The confession

     I am not Catholic, but this is probably going to seem more like a confession than a blog... I had a plan, I believed in the plan but life has thrown a bit of a curve ball and my plan is out the window. You see I wanted to succeed at the I Ho Chuan and so I knew I needed to loose weight in order to have a chance of completing the physical components. I went on a very restrictive diet... Too restrictive, it was so few calories I almost passed out at Kung Fu, my head was spinning and my heart was racing, for the first time during warm up I had to remove myself to the back of the class. I consulted my Dr. as well as some other trusted advisers and the result is, I am no longer on the restrictive diet. If I am going to complete the physical component of the I Ho Chuan I will need to train and have that training change my body so I have a chance of completing successfully. I guess I thought the diet was a bit of a card up my sleeve, I was going to loose 65 lbs and sail through the physical components with no problems. I mean wouldn't your pushups get easier if you lost 65 lbs?Now those extra pounds are going to be with me on every push up, every sit up, every mile. Until they just aren't there anymore.



 

I guess this is as good a time as any to let everyone on my team know that I have eating issues. An addiction to bad foods that has left me in poor physical condition. It has been a long fight and I am slowly winning as I adopt better habits and loose bad habits. In 2007 I was as heavy as I hope I ever get at 310lbs, today I weigh 265 lbs but only a couple of years ago I was down to 212 and I felt great. I had used the restrictive diet to achieve the results and it was not sustainable so in the words of Sifu Brinker "Whatever you implement to loose the weight has to be sustainable otherwise whatever you achieve will not be sustainable." I hope that paraphrase is close Sifu Brinker, I didn't write it down.

     The card up my sleeve is out, I have no more secret cards to play I am going to have to do this the hard way one push up at a time forcing my Body to change in order to survive the on slot of 50,000 anythings. I wanted to quit before the I Ho Chuan officially started, I was having second thoughts, the idea of "There is no quitting" made me want to withdraw, I thought to myself "Withdrawing isn't quitting is it? No, everyone will understand. If hasn't started then it's not quitting." I couldn't do it, I am committed no matter what happens. I am drastically behind in my Push Ups and Sit Ups, Ok so I took the first week off. Well not off but I only did 200 sit-ups, 40 Push Ups and walked 7.5 miles. I have some work to do.

Which brings me to my next point, I am the hare, not the tortoise. This is probably my greatest challenge. In business, as I am a business owner, I do nothing then I run like crazy any make a prolific amount of money, then nothing and cycle continues. Since I was a child I was like this, and I convinced myself that I wasn't flighty or unfocused I was just a lateral worker doing lots of things very slowly. I would read10 books at the same time, and not finish a single one. Dozens of projects on the go with no end in sight to new ones. I would not admit to myself that I have a problem following through, finishing what I started. Well I take great solace in the idea that admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. Since I started Kung Fu I have been changing slowly and it's really freaking some people out. People that were used to who I was, instead of just saying "ya, will do that" I whip out my smartphone and say "What day and time works for you, I have Wednesday morning open" Not only have I been accomplishing more but I have more free time. I am not free of my old ways yet, it seems they are hard to break, my old habits. I will succeed, especially with a great team of people on the I Ho Chuan. As a kid I liked to watch Jerry Lewis, and this one movie in particular called Cracking Up had a skit where Jerry went to a stop smoking agency and signed up. With a 100% success rate he felt good about his chances. Anyway, any time he would go to light up for the rest of the movie a great big guy would show up and punch him in the face, just clean his clock. I may need help like that this year.