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. 

The Cleanse Question

I have been asked a couple of times about what cleanse did I use and what protein shake do I take now. I am a sports fan and I listen to a local sports radio station called the Ticket, I work a lot of Saturdays during tax season and George Digianni has a Saturday morning show on health and fitness. It wasn't really my bag but i was too lazy to change the station so I would listen, eventually I checked his website and gave him a call and we started the cleanse. 

I would recommend his 21 day cleanse because it comes with a complete diet plan for those 21 days and it makes it black and white. It is a list of eat this and this and this and don't eat any of this. If you are anything like me having a diet with cheats included is a recipe for failure, who wants to reward themselves with 4 Cheetos if there is a bag there waiting to be plundered? If you stick to it in 21 days you will have lost some weight and gained some energy and that momentum can carry you into other phases.

Most cleanses are going to focus on cleaning out your system and that is a very good thing, for 21 days. It is not something our intestines can take long term. After the cleanse ended the black and white part of it worked for me, in fact i was the only one in my family that didn't cheat at all, additionally we had 3 people doing it together in 2012 and the 3 week supply was gone in 7 days and all we could find included videos and pamphlets etc, we just wanted the powder so we went to Whole Foods, the Vitamin Stop and Ultimate Sports Nutrition and asked the folks there what we were taking and what they had in stock we could mix in with our protein shake, we tried a million different protein powders before we found Oh Yeah, i like the Strawberry and Linda likes the Vanilla. From there I add in a lot of vitamins, minerals, supplements, cod liver oil, a banana, some frozen grapes, ice and coconut water. I take all the pills, my wife adds them to her shake because she's not big on pills. 

We got a nice blender, it actually counts the number of times we make a shake, we are getting close to 1,500 now so I guess we are good at routines once we settle in. I would definitely suggest using a program like George's, he has a good product and a plan to help you get started, it's not the worst $100 you will ever spend, for me it's the best. From there, who knows maybe you go a different route, 
but give it a shot, it could help get you going.

I had a nice couple of rides this week but was discouraged a bit by there being so many accounting emergencies, i thought we ran out of work after April 15th. I got those Franchise returns filed and extended, rode to work with Doug on Thursday and home with a stop by Richardson Bike Mart to see if they had anything I didn't know I couldn't live without. We got the wild ride on Saturday and then a bunch of us are going on the dam ride through Grapevine on Sunday.

Thanks for checking in!

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.

Be Careful Out There

I find it interesting that people are always telling me to be careful when I post a picture or status that mentions riding my bike on a street, I really do appreciate the thought and the idea that people may perceive me to be some free wheeling stare death in the face dude but the latest statistics I read indicate that less than 700 people a year are killed in bicycle-car accidents as opposed to 4,500 killed in pedestrian-car accidents. It's over 6 times more dangerous for me to cross the street than it is to ride my bike on it. Don't get me started on the number of people killed each year in automobile accidents involving other vehicles. It is more than 50 times more dangerous for me to drive to work than it is for me to ride there. 

Even more telling though, over 300,000 people die each year from obesity related ailments like heart disease, high blood pressure and adult onset / type 2 diabetes, all things I was on prescribed medications for. It was basically 500 times more dangerous for me to do what I was doing than it is for me to ride my bike. 

The real be careful warning should have come when I got the nice gig 'em with Chester Cheetah on Saturday. You can bet whenever some poor sap is dressed up in a Chester Cheetah costume free Cheetos are abundant and those are far more dangerous for me than riding my bike. 

Also know this, if the good Lord calls me home tomorrow morning while riding down Ohio I am okay with that because it's been a great ride, I'm happier in my heart knowing He gave me the ability to do something about my weight than I ever was believing He didn't.