Learning The Value Of a Team

Over the past couple of years I’ve been lucky to learn a lot of life lessons.

I learned that:

• I can change my shape.
• I can change my career.
• I can change my activities.
• I can change me!

Read those statements closely!

It’s all about me…

Sad ain’t it!

Looking back at the changes I have made required a lot of determination and desire from within.

But as life changes, so do my goals.

Embracing others has become a new challenge in my life.

My new goals are two fold:

1. Help others change their lives for the better.

2. Allowing others to help take “me” to the next level.

I’ve developed a group of friends who tell me that I help them with their goals or appreciate the words that I share. That means more than you know!

I’ve also developed a core group of collaborators, mentors and friends that are sharing the successes, talents and wisdom to help make me who I want to be.

Taking This Journey Together

Check back with my blog regularly for

Motivational Monday

Wellness Wednesday

Fitness Friday

So what is next?

I look forward to connecting and learning from you!

And I hope I can share something back to you of value in return...

The New Shoes For Spring!

I was so excited!

1. My trusty pair of Brooks are pretty much spent.
2. They say 500 miles is about max on a pair of shoes.
3. They did get me through Marathon training.

Time for daddy to buy some shoes, right?

After being successful at mentally spending hundreds of dollars on shoes (yes, guys have shoe fetishes too), I thumbed through the pages of my magazine and another article caught my attention…

“Forever Young” by Dimity McDowell

I’m thinking something positive, like the map to the Fountain of Youth or something.

I read the article a bit more.

The article was focused on the Over 40 crowd slowing down and avoiding injury.

It carried the heavy undertone of “Go ahead and get in the right lane, old man!”.

It’s almost like they were prepping me for the old runners home!

• Take your time.
• Expect your pace to slow.
• Work on your recovery.
• It’s okay to “just finish”.

That really pissed me off!

Why would you want to plant that seed of defeat in anyone’s mind?

In fairness to the author, the author did expound a lot of wisdom to younger runners about how to handle fatigue and injury.

I will note that the intent was probably out of a desire to be helpful.

The article had one redeeming quality:

It pissed me off!

One sure way to get me to do something is to tell me I can’t!

I can increase my speed and stamina, even if I’m a little seasoned!

I might be 40 years old, but I’m a 3 year old runner…

Next week, we’ll discuss pace, my baseline and what I’m doing to improve it.

See you on the streets!

Food label reading for me over the last four years consisted of looking at one number:

Calories

That led to a great deal of success for me. I’ve lost as much as 150 pounds at one point.

But now I’m buzzing around 120 pounds of total loss.

Yeah, yeah. I know. I went up almost 30 pounds. Don’t flipping remind me.

That’s why we are having this conversation. I’m focusing back on losing the weight I want in a smart way.

Let’s dig a little deeper into the rest of the nutritional label shall we?

Who’s On First?

What is the first ingredient you see?

That means it’s content is usually the greatest.

Switching To Whole Foods

Here’s how our journey began.

Candi went to a Project 5210 meeting as a volunteer for the childhood obesity program. That night the guest speaker was a nutritionist from Jason’s Deli.

Her information on Hydrogenated Oil & Enriched Flour was an eye-opener.

So, I did a little light reading.

I read an excerpt on what hydrogenated oil is:

Hydrogenation is a chemical process whereby ordinary vegetable oils are chemically altered to make them so hard that they won’t melt in your hand. Basically a complete adulteration of the original (healthy) oil occurs. In the effort to make foods last longer in the supermarket, all traces of essential fatty acids are obliterated from processed foods, and hydrogenated fats take their place.

Trans-fatty acids sit like cement in the body, clogging up arteries and impeding hormone production, and replacing good, necessary fats (Omega 3s and 6’s) with something harmful. You can’t do anything with transfatty acid except burn it off as calories; basically, its function is to poison your system and generate abnormal biochemistry.

(via Julian Cope presents Head Heritage | U-Know! | Features | What Exactly Is ‘Hydrogenated Fat’?)

Essentially, that mean this stuff is toxic and clogs up your arteries!

My Challenge To You

My challenge to you (which was difficult for us):

Go grocery shopping and buy food without hydrogenated oils in it!

Good luck!

It was harder than I thought it would be.

Let me know how you did…

Next Week: Enriched Flour

Three Things You Must Add To Your Attitude

It’s an ominous message to those of us who spent years reading Norman Vincent Peale’s Power Of Positive Thinking.

Having that positive attitude has always been elusive. Bad days bring bad thoughts. The struggle has always been to keep that smile alive. That can be hard.

Here are three things that I believe, when combined with that great attitude of yours, will catapult you to new successes.

Define Your Beacon

Beacon, by one definition, is a source of light or inspiration.

Who is it that you look toward when the skies start to darken?

• Your spouse?
• Your business mentor?
• Your collaborator?
• Your friend?
• Your enemy (if you’re the competitive type)?

Partner with other like-minded individuals that you trust. These relationships will be key in moving toward your goals.

On the flip side of that coin, break some distance between yourself and those who will insert negative thinking into your life.

It doesn’t mean you can’t love that person, but be aware of the vibe they bring to your table.

Being accountable to someone you trust an honor will keep you motivated.

There has to be someone you look toward that will keep your heart in the game.

Know Your Strengths

Playing your game of life by someone else’s rules is a bad call.

You’ve got to spend some time:

1. Assessing what you’re good at,
2. Changing your game plan to play on those strengths.

It makes absolutely no sense for a person, such as myself, to engage in something repetitive when my mantra is change

So if you are a visionary or coach by nature, it’s not wise to become the performer or player.

Doing tasks or projects you don’t like will become a thorn in your side.

Working within your strengths will help keep you engaged and excited about life!

Paint Your Picture

In my previous article called Another Brick In Your Wall I discussed defining your dream.

Read that article as a refresher.

Here’s the thing:

 If you can't see where you are going, you'll never make it. 

Combine The Ingredients

Your positive attitude will work if you employ it in something that engages you and prompts you to take action!

• Find a beacon to champion your cause
• Survey your strengths
• Paint a vivid picture of your goal

Then act!

Yeah, so would I.

I spent a little time reviewing some statistics on my blog and I became completely fascinated with a couple of them:

• I have hundreds of readers
• You live in 3 countries (albeit 1 country has 1 reader – Thank You Australia!)
• I’m read in 23 states within the US.

Long story short, I have an audience!

Who the hell would have thought that…

Question #1

Would you prefer to have content on the site in Video, Audio, Text or a combination?

Question #2

If you had the opportunity to win a prize, would it be:

• Gift Card For A Healthy Meal?
• Free Virtual Weight Loss Coaching?

Now, just let me know below and I will choose the new methods based on your input and pick one of you for a gift for helping out!

Just that simple!

2011 is in the bag. It’s done. History. Past. El gone’ o.

My advice is to

• Remember the good.
• Count the blessings.
• Remember those who have gone on before us.
• Hold tight to the good memories.
• Let the bad go.
• Cry over it.
• Dig out the lessons.
• Write the lessons down and remember to use them.
• Then, shut the damn door and move on.

We’ve got a future to think about.

Here are my resolutions for this (new) year:

• Repeat the Marathon with a PR of 4:00.
• Return to my ideal weight (175).
• Become a champion for weight loss in my community.
• Develop an online community for runners that’s exciting, universal and fun.
• Have a banner year in the auto industry.
• Improve my writing and speaking skills.
• Improve my balance of life between ambition, career and family.
• Remove anger from my vocabulary.
• Integrate podcasting and video blogging into this site.

Crap! I need to slow down. Won’t be anything left to do in 2013…

Click Here For Part Deux!

It’s a program called Project 5210.

Project 5210 is a designed to help obese children and their families get a support system and help to

• lose weight,
• get fit,
• get healthy,
• At no cost to the participants!

The program is sponsored and hosted by the Christus Healthsystems in the Shreveport / Bossier City area.

The meaning behind the number is:

5 Servings of Fruits/Vegetables Per day

2 Hours or Less Of TV/Internet Time

1 Hour Of Exercise / Physical Activity

0 Tolerance For Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Use

So, yeah!  It’s a great program put on by great people to give great people the knowledge and tools they need to change!

I wish I had a support system like this when I started.  But…

I promised a few of you a cool story the other day on Facebook, so here it goes:

Eric Gets To Talk!

It all began with the desire to start or sponsor a 5K event.  

I’ve been fortunate enough to work for a gentleman that has a heart for the community who has given me the levity to not only promote our business but also support good causes in the marketplace.

That’s where he enlightened me on this Project 5210.

Once I found that I could combine two passions of mine (running and weight loss) and I could support the community to boot, I got pretty excited.

So we met with the fine people at Christus Healthsystems.

During our initial meeting I got to share my personal story of weight loss, giving up smoking and my adventures in running.  That led to them inviting me to speak to their Fall Class last Tuesday night.

I was honored!  Nervous, but honored.

Long story short, I got to share my passion with a small group of likeminded individuals and share with them my story and answer a truckload of questions on how I got where I was.

It was really fun!

At the end, I was approached by one of the attendees and she told me how much she appreciated me sharing my story and that I (of all people) inspired her.

Brought me to tears.

Ma’am, I feel your pain, but it’s where the road to change begins.  As I said at the event, “Get started and just don’t quit“.

Thank you for making my day.

1455th place out of 2365 marathoners.  Puts me in the bottom 40% roughly.  Wasn’t too pleased with my overall time.

My goal was 4 hours and 30 minutes.

Someone told me that I would be bargaining with God during the last 6 miles.  I thought that was really odd.

Odd but true.

Turns out I’ve got to fulfill some promises just because I finished?!

But in the long run?

I got this cool consolation prize.

I’ll take it…