Friday, July 10, 2009

I had a fabulous time with my girlfriends last night. We celebrated my birthday which was July 1. As usual, we pretty much shut the place down. I haven't laughed so much and so hard in a long time; great company, great food and great conversation. Details and pictures coming soon.

Since the other entry was so long and so detailed, I decided to delete all of the specifics and just repost the following summary for the sake of brevity.

So boys and girls, here's the the end of this very sad but very true story of two people's lies and deception...................... after unceremoniously dumping all of her friends without as much as a wave adieu, a flip of the curls, or a text goodbye, the fair Princess Magic Powder and the handsome Prince Chippendale von Absolut blackberry messaged off into the sunset together and lived happily ever after….err….lived happily for the next 6 months until the handsome Prince Chippendale von Absolut discovered that his curly locked Princess Magic Powder had shared all of their deepest and darkest secrets with others throughout the kingdom and banished the fair Princess Magic Powder from his land and crowned the brand new shiny Lady-in-Waiting, who had been patiently waiting and dutifully fulfilling her role as the prince's gatherer and presenter of information from kingdoms that were outside of the prince's span. So let this be a lesson to you boys and girls, always remember, "People may forget what you said, people may forget what you did, But people will NEVER forget how you made them feel."...Maya Angelou

So in the words of the late great Mr. Paul Harvey, “and that my friends, is the rest of the story.”

“Oh what a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive”

Originally I had planned to keep this journal strictly about my fitness journey, but the journey to become an overall better person can take you down many paths and include many things. I posted a day or so ago about changing my training and my overall attitude due to some personal changes that were going on. These changes have affected both my physical and my emotional well-being, so I do feel as though I need to include as many details as possible so that when I do reach the end of this journey i can look back and reflect upon everything that has gone into shaping that person whom I long to become.

Much more on this tomorrow.

I took a long vacation from my job and from life in general a few days ago. For the most part it was fantastic, had a few bumps along the way, but things happen for whatever reason I guess. I celebrated my 40th birthday while I was out, visited family and friends and most of all took a nice long mental break to just relax, regroup, get organized and just think about things. I took a lot of time to reflect on who I am as person, where I've been and most importantly where I'm heading. In the process I was forced to re-evalute long standing friendships and the people I have/had in my life. It was and continues to be quite eye opening to say the least. I'm not sure what the lesson learned in all of this is, but I have no doubt it will reveal itself to me at some point. The important thing with all obstacles, mistakes, failures, etc. is to not be bitter but use it as a learning experience and move on. One thing that I will need to readjust is my diet and training. Unfortunately in this latest transition process, I lost a person who was both one of my closest friends as well as my trainer. Well, let me rephrase, I will need to believe in myself and adjust my accountability and make myself accountable to me vs. someone else. Personal accountability is definitely the key because regardless of who tells you or acts as if they believe in you and want you to succeed, you have to believe it yourself in order for it to work. Situations and people may change, but if you have a strong foundational belief in yourself (which continues to be a work in progress with me) changes will not shake you, rattle you or move you away from your goal.

I have been very fortunate in the past work with people/trainers who were and continue to be very knowledgeable in the fitness and nutrition arena. I have so many great plans that have worked in the past and since we as a society are moving to a "greener" world, why not use this knowledge to invest and improve upon myself? What's the slogan...."reduce, recycle, reuse" So many times we do not invest in and/or take advantage of the human capital and the resources that surround us. What I need to do more of is to expand my circle in the training and nutrition area, ask more questions, become more knowledgeable, and most importantly, take a more active role in my success instead of relying upon others to rally and cheer me on. Sometimes it's important in life to be your own cheerleader. Rah, rah, rah!!!