Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Angered to tears!!!

Have you ever been so mad that it made you cry? It happens to me once in a great while and the tears usually come after a fit of rage; that was the case this morning. So, as I type this, I am sitting at my desk in tears! It has been a very tiring couple of weeks and there are a lot of things on my mind. So, I will be the first to admit that I am probably a little more emotional than normal …

I just heard a very popular TV personality (who I will not name, not because I have illusions that my blog would affect them negatively, just the way I was trained) say that every person that has a weight problem has a medical issue. I literally cussed at the TV! I AM LIVID!!!

I am not naive enough to think that no one that struggles with weight has a medical issue; however, my experience tells me that most people that struggle with weight have a food issue … I DO!!! In my opinion, when this TV personality said that, it gave every person sitting on their couch eating Doritos reason to stay there and not make the changes necessary to get healthy! In the next few seconds they talked about the fact that this person was in the gym everyday at 5am … WHY? If I am genetically predispositioned to be fat, why are you not predispositioned to be thin and healthy … If I have a medical condition that makes me this way, you should be that way simply because you don’t have the condition!!!!

I used to weigh nearly 400 pounds! I confirmed 380 (but had already lost a bit), but when you are that big, it is hard to find a scale that will weigh you … I lost down to 260ish by HARD WORK and proper nutrition! When I made the decision to change careers without the money in savings to carry us through the transition, and couldn’t find work for 6 months, it was cheaper to eat poorly and I felt like the gym was an expense I needed to do without … HUGE MISTAKE!!! I went from 260ish all the way back up to almost 350 over the course of 2 years. Do you know why? FLOYD HAS A FOOD PROBLEM!!!!

I am happy to say, that I am back on track! I am back down to 290 and I am in the gym no less than 3 days a week (usually 5). I have 30 more pounds to loose to get back to my lowest since my son was born … He’s 17! I think I can get than done by the end of the year. I have 75 pounds to go to get to my goal … That will come by hard work and proper nutrition.

Speaking as a fat and formerly fatter person, we don’t need people to make excuses for us that make it easy to remain unhealthy and die! We need people to be honest with us and most of all, we need to be honest with ourselves!!! And, we need to, by whatever means necessary get our life’s back!!!!

At one point in my immaturity, I said some pretty stupid things about weight loss methods (surgeries, acupuncture, medical procedures), I regret every one of them!!! A person that struggles with their weight needs to, by whatever means necessary, change their thinking!!! I have a friend that weighed nearly 500lbs … Had weight loss surgery, changed his thinking and has lost over 200! The key is he changed his brain! The affects of the surgery will only last so long if you don’t change your brain! To be honest, I considered the surgery, but I knew that if I did that, I would soon be struggling again because I would not have the maturity to appreciate the weight loss if I didn’t sweat, walk, run, lift, and punish every pound away!

If you struggle with your weight (the tears are starting again) I understand! Please, PLEASE do whatever you have to do to get it under control!!! Change your thinking! If the gym does that, do it! If surgery does that, do it! If looking in the eyes of you children does that, do it! If putting a pad lock on the refrigerator does that, do it! WHATEVER IT TAKES!!!

I am by no means an expert! Though, as passionate as I am about this I might need to become one … But if there is anything I can do to help you on your journey … I would be happy to! Need nutrition advice, if I don’t know it, I can find it! Need cooking tips, I can do that! Need a gym buddy, I go 3-5 times a week! Need a kick in the butt, I wear a 10½!

Seriously … Take your life back! It will change not only you, but your family forever! 

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Counting the cost ...

I am by no means an old man despite what my children think! In fact, I am not even middle aged yet; at least, I hope not … I want to live longer than 76 years! However, I keep hearing the words, “I can remember when I used to by that for $____.___.” I used to laugh at people that made those types of statements! Now, no matter how inexpensive it is by today’s standards, it always seems to be multiple times over what I remember.

All of this kind of snuck up on me! We have, like many in the midst of recession, have had to scale back our spending (though need to do so is only indirectly related to the recession). For a long period of time, both my wife and I were working and had good jobs. We were by no means rich! However, we were quite comfortable …

Comfort breeds complacency, and that was certainly the case for us! I am sure that things did not double, or often triple in price overnight! What almost certainly happened was that we stopped counting the costs! 

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Not so common ...

I have always spent a lot of time in public ... For a time, I lived in a small town and was a, somewhat, prominent figure. I spent a large portion of my life in a position that required me to be aware of my behavior, you never knew who was watching or when they were going to need to be able to trust you; I was always aware that one misspoken word, or one flare in my temper could ruin my ability to be able to connect with a person in the future. Aside from that, I was raised, and am currently raising my children, that there should be a certain amount of courtesy! Not that you always have to go out of your way and go the extra mile to be nice ... Just good old common courtesy! Well, IT IS NOT SO COMMON ANYMORE!!!

I cannot understand how people can be so rude! I honestly think I would appreciate it more if I could convince myself that people were simply that stupid ... Unfortunately, I cannot!

Will somebody PLEASE charge the paddles and shock common courtesy back to life!
        - And, while we are at it ... Start giving common sense mouth to mouth!!!

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Unrealized Dreams ...

I have recently read a wonderful book by Shelby Steele about the current state of race relations in America

Mr. Steele’s book has made me think a lot about where we are as a country, how far we have come, and how far we still must go to truly be free! Nearly forty years Martin Luther King Jr. delivered a speech that has and will resound for generations. The challenge, in my view, is that we have yet to realize his dream …

Some time ago, I wrote an essay on this topic. If you will, I would like to share the closing paragraph with you …

Dr. King lived, and ultimately gave, his life in the pursuit of a dream. It is captivating, that at such a young age, Dr. King was able to convey with such enormous conviction his vision of freedom, a vision that not only included black men, but true equality for every individual without regard to race or gender. His passion has undoubtedly brought equality closer to reality. As we grow closer to achieving Dr. King’s dream of freedom, we move further away from the horrors of our past. While this growth provides hope of a future filled with promise, we are not certain that America will ever be devoid of racism. It may always remain a struggle; however, as long as we struggle, we are less likely to repeat the atrocities of our past, a past that no rational American would ever want to relive. Therefore, struggle we will, because not every man is equal here in America. A quick walk through history will prove to us that we are closer now than ever before, and while we are striving, we have not yet achieved the dream of true equality. Dr. King’s dream was not one that would bring us close to equality, but rather one that would give every man true equal rights. Various Civil Rights acts and referendums such as affirmative action may have brought an end to segregation and created equal opportunity employment; still it has not shielded the black man from all racism. Prayerfully we have reached an end of overt racism, but what about the subtle forms? What about when a black man enters a room full of white people and everyone stares; or, when the women clinches her purse a little tighter when in the presence of African-Americans? We are not free, nor have we achieved the dream. We will be free not when we achieve equal rights for every race; but rather, when we cease to recognize race entirely!

Friday, October 28, 2011

Retroactive Abortion ...

A short time ago, I was involved in what I assume has to be described as a debate with one of my college professors. Normally, I would not engage in such conversation; however, I could not believe some of the things that were being said, and it was about a topic that I am rather passionate about ... Abortion. It was said that women should not have to suffer for the mistakes that they have made. The frustration for me is that these "mistakes" are what I like to refer to as choices! I am not the hardcore anti-abortion fanatic that most people would expect considering my upbringing and religious beliefs; I have to admit that if my wife were a victim of rape abortion would be a consideration for me, and certainly when there are medical concerns I would not condemn anyone who made the choice to abort ... But, if you consciously and willingly make a decision that leads to pregnancy, there is only one way to get pregnant, there are consequences to that decision! Again, I normally wouldn't, but I couldn't resist to engage the topic ... A Political Science class, about 200 people, assuming very few of the college aged students would agree with me, and it was obvious that the teacher did not. I made several comments, but the final blow on which the conversation ended was when I said, "If a person makes a choice to have sex, there are certain possible outcomes from that act. To say that a person has the right to undo the affects of that act would be like saying that I could now kill my teenagers, a sort of retroactive abortion, because I decided that I no longer want to deal with the consequences of my previous actions!"

For some reason, no one had a response ...

Thursday, October 20, 2011

Really ... REALLY?!?

I am, along with several others in an English class, reading a book by Shelby Steele entitled White Guilt (HarperCollins Publishers, 2006); in this book, Steele documents his experience with racism from a boy growing up in the ‘50s … Not hard to imagine the cultural changes that he has seen! Steele’s approach to the issue of civil rights and the slow demise of racism seems to be a rather fair assessment, placing guilt on both the black and white communities for the way that racial issues have “progressed” to this point (That being said, I am only about half way through the book, it could take a turn).  Needless to say, in a class of college students, this type of book gives an entirely new meaning to the word “discussion.”

I have always worked hard to be fair … I try to see things from another’s perspective! My life experience has taught me that people that can’t are not only uninformed, but also unwilling to have a legitimate conversation. However …

If you are going to enter a discussion with other reasonably intelligent people, can we at least have some intelligence behind our words? If you are trying to have influence in a discussion, it would at least seem right to sound intelligent! If you are not … Fake it until you make it!!!

Thursday, October 13, 2011

When discourse has turned to discord ...

Among the many things that I do not understand is how the current political climate developed! I am sure that when the Founding Father’s laid the foundation for this great nation this is far from what they had in mind …

History recounts a the events surrounding the drafting of The Declaration of Independence as far from a fast first draft that did the trick The accounts tell us that there were several drafts that took a significant amount of time and discourse. While it might be easy to imagine a fairytale scenario in which everyone quickly agreed and shared a spirit and song, that is far from the reality. The truth is, the end result was more important than personal gain and ego … Much different than today!

Unfortunately, in today’s political climate, discourse had turned to discord!