Posts from — December 2011

Mercifully, my recovery time from recent hernia surgery turned out to be shorter than expected.  A week after the procedure, I saw the doctor who gave me the ok to commence some light running.  It took me a couple of more days to get myself to lace up my sneakers, but finally I did and slowly began to reset myself back into training mode.

This time around though, I am going to make a conscious effort to make sure my training is complete, in order to better realize my athletic potential.  I am going to start from the ground up and include all aspects of my life.  This not only includes making sure I get my training it, but also making sure I get my diet right, my personal life right and even my professional life right.  I want to make sure that I do everything as correctly as possible, and to the best of my ability.

In order to do this I need to have a healthy mind and body.  If the body is healthy, it will make it easier for the mind to follow.  Feeling and looking good gives you confidence to tackle almost any challenge in life, so this is where I am going to start.  Fortunately, I have the support of my friends and children.  They offer me advice and encouragement and in the case of one particular friend a rock solid diet plan as well as accountability.

The most significant change I am going to make as I head into 2012 is to eat properly and eliminate that which I know does not belong in my diet.  Foods with excess sugars, artificial sweeteners, empty carbohydrates, high fat content and other junk foods are going to be banished.  This will take a great deal of sacrifice and self-control, but I know it will be worth it in the end.

I’ve said before that the desire to look good and feel good is all a matter of pleasure.  Either you get more pleasure out of being in the physical shape you want to be in, or you get more pleasure out of stuffing your face with every conceivable kind of junk.  It really boils down to that simple sort of decision.  When confronted with something to eat, all you need to do is say to yourself “will my short term pleasure of eating this piece of junk, be greater than my long term pleasure in knowing that my body is fit and healthy”.

I told a special friend today about how I got started on my now ten year fitness streak.  During this conversation it came to light that pictures exist of me being fat and out of shape.  I keep those pictures as a reminder of where I once was.  I also have a picture of my peak of fitness, which is now about 5 years old.  The two pictures are polar opposites.  Over the past 5 years I have been waffling back and forth between wanting to be like the guy in the peak of fitness vs. the guy who was fat and out of shape.  It is time I cut the bullshit and get back to the person I was when I had reached top fitness.  I will never forget the confidence I had in myself at the time and wish everyone could achieve that.  It is hard to reach and hold onto that level, but I am going to do it again.

A good friend of mine once told me that I have so much potential and that it pained her to see me squander it.  For some reason, I was reminded of this comment tonight.  I wasn’t doing anything more than simply going for a walk and stopping into a local bar for a refreshment, when my friend’s comment came back to haunt me.

It is not like I am a failure, but in many areas I have not lived up to my potential.  I can cite fear, laziness, conflicting commitments, stubbornness or just plain stupidity for reasons that I have not lived to my full potential.  In the end, my failure to reach my full potential really just lays within myself or more specifically my mind and its willingness to push myself to a place that is beyond my current comfort zone.

I have on occasions reached my full potential in narrowly focused areas.  It would be better though if I could free my mind to allow myself to hit my potential in a much broader spectrum.  I need to let/force/cajole myself to do the things that I know I want to do deep down inside.  I only have one life to live and if I don’t make the most of it, then I am going to fail no one but myself.  I will not have made a mark on this world worthy enough of remembering.  Actually, it is not even about having done things worth memorializing, it is about going to my own grave satisfied that I lived a life worth living.  One that is not full of regrets, remorse and could have should have and would haves.

So what am I to do to allow myself to reach my full potential?  I do not want to get caught up in a philosophical discussion, nor do I want to seek out therapy to find out what is holding me back.  All of that takes too much time to do and by the time I got anywhere, I would have already lost a bunch of time to accomplish those things I wish I could be accomplishing.

So I am asking you dear readers…  What have you done to set yourself free to reach your goals, dreams and desires?  Which magic elixir did you take that transformed you into the person you wanted to be?  What are the first steps you took to free yourself from things that unnecessarily encumbered you?  Lastly, if you were able to do any of these things, was it worth it at the end?

Since the NYC Marathon, I have been training steadily.  This included doing the Knickerbocker 60K in Central Park only 1 week before I was schedule to have hernia surgery.  I wanted to make sure that by the time I got onto the cutting table, I would be physically tired and ready to rest for the required 4 weeks of recovery time.  I even made sure I rode my bike to the hospital for surgery, just to get one last workout in.   However, only 3 days after the surgery, I find myself filled with a nervous energy, wishing I could go out for a run, so I would at least be tired when it was time to go to bed.

As I am faced with another 3.5 weeks of recovery time, I am not sure how I am going to spend my time in the evening.  I suppose I could do some reading, take a closer look at my personal finances or just watch TV and movies.  None of the options are appealing to me.  I am craving the pursuit of physical fitness and the endorphins that are released from a good hard workout.

All I can say is that taking off for the 4 weeks will be tougher than any workout I would have put myself through.  Hopefully, I will recover well and be able to get right back into training come January.