I just finished reading Fit2Fat2Fit.
There were a few surprises in it, but the best parts were when Drew Manning related the unexpected lessons he learned along the way, during his journey. He made personal discoveries and connected with the rest of us on a level that only doing what he did can accomplish. It made for some interesting sideline stories, and it drove the point home that we all have the same kinds of stories in our own life from which we can draw.
He stressed the importance of having a support community around you, and this may be my weak point. As I gather the impetus to pursue my own weight loss/ conditioning program, this is the area where I am the most susceptible to hiccups along the way. I have long ago cast off the need for sodas and fries (except on rare occasions), and I have adopted Drew's spinach shake, but I worry that my ability to maintain the workout and food regimen, is all too easily thwarted by a loss of momentum, which has always been a problem. All the good intentions in the world can be easily derailed with out a firm and realistic execution plan. This one is going to be almost all on me.
Fit2Fat2Fit has shown me that anyone can do it. Now it's up to me to chart my own journey and make it work. Wish me luck.
Thursday, June 21, 2012
Tuesday, June 19, 2012
Smartphone and driving: A bad mixture
I was coming home from a short trip the other day and there was a car going a little slower in the right-hand lane. As we got further from the intersection, this car cross over the bike lane and very nearly crashed into the curb. As I drove by this person, I could see that it was a young girl, still texting on her smartphone, apparently unmoved by the fact that she nearly crashed her car into the curb.
I couldn't believe what I had witnessed. This girl was seemingly oblivious to the danger she was causing to herself and the people around her, because using her smartphone to talk to someone else was more important. As a driver in another car there was nothing I could do, but what I wanted to do was pull her over and knock some sense into her, or at the very least report her for her dangerous driving tactics.
I don't own a smartphone and have no intention of owning one in the future. Seeing things like this on an everyday basis makes me even more set against them. I know I have to devote even more attention of my driving time to be on the lookout for people like this. I have a feeling it's just going to be a matter of time before habits like this is going to eliminate these people or their unsuspecting victims from the gene pool.
If you use a phone while driving, STOP IT. Wake up, pay attention, be alert. You are driving a mobile weapon, and what you do behind the wheel, affects more than your need to send a text.
If you need any more proof, go here...
Watch the movie clips!
Dangers of Text Messaging and Driving
Texting while driving
Texting While Driving: How Dangerous is it?
Be safe. Do the right thing.
I couldn't believe what I had witnessed. This girl was seemingly oblivious to the danger she was causing to herself and the people around her, because using her smartphone to talk to someone else was more important. As a driver in another car there was nothing I could do, but what I wanted to do was pull her over and knock some sense into her, or at the very least report her for her dangerous driving tactics.
I don't own a smartphone and have no intention of owning one in the future. Seeing things like this on an everyday basis makes me even more set against them. I know I have to devote even more attention of my driving time to be on the lookout for people like this. I have a feeling it's just going to be a matter of time before habits like this is going to eliminate these people or their unsuspecting victims from the gene pool.
If you use a phone while driving, STOP IT. Wake up, pay attention, be alert. You are driving a mobile weapon, and what you do behind the wheel, affects more than your need to send a text.
If you need any more proof, go here...
Watch the movie clips!
Dangers of Text Messaging and Driving
Texting while driving
Texting While Driving: How Dangerous is it?
Be safe. Do the right thing.
Friday, June 15, 2012
Getting the old me back
I began reading Drew Manning’s Fit2Fat2Fit, and he has done a nice job so far of talking about his anxiety and frustrations. It will be interesting to see how this book develops and I get further into it. I am inspired though.
I certainly can identify. My own journey began as far back as 2001, so in some ways his short term experience exhibits a lot of what most of us feel as we move along the rocky path to lose weight and get into better condition. In most cases though, the bad habits and poor diet we’ve established are well ingrained into our daily life. We have no recent memory of eating well and working out to draw from. For many of us, this compounds the problems we face.
I, at least, have a mixed bag of good and bad, so it’s not as dire for me as for many others, but my issues have their own history.
To begin with, I have a life long history of ADD. I have long ago learned adult coping skills to deal with it, but in truth, we never outgrow it, so it is an ever present bug in my brain's software, and I have to be mindful of its presence. Maybe this is why I have been so poor at execution of a number of things I've done in my life. I am very good at some things, and have had some real brainstorms at times, but for some reason, I never saw them through to their most positive conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I have had some great successes, like my early effort at racing motorcycles, getting my bachelor degree, reaching 18,800 ft while mountaineering, achieving black belt status in Japanese swordsmanship, raising two great boys, and building a street rod from scratch, but these things could have been even better. The misses are the ones that haunt me at times. They could have made my life a lot different.
I have known about the importance of eating right and conditioning my body, but old habits are tough to break. When you add in the spans of time when doing these, it makes a difficult combination. Too much work, unplanned distractions, and self-doubt, make it easy to fall off the wagon.
I was doing OK in 2006. I was a little overweight, but was maintaining, and working out at a reasonable pace. Then my brain tumor struck, and everything changed. Although the surgery and therapy rid me of this menace, the chemo kicked my butt. From the time I began it until I was over the residual effects of the fatigue, was around two and a half years. By that time, I was far behind the eight-ball, and picking up martial arts again was a bigger hill to climb than I expected. Although the desire was there, I just couldn't muster enough encouragement to make it a priority. People around me were too busy with their own lives to take an interest in challenges that weren't their own. I never faulted anyone else, but it made my own climb an even steeper one.
I knew better though. In 2004, I gained my certificate as a personal fitness trainer, so I knew that deep inside it was up to me, it was just that all the effort to get it and all that had happened in between, seemed like a mountain I would never scale again. In the last two and a half years, if felt like my body's metabolism had changed. I was eating about the same, but the lack of any real physical activity, was helping me to pack on the pounds. Before I knew it, I was courting 200, and not very successful at getting it back off. I was still playing racquetball with my son, and going to the gym, but nothing was making a difference. I even hired a trainer at the gym to help me regain my old form, but despite this effort, I made little progress. I seem to be resigning myself to the fact that this was going to be the new me. I've tried several times since to make a difference, but nothing to date has taken off more than a few temporary pounds.
It was only by chance that I stumbled onto Drew Manning's clip on the news. I was intrigued by his experiment. Could this be the difference I was missing? Did this guy understand what many of us had tried and failed to do? That still remains to be seen, but contacting him through his web site, gave me a little hope.
The one thing that he told me though that I still am not sure I have, but he stressed as a very important part, and that is the support from those around me. I'm not talking about occasional patronizing remarks. I'm talking about solid, measurable support. All the diet, and exercise you can gather, is not going to get you where you need to go (particularly for someone like me), unless there is something more. I aim to try my best, but it will be tough to break old (practically hard-wired) habits, and put on a new suit of discipline.
The desire is there. Let's see how well it holds up when the rubber hits the road. Wish me luck.
I certainly can identify. My own journey began as far back as 2001, so in some ways his short term experience exhibits a lot of what most of us feel as we move along the rocky path to lose weight and get into better condition. In most cases though, the bad habits and poor diet we’ve established are well ingrained into our daily life. We have no recent memory of eating well and working out to draw from. For many of us, this compounds the problems we face.
I, at least, have a mixed bag of good and bad, so it’s not as dire for me as for many others, but my issues have their own history.
To begin with, I have a life long history of ADD. I have long ago learned adult coping skills to deal with it, but in truth, we never outgrow it, so it is an ever present bug in my brain's software, and I have to be mindful of its presence. Maybe this is why I have been so poor at execution of a number of things I've done in my life. I am very good at some things, and have had some real brainstorms at times, but for some reason, I never saw them through to their most positive conclusion. Don't get me wrong, I have had some great successes, like my early effort at racing motorcycles, getting my bachelor degree, reaching 18,800 ft while mountaineering, achieving black belt status in Japanese swordsmanship, raising two great boys, and building a street rod from scratch, but these things could have been even better. The misses are the ones that haunt me at times. They could have made my life a lot different.
I have known about the importance of eating right and conditioning my body, but old habits are tough to break. When you add in the spans of time when doing these, it makes a difficult combination. Too much work, unplanned distractions, and self-doubt, make it easy to fall off the wagon.
I was doing OK in 2006. I was a little overweight, but was maintaining, and working out at a reasonable pace. Then my brain tumor struck, and everything changed. Although the surgery and therapy rid me of this menace, the chemo kicked my butt. From the time I began it until I was over the residual effects of the fatigue, was around two and a half years. By that time, I was far behind the eight-ball, and picking up martial arts again was a bigger hill to climb than I expected. Although the desire was there, I just couldn't muster enough encouragement to make it a priority. People around me were too busy with their own lives to take an interest in challenges that weren't their own. I never faulted anyone else, but it made my own climb an even steeper one.
I knew better though. In 2004, I gained my certificate as a personal fitness trainer, so I knew that deep inside it was up to me, it was just that all the effort to get it and all that had happened in between, seemed like a mountain I would never scale again. In the last two and a half years, if felt like my body's metabolism had changed. I was eating about the same, but the lack of any real physical activity, was helping me to pack on the pounds. Before I knew it, I was courting 200, and not very successful at getting it back off. I was still playing racquetball with my son, and going to the gym, but nothing was making a difference. I even hired a trainer at the gym to help me regain my old form, but despite this effort, I made little progress. I seem to be resigning myself to the fact that this was going to be the new me. I've tried several times since to make a difference, but nothing to date has taken off more than a few temporary pounds.
It was only by chance that I stumbled onto Drew Manning's clip on the news. I was intrigued by his experiment. Could this be the difference I was missing? Did this guy understand what many of us had tried and failed to do? That still remains to be seen, but contacting him through his web site, gave me a little hope.
The one thing that he told me though that I still am not sure I have, but he stressed as a very important part, and that is the support from those around me. I'm not talking about occasional patronizing remarks. I'm talking about solid, measurable support. All the diet, and exercise you can gather, is not going to get you where you need to go (particularly for someone like me), unless there is something more. I aim to try my best, but it will be tough to break old (practically hard-wired) habits, and put on a new suit of discipline.
The desire is there. Let's see how well it holds up when the rubber hits the road. Wish me luck.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Fit2Fat2Fit
I caught wind of Drew Manning a short while ago, and I have to admit, I was pretty inspired by him. He made a gutsy move to abuse his good condition, and stop working out, eat badly, and gain the kind of weight we are all fighting. Then, lost it all again and got back to his former self, and he did all this to help him identify with the rest of us overweight slobs, and to show us that we can do it if we want to.
You can check it all out on his web site Fit2Fat2Fit.com.
Anyway, I bought his book and am going to try to do something about my own situation. At my age, I'm not going to get many more opportunities to make a difference in my physical condition, health, etc. Growing old is not for sissies, and I don't want to hear my granddaughter tell me how fat I am anymore.
The gauntlet has been thrown down. I wonder if I still have what it takes to pick it up and run with it.
You can check it all out on his web site Fit2Fat2Fit.com.
Anyway, I bought his book and am going to try to do something about my own situation. At my age, I'm not going to get many more opportunities to make a difference in my physical condition, health, etc. Growing old is not for sissies, and I don't want to hear my granddaughter tell me how fat I am anymore.
The gauntlet has been thrown down. I wonder if I still have what it takes to pick it up and run with it.
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