Summer is moving a little too quickly for me. The realization hit when we were packing up at the end of all too short camping trip recently. I was thinking about how precious the summer months are and how soon fall arrives when you're so sure you'll have time to do all the great stuff you planned while the weather kept you confined indoors and summer was so far away. Man, I'm such a sap-- and really into run-on sentences.

The thing is that there is no time like right now to get up, get out, and go do the things I want and/or need to do. Just freakin' do it. Turn off whatever soul-robbing contraption that has my buttocks mated with my chair and... -click-

And... I'm... Back!

That was awesome! Completely furious workout at the gym this morning. I did a number of different weight routines that reminded me of muscles that hadn't been out to play for a while. I followed that with a run/walk/climb session at the high school stadium. I only ran the circuit three times but hey, I was feeling it. If I were a masochist I'd have been in a steaming lather by the time it was over. I'm not but I was- er... not a masochist but was still in a lather, I mean. Ew, that's starting to sound a little weird. Geez, I'm constantly putting my foot in my mouth. No, not literally. Focus, Steve!

Why the frenetic burst of activity this morning? It seems I have a lot more weight to lose. Thank you scale! Wait, I mean thank you Poppycock! No, that's not quite right either. What I really mean to say is, "Thanks to you, Steve."

"Salty carbs don't bloat people; people consuming mass quantities of salty carbs bloat people."

So this morning I was all about sweating out the Sodium and working off the carbs- and it felt really good. Thank you scale. Thank you indeed.

The thing is, salty-carb-induced-bloat and the waning summer aren't the only reasons for the change-up in activity this morning. It seems like I've hit some sort of wall in my weight loss efforts. So I'm taking some advice from a reliable source in regard to my weight lifting efforts and switching things up a little. More on that later.

Ruh-row! Two weeks left until my goal date. I guess I better get started.

#10 - Don't Wait For Anything

Nothing should (scratch that, nothing will) get in the way of accomplishing what I want and there's just no putting off success when I'm committed. I'm doing something right NOW...

...and I'm back. Whew, that was strenuous!

Ok, so I have a year under my belt and I'm two weeks away from checking off current weight loss goal. Then what? Do I start the back slide into my former self or am I just "done"? The simple and sad fact for me is that I've got to continue on. One hundred fifty pounds is a lot of weight; losing that much for some would be a literal disappearing act. It's more a milestone for me along the path to my ideal weight. The thing is while obesity may no longer apply- well, I'm still overweight according to BMI calculators.

#11 - A Short Term Commitment To Weight Loss Is Less Than Ideal

Weight loss, permanent weight loss, is a life-long commitment. This 380 day exercise is but the first step towards my ultimate goal; maintaining a healthy weight for the rest of my life.

I spent my workout pumping iron in the midst of a mental spank-fest. The scale, you see, is my friend. Not the kind of sycophantic friend that tells me look great even when I have a booger on my chin and spinach in my teeth but the kind of friend that smacks me upside the head when I mix prints with plaid and flat out tells me, "No, it's not the jeans that makes your ass look fat- it's your ass."

This morning my friend the scale reminded me that slacking-off doesn't shed pounds and brownies aren't health food. I'm grateful for the scale no matter how grim the news- it's an early warning device, letting me know what's happening before something a little less friendly chides in... the mirror.

#29 - Weigh In Regularly

Not necessarily every day but often enough to change course if what I'm doing isn't working.

#30 - I Ask Again, "Do These Pants Make My Ass Look Fat?"

No, eating too many brownies makes my ass look fat. True-dat! Note to Steve: "Cut back on the brownies."

#31 - Fast Food? Fuhgeddaboudit!

We Americans have the best fast food in the world- and that ain't just my patriotism showing. Empires and an obesity epidemic have been built on it and testify to its' world supremacy. Salute foreigners, we rock! Now I'm not saying that fast food barons of capitalism are to blame for making my ass measurable in axe handles (we all know that fast food doesn't make people fat; eating too much fast food makes people fat), what I'm saying is that for me, I'm better off staying away from it entirely.

#32 - Speed Kills Weight Loss

We all know that fast food is generally jammed full of fat, carbs, and Sodium. Wolfing it down like some kind of Velociraptor adds insult to the dietary injury. Eating slowly lets the body convince the brain that it's being fed. The result- I feel full even though I've eaten less. Who knows, it could have saved the dinosaurs.

#33 - Reducing Intake Is More Effective Than Increasing Activity In The Short Term

OK, decision time. I'm at the order counter of my favorite fast food place deciding whether or not to spring for the 59-cent super-size upgrade. What do I do? WHAT DO I DO?

Walk away! There's no way I going to do enough reps at the gym to balance out the equation. It's exponentially easier to exercise freedom of choice and avoid a 1,000 calorie mistake than try to work it off in the gym.

Feelin' good, feelin' fine and why not? Started my day with some exercise and my regular smoothie and that nasty evacuation business is behind me (no pun intended). All that and I'm down another pound- wahoo!

I added another set and another 5 pounds to my workout. It's a little more of a grunt but when I max-out-plus-5lbs on the biceps-curl machine I feel really strong. This brings up a change in strategy that I'd like to explore.

I've used weight lifting throughout the entire 291 days to help burn calories and promote weight loss and it's worked pretty well. The thing is, what I've managed to do is mainly shrink in most of the places I've been measuring. That is, I'm just a more compact version of what I looked like when I started. People have always told me that I carried my weight well- which I took as a polite way of saying that I looked like a giant Shrek-like freak. I've been kind of like the Michelin Man- going through a period of deflation. Now that I'm getting closer to goal I'd like more definition than merely form.

Logic tells me that less body fat shows more muscle definition. I've been lifting as much weight per rep as I was physically able (plus a little) since I started this journey. What I'm told and what I've read leads me to believe that this type of training helps increase muscle mass and strength- which is cool but may not reduce fat as quickly as a lighter-weights-more-reps strategy would. My thinking is that's the strategy I want to adopt for the next 90 days. Onward and upward.

Today's smoothie was my typical recipe: banana, berry, protein, flax. You can look at prior entries for the recipe and nutrition info. This reminds me of something else I read just the other day. I read that you should limit your menu to just a few simple items and never stray. Variety, it seems, may be the spice of life but can sabotage your diet.

If achieving goals is all about focus, determination, and tenacity, limiting your intake to a focused, repeatable menu sounds productive. Looking back over what I've been eating I think I may have been doing this to a degree already and I haven't felt deprived. I guess there were times when I felt "tired of eating the same old thing" but perhaps that's just because I temporarily moved my focus to the food rather than my goals. I think I may of done that a little too much throughout much of my life; focusing on the food rather than what was truly important. I mean, every family gathering I can remember was centered around a meal. The focus should have been on enjoying each other's company. Most of the business meetings I've attended have either been stocked with pastries, catered or at a restaurant. Food has always been either at the focus or part of the environment of every gathering I can remember. How the hell did I get so fat?

OK, back to business. I'll ramp things up a little- these last 90 days are going to go by quickly.

You take one down, try to lose another pound, 97 days of determination on the wall...

Ridiculousness aside, I really do feel like I'm getting close to something, some kind of ending or perhaps a coming-together. I began this otherwise unremarkable Saturday with an invigoration hour or so at the gym. It was a dry run to and from but as I write this the weather is fairly soggy. Sometimes the weather cooperates, sometimes it doesn't.

I added some weight to my typical routine. At the biceps curl machine I lifted 10-rep sets of 140 lbs each followed by by a slow isometric-like 3 reps of 160 lbs. I moved up to 130 lbs on the triceps extension and 190 for both bench press and butterfly. I also added 10 lbs. for each of my leg exercises. In summary, a good workout.

I followed it with a typical smoothie:

1/2 Banana
2 Frozen Strawberries
1/3C Frozen Blueberries
1S EAS Premium Protein (Chocolate)
1S Ground Flax
Water

My wife took the kids to their various Saturday activities, leaving me alone to address some of the stuff that had accumulated in my in-basket. I quickly organized things into their appropriate folders among the 43 that David Allen has taught me to use and cranked out some two-minute stuff. Everyone will be back soon, so I plan on enjoying the rest of the day with family.

Many years ago I ordered Anthony Robbins' "30 Days to Personal Power" program during one of those late-night infomercials. I'll admit that it was about 2AM and in my half-dazed state I probably would have bought just about anything. I forget what the price was at the time, but whatever it was seemed paltry when compared with the potential realization of "personal power".

Once the package arrived, I had no idea what it was that I had ordered- making it a little like somebody sending me a present; so I ripped into it like it was my birthday. Inside I found a set of cassette tapes in shiny plastic boxes that looked really cool on the top shelf of the bookcase in my office, which is where they sat for about a month.

Having not achieved personal power on my own, I retrieved the first shiny box from the shelf and popped it into my cassette player (for those of you born after the Golden Age, please ask an older person what a cassette is) and hit the play button. What filled the room was majestic and almost inspirational music accompanying various inspirational speakers introducing Mr Inspiration himself, Anthony Robbins.

Now, I don't mean that with any amount of sarcasm. The guy is good. You listen- and if you truly listen and want to absorb what he's saying, you kind of get excited about life. You begin to think that things are going to get better; that little by little you're going to increase your "personal power". All it takes is to follow a very simple formula:

1. Decide on your outcome
2. Take massive action
3. Notice whether what you're doing is working and adjust if necessary.

There is also a "shortcut", 1-a step:

1-a. Find someone who is getting the results you want for yourself and copy them.

Guess what? IT WORKS. When I think about anything good that's occurred in my life and analyze just how it came to be, I can identify little things that directly relate to Tony's formula--- even before I listened to the tapes. Does that mean I already had "personal power"?

Whatever.

What it means is that Anthony Robbins really knows how to recognize, package, and market positive human behaviors. Bravo Tony!

What it means to me is confirmation that I (just like EVERYBODY else) am already capable of achieving whatever I want if I consistently do what's worked for me in the past.

Again, bravo Tony. Thanks for articulating what I should have realized and gone consistently after all along. And if you think this is an endorsement of your program, whatever the latest generation of your spiel is called, feel free to send me a free copy (or better yet, a check-- I love big fat checks).

I've said all along that most programs have a grain of value to them if you take action and apply what you already know: that it's up to you to make the change. Copy somebody if you want, but no matter how miraculous the results, it's always you, and only you, doing the heavy lifting.

Decide, act, adjust, repeat; that's my plan.

I'm going to die.

Not now and hopefully much later but I'm going to die regardless. I read once that we should live each day as if it were our last; that we should do what we love and know in our hearts that there will be no regrets at the end.

That is what I am now doing. It is my ambition and goal to improve myself with each and every moment that brings me ever closer to the inevitability of death. I pledge to not procrastinate, to be honest with myself, and move onward and upward.

I had a manager once who liked to repeat the phrase, "Too soon old and too late smart." I hated that. Now it frightens me. When I was young I never imagined myself as old as my manager was then. He seemed almost ancient. Now that I'm almost as old now as he was then, I realize its' truth and significance. I've got so much to learn.

I may only have today to learn it.

You know what? I'm excited about that. I'm going to learn today because that's what I love to do. I'm going to improve TODAY, because that's what I'm going to do. I've decided and I'm taking action.