Battle of the Bulge. Part Three: Motivation

The whole weight loss thing has been a struggle, and one that has raged throughout my entire life.  Yet, with my cessation of eating sweets in 2013, I have found a method that finally maintains my weight.  Things have finally been in flat line for most of the year, for the first time in my life.

Now, what to do about that excess baggage?  If I could just peel off 30 pounds or so, I feel like I finally have the ability to maintain it.

But how?  Great question, and the key to the whole mess.

In the past five years, I've had five good buddies that took a pretty drastic step and lost 20+ pounds.  And this was in their middle ages - tough duty indeed.  Some did it for medical reasons, some because they just wanted to, but all because they were tired of carrying around the excess baggage.

It was possible.  Now I just needed to understand how it was done.

Happy Veteran's Day

Good Lord, I miss Ronald Reagan...

Pre-Flight Hail Mary

About 25 years ago, I was involved in a flight that sustained severe turbulence.  The ride was like a rodeo bull, the cabin turned into a vomitorium, and the flight attendant, seated with her face toward us, was as scared as any flight professional that I've ever seen.

Obviously, things ended just fine.  But for about an eight year period thereafter, I had some serious issues with a fear of flying.  Ultimately, some hypnosis tapes, breathing exercises, and a hell of a lot of flying have got me over my fear.  Severe turbulence still bothers me, but nothing at all like it used to.  And now, instead of dreading flying, I actually look forward to my trips.

During this heavy fear period I developed a habit of saying a Hail Mary as the plane is taxiing for departure, and I still do it to this day.

On one of my more recent flights, I got seated early, and immediately started working on some pressing work issues.  I was banging out emails, sending texts, reading documents, making calls, and basically whipping myself into a froth of work for as long as I could with the door still open.  

After about 20 minutes, the door closed, and I had to power down and put away all of my stuff.  As I cleaned my space, I finally sat back and relaxed.  Noticing the plane was moving, I buried my head and said a sincere Hail Mary.  Upon completion, I looked up and noticed the cabin.  I had been so buried in my work that I didn't even notice the person that sat down next to me, others in the plane, or even what the flight attendant looked like.  I was so absorbed.  So "productive."

And as I thought about that Hail Mary, I wondered what if our flight would not be a safe one?  What if those moments of work, where I completely tuned out the entire world around me, would be the last that I lived?   Is that really how I want to meet my Maker, as one that worked so hard that he ignored his neighbor?

The older I get, the clearer it is to me that our time here is not guaranteed.  It is a gift not to be squandered with the choices we make.  And while I'm guilty of squandering it, I try to do better.

Battle of the Bulge, Part Two: Maintaing

I was attending my family's gathering at my sister's home in Charleston last Christmastime.  It was a grand time with lots of interaction with the family; both close and extended.  

As we ate dinner for New Year's Eve, the talk around the table was of the coming year, what we'd be doing with it, and our resolutions.  When my turn to share came up, I made a fairly generic comment about wanting to be more healthy in my approach to eating and exercise.

Dinner finished and dessert arrived, and I noted that the brother of my brother-in-law, a guy older than me but in very good shape, turned down my sister's homemade dessert.  "I don't eat sweets," he claimed, "I just don't."

Ah, sweets.  My love/hate relationship.  When in the mode of eating them, I found them to be absolutely addictive.  Every night I'd need to have some kind of sweet.  And I truly mean NEED.  However, over the past 20 years or so, I usually gave up sweets for lent.  And I found after a week or so after I gave them up, I did not crave them.  After another week or so, I didn't miss them at all.

I thought back to the comment of my dinner partner: "I don't eat sweets."  And then I thought about myself, forever struggling with my weight, and losing the battle.  I should be the last guy in the world to accept any kind of dessert.  How stupid am I?

So I made up my mind then and there that I'd be that guy that said, "I don't eat sweets."  I had no set goal other than that - no expectations, no time horizon, just doing it day to day.  And I've eaten no sweets since my sister's dessert that night.

No cake, doughnuts, candy, jam, pies, dessert.  And basically no fruit, honey, or sweeteners.  Not one damn bite.

And what have I found?  Three things: 1) I don't miss it.  I just don't.  People can eat the stuff in front of me, and I couldn't care less.  I don't crave it, don't want it, and don't miss it.  2) I like saying "I don't eat sweets," and being that guy. 3) My weight maintained.  I mean, constant.  For most of the year, I was in about a 5 pound range.  No more yo-yo; just steady Eddie.  Finally.

I know I can maintain.  It is powerful knowledge.  Now, what to do with it?

The Biggest Football Play Ever?

Likely not.  But given the stakes and the ripple effect, it is far from insignificant.

Grab the Kleenex...

Must Read Blog Post!

While working out this morning, I spied a commercial for the movie Last Vegas which came on the TV, and a headline taken from a recent review for the movie screamed, "MUST SEE!"

Really? A move for and about aging baby boomers is a MUST SEE?  

I don't think so.  Actually it sounds boring as hell.

And that brings me to the subject of this post.  It quickly appears that the use of MUST in any kind of headline is out of control.  Blogs, articles, and even social media posts are way too liberal in their consideration of what is a MUST do, own, see, experience, etc.

Personally, I think it is insulting.  The older I get the more outside of the mainstream I find myself; hence whatever is the most popular meme of the day tends not to intrigue me, it tends instead to just irk me.  Plus, and more insulting, defining something as "MUST SEE" has the implied subject of "you" - "You MUST SEE."  Such a sentence is rude, authoritarian, presumptuous, and ignorant.  

Personally, I "MUST" not do anything, really, even though others leveraging a rude, overused headline technique demand it.

Tommy's Trials

Check out the attached news article, featuring a buddy of mine from college and his son:


Pretty amazing all that they've been through.  As we approach the Thanksgiving period, this sure provides lots to think about.

The Vikings Just Plain Suck

I have tried to stay positive, but the record is the record.  And the record indicates the following: the Vikings suck.

Count me in the wrong on Ponder.  I felt with another season under his belt that he'd mature, and with the new weapons of Patterson and Jennings, we'd be able to move away from being a one dimensional offense.  Alas, that was not the case, as Ponder has consistently been the laughingstock of the coaches' clicker set, as he continues to miss wide open receiver after wide open receiver.

As such, the offense has stalled.  And those guys have to be seeing the same things in their own internal film sessions.  How long would you be willing to bust your tail and risk your body for someone that simply cannot execute what is required of his position?  

And on the defensive side of the ball, the losses in the secondary have stung, with the loss of leader Harrison Smith looming largest.  Couple that with the fact that the defense is on the field for a majority of the game, every game, and is just damned exhausted, and you can expect bad things to happen.

Is all lost?  Hell, no.  This team was a playoff team last year, with worse talent.  They lost three games on the final drive; two on the final plays.  It still has the reigning MVP, who showed sparks of his award-winning season in yesterday's game.  It will land a great draft pick.  And say what you want about Ziggy Wilf, but the guy is willing to spend on players.  Stadiums?  Not so much, but absolutely Ziggy will spend on players.

But in order to get back to being a playoff team the Vikings absolutely, positively must get a quarterback.  Not a retread like Matt Cassel, but a legitimate player.  Those guys are tough to find, even tougher to draft, and they don't make immediate impacts, but in this case they are absolutely imperative to this team's future. 

In the meantime, as loathe as I am to say it, the Vikings suck.