Link to the Beginning, and Link to Last Post

Welcome Back

Welcome back to my journey, where I’m sharing my efforts to move toward physical and financial fitness before I turn 50 (despite some pretty big life events that could derail a person). When I call this a journey I’m being intentional about that name. I believe life is an intimate adventure with God, your family and your tribe. We have seasons we walk through, whether we engage with them or not, but when we choose to be intentional with them (what I sometimes call “living an examined life”) then we can engage with the season as a journey.

A journey could be…
An effort to remove a heart wound, or
Replace a bad habit with a good one, or
Lose weight or
Find a new job.

I know some of you are probably thinking I’m actually having some sort of mid-life crisis. I really don’t think so, but you can label it however you like. I tend to have my freak-outs at odd numbers. I remember waking up on the morning of my 25th birthday thinking, “every day from here on, I’m closer to 30 than I am 20.” It weirded me out for months. Then when I eventually turned 30 it was no big deal at all.

This time, turning 50, feels like a positive. My beard has gone grey, I finally know what I want to be when I grow up, I’m overweight but happily married…people are starting to take me serious. There is more good than bad in life. I just see an opportunity to take stock and address some of things I’ve let go, and let go of some things I’ve been addressing.

Quick Recap

My goals/priorities this season, which I’m addressing in one project (One Big Thing), include losing weight, getting up at 5AM every weekday and spending time with God (which includes writing this blog). Also, it includes launching the coaching arm of my writing/coaching business, and I’m also remodeling a new home we bought yesterday so that we can start living multi-generational with my mom.

For several years I’ve been journaling, which is a massive help to me in planning my day and staying sane. I follow a specific style I call AM Pgs, based on Morning Pages which Julie Cameron created in her book, “The Artists Way.” As a writer, engaging that part of my brain helps me clear (defrag) my brain. Because AM Pgs have been so successful for me I’ve decided to blog out this journey instead of just journaling it. The goal is to share it to help others while doing what I already do for me. (I’m not holding myself accountable to do that right now, since I’m throwing time at this blog but I hope to do both before this 63 days is up.)

Health Plan (Part 1)

As promised, details of my current health plan. I want to ad a big disclaimer here. This is the plan I made for me and the thinking behind my plan. Don’t do things with your health unless you consult a doctor first.

I divide fitness into Diet and Exercise. I’m going to have to do a post on each this week and then one detailing what I’ve ultimately decided to do for my health plan on this season (look for that on Saturday ish???) But in the short run, this is what’s happening.

I mentioned that I’d gained some weight during phase one of this year when I helped my Mom (age 81) sell her house and move in with my family, and I mentioned my “punishment food.” January of 2020 I took on a journey (one big thing) that included getting certified as a entrepreneur coach and auditioning a diet called Optivia. I was both impressed and repulsed by that diet. The results were phenomenal, I lost almost 30 pounds in 5 weeks. I was also hungry almost ever second of every day, my complained of my body odor (side effect of ketosis) and I hated the taste of a lot of the food. I ended up making it through the 5 weeks I’d committed to with a little help from a great coach (who also sold me the food). I even got my wife to join me for the last week.

We have about 5 days of food left at that point and I’d picked through the best they had, so what remained was the worst of the worst. Thanks to Optivia I finally got under 300 lbs, which had been eluding me for four years. (At my heaviest, I was working at my first real job with benefits and everything and I was stressed so bad I hated waking up in the morning–thank you Vancouver Housing Department. I weighed 375 lbs developed sleep apnea, high blood pressure, and bombed out of college. But that’s another story.) I’d fought my way down to 315 lbs but Optivia got me down to 289 lbs in a little over a month. I was able to stay between 290 lbs and 295 lbs for a year.

Want to know my secret for keeping the weight off? I promised myself that if I ever broke 300 lbs again I’d have to eat the rest of the Optivia food. I put the rest of the food in the garage fridge and everytime I went of 295 lbs I’d go look at it, shutter, and drop a lbs or two on the spot.

Well, I got so distracted moving my family upstairs so mom could have the main floor master in our rental, and packing mom, and selling her house, etc. I popped to 302.8 lbs. So I kicked off this 63 days with my “punishment food.” I gotta say, it’s not as bad as I remember. Of course its only day 2 of 5 so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel. God is with me and whenever my wife is tempted to lose her temper with me she just looks at what I’m eating and shutters. I’m being punished enough.

Update

I woke up at 4:55AM but didn’t get out of bed until 5:40. I’m not sure how to score that. I was able to pray so it didn’t put me behind schedule much, but I really don’t want to lay around in bed unless it’s the weekend.

My weight today was 300.6 which is great, Day 2 was 301.2, Day 1 was 302.8, so I’m still trending the right direction. We got the keys to the new house yesterday and we took my daughter, Olivia, to see the inside for the first time. We tried to get some measurements and go over our reno plan…and we discovered places we’ll need to change things up. Glad to find out now rather than later.

I also met with my pastor and made a plan for the grief recovery class I need to take to move ahead with that side of my career. As soon as we finalize things that will start, hopefully soon. I’m also trying to learn a new writing deliverable at my copy writing business. It’s something a major client asked me to take on, and I’m eager to add that modality, but it’s more challenging than I had anticipated. I may give some details about that in a future post–it depends on how challenging it turns out to be.

Today…I have writing business to catch up on, and I really need to meet with my Mom and my Wife to firm up our reno plan now that things have shifted a bit. I also need to start buying supplies and take them to the new house. My daughter has early release from school today, and it’s my turn to get her. I wonder if schools have a concept of how much it blows up a parent’s schedule to have these short days.

I’ll look forward to writing again tomorrow, when I’ll give some details about my “this season” plans for either wealth/income, wisdom, or productivity/organization. Soon I’ll start posting some pics of the reno work at the new house. This is our 3rd house but our 2nd big remodel–very exciting.