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How many of us have become wayward sons in our process through life only to acknowledge our need and desire to be what we considered “on track” for who we really wanted to be? How many of us have been faced with the reality of the thought, “I just can’t get there from here,” as we push and push and we continue nowhere, then finally awaken to the realization that we have to go back, we have to backtrack and get to the “why” and “here-to-four” of being here in the first place; before we could move off into a different direction. That’s where I found myself last April following the death of my best friend of 42 years of my oldest brother both of heart attacks in their sleep, and coming to, not the onslaught, but the reality of old age in a difficult position. I found myself also in a difficult position but realized that my goals for many many decades were to go on to become and belong to something greater than myself, so I stopped playing the victim, gathered up my boot strings, and tightened my belt. Taking measure of my position I realized that I was too fat, had a lot of injuries, a poor attitude and was lacking vision, so one by one I wrote down on a piece of paper how far I have to go back to a positive outcome-based starting position and the places, things, and positions needed for these areas to be dealt with. I took stock of my injuries; wrote down limitations and how I could work around them, I changed my attitude from one of the “victim” to one “believing in progress” and having faith that it could be accomplished, I realigned with my vision and came into awareness that “yes,” I was moving into my senior years of my life, that I still had things I wanted to achieve and that they were possible if I played my cards right. Part of this was increasing my level of productivity, since I had spent 11 months on a chair trying to let my broken ankle and tibia heal. Another, and very important part, was losing weight to improve my health conditioning and mobility. In essence, I took stock! I took stock of my supplies and accepted that there was a long winter ahead in order to get back into that “Y” in the road where I could move towards a positive future. I started this journey last April 2018 at a weight of 285 and little by little one meal at a time I slowly decreased my intake of food, increased my digestive process, and increased my activity; one step at a time I strengthened my constitution with activity, and I worked slowly towards losing some of that weight that I gained (which was 50 pounds after breaking my ankle and tibia). Good news; last night I finally got my bodyweight down to 250! I can’t believe I’m saying that because for years I worked so hard to gain weight, to gain muscle, to gain size and strength; and to hear me say that I “dieted it down to 250” is almost comical, it’s actually kind of funny, but the fact is I’m officially down 35 pounds in 9 months and I’ve already done 33 supersets of my hundred! I’m a third way through my training program “winter solstice to the spring equinox,” and things are looking up things are looking very up! The best part is training with my daughter in her senior year of high school and we laugh and laugh. Last night at our weekly weigh-in she said,” I gained 5 pounds and you lost 5 pounds,” and I responded with a hearty “thank you!” The moral: to some or many of the younger lifters or trainers my age is; the tortoise does win the race, step-by-step, slowly to the distant gold mine of intent, if you continually work at it over time! Your goals can be achieved! Now at 250, a third way through this stage of my yearly training program, I’m at the Y and it’s time to move towards the goal! I’ve got two more months to get down to 235, my fighting weight, and be ready for Spring! Thanks for listening!
