Personal Development;Life Enhancement;Achievement
Health
A Bit About Goal Setting
Sep 1st
“If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.” ~Henry David Thoreau, Walden, 1854
As I write this, I am sitting in a coffee shop on the South side of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I have just finished walking for an hour around Lake Calhoun, one of the beautiful string of lakes and parks that help to make this city such a delight. Even though I am traveling on business here today, I made time for this walk – regular walking is a critical component to my achieving the goal that I shared last time. (The weather here is so nice today, it really was not a challenge at all to get myself out walking – today the challenge was to quit at an hour!)
I am going to be sharing just a bit more about my health goal for next year. I’m doing this for a couple of reasons. First, I want to clearly state to the world, and of course myself, exactly what I am going to do. (The how I am going to do this comes later – I certainly don’t know all of the how yet, but I have faith that I will find it.) Second, some of the ways that I have formed this goal, and am now committing to it, may be of use to some of my readers.
To recap, last time I shared that I had committed to the goal of getting myself back in shape in the coming twelve months. I made this goal public on this blog to get leverage on myself. Getting leverage on yourself can be a very good thing indeed. So can making a public commitment to getting something accomplished. I realized today that I had not been very specific in the details that I shared about that goal. Here are those missing specifics:
- By July 1st, 2011, I will weigh no more than 195 lbs (dressed in summer workout gear including shoes). This is very specific.
- My bodyfat percentage will be no more than 15% and I will have this professionally measured by a personal trainer at my health club.
- I will also be very aerobically fit. I will measure that this way: I will be jogging at least 3 times per week for at least 30 minutes each time at a pace no slower than 10 minutes per mile. Additionally, I will be bike riding at least 3 times per week for at least 1 hour each time at a pace no slower than 10 miles per hour.
Now that is a decently written goal for me and here are some of the reasons why:
- It is doable in the time frame (barely!).
- It is very measurable.
- It does take into account some larger aspects of my life. (I must be aerobically fit and has a healthy ending bodyfat percentage – it isn’t just about my ending weight.)
- Accomplishing this goal will open up lots of other aspects of my life as well.
Okay. Enough for today about my getting in great shape goal. Here is a question for you: Should you always share your goals publicly? I say no. Next time I’ll talk more about the why and why not of this.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“It is never too late to be who you might have been.” ~George Eliot
A Renewed Commitment to Health
Aug 31st
“The part can never be well unless the whole is well.” ~Plato
Thirteen years ago, almost exactly to the day that I am writing this, I quit smoking. I didn’t quit because I got sick. I was a very fit smoker; I would jog four miles at a nice eight minute per mile pace and then light up a cigarette as soon as I finished. I quit for other reasons.
It had been obvious to me for years that I needed to quit. The smell, the expense, the increased risk of cancer – all of these bothered me – but they weren’t enough. I finally stopped because my career as a public speaker, and my beliefs about what it truly meant to live a successful life, and the habit of smoking had become completely incompatible. I just could not continue to talk about success when I was addicted to a substance that I knew was not good for me. So, I quit. It was a horrific process, but I made it thru. Thirteen years later and I have never smoked again.
I did however gain weight after I quit smoking; I gained lots of weight. In the year after I quit smoking I gained nearly ninety pounds of bodyweight and I still carry most of this excess today.
So, I find myself back in a very similar situation to the one that I found myself in thirteen years ago: being overweight and the health consequences of that are no longer compatible with the rest of my life. I have committed to returning to my ideal bodyweight and body-fat percentage within the next twelve months. I don’t know all of how I will accomplish this yet, but I am going to make it happen. Wish me the best and follow along as I travel back in time to a much younger and fitter body. I will be updating my blog weekly with my efforts and my results.
Also, since I am releasing a book about goals and achievement next year, this seemed like a great time and place to use this leverage on myself for myself! More about this process next time.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“The greatest wealth is health.” ~Virgil
Ready to Learn the Rules of Life?
Nov 4th
“Life is succession of lessons which must be lived to be understood” ~Helen Keller
I just finished reading “If Life is a Game, These are the Rules” by Cherie Carter-Scott Ph.D and it was a great experience! I am not sure why it took me so long to run across this wonderful little guide-book for life. It was originally published in 1998 and I do read a lot, especially in the fields of self-help and self-development. I am going to assume that I was not ready for the lessons contained in the book until now. (If Cherie should run across this entry, my apology in advance. I just could not figure out how to get that mark over the first “e” in your first name. Sorry about that!)
I am not going to repeat all of the ten lessons from the book; I am going to encourage you to buy a copy to read if you don’t already own one. I do want to share just the first three rules…
Rule One: You Will Receive a Body – You may love it or hate it, but it will be yours for the duration of your life on Earth.
Rule Two: You Will Be Presented With Lessons – You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called “life.” Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or hate them, but you have designed them as part of your curriculum.
Rule Three: There Are No Mistakes, Only Lessons – Growth is a process of experimentation, a series of trials, errors, and occassional victories. The failed experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that work.
These three rules really called out to me and in light of my recent illness and my new dedication to the health and vitality of my body, I know that I am ready to learn.
Do yourself a favor – go find this book. Here is a link to Carter-Scott’s website which is also a great education in and of itself.
Till next time faithful readers…Jack
“I am learning all the time. The tombstone will be my diploma.” ~Eartha Kitt
Illness, Recovery and Change
Nov 2nd
“You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you’ll discover will be wonderful. What you’ll discover is yourself.” ~Alan Alda
I have been ill again – terribly ill and only able to function at the most trivial levels for nearly three weeks. This illness, this being unwell, has been a recurring event in my life, really for a significant portion of the last seven years. In many ways, it feels like being ill, or operating at well under my former energy levels, has been the defining state of the previous stage of my life. I say previous because I know that I am beginning the next stage of my life and this new stage, this stage that is being born now, is about very different things.
I am not completely sure what the stage of my life that is now ending was all about, but I do know some. I did lots of things. I learned lots of things. I had successes and I had lots of things that turned out very differently than I hoped. I know that during these years I learned what my calling is for the next stage of my life: I am, and am meant to be, a writer, a business and executive coach and a seminar leader. This wasn’t clear at the beginning of this stage – seven years ago I was returning to the working world after a nearly ten year retirement and I was very unclear about the next focus of my life’s work.
I had always been a big risk-taker. Following my intuition, leaping and then having faith that I could find a way to make it work – this had been my pattern and a driving force behind why I was able to be retired at such an early age. I had found the ways to make it work and my intuition is usually right. (It is sometimes hard to tell my intuition from fear or from unrealized dreams of my parents, but if I get quiet and honest, I can tell.) I had always been a very quick learner and I came into this world with a great toolbox of skills – although I have always achieved a great deal compared to many others – compared to my abilities – I have been in the past one of the great underachievers of the past fifty years.
I’m not going to go over at this time the details of how I learned my calling; that might be fun to talk about some other time though. I am going to talk just a bit more about being ill. Why was I ill so much?
- I didn’t make being vibrantly healthy a priority and
- being sick stopped me from taking too many risks and starting too many projects.
I think it is as simple as that. When I honestly look at the past seven years and ask myself:
- What could I have done differently that would have drastically increased my health?
- Did I gain anything by being sick or unwell so much of the time?
Then I get the answers from above. I didn’t make health a priority and I needed to learn focus and a bit of conservatism in my choices. So have I learned? Perhaps not quite, but I am close. If my calling, what I am supposed to be doing right now is to be a writer, a business and executive coach and a seminar leader and I leave it there, then I have not learned. My body is aging and needs to become a priority – every single day.
Now I will think of myself as:
- A Peak Performance Athlete
- A Writer
- A Business and Executive Coach
- A Seminar Leader
Will this change be en0ugh? As long as action follows intention then yes it will. Come along for the ride and let’s find out together. It’s not always easy being born – I may yell sometimes and make some messes; still my new life is out there and I want to live it!
For those of you waiting for me to finish talking about some great topics that I started and never finished, thank you for your patience! The rest is coming.
Till next time…Jack
“Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.” ~Buddha
Making Money Online and Writing Part 7
Aug 20th
“Procrastination is opportunity’s assassin.” ~Victor Kiam
I’ve been procrastinating. There is no other way to say it. Some other time we can explore the causes and cures for procrastination. For today, I’ll say what I believe: the root cause is almost always fear combined with poorly designed goals. So, now I am back on track and I apologize to my future self that is depending upon me to create my dream life.
What have I been doing, when I wasn’t procrastinating, to move my life forward? I thought today I would split my actions into two categories: 1) Personal and 2) Business
Personal
- I have been dieting successfully alternating between Atkins, Carbohydrate Addicts and Protein Fasting. I am now at my lowest weight in many years and I got to throw away a complete wardrobe and buy a smaller size. Now that was exciting!
- I have been working at licensing a boat and trailer that I picked up for a song. This has been much more complex that I expected and has been an excellent time and energy waster.
- I have been looking at houses to buy. The market is still dropping so we may still rent another year, but I am really tired of renting!
- I have been reading lots of books. This is one of my favorite ways to escape something I’d rather not do.
- I have been looking at new cars to buy. I am a recovering car addict, at the peak of my illness I owned 13 simultaneously, but in my defense it is getting to be time for a new car.
Business
- I have been using twitter fairly well and am getting in the habit of 3 daily tweets and following people of interest. I broke 1600 followers this morning just before I wrote this blog entry.
- I have been putting together a new seminar series for entrepreneurs and small business owners. I expect this series to be very well received and I will start marketing it in just a few days.
- I have been working with my existing coaching clients.
- I have been working with my existing consulting client (just one at this time).
What Have I Been Putting Off (and why!)
This is a much more interesting list and will be the subject of my next blog entry.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“To think too long about doing a thing often becomes its undoing.” ~Eva Young
Diet Results and Fat Loss Update
Aug 6th
“Life is always walking up to us and saying, “Come on in, the living’s fine,” and what do we do? Back off and take its picture.” ~Russell Baker
I have had a problem with my weight since I became a non-smoker in May of 1999. Before that, my weight would fluctuate up and down and was relatively easy to control. I’d get heavier slowly if I stopped exercising and I would lose weight quickly by adding exercise back into my life. I really didn’t need to pay much attention to what I ate or how much of it. Once I became a non-smoker, everything changed!
I began to rapidly gain weight and nothing that I did seemed to make a difference. I exercised, I dieted, I fasted – nothing stopped the weight gain. Within 12 months, I had gained 95 pounds. My waist went from a relatively trim 36 inches to a whopping 46 inches. I competely lost my ability to run or jog; I was just too heavy and it hurt my knees. It was fairly common for me, when I was a smoker, to go out and run 4 miles in 35 minutes or so, and then light up a cigarette as soon as I finished running. I played tennis at a good competitive level in the smoking days and I was proud of the fact that I could beat almost everyone that I played while smoking – literally holding a cigarette in my off hand while I was returning serve.
I became desperate to make a change. I thought many times of becoming a smoker again even though I was committed to being a non-smoker. Smoking violated almost everything that I believed was true about health and it particularly violated what I was speaking about – success and the ability to change. In those smoking days, I had to carefully plan all of my seminars so that I had time, every hour, to smoke a cigarette, brush my teeth and get back on stage -all without the audience noticing. I felt like a liar. This wasn’t what really kept me from going back to smoking though. What kept me from going back was a promise that I had made.
A Promise That I Wouldn’t Break
In the last months of my smoking addiction, I was splitting my tiime between San Francisco and Vancouver, British Columbia. I was dating a great gal that lived in the Bay Area and we were talking about getting engaged to be married. She had a cold that wouldn’t go away and after numerous visits with doctors, we got the horrible news that she had advanced agressive breast cancer. Talk about life changing news, everything changed as we tried to overcome this disease. I am still humbled and inspired by the courage and efforts of my friend Becki as she lived with this and did her best to recover.
Next Time
Sorry to leave on such a note, but my time is gone for today. I have coaching and consulting starting in just a few minutes. Next time I’ll finish the story, talk about what wonders NLP did for my cancer riddled friend, and talk about what is finally working for me in regaining my health and optimal bodyweight.
Till next time faithful reader…Jack
“I still find each day too short for all the thoughts I want to think, all the walks I want to take, all the books I want to read and all the friends I want to see.” ~John Burroughs
Fasting, Imagination and Dreams
Jul 13th
“All the things one has forgotten scream for help in dreams.” ~Elias Canetti
Protein Fasting
I am starting to protein fast again today. It was very effective during the 3 days that I protein fasted 2 weeks ago and I thought I would go for a longer period of time and see how I do. Please understand that I am not recommending that anyone start or go on a fast; this is a huge and challenging commitment and without training and support – likely to be a very unpleasant experience. If you have training and support and a trained medical specialist to work with well – then consider fasting. The health benefits are huge – the psychological challenges are great to overcome, and you will lose weight faster than any other diet.
So, I am going to protein fast for 8 days this time. I will consume only water, protein powder free of carbohydrates and fats, and one essential oil capsule per day. I am going to consume approximately one hundred and eighty five grams of protein each day and at least four liters of water each day. Wish me luck!
A Come As You Will Be Party
My wife and I are having a small “come as you will be party” today. It will be a hoot. We are going to dress and act and talk just as we imagine that we will once we have already achieved our goals for the next five years. I have never participated in this kind of event before and I’m excited. The idea for this comes from chapter twelve of Jack Canfield’s book: The Success Principles. I would put this one on your list of books worth the time to read. I’ll talk more about this event and how it went soon.
There is Power to Change in Dreams
I decided to write down some more reasons to lose fat and get back into optimal health. These are very personal reasons and they excite me. When I think about doing them and achieving them, I feel motivated and motivation is a very good thing indeed while fasting!
Some more things I want to do:
- I want to run with the bulls in Pamplona Spain.
- I want to climb Kilimanjaro in Africa.
- I want to learn to hang-glide.
- I want to learn to parachute jump.
- I want to compete in the Paris to Dakar race.
What do all of these have in common? Well for me, I better be in much better shape to have a decent chance of surviving any of them! How about you? What are your dreams and what do you need to change to make them happen?
Till next time…Jack
“Dreams are today’s answers to tomorrow’s questions.” ~Edgar Cayce
Protein Fasting Results
Jun 23rd
“Commit to be fit”. ~Author Unknown
So I did complete my 3 day protein only fast. I ended up losing 7 pounds of bodyweight in those 3 days. My energy was pretty good during those days – I was able to walk and workout and function at a fairly high level. Today was my first heavy workout since I returned to more normal eating. I will be curious to see how sore I am tomorrow. In the past, when I would water fast, I would be quite sore after my initial workouts. I expect to see some different results with this protein fast. The really intriguing question will be anwered over the next week: What did protein fasting do to my set-point? Or to say it another way: how much of that 7 pounds do I keep off in the next week?
Stay tuned for more adventures in returning to optimal bodyweight!
Bye for now…Jack
“A bear, however hard he tries, grows tubby without exercise”. ~A.A. Milne
Fasting and the Next Step
Jun 17th
“The best of all medicines is resting and fasting” ~ Benjamin Franklin
I am going to fast for the next 3 days. This will be a little different than the fasts that I have done before – my longest water only fast was 24 days – for this fast I will be exercising and taking vitamins and consuming protein – only protein. I am not going to be eating any carbohydrates. I am not going to be eating any fats – with the exception of the fats that I am going to supplement thru flax seed oil and fish oil. I am only going to be consuming protein. How much protein? Well, for this short experiment, I am going to consume approximately 180 grams of protein per day. This works out to about 1 gram of protein for each pound of what I would like my lean body mass to be.
So, why am I doing this? I am doing this because I am ready for the next step in returning to my ideal weight. I’ve made great progress this year. I am wearing clothes smaller in size than I have been able to wear in nearly 7 years. Still, I have a long way to go and I am anxious to get there.
So, why a protein fast? I want to see how well I feel while protein fasting and I also want to see how it affects my set-point. I think that water fasting has a natural tendency to raise my set-point…the natural weight that my body tries to maintain. I want to see if exercise and protein fasting will achieve a similar result in quick weight loss without raising my set-point.
I have water fasted before and experienced great results. Water fasting is a wonderful way to heal yourself from serious injury. Water fasting is however very challenging mentally and ultimately, the weight that you lose comes back. I’m going to see how protein fasting works instead…just for three days! Stay tuned and see what happens. I will be blogging and tweeting about this daily.
Till next time…Jack
“Life expectancy would grow by leaps and bounds if green vegetables smelled as good as bacon”. ~Doug Larson
And the Winner is…
Feb 9th
“You can be anything you want to be, if only you believe with sufficient conviction and act in accordance with your faith; for whatever the mind can conceive and believe, the mind can achieve.” ~Napoleon Hill
Atkins. I have decided that I am going to use the Atkins Low-Carbohydrate diet as my mine dietary tool for getting back in shape. I used this diet successfully the last time that I got into decent shape and it worked well for me – with one glaring exception – previously I had a strong tendency for gout attacks while using this diet. I think I have this worked out now with the addition of some different supplementation.
For those of you familiar with Atkins, I will stay at the induction level of carbohydrate consumption until I am nearly at my ideal bodyweight of 195 pounds. Should this occasionally become too challenging, for example when I am on vacation with my family, then I will follow the Carbohydrate Addicts Diet. This is the diet from the Heller’s and is one of the few other diets that Dr, Atkins also felt had validity. I have also used the diet in the past. For me, I did not lose weight at any significant rate while following this diet, but I also never gained any weight – for me this is a good thing.
I am not choosing Atkins at random. I have tried many diets in the past. I have tried being a vegetarian. I managed this for 3 months and was enjoying it in some ways – until I developed an allergic reaction to soy and soy-containing products. I was using soy as my main source of protein and my body had eventually had enough and told me this in spectacular and unforgettable ways. No more vegetarianism for this boy.
I have tried the South Beach Diet. This is another one that allowed me to comfortably maintain my weight but did very little for helping me to lose weight. It is something that I can use once I get back in shape to stay that way.
I have tried calorie counting and all of it’s variations. I am not a good calorie counter – in fact it drives me crazy. When I can afford a professional chef that works for me and my family, then I will consider this one again and the chef can count the calories!
I will talk more about Atkins and low-carbohydrate dieting in future entries, probably once per week or so. I expect it to work very well indeed – as long as I do my part and keep my carb consumption under 20 grams.
Till next time…Jack
I book-ended this entry with quotes from Hill and Carnegie. Can any of you tell me the connection – there is more than one!
“Here is the prime condition of success: Concentrate your energy, thought and capital exclusively upon the business in which you are engaged. Having begun on one line, resolve to fight it out on that line, to lead in it, adopt every improvement, have the best machinery, and know the most about it.” ~Andrew Carnegie