Friday, February 29, 2008

Impact Resistance...

"It's not who you are that holds you back, it's who you think you're not." - Author Unknown

This week I found a pair of sunglasses on the side of the road. They looked like they were alright so I picked them up. The arms of the sunglasses fell apart in my hands, someone had run them over with their car. All that was left intact was the lenses themselves. Neither was scratched, only one lens had a couple of chips around the rim.

Impact resistance. Something I wished I had. It's easy to get off-track when the perils and problems of life rear their ugly heads. I felt that way this month when I got in the car accident and was unable to exercise for a few weeks. The impact of that accident impacted more than my spine, it impacted who I was and the goal I was striving for.

I was angry and depressed, I used food as a stress-reliever. It had taken 30 years of training to develop that stress-coping skill, it won't unravel overnight. But I will continue to strive for impact resistance, reminding myself of that pair of sunglasses...


"Whether you think you can or think you can't - you are right." - Henry Ford


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Friday, February 22, 2008

Blame...

"Most people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions." - Author Unknown

A few weeks ago I was in a car accident. A head-on collision with another vehicle that totalled my van. It also totalled my back & neck in terms of muscle/nerve strain ("whiplash"), which in turn totalled my exercise program.

I've been reluctant to get back on the exercise journey, partially because I had fallen into old habits and had been using the car accident as an excuse. I checked the scale and it said I had gained 8lbs over the past few weeks. This is inaccurate, I couldn't have conceivably done so unless I stayed in bed all the time and ate 10,000 calories a day. I chalk most of the gain to salt, but I do believe that I had gained back at least 3lbs due to the lack of exercise.

Last night I finally looked in the mirror and said, "Dude, you need to get back on track. Stop using the car accident as a crutch or excuse. You need to do this not only for yourself, but for your supporters as well." So I did, although I am sore - it felt good to get back out on the road again. Today was my first full exercise/walking day, jogged 3.5mi walked 3.5mi and exercised for 30min.

It's easy to place the blame on something. I think that is the reason we are such a "sue-happy" society. We refuse to put the blame where it belongs - squarely on our shoulders.

Don't play the blame game. Go out and do something about it!

"Stubborness does have its helpful features. You always know what you are going to be thinking tomorrow." - Glen Beaman


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Friday, February 15, 2008

Remembering...

"Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us." - Oscar Wilde

On the way to work I passed a marker on at street corner that marks the spot where someone had died. You see them all over the country now, little roadside altars to remind people of tragedies. Even in the bible people had created altars from rocks to mark special places, piles of rocks & whatnot so that others that passed by it would see it and remember the reason for it being there.

I kept a pair of my old jeans and an old shirt. I keep them as reminders of what once was and (God-willing) will not happen again. I keep them to refresh my memory, to remember when I used to be over 500lbs. Sometimes I put the stuff on and it really hits me on how big I really was.

We all need reminders in our lives, reminders of where we have been and also reminders of where we are headed. My mom and also a friend of mine had mentioned the recent Oprah episode with the author of the book "The Secret". I need to check on the concepts talked about the book about a "dream board" or something where you put together all the things you want in/from your life. Not a bad idea, kind of like a road map of where you want to go in your life...


"The existence of forgetting has never been proved: We only know that some things don't come to mind when we want them." - Friedrich Nietzsche



Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Friday, February 08, 2008

Experience...

"Nothing is a waste of time if you use the experience wisely." - Auguste Rodin


Got into a car accident earlier this week. I'm a little sore yet and am not ready to resume exercise yet, but I am going to start slow next week and build myself back up again. Whether a car accident, job loss, family problem, or whatever - we can use these events to gain experience.

I am gaining experience through this accident as far as how insurance claims work. What forms need to be filed, who needs to be contacted for what, lots of little behind-the-scenes details that I was not privy to before. Sure it's a downer to be in an accident or have some other bad event happen. But it's our attitudes that will either make or break us. We can wallow and refuse to learn from it, or take a deep breath and look at the event with an outsider's eye and try to gain some nugget of wisdom from it...

"Do you know the difference between education and experience? Education is when you read the fine print; experience is what you get when you don't. " - Pete Seeger


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com

Friday, February 01, 2008

Raw Materials

"Blessed are you, Lord, God of all creation. Through your goodness we have this bread to offer, which earth has given and human hands have made. It will become for us the bread of life." - Jewish prayer


Each one of us has been blessed with the "raw materials" needed to change our lives. It's up to us to decide what to build with those materials. We can use what we have an dig a dank dungeon, devoid of light or happiness - or we can build a castle tower that stretches into the sky.

I read over that prayer and also think about an email someone sent to me that touches on the subject of having the tools to change our lives. We need to step back and lay out a plan, just as a builder draws up blueprints before he begins building. Only when we can see the finished product can we know what "raw materials" are needed to complete the project.


Matty
www.iweighedmorethanjared.com