or when you are tired from work but know that you have to make yourself work out for an hour, no excuses.

Getting slim and fit will be fun, but it will not be easy. So find your mojo. And if all else fails, remember my mantra...Be Tough...Like Huff.