Today I Can Say Yes

YES!

While it was really cool that my son Will said he wanted to start riding with me this spring, it struck me how awesome it was to be able to say yes.

Good times ...
didn't always include good health

My back is still in rough shape from the wear and tear a 350 pound belly put on it, I can ride 60 miles with no back pain then get off the bike and have a hard time walking upright to the car, crazy. It was one of the many roadblocks that was bigger in my head than it was on the road. It wasn't easy but it was worth it.

It's going to be beautiful this weekend, maybe there is a mental road block you need to remove, perfect weather for it. Take it on and let us know about it, you'd be amazed how far just one like will take you.

#todayican #bikeride #exercise #weightloss

Final Statistics from the Today I Can Pacific Coast rides

• There were 29 different rides on the tour.
• I traveled 1,873 miles on those rides. 
• There was 90,617 feet of elevation (riding uphill) on the ride. 
• The tour took 128 hours and 47 minutes of moving time to complete (only counted "moving time" doesn't include time while taking a break, taking a selfie or standing around holding a bike over my head). 
• The rides ranged from 50 miles to 100 miles.
• The most elevation I had in one day was over 5,000 feet twice, once in Oregon between Pacific City and Florence and again in California, on the Big Sur between Carmel and San Simeon. 
• Their were two long rides of just over 100 miles, once from Santa Barbara to LA and again from Arizona to Arizona State. 
• The Arizona ride included my best speeds as I was able to roll without traffic or big climbs for virtually all of the ride. My moving time was 4 hours and 41 minutes on that ride for an average of 21.5 miles per hour over the 100 miles.
• That ride also included my fastest 40 km (approximately 25 miles) at 1 hour, 2 minutes and 10 seconds for an average speed of 24 MPH.
• The lowest temperature was 50 degrees on the ride I crossed over from Oregon to California on July 11th. 
• The highest temperature was 114 degrees, two times, once between Fort Bragg and the Napa Valley on July 14th (a ride that began at 57 degrees before the temperature literally doubled as I rolled away from the coast) and again in Arizona, where it was just hot the whole darn ride. 

10-net 1: These Are Not Steps

These 10-nets that I have been writing about are not steps or stages that you pass and do in succession. As I have said over and over again, this mentality is a lifestyle. This is not a diet with a start and finish; this is a new approach to how you live your life. The 10-nets are beliefs that are enacted in my life on a day-to-day basis. Some days I focus more on specific ideas, but they are all part of my daily routine.

So if you choose to take the “Today I Can” mindset, then remember, I have no formula or routine specific for you. I have no “eat this specific food and do this exercise program today” to get you healthy. My recipe is this: Each day I try to make the right decisions about what I put in my body and when I exercise,  and if I succeed Today, I will start again tomorrow. Today I Can be healthy, and so can you.

10-net 2: Evict the Icants

Everyone has heard of the Minions, the little yellow guys that hung around with Gru in Despicable Me, right? Minions are more than just yes men, they are YAY men. No matter how bad an idea Gru has, they literally go bananas like it's the best idea in the history of ever! Steal the moon? Hell yeah baby, let's do this thing! All we need is a shrink ray!

The Icants are the exact opposite of Minions, they are the little guys that live in my head and tell me I can't do things. Oddly enough, they gain strength from my weakness, from my failures, from me quitting and most often from me not even trying.  I think it's something that all of us that have suffered with obesity can relate to. “I can't fly” because of the looks other passengers have when I get on the plane, they might as well stand up and scream “Dear Lord NO! Please don't let the fat guy sit next to me!” Even though I've lost a lot of weight the Icants insist on still screaming the thoughts people aren't thinking when I get on a plane. They love it when I can't and they are the kryptonite of Today I Can.

A couple of weeks ago I rode in a rally called the Richardson Wild Ride, but I did not adequately prepare for it. I rode too far the night before because I thought everyone was going to keep an easy pace. When we got going it was obvious nobody remembered the talk of an easy pace and we all roared off like we were going to win the thing, my legs weren’t fully recovered, we hit the hills and I fell off the back end after a couple of climbs. Immediately I returned to the kid in junior high who finished last in every track meet, I can’t keep up with these other guys, I can’t do this, I can’t climb as fast, I can’t ride this fast and I ended up being right. Not because I wasn’t physically ready but because I said those two little words that are one of the key ingredients of every missed opportunity. I said “I can’t”

As I prepare to leave for my coastal ride, there are a lot of Icant’s that say a lot of lies, but there is one that speaks the truth. I can’t listen to them. I know I can do it. I’m sure there are lots of you with Icants that are keeping you from being all you were created to be. Before you can, you got to shut up the Icants, they are tougher than big hills, big winds, or high heat.

10-net 3: Encourage Others

You could be the final push for someone to get healthy. I don’t share my story and my success to brag, or remind myself of what I have accomplished. Quite frankly, I don’t view this success as my doing, but something that was a product of faith in the Lord and a tremendous amount of support from others. I could not have done this if it wasn’t for people pushing me to start. So I share my story, because if one person sees my story - and the dramatic change that has occurred in my life - and is inspired to make a change in their life, then all this is worth it.

Maybe this story has inspired you to make a change, then continue to spread the word! Share my story, and share yours! Maybe this message isn’t meant for you, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t share and encourage others. If you know a person that needs to make a change, be the one who steps out and challenges them. They may resent you for it at first, but one day they will thank you for. Get out there and encourage others to make a change!

10-net 4: Find What Works For You

There are two different sides to healthy living, and those are diet and exercise. Dieting is pretty straight forward. If you are deciding between a burger and fries, and chicken and veggies, you know what the right choice is. But even in dieting there are many options, whatever you choose to do, stick to it, don’t let the diet expire.

When it comes to exercise it is crucial that you find something you enjoy. For myself it was riding. You get to ride in races, wear cool flashy jerseys, and riding a bike is very entertaining. For my wife, she hops on the treadmill an hour a night. She doesn't run in big races or marathons because that’s not her. She turns on Netflix and just runs for an hour in the privacy of our own home. You have to find whats going to work for you. If you want to ride, I’ll help you get set up with a bike and get you spinning. If you wanna run, my wife will do the same. Maybe you want to swim, or rock climb and hike, or do interval training and weightlifting. What specific exercise you do doesn't matter to me! Just get out, get active, and get fit!

10-net 5: You Can't Do It Alone

"But it's called Today I Can! Why do I need help??"
Because, hypothetical stranger, accountability is essential.

In October of 2013 I was featured in an article in the Dallas Morning News and I talked about weight loss and my road to a healthy lifestyle. In that article I talked about my good friend Doug Walker, and referred to him as my "Fitness Mentor". Doug was key in helping me get to where I am today. I am not a very athletic person, but he is, and when I first started riding he could have left me in the dust. But instead he dragged me around and patiently held back with me, always challenging me to work a little harder than I would have challenged myself. He is actually going to be joining me in the later part of the Tour de Pac 12, helping me stay motivated, and doing what he does best, challenging me to push harder.

Another man who I get the pleasure of riding with is Ozzie "The Wizard" Buckler. He too helps me stay motivated and rides with me at least once a week.

These two men have been essential in my road to health, especially when I was first starting out. Exercise is hard, and quite frankly it hurts sometimes, and if you're going it alone, it's pretty easy to say no to yourself. But it is hard to say no to someone standing in front of you saying "time to ride". It wasn't a constant battle for me to stay at it, but on the days that it was, having someone there to keep me going was crucial.

Find someone to keep you going, and if you need someone, I'd be glad to help.

10-net 6: Don't Be Afraid to Call an Audible

The road to a healthy lifestyle is not easy, and obstacles will arise. You could be running and sprain you ankle, pull a hamstring, or maybe even just get sick for a couple of days. For myself, I rode into a curb, flew over my handle bars, and fractured my wrist. I could not put pressure on my wrist for 6 weeks, which meant I couldn’t ride outside. In the past, this would have been the end, I would have been defeated, and stopped riding. But I didn’t do that. I called an audible, hopped on a stationary bike, and simply road in my house. Not only did I not let this injury halt me, it actually helped me figure out a great alternative for when there is inclement weather.

When obstacles arise, do not get defeated, call an audible and overcome it. Its not always going to be easy, but I pray you keep pushing, because its so worth it.

10-net 7: Goals are good!

Now I know this may seem counterintuitive to the “Day One” mentality, but having something to strive for is great! But you should strive for the right thing. My objective remains the same, make good decisions today but somewhere along the way, I decided I would ride from Vancouver to Tijuana so I started to think about and study what my daily exercise routine would look like if I was going to do that and what my diet will look like heading into and during the ride.

When people go on diets they say “I am going to go 10 days without eating a cheeseburger” and then they celebrate by eating a cheeseburger. If that's the reward, I want it now, what do I do to get it faster and what can I do to get two? Your goals should be in line with the habits you are making and the reward should be something that fits in with both of those as well. I want the reward of a new bike after I ride the wheels off my old one is a goal and a reward that doesn't get in the way of my daily routines or potentially get caught up in the details of being real tangible. It does line up with what I'm doing.

Eliminate prescription drugs, get your blood pressure down. Run a marathon, run two! My wife’s goal for 2013 was to run 1,000 miles, and she did! Pretty tangible goal but she's not like me, my goals are generally to ride more this weekend than last weekend and if I don't I just reload for the next weekend. When she did that she didn’t stop running, she continued, I might not react the same but this weekend is always coming up and last weekend is always something I can improve on. So Aim high? Dream big? Absolutely but not at the expense of living in the now.

10-net 8: Maintain a Day One Mentality

The Day One mentality is how I operate. Each day is day one of my diet and exercise routine, it ends today. A life style is not a “10 day juice cleanse” or a “30 day work out program”, it's a fundamental change in what you do today. When my family went on a 21 day cleanse diet, I finished the 21st day of the cleanse, and started again on Day 22. My new start date is today, my end date is something I simply don't focus on. If you put an expiration date on healthy eating then your healthy lifestyle is destined to expire! You are living to reward yourself by doing something that, in reality, is not rewarding. 

My approach is not complicated, I simply hope to make the right decisions today when it comes to what I put in my body. Today is my day one, if that works out, I will try it again tomorrow. Today is your day one as well, you just need to decide of what. 

10-net 9: The First Step

The most important step in any journey is the first one, and my story was no different. And my first step was quite literally a step. I had to start exercising, but I could only walk, so that’s what I did. And I started eating healthy. I decided to have a piece of chicken instead of a cheeseburger, and steamed veggies instead of fries. Those first steps were hard, but they became easier, and they eventually became habit. Those steps turned into gears on a bike, and thousands of miles ridden, but I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t take my first step.

The path to truly changing your lifestyle starts with the first step. If you are contemplating that first step, I hope you will take it. I pray you will take it. If you know someone who needs to take that first step, then talk to them. If you need help taking your first step, talk to me, talk to a friend.  Its hard, but its worth it. This is so much better than a cheeseburger.

10-net 10: Shake It Up!

Two years ago I was caught in a rut. I thought that I was destined to live out my days with my sedentary lifestyles. But I was wrong! As the greatest rock band of all time, The Cars, sings in their song “Shake It Up”, “Dance all night, get real loose, you don’t need no bad excuse”.

Shake It Up - The Cars

Now, I am not going to lie to you and say that I heard this song and had a “lightbulb” moment. I did not hear the legendary Ric Ocasek sing those words and exclaim “THATS IT! I should shake it up! I don’t need an excuse!”. In reality, I love the song, and it is very applicable to my story.

For years I lived by excuses. I had many of them too. I was too busy with my company to exercise. Riding my bike was too dangerous. Or my back hurt too much to work out. But in reality I did not want to change the way I had been living my life. For people who struggle with obesity and over eating, even the thought of a healthy lifestyle can be quite a “shake up”. In the end though, if you want to get healthy you have to “Shake it up”. You have to break free of a sedentary life style and get active, and get healthy.

Shake it up! You have no excuses, believe me. This is so much better than a cheeseburger.

The 10-nets of Today I Can

It’s June 11 and that brings us to our final countdown, the 10-nets of Today I Can. These are the things I really hope to convey on the Today I Can ride. Each of these are a work in progress for me. I hope I have communicated that I am not Lance Armstrong, I’m not even Doug Walker, I’m Ford Baker, the accountant. I struggle to get up hills, my legs hurt after long rides, and my back hurts if I pick up something heavy. Heck, I’m 50! I must pee 3 times a night now and at least 50 times a day.

The point is that these are not just a list of ten things you check off and then are done, they are changes we make on the inside, in our perspective on life. We won’t ever be done, we are too big of a mess to start with. In reality, I always feel like I’m just beginning. Each ride teaches me something about myself, reminds me of something someone tried to convey before but I wasn’t paying attention. I have to be careful here because I know if I read this ten years ago, I’d have already quit. I am wired for short term projects with a definite start and a definite end.

This wouldn’t appear to have that but that is where I would be wrong. Several years ago, I started down this one day at a time path just trying to figure out some of the side effects my poor decision making skills had generated. I used what I learned about me there to deal with my food issues - first in how I could change my eating habits, then how I could use my tendencies to workout and ride a bike, and then how I could change my desire to eat food that made me feel better to eating the food to made me fuel better. I still don’t have it all figured out, I know that now. I still have to ask God for help to make good decisions in what I eat and drink, and that I exercise and stay safe, but now I have seen that I can add and that I pay attention to the signs He sends. Those tendencies of mine cringe at the long term prospects involved with goal setting, but note that none of the things I found out were long term goals when I started, they were by-products of just trying to make good decisions in what I ate today, to exercise today, to ask God for help today.

Tomorrow it could be start being on time, be more organized, or stop using so many swear words. I don’t know for sure, that’s why it always feels like the beginning; today He may teach me something I never thought about before or he may reiterate something that I ignored before. Who knows, but it will be on to a start of something new, a new beginning. This starting each day with a new beginning has helped me progress way more than when I thought I knew what my goals should be and ran my life myself. I had goals and passed tests and did all kinds of things but in reality, I was getting further and further from where I wanted to be and I was getting there fast.

So check back in over the next 10 days and then follow along with my ride but more importantly realize that today is the day you can #getmoving. And by all means, share this feed with others, if not you, then someone you know might be the one He has me doing this for. 

Announcing the Tour de PAC 12

The Beginning

Earlier this year Doug Walker and I started a new organization called The Today I Can Foundation, we are in the process of obtaining non-profit status from the Internal Revenue Service. It's goal to demonstrate to anyone currently suffering or will be suffering from the pain of a sedentary lifestyle combined with an unhealthy diet.

Some of you have heard it before and have spent a lifetime dealing with it. For some reason your desire for weight loss was never greater than your desire for whatever comfort food would make you happy. There are a million reasons why you can't and you cling to them all, nobody understands.

That lie is only true in your head and because it is the truth there, it is a lie you live out every day. What we want to do is simple, we want to show you that you can and you don't have to cling to those lies. In 2011 I weighed somewhere around 350 pounds and took 45 mg of Actos and 2,000 mg of Metformin for type 2 diabetes, 100 mg of Losartan and 50 mg of Carvedilol for high blood pressure and heart disease, 45 mg of Simvastin for my high cholesterol, and a baby aspirin and they did nothing but create symptoms, they were very poor band-aids. During the spring of 2012, at 48 years old, I needed a cane to get from the parking lot to my office and that's when the light bulb went off. 

"Light Bulb" always cracks me up

I realized I was morbidly obese and it was going to kill me but before it did I stood a very good chance of subjecting myself to a life full of painful side effects from diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol. In May I did a cleanse and in July I started to walk, I walked each day a little further than the day before and I started to feel better about it, this July I want to encourage someone to do the same thing, to show them what can happen if they just get moving, I am going to attempt something I did not think was possible 2 years ago when I was using that cane to get in from the office. This July I am going to ride my bike all over the PAC 12 conference, we are calling it the Tour de PAC 12. I live in Dallas Texas and my wife and I are going to drive up to Vancouver and I am going to do a couple of rides on the way but starting around July 1 I will get on my bike North of Vancouver and start a ride that will end up at the border of the United States, entering Mexico. My ride will be over 2,000 miles long. I don't have a team, it's just me and the road. 

A little about me

Before: ESPN Studios in Connecticut

Before I go much further, I'd like you to know something about me, I am going to be vulnerable. I am a CPA, a tax guy. I am not a jock or former high end athlete that called on something I've done before to do this. I am an accountant because I am good with numbers not because I ran a 4.4 40 yard dash or could bench press a Volkswagen. In fact, I never made a cut for any team that had one. I played basketball for three seasons in elementary school and scored two baskets. In the 8th grade I was the kid asked to play on the 7th grade team when they needed a player to fill out that lineup, the only 8th grader on the 7th grade team. In track I always brought up the rear in whatever race the fat kids raced in. There is nothing special about me athletically, in fact, I always kind of sucked, so if that is your excuse, consider it moot.

Back to the Tour

During: Venice Beach, California

Each day I am going to get up and ride and at some point that day, I'd like someone that needs that encouragement to just go for a walk, that's it. I don't want anything else, just for you or someone you know to go for a walk, I will ride across the country if on that first day, you will go for a walk for 15 minutes and then turn around and walk home. It would be great if you posted something on Facebook or Twitter and included #getmoving or #todayican - folks are going to like that on Facebook and if that feels good, think about doing it the next day. Maybe it will catch on.

That's it, I will keep on riding and encouraging and if you like, you can walk the next day, maybe a little further or longer than you did before. I will keep going and when I get done, I will come home and we can see what folks want to do next, if it's ride a bike and you're ready, we can help you find the right bike. If it's lift weights or swim, let's do that but let's wait until that day gets here and focus on taking that first walk, maybe pick up some comfortable shoes and something that will be comfortable to wear but that's it.

A note to the friend and loved one

If you know someone that might need a push in that direction, say a prayer for them and ask them to lunch or go to a movie and listen for the chance to tell them about this fat guy that just went for a walk one day and it changed his life, point them at my blog and maybe they get moving. Offer to walk with them, it would do you good as well, don't overdo but do something. They may offer you an expletive filled answer or they may give you a couple of very good excuses but send them the link to this note and let's see if they would take that walk with you. Also, encourage them to track how far they walked on the "Map My Walk" or "Strava" app for their smartphone and then post it on Facebook or Twitter. Use that #todayican or #getmoving and then like the hell out of every walk they take, make a comment and be supportive. Encourage them and keep on praying for them. It let's them know you care and if you believe in a higher power pray for the things that will get in their way.

A note to the guy who gets this link from someone

Don't lash out at them, read it and be thankful they care. They can't fix you, they know that. They just want you to be healthy. Don't be mad at them for caring and don't let it hurt your feelings, it is personal, it is personal and they care. Let me tell you something else, it feels incredible, it's better than a cheeseburger to jog up stairs, seriously. It's better than Cheetos to not take prescriptions each day. Seriously better. That's why I am doing this, it's this super great completely legal drug and I'd like you to experience it and it can be done not with some crazy diet or surgery or gym membership, it's just a walk. Try it one day and see what happens, if it works out try it again tomorrow.

Why I believe, it's why I ride

Welcome

I have been wanting to do a blog for a while, for those that have seen me on Facebook or Twitter, the #spinningintightslacks has been showing up for a while and I've been kicking around this blog. I've lost weight but I've still got a couple of pounds to go and I never knew how to pick up my story in the middle of it, my initial drafts were just too long, just like this note probably. However, I got the right answer at the end of last week, in one 24 hour period and decided it was the perfect way to kick off Spinning in Tight Slacks. Let's call it Why I Ride.

It's really a lot more about why I believe in God and why I know He is real. Before you click close, hold on, I'm not going to beat you down with the G word, I believe God has played a big role in my weight loss, it's been a journey and He has walked with me along the way, if you saw me two years ago, you would probably assume he would have had carried me. He probably did. I promise my story won't end up with an altar call, I believe He's talking to you and I will let Him. This also won't include a promise of eternal damnation if you don't believe in my God. I will let God get with you on the consequences of not paying attention to him, that's certainly not my goal or my role here. I lived in those consequences for a long time, for me obesity or being that big felt a lot like eternal damnation. Heck, eternal damnation might be hot enough where I could lose weight so it might have even been preferential to the obese thing. Some of you know how I feel, it's not right that we are made to feel that way but that's a different story.

This is just what my thoughts are on what happened to me and what I believe happens to all of us. My initial push into weight loss was just a series of signs that just kept popping up in front of me. However, they all sound like funny or dumb stories when I tell them, for example former Connecticut basketball coach Jim Calhoun breaking his hip while riding a bike isn't exactly a writing on the wall moment nor one where you would believe that I thought God was telling me to ride a bike ... because I heard that Jim Calhoun broke his hip ... riding a bike. However, what happened last week, that's different. Someone lined that up, they had to. Whoever did it was pretty powerful, so it's either God or the Illuminati. I will go with God and let all you conspiracy folks assume it was choice B. What I don't believe is that it was a coincidence, life is full of too many coincidences to assume that. It's probably more plausible than the Illuminati but not by much, if at all.

So here we go, I hope I haven't lost you already.

Accepting your circumstances, according to a drug dealing convict

Once or twice a month, on Thursday nights I go to the Lew Sterrett correctional facility to listen to inmates who have substance abuse issues. The guys pick a topic and talk about it. My role is to listen, offer an insight if asked and keep the focus on their issues or the topic, I mainly listen. Thursday night a convict chose acceptance and for those guys, it's accepting that they have a problem that has brought them here (again in most cases) and how they can't get better if they don't accept it. Their stories are sad and most of their recidivism sprung from when they couldn't accept the fact that they can't drink or use again. They drink or use, wreck a car or break the law to pay for their habit and then end up back in jail. Accepting doing time is different than the things I can't accept, which is mainly not getting my way, but we summed things up at the end and I thought, man I could not accept that place, everything decided for me, gray striped pajamas (orange stripes if you are a runner), when to get up, what to eat, where to go, etc etc etc. I struggle when others say I can't do something, always have. If I set the "I can'ts" it's better but not when the "you can'ts" are forced on me, that makes me say why not and then I start figuring out how to do it. It's why I can relate to a bunch of convicts and addicts, they obviously struggle with that as well, just not as much as me.

Closer to home

I went home that night and had to get with my son about his car situation. The car he drove had a cracked engine block and was stuck at a mechanics shop in Norman and not able to be driven. I couldn't get it back to Dallas and I couldn't get comfortable with trying to fix it there, I just didn't know anyone so I wanted to get it home. I believed we would figure it out over his Christmas break and we would solve the issue and get my son a new car or a new engine and I told him that. For a variety of reasons, that didn't happen and Thursday night he was going to find out after he got back from seeing a movie with friends. I didn't want to make a bad decision just to make him happy and as a parent, I would have been a lot happier making him happy. I was kicking myself for telling him it would get fixed over Christmas and then not getting it done. The decision was to take him back to Norman, rent a U-haul with a car trailer and bring his car here where I can talk to my mechanic and some friends that know more about used cars than me. I braced for quite a bit of kickback but was shocked by his response, he basically said "that's cool, I can walk. I will be okay, I can get a ride if I need one, it will work out fine." He's a great kid but he's 20, that's not typical for him or any 20 year old kid. I told him several times how impressed I was with that reply and one of his comments was that he'd been working on accepting things when they don't go his way. I guarantee he didn't get that response modeled by his dad, he's seen me blow up over a lot of things way more minor than stuck at college with no car even though his dad said he would fix it by now. 

Much closer to home

The next day we were driving back from Norman, pulling his Mini Cooper behind a U-Haul van. Believe me, I was not getting my way by having to do this on a work day instead of a weekend, by having to do this instead of finding an inexpensive alternative, by a million things. I was on the phone talking taxes with a variety of clients when I got a call from a guy I had been working with on a deal that was about to close, he was supposed to call me by Friday to let me now what day this week I would be getting a check, a big check. For 6 months or so I had been told this deal was golden and there would be no problem with it and for 6 months I had used the phrase "when this deal closes" about a million times. 

He told me that it fell apart and we were going to have to start over somewhere else. That was not the phone call I had expected, and I was definitely not getting my way. I had often thought that the amount might get reduced or paid over time but I didn't think it would just go away. Under normal circumstances, I would be figuring out who could I holler at until this deal got going again. I would then quickly roll into really mad version of me and I would be horrible to be around for a couple of days and it would get worse when I encountered all the "after the deal closes" items that I couldn't have now. Instead, my mind turned to my son's response that was just modeled for me and for that reason I just said, "That's good, now we can move on. Let's see if we can figure something else out but thanks for letting me know." I promise, the list of times I handled something like that, like that can be counted on one finger, including that time.

Now THAT'S God

I know a lot of folks don't believe in God because they can't see God or there is no physical evidence that he is there but God may not be physical like we understand physical. He might be, I don't know, so rather than trying to fit God into my expectation box I just ask myself what are the odds that a drug addicted convict would talk about accepting his circumstances and then a 20 year old kid would then model acceptance over not getting his car back? Oh yeah, and that all this would take place exactly 24 hours before I got news that I was not prepared or equipped to accept? I'm not telling you that the creator of the universe indwelled me at that moment and did that for me, he might have, i just don't know, He didn't tell me if He did. I am telling you that I believe he gave me the tools to handle that right before I needed it and then I had it demonstrated for me how that was a much better way to handle it. It takes more faith for me to believe that those circumstances could just happen with no divine intervention than it does for me to say wow and thanks to the God who laid that out for me. Of course, the next question is why now? Why not earlier? What about all the other times? The answer I can tell you with all the confidence in the world is "I don't know" and when I say "I don't know" I mean "I don't know" because "I don't know that he didn't." I was just paying attention this time and believe it or not, that's got everything in the world to do with why I ride my bike and have lost a lot of weight.

In 2012, God sent me a message and then followed it up with sign after sign and I was actually paying attention, I really don't know why but it led to a pretty remarkable transformation. I am including a timeline of pictures of what happened because I was paying attention. My journey started in May of 2012 and I hope to be part of someone else's journey. I hope to be the impetus for someone to pay attention. I can also assure you that not all of my ramblings are this deep. I actually prefer silly and fun over deep and insightful ... most of the time. 

This blog is going to be a lot about riding my bicycle and the signs I encounter, there is 120 pounds less of me now than there used to be because I ride a bicycle ... a lot ... everywhere. I also eat to ride, so I eat a bit differently than I did when I weighed between 330 and 350 pounds. Not really sure, I avoided scales. I will talk about that as well and fill in some stories along the way about what happened between then and now.

So that's it, the blog is called "Spinning in Tight Slacks" and the reason for that is pretty silly, I can cover that in a silly post if you haven't already figured it out. My mantra is "Today I Can" and my goal is to inspire others by letting them know "Today You Can." Next summer I hope to ride from Vancouver Canada to Tijuana Mexico, in what I call the "Today You Can" ride but that's a working title.

I also do taxes, I will probably belly ache about that between now and April 15th. I hope you come along and I hope I have a second post. 

#spinningintightslacks