Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Goals, Perseverance, problem-solving, Problems, Weight Loss

“Problems are not stop signs, they are guidelines.” – Robert H. Schuller

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/robert_h_schuller_107067?src=t_motivational

I’m still tracking my weight loss. Today’s weigh-in: 217lbs. One more pound. Steady and slow, but steady.

Today’s exercise routine was a Back and Bicep workout, coupled with 26 minutes of Cardio. I’m eating 5-6 meals a day but focusing on minimal carb intake (between 20 and 50 grams). I’ve discovered over the last year that I lose weight when I can keep the carbs low.

We are all unique. What works for me, may not work for you. What works for your brother or sister, may not work for you. It’s taken me a while to understand this concept, but it does apply to the types of foods you can eat and tolerate, the type of exercise your body responds to, the amount of sleep you need, and even the types of supplements that work or do not work.

I used to spend a lot of money on supplements. Now, I stick with just a pre- and -intra-workout powder. My body doesn’t like whey protein but loves meat. I can eat as much as I want and my body grinds through it. I recommend two different brands for pre-workouts that have proven to be effective—JYM Supplements and Kaged Muscle. I’m using Kaged Muscle’s pre- and intra-workout (named Prekaged and Inkaged appropriately). You can find these and other supplements on bodybuilding.com.

I’ll be candid with you. There are some days that I absolutely dread going to the gym. Today was one of those days. The caffeine and other ingredients in my pre-workout provide me with a nice boost and helps me get through days like today. Once I’m in the gym, I’m fine, but getting there is sometimes a challenge—this is when the pre-workouts really help me.

When we are pursuing goals, mistakes will be made, doubts will arise, and our motivation will be tested. These problems are all nudges to adjust our plans or reset milestones. When we pursue a goal, we are traveling over untraveled territory. Just like the settlers of the American West, we too will face challenges we are not prepared for. Like Schuller suggests, we adjust. We change gears. We pick a new route. We do not quit, we reformulate.

My road to weight loss will continue until I’ve gotten off the fat I want to get off. It will not stop. It will not cease. I will persevere.

Keep these things in mind as you pursue your goals of writing a book, creating a business, learning a new language or skill. You will run into problems—it is inevitable. Just remember: problems guide us, they identify something we didn’t think about when we first laid our plans. Keep going, keep adjusting, keep moving—you will get where you want to go—just don’t quit.

Until next time…

Dave

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Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Conscious Competence, Conscious Incompetence, Daily Rituals, Persistence, Unconscious Competence, Unconscious Incompetence

“Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” — Confucius

Today’s Monday Motivation is about persistence. Persistence is the ability to continue to move forward despite difficulties, failures, and doubt—it is the ability to continue that is a truly powerful ally, particularly when we run into challenges.

When I volunteered for Ranger School, one of the pieces of advice I received was from a recent graduate. That soldier told me that “persistence defeats resistance.” Boy, was he right. You really have no idea how hard this school is until you’re doing it. At one point in the final phase of the school, my body was so worn out that I was literally thriving on willpower alone. My body was just broke.

This same type of persistence is required when pursuing any type of goal that stretches your limits. I am on a journey to weight loss. I had a difficult back surgery in 2003 and have been struggling with my weight ever since. I’m making progress, but this progress is slow. I’m not concerned. Weight loss should be slow. It took me 15 years to get to the weight I am at, I’m not concerned if it takes me that much time to lose what I put on. I will achieve my goal.

I am also pursuing a goal of writing some books. Again, this is not an easy journey. It is tough work to create something-something that is original and my own. I will achieve my goal.

I am dedicated to living a healthy lifestyle. My physical and mental health is important. I meditate daily. I exercise daily. I continue to study and read all the latest information on improving physical and mental well-being. I will achieve my goal.

A key piece to mental health, particularly the brain is in eating right, sleeping enough, physical exercise, and mental exercise. I have embraced the concept of life-long learning. I also enjoy playing video games, not just because I find them fun and entertaining, but also because they stimulate the brain and my hand-eye coordination. I’m a big fan of strategy games and first-person shooters like Call of Duty.

I have set a personal goal of reading 36 books this year (around 3 a month). I’m close to hitting that goal. Once I achieve it, I’ll set my goal to 48 books next year. I have found that doing a little each day is really the key to achieving these types of goals. Frankly, it works for most of the things I am pursuing. Little things add up to really big things. Therefore, my focus is more on my daily accomplishments, rather than on long-term or even short-term goals. I have goals, but it is the daily accomplishment of critical tasks that build up in the long run. Read a chapter a day and you will read 365 chapters a year. I read much more than that, but you get the point.

Book writing is the same. Working just a little each day will build the book. As I get better at the writing process, writing more books will be much easier. It’s always the first step that poses the most difficulty. It is like taking a step in the dark when traversing uncharted territory. We take small steps initially. Once we gain confidence in the path, our steps are less tentative.

The key point to this posting is the ability to build confidence, by persevering. Each day we do something we get better at that task. Each time we improve our proficiency in something we are unskilled at, our confidence improves. If you have ever read any type of training or teaching material, you’ll realize the wisdom in the four levels of learning. These four levels are: 1) unconscious incompetence; 2) conscious incompetence; 3); conscious competence; and 4) unconscious competence. At each level, we grow in proficiency.

Initially, we must be taught, or we must learn how to do something we don’t know how to do. Then we begin to realize how little we know about a topic or task. After some practice, we become proficient in the task but need to pay attention to what we are doing. When we have truly mastered a task or skill, we can do the task without thinking about it. It is a part of us. This is the unconscious competence level. Authors like Stephen King are like this. This is how he has become so prolific in his writing. Another author that comes to mind that is like this is Isaac Asimov.

Persistence is required when we attempt anything new. Whether it is a new diet, a new exercise regimen, writing, public speaking, or web development. Every new skill we pursue requires us to pay a price. This price involves learning something new, then practicing and practicing and practicing. This process never ends—ever. You can’t master anything if you aren’t willing to make the sacrifice to learn the task and then practice the task until you become unconsciously competent in the performance of the task.

You will make mistakes. You will be frustrated. You will have to change course. This is what persistence is. I hope all of you have a great week!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Attitude, Responsibility, Self-control, Self-discipline, self-improvement

“There is only one corner of the universe you can be certain of improving, and that’s your own self.” – Aldous Huxley

Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/aldous_huxley_386738?src=t_motivational

Happy Monday!!

I hope everyone had a terrific weekend. It’s that time again—Motivation Monday!!! What do you control? What can you affect? You’ll find that the only thing you can control is you.

You can’t control your cube mate, you can’t control the other people on the road, you can’t control the attitude of the barista making your coffee. You can control your attitude. You can control what goes in your mouth and body. You can control your reaction to outside events and people. You can control what you read, what you listen to, and who you associate with.

Concentrate on the things you can control and your “circle of influence will increase”. Concentrate on the things you cannot control and your “circle of influence will decrease.” (Covey, 1989). Your circle of influence is composed of all the things you are in control of. Focus on your circle of influence and your life will turn around.

Some of you are working right now. Some of you are at home. Some of you are having a terrific day, while others dreaded going to work this morning. I’ve been there. I’ve also experienced the phenomenon that Covey (1999) addresses. I was more concerned about the things outside of me, rather than the ones inside.

It is so easy to play the victim. Why take personal responsibility when you can blame your parents, your siblings, your luck, or some other “outside” thing. Easy right? If there are all these outside things affecting my ability to perform it isn’t my fault. I am not responsible. Get it? This is why it is easy. This is why so many people fall into this trap. Taking responsibility is hard, but it is a necessary step to personal growth and effectiveness. The moment you own your life with all of its successes and failures will be the moment you begin to realize that you are in charge.

When you begin to realize that you have the power to change, the power to work on your weaknesses, the power to control your attitude and response to outside circumstances you will awaken to a new reality. A reality that you have complete control over. If there is something you do not like about yourself, read, study, learn how to make the change. There are articles, books, and YouTube videos that will show you how. You have all the power in the world to make the personal changes you want to make.

It’s up to you.

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

journaling, Meditation, minimalism, Positivity, Reading, rituals, Writing

“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/charles_r_swindoll_388332?src=t_motivational

As I prepare to attack the week ahead, I wanted to discuss how our attitude or reaction to our personal reality can affect our lives in good or bad ways. We can all recall good times and bad times in our lives, right? Who decides what is good or bad? We do.

If I were to take a survey of the people you work with, what would they say about their job? Odds are there will be some that love the job they do and the service they provide. Others will dread going to the job and if offered, leave at the earliest opportunity. The employee’s attitude colors their day. People that expect the bad will get exactly what they want. People that expect the goodwill also get exactly what they want. The trite expression about the glass-half-full or half-empty applies.

Each of us has a lens we use to observe our world. This lens is colored by our experiences, the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful. This lens can also be our paradigm. This is the internal map or neural pattern we use to identify common objects. It is also the map we use to assess our current situation.

Some, like the late Dr. Stephen Covey, believe we each have the power to alter or change our internal map. We can rewrite the script. Others believe that we can change our state of consciousness. The theory is if you can alter or rewrite your internal scripting you will naturally change your outlook.

I did this several years ago. My life was wrought with troubles. I was in a lot of debt, my marriage was failing, and I wasn’t performing that well at work. I started to think about why I always lost when others would win. I started to give credence to the statement that I could, in fact, rewrite my script.

I began journaling. I began dedicating time to meditation, exercise and eating right. I began to control what I let into my mind and what I protected my mind from. I began getting serious about my spirituality, reading my Bible (The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad), doing my daily spiritual exercises, and studying all I could.

I came across books like “Getting Things Done: The Art of Stress-free Productivity”, by David Allen, “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, by Dr. Stephen Covey, and learning more about nutrition, mindfulness, and minimalism. I began reading lots of articles about habits that bring about happiness and well-being.

Slowly my mindset changed. I realized that the bulk of the things I was doing was for someone else. My goals were about what I was supposed to do rather than what I wanted to do. In other words, I found the “why” behind my goals. At that moment, I began to alter my thinking. I began to realize that I could win if I changed how I approached life.

I began to look at my habits. I began to look at what I did each day. I began to look at what I was bringing into my world. I used to like watching horror movies. I used to like listening to death metal. I used to like eating a lot of garbage. I also had a lot of negative thoughts going through my mind, filled with worry, anger, and paranoia. One of the key things that caused me to change some of my habits was Masaru Emoto (see http://www.masaru-emoto.net/english/water-crystal.html) who has done some wonderful experiments learning the effect different things have on the formation of water crystals. Visit this website to see what I saw. The learning: What you think, what you hear, what you read, what you see affects your internal structure (70% water). Change the inputs of ugly, vulgar, lust, etc. to good, peace, love, happiness, etc., and you can alter yourself dramatically.

Besides adapting new habits, I also created rituals that house these habits into chunks of activity. I wrote down all the things I learned that I wanted in my life. I wanted to read daily, exercise daily, eat well daily, write daily, and learn new things daily. I also wanted to bring beauty, peace, and tranquility in my life. So, I began simply. I read a page a day, I did one push-up a day, I ate one healthy meal a day, I wrote a few sentences each day, and I try to read an article, watch an educational documentary, or read a blog posting.

I take life one day at a time. I focus on what I’m doing and do not allow myself to be distracted by the “noise” that tries to envelop each of us. I remain focused on my goals and do my best to edge ever closer to the finish line.

My attitude: Life is good, it will continue to get better. I will improve a little bit each day in all areas of my life. I will continue to evolve, learn, and grow.

I extend my well-wishes to each of you on your own personal journeys to greater understanding and happiness.

Until next time…

Dave

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Errors, Individual results, Learning, Long-term habits, Mistakes, Sustainability, Uniqueness

“If you fell down yesterday, stand up today.” – H. G. Wells
Read more at https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/h_g_wells_163592

Anything we embark on will result in errors. Making mistakes or bad decisions are all part of the learning we require when we begin doing something we have not done before. You can read about what others have done to accomplish a task, but I’ve found that regardless of the people we model, we will make our own unique mistakes.

Diets, exercise, and weight loss are all unique to the individual. Like I mentioned previously, my body is not very good at digesting carbohydrates. No one can avoid carbohydrates, but we can control where these carbohydrates come from. I typically get the carbohydrates in my diet from vegetables. It is our uniqueness that makes dieting so difficult, but with persistence, you will find a solution to your dieting that will work just for you. Take the time to read about nutrition. Research the various diets out there. You’ll find the solution, but you must be persistent and really want it.

Our unique disposition, psychology, physiology, are blessings. They allow us to contribute differently from others around us. They require that we go out and investigate how we are different from others. When it comes to diet, experiment. Learn. Once you have discovered a truism for you, stick with it.

One warning, however. We change. Foods I used to like and eat, no longer interest me. Foods that my body liked or had no issue with have also changed. There are no fast or quick ways to lose weight. Realize that the damage you’ve done over the years from eating a poor diet or the foods your body doesn’t like, cannot be undone overnight. It takes time. Keep this in mind during your diet. Your new diet must be sustainable over the long-term and must be satisfying. If you don’t like the diet or it causes problems, you’ll soon drop it and return to your previous habits.

You will slip. You’ll succumb to that piece of pizza or bowl of ice cream. Don’t beat yourself up. Just pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and pick your diet right back up again. Exercise is also like this. Keep going back to the gym or getting back on that treadmill, bike, or elliptical in your home. Over time, particularly when you begin to see the benefits of exercise, you’ll find that exercise is a part of your life. Again, make small adjustments initially. Whatever exercise routine you embark on, it must be sustainable for the long-term. Trying to go from zero activity to an hour of cardio is just not going to stick around too long. It is too much, too quickly. Start with 20 minutes a day and elevate this by 5 minutes each week. You’ll be at the recommended time of 35 minutes plus in three weeks.

Below are the actions I’m taking to forge forward on my weight-loss journey, writing, reading, and learning journeys. I hope you have a terrific week!!

Physical:

Decided to up the intensity of my workout. The Labrada trainer just wasn’t doing it. I’ve moved to a full-body workout, along with cardio. I’m up to 40 minutes a day this week.

I’m pleased to announce another pound loss. My last weigh-in was 220lbs.

I’m using the combination of a low-carb diet and intermittent fasting, which is working well.

Mental:

My goal is to finish 12 online courses by year’s end. I am at 6 so far. I finished the Udemy Non-fiction writing course last week. Still working on Public Policy and Learning How to Learn.

I also want to read 36 books this year. I’m at 28 books out of 36. I finished three books last week!

I’m heading to the library to begin research for my book project. The goal is to finish the rough draft by the end of the year.

Spiritual:

My goal here is to finish my discourse by year’s end, read my Bible daily, Meditate/Pray twice a day, and keep a dream and gratitude journal. All of this is on track so far.

I am participating in a workshop in Canada, another workshop here in Michigan in September, and already served on a panel and gave a talk at our spiritual center in February.

Social:

My goals are to build my readership to 500 by year’s end. I’m currently at 405! If you know anyone that would benefit from my blog, please send them my way!

Attended a Sound of Soul meetup, held by the local Eckankar group. Great fun and a nice dinner afterward!

I got in a lot of reading this week. I will be getting some research done for my book starting tomorrow and getting on a steady writing schedule, beyond this blog. I can’t wait to dig in.

Well, that’s my week folks!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Confucius, Consistency, Daily Rituals, Exercising, Learning, Reading, Writing

“It does not matter how slowly you go as long as you do not stop.” Confucius
Read more at Brainy Quote

Consistency is critical to our success. Doing little things each day will contribute more to your success than doing a whole lot in one day. I call these things my daily rituals and they work, at least for me.

Pick one thing you’d like to improve–say reading. Instead of trying to read a whole day, just read one chapter or a few pages. Do this every day and you’ll be reading more books in a year than you did previously. It’s all about consistent effort.

The same applies to exercise, learning, or writing. Just do a little each day for a pre-set time period and you’ll be better for it. Consistency is key.

Here’s what I’m up to…

Physical:

My goal is to get my body fat down to 15% by year’s end.

My last weigh-in was this morning: 224 lbs.

Bodyfat 33%

Currently following the Labrada 12-week lean body trainer. I just finished week 1 today, 11 weeks to go.

Mental:

My goal is to finish 12 online courses by year’s end. I am at 6 so far. I finished the Udemy Non-fiction writing course last week. Still working on Public Policy and Learning How to Learn.

I also want to read 36 books this year. I’m at 23 so far.

Writing my blog post every day except Sunday and work through my non-fiction project daily (knocking off little bite-size pieces as I go). Right now I’m researching, analyzing my reader and audience, and putting together topics that I’ll organize later.

Spiritual:

My goal here is to finish my discourse by year’s end, read my Bible daily, Meditate/Pray twice a day, and keep a dream and gratitude journal. All of this is on track so far.

I am participating in a workshop in Canada, another workshop here in Michigan in September, and already served on a panel and gave a talk at our spiritual center in February.

Social:

My goals are to build my readership to 500 by year’s end. I’m currently at 386! If you know anyone that would benefit from my blog, please send them my way!

Attended a Sound of Soul meetup, held by the local Eckankar group. Great fun and a nice dinner afterward!

My niece visited this week and we had some great fun. We went out to eat, saw a movie, and talked on our back porch. It was good to see her (she’s on her way back home to AZ as of an hour ago).

Well, that’s my week folks! I hope you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday

Tags

Goals, Mental, Physical, Social, Spiritual, Systems and rituals, Your "why"

“Infuse your life with action. Don’t wait for it to happen. Make it happen. Make your own future. Make your own hope. Make your own love. And whatever your beliefs, honor your creator, not by passively waiting for grace to come down from upon high, but by doing what you can to make grace happen… yourself, right now, right down here on Earth.” – Bradley Whitford

I’m going to give you some “inside information” about how I tailor my life. From all of the readings I have done, I believe there are four areas of life: Physical, Mental, Spiritual, and Social. Going forward I’ll be discussing my efforts in each of these areas, along with my goals. Then you can keep me honest!

Before getting into that (below), I’d like to say that you will only get the things you want in your life by going after them in a thoughtful and systematic way. ACT! You won’t get anything if you sit on your duff and dream about it. You have to get up, get moving, and do something! Before you commence work in any area, however, really understand why YOU want to do it. Never pursue a goal that someone else is doing or someone wants you to do. You pursue the goals you want to but understand why you want to achieve it. The WHY is really important. The WHY will help you pay the price your goal requires.

Physical:

My goal is to get my body fat down to 15% by year’s end.

My last weigh-in was this morning: 225 lbs.

I have a scale that I use to calculate body fat. It says: 36%

I just finished the Kris Gethin 8-week Hardcore trainer yesterday and lost 20 lbs. I weighed 245 lbs when I started and probably upward of 45% body fat.

This week will be a maintenance week to recover a bit and then it’s off to the races next week with another program. This one will be another Kris Gethin workout called 4 weeks to shred. I wanted to change up the routine a bit and this workout will do nicely.

Until I hit my target, my workouts will be concentrating on either weight loss workout routines or transformation routines.

Wish me luck!

Mental:

My goal is to finish 12 online courses by year’s end. I am at 6 so far. I finished the Udemy Non-fiction writing course last week. Still working on Public Policy and Learning How to Learn.

I also want to read 36 books this year. I’m at 17 so far.

Spiritual:

My goal here is to finish my discourse by year’s end, read my Bible daily, Meditate/Pray twice a day, and keep a dream and gratitude journal. All of this is on track so far.

I am participating in a workshop in Canada, another workshop here in Michigan in September, and already served on a panel and gave a talk at our spiritual center in February.

Social:

My goals are to build my readership to 500 by year’s end. I’m currently at 368! If you know anyone that would benefit from my blog, please send them my way!

I am also going to a comedy show with my Sister this weekend in Detroit and enjoy interacting with folks at both gyms I go to (Planet Fitness and Cutting Edge).

Well, that’s my week folks! I hope you have a terrific week!

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday!

Tags

Books, Classes, Exercise, motivation, Movies

“Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough.” – Og Mandino

This week has a full menu of activity.

I’m in the last week (week 8) of Kris Gethin’s Hardcore Trainer. This week will be tough, but I’ll see it through to the end. Weight loss so far is about 11 pounds. I’ll give you the final weight next week after I finish this bad boy on Sunday.

Books I’m reading:

• The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad
• The Spiritual Exercises of ECK
• The Tiger’s Fang
• Turn your passion into a thriving business
• Andersonville: A story of rebel military prisons
• The Orion Plague
• Uncle Tom’s Cabin
• The Science of Getting Rich

Movies and Entertainment:

• Season 5 of Hell on Wheels
• The West
• The Hollow
• Goliath Season 2

Courses I’m taking:

• Learning how to learn (Coursera)
• Nonfiction book writing (Udemy)
• Public Policy (Hillsdale)

Book Review:

I just finished Kris Gethin’s Bio: The Transformer and found it to be a really interesting read. Since he’s one of the many trainers I follow for the workout, supplementation, nutrition, and overall weightlifting advice, the book was especially important to me. I really enjoyed learning about Kris’ background and where he grew up. A really great book if you’re into this kind of thing.

Well, that’s it for this week’s Monday Motivation. I hope all of you have a great week! I’m headed to the gym for weights and cardio 2 of today’s workout routine.

Until next time…

Dave

 

 

Daily Ramblings – Motivation Monday!

Tags

Mental, motivation, Physical, Social, Spiritual

Happy Monday, folks!

This week we’ll be tackling week 7 of Kris Gethin’s 8-week Hardcore Trainer, which means? You guessed it, we are upping cardio sessions another 5 minutes. This week we are doing two 50-minute cardio sessions.

I recorded my weight at 234, which is 11 pounds down from my starting 245. That’s good progress because I feel my body fat percentage decreasing as well. Last year, when I visited my physician for an annual physical and blood work, I was at 33%. I’m set to hit my annual physical again in September and know by the time I knock this workout and the others I have scheduled for 2018 that I will be much lower, probably around 24-20%. That’s the goal anyway.

This week’s macros are reduced again. I’ll be eating 190 grams of protein and 111 grams of carbohydrates on training days and 190 grams of protein and 89 grams of carbohydrates on non-training days (Saturday and Sunday). With this current workout regimen, I hit cardio twice a day, 7 days a week. So, that means these rest days are deemed “active” rest days.

That covers the physical component of my week. Now we look at the mental or learning portion. I will be finishing up my Udemy course on non-fiction book writing, start week 2 for Learning how to learn, offered by UC San Diego via Coursera, and continuing with the Public Policy course offered by Hillsdale College.

Spiritually, I’ll be doing some random acts of kindness online, by reaching out to friends and telling them how much they mean to me. I’ll pick a few I have not spoken with in a while and it’ll be a nice thing. Along with this my spiritual reading: The Living Word Book 2 by Sri Harold Klemp, The Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad by Paul Twitchell, and two spiritual exercises daily. One is a written form, while the other is a meditative practice that I conduct prior to going to bed (usually around midnight).

Within the social realm, I am going to my monthly meetup group today at 4 PM, then we have Father’s Day this week. I’ll be taking my Mom and Dad out to a dine-in Theater to watch a movie of their choice. I’ll also be doing some video calls with one of my good friends, brother, and sister this week.

My other reading includes: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Andersonville, The Transformer (Kris Gethin), The Orion Plague, and that is all she wrote folks.

What do you have planned for the week folks? If you are comfortable sharing, leave me a note in the comments section.

Have a great week everyone!

Until next time…

Dave

Daily Ramblings – Monday Motivation – Optimism

Tags

Acting as-if, Faith, Hope, Online Learning, Optimism, Reading, Weightlifting

“Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.” – Helen Keller

I don’t know about you, but I’m always fired up at the beginning of the week. I look forward to the challenges, the tasks I’ve laid out for myself, and the work that has to be accomplished. I love checking things off!

This week is week 6 of the workout routine I’m on. I’ve lost 10lbs so far. I’ve finally broken down and got my meal trays and prepped my meals yesterday. This should have a dramatic effect on my last two weeks. I don’t know why I resisted this practice, but I, being the typical hard head, did. Anyway, I’ll keep you all posted on my progress as I head into the final week (2 weeks from now).

This week I’ll be hitting cardio for 45 minutes twice a day. I do one session in the morning and then the 2nd one after my weight lifting routine. I have found this to be a real learning experience. It seems when I am doing cardio after the weight work that muscle soreness has been very limited over the last 5 weeks.

I’m reading quite a few books: Uncle Tom’s Cabin, Andersonville, Shariyat-Ki-Sugmad Books 1 and 2, the Stranger by the River, The Living Word book one, The Orion Plague, The Science of Getting Rich, and yet another book on blogging.

This week I’ll be taking some more online courses: Non-fiction book writing on Udemy, Public Policy offered by Hillsdale College, and this is the last week of the Wellness course offered by Yale. I’ll have to go looking for some new course content soon.

My brother just left for home on Saturday. It was a nice visit. My niece is headed out here toward the end of the month. Most of my extended family in Phoenix do whatever they can to get out of the heat of the summer. Michigan is a nice break from the heat out there.

Well, that’s it for today folks. Are any of you doing anything exciting this week? Are you involved in any projects you’re passionate about? Share them here if you are comfortable doing so.

Until next time…

Dave