Failure is Not an Option

All of us have felt like, or actually been, failures at some time in our journey. Yesterday, I certainly felt like one. Most of you know that I have written a book about my transformation from heart patient to runner.

My Kickstarter project failed to reach its funding goal.

After all that work, literally months of preparation, there was zero, nada - nothing to show for it.

At 4:44 I watched the last seconds tick away to zero. Within moments, I had an email as proof of my failed mission. I sat there for a while and tried to think about all the things I might have done differently. A few of you had some suggestions.

I couple of you were pi$$ed! I am thanking God I am on your good side. :)

I confess, what was most penetrating were the don't give up now messages and emails from my MFP pals. I sat in my desk chair and thought about canceling my MFP account and disappearing from cyberspace for a while.

I decided to go for a run with the local running club I just joined instead; it was my second run for the day.

On Facebook I just posted the Kickstarter rejection email and left it that. One of my friends suggested I try out RocketHub another crowdfunding site. I kept thinking well, I didn't make once, why would I try it again? This morning I reread a coupled of my messages about not quitting.

Some of you guys kinda of suck... for telling me not to quit when I wanted to.

I clicked on the link for RocketHub and copy and pasted my information from Kickstarter, made a few tweaks, cropped a couple of photos, took out the profit on the book, removed a few rewards and launched my new project.

It was approved in 30 minutes.

This time I will succeed because, as one reader stated, "your message is too important to stay in your head." You know, I believe that because I once ran along side a blind man in a road race. I thought, if he can do it, I certainly can.

In order to succeed, I have lowered my expectations, but I have not changed my goal. I am still going to publish my book.

Failure is not an option.

I appreciate everyone's support from the messages, to the pledges, to posting my link on your social media pages. It has been awesome.

And finally, as another friend wrote on the RockectHub page. "Glad you persisted, I wouldn't have expected any less. :)"

This time around, I need your help. With it, I am going to succeed.

Here's the link to join the party! RocketHub!

What is Wrong With Me?!

I used to be a desk jockey and weighed in just south of 300 pounds. I ate what I felt like, and never gave not eating, or exercising a thought. I got fat enough where I just didn't bother to look in the mirror. Gone were he days of wearing 31" waist jeans. I had ballooned up to 40" with elastic waistbands.

I was obese and I felt tired all the time. My joints ached, my back would go out and leave bedridden for days at a time. I relied on the doctors to medicate my symptoms, but nothing was getting solved because I was not part of the process. I kept doing my thing, and they kept trying to counteract it with drugs. I took anti-inflamatories for my knees, blood pressure meds and an occasional antibiotic if I was sick. And I got sick at least a few times a year.

It was really awful, but I just figured that it was part of getting old.

My health got worse and I ended up in the ICU. It was there my then 7-year-old put her head on my chest and said, "Daddy if you die, who is going to take me to Toy R Us and not tell mommy?"

GASP!

In the weeks following I slept a lot. I did my best to walk a mile a day. It was hard, I was tired all the time and the Bruins won the Stanley Cup. I was prisoner to my own fears of having a heart transplant. I couldn't believe I had wasted over 50 years. Living out the 5 or so years I supposedly had left was my punishment. (You may be familiar with Country star Randy Travis. He is now going through the same thing except I did not have a stroke to make things worse.)

I was depressed and kept to myself. I didn't tell anyone how really terrified I was of living as a sick man for whatever months or years were left.

For those that follow me, you know how it turns out.

 Things are different now. Yesterday's run for instance. I was sweating so much that when I got home, taking off my running shirt was like a skunk sausage giving birth to the moon. There I was screaming in front of the bathroom mirror crowning! It wasn't pretty.

That's my new life.

Now my life expectancy is probably more closely related to what I say to my wife, which side of the road I run on, and how I ride my motorcycle than it is to my heart condition - or lack thereof.

I have been writing this blog for 2 years. Together we've laughed about my pants falling down in airport security. You followed the journeys to my first 5K, 10K and 1/2 marathons. It's really been a bit surreal. Some of you I have met at races, others I feel like I know anyway. This once, I'd like to ask a favor. Would you consider supporting my book project if you haven't done so already? You can do it for as little as a $1.00.

I'd really appreciate if you would at least watch the video of me being silly. The outtakes are probably the best part.

Feel guilty yet? Good, now go pledge something! :)

Rocket Hub

Thanks for being on the journey, for your friendship and your support. David

Reasons Why I Run and You Should Too!

When people ask, why I run? I usually answer with why don't you run? I am sort of a smarta$$, but I did think about it. I don't really like, or even love running. For me it's mostly one pain followed by another, sweating like a pig, and taking time from other things I'd like to be doing like sitting on the couch eating bonbons.

Oh, that's right, I already did that and felt like crap.

Everyone has different reasons to run here are some of mine.

I run because...

...walking is too slow.

...I can run for those that can't, raising money for research.

...I like being around runners - well, not the snobby ones.

...I can compete against myself.

...the shoes are cool.

...I sweat and then I pretend I mowed the lawn.

...someday I may need to run from the cops.

...I am on fire and never learned stop, drop and roll.

...to get thin.

...a marathon is on my bucket list.

...it's good for my heart.

...it's good for my head.

...it's good for my soul.

...it's good for the companies that sell running shoes.

...I can leave the troubles of the day behind.

...it saves on gas (but not on bananas).

...I can relax.

...I can listen to my thoughts.

...it keeps me healthy.

...it makes me feel alive (so does sex and coffee), but it's hard to beat endorphins.

...it's the place where no one can find me.

As always, thanks for the shares and comments. You guys, rock!
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If you like this blog, you might want to consider reading my new book - but at least watch the video and have a smile or two. It's HERE.

There is a Lot to Learn!

elcivics.com

I thought I was an expert when it came to losing weight (just like I am in marriage). After all, I had done it 2 times before! I tried the starvation diet and went from 232 pounds down to 190. I tried the Dr. Phil diet (to be fair, with 90 minutes of exercise a week) and went from 240-something to 199.

I knew what was best, yogurt, low-fat anything, fruits, veggies, high quality cold cuts and frozen diet meals. And I knew what was bad: soda, rice, potatoes and pasta!

... and that bacon, eggs and cheese were my friends!

I signed up for a weight loss class at my local gym where I first started counting calories. They gave us a little lecture on staying away from pizza, wings and fast food. The trainer even taught us fractions as we divided up our plates into thirds. Of course we exercised 2 times a week for about an hour as well as being encouraged to do a third on our own.

Two out of three In it to Lose It sessions our team took first prize for the largest percentage of weight lost. (and the most farts during sit up circle!) Go us! I was on my way to losing a small child.

In the midst of all that, I got sick, really sick - like congestive heart failure sick.

After a week in ICU, a surgery, a "we don't really know, but some people need heart transplants" prognosis and a long recovery, I decided that maybe I didn't know as much as I thought I knew. (No surprise to the people that know and love me!)

I worked with the cardiologist, the doctor, an immunologist and a nutritionist to find a path back to health and fitness. And I prayed. Truthfully, I had only desired to swoon over myself in the mirror before that. Now I wanted to be healthy and fit too.

So what did I learn since they took me off the heart monitor?

- Not all calories are the same. They are just a guide for comparison; actual mileage may vary.

- Losing weight, even a lot of it, is not a guarantee that you are healthy or fit.

- There are many factors to being fit: basic strength, cardiovascular health, aerobic capacity, pain free joints, blood work within healthy limits, and best of all, you feel good.

- If you can't pronounce an ingredient on label, it's suspect.

- All natural foods can still have too much sugar, salt and unhealthy amounts of carbohydrates.

- Whole foods are not the same as low-calorie foods.

- Walking is not running.

- Hydration is very important! You can get water from other sources besides water; like fruits, veggies and water based drinks. There is even water in  margarita!

- Hydration, according to the spies at the CDC, is good for the following: Keeping body temperature normal, lubricating and cushioning your joints, protecting your spinal cord and other sensitive tissues (I guess like your privates) and gets rid of waste through urination, perspiration, and bowel movements. Eww!

- If you are counting calories, vegetables are better choices than fruit - if you have to make a choice.

- Processed foods are, IMHO, not good for you. There are plenty of studies to prove it. They are linked to every scary disease you can think of.

- Everyone plateaus at some point during weight loss.

- We all have 6-pack abs, some are just shrink wrapped.

- There are super foods which help you get the most nutritional value for the amount of calories you eat.

- There are so called healthy foods which are not particularly healthy.
- The right kind of fats don't make you fat (within your caloric limits), or cause high cholesterol. Stick to Omega 3s and avoid saturated fats.

- There are simple and complex carbs, choose complex ones unless it's fruit with other nutrients and fiber! Foods that contain simple carbohydrates include white flour, honey, milk, yogurt, candy, chocolate (which is a food group!), fruit juice, cake, jam, biscuits, molasses, soda and packaged cereals.

- Whole grains are the best kind. Did you know that whole wheat bread may not be any healthier than white bread if it is not whole grain?

- Learn to love whole grains! Brown rice, buckwheat, bulgur (cracked) wheat, millet, wild rice, popcorn, quinoa, triticale, whole-grain barley, whole-grain corn, whole oats/oatmeal, whole rye, and whole wheat.

- B-I-N-G-O, sugar has a name-o. Brown sugar, Corn sweetener, Corn syrup, Dextrose, Fructose, Fruit juice concentrates, Glucose, High-fructose corn syrup, Honey, Invert sugar, Lactose, Maltose, Malt Syrup, Molasses, Raw sugar, Sucrose, Sugar, and Syrup.

- The older you get, the more important fiber becomes. No, $h1t, really.

- If you are going to run, get your shoes fitted at a running store!

- Supplements (and some medications) should be used rarely. If you are eating a healthy and balanced diet, your blood work should be near perfect. If it's not, do as the doctor prescribes. Keep in mind a healthy diet and weight can reduce or eliminate the need for medication and dietary suppliments.

- There are no experts except possibly me. ;)

As always, thanks for the votes and comments. You guys, rock!
Friends and friend requests are the life blood of MFP, so send one if you like.
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If you like this blog, you might want to consider reading my new book - but at least watch the video and have a smile or two. It's HERE.

Get Moving!

The word moving has many different applications in the English language. Depending on the context and the situation, it could be good or bad. If you are like me, moving, as in the whole freakin' house including toys, bikes, photos, rabbits and dogs, that is the bad sucky week from hell type of moving.

If you haven't had a #2 in a few days, moving is good, really good. If it's been 20 minutes, it's not so good. The up side is weighing in right after.

Then there are moving violations, moving trucks, moving day, movin', movies, movements, moved by the Spirit or emotion and moving as in doing something with your body besides sitting on the couch. (We are still going to count sitting on the toilet as moving.)

How do you get moving? Why does it matter? Well, if you are here to lose weight, it probably doesn't matter. If you are making a lifestyle change and working on getting fit, moving your blood and your butt is important.

Ask yourself this: if runners can walk, then how come walkers can't run?

How fast your heart beats is very important to cardiovascular health. I am not going to argue with walkers; it's surely better than sitting on the couch. But it is not better than types of cardio which significantly increase your aerobic capacity (as does fast swimming, biking, soccer, Zumba, basketball and hockey etc.)

Cardio exercise is good for you because it increases your aerobic capacity by growing more capillaries, which in turn move your blood more efficiently, which causes your heart to work less. It also strengthens the heart which is a muscle. And supposedly it stimulates t-cells which fight disease. I also watched a documentary that said that a minute of "all out" exercise can increase your ability to process fats like cholesterol. The problem with an all out minute is injury.

Exercise which raises your heart rate for periods of time greater than 15 minutes and shorter than an hour, are very good for you.

So it's time to get moving! Just go easy and walk before you run.

I use a heart rate monitor, and you might consider one too. It's not magic, but it should give you a solid idea if you are in the zone or not. To get into the zone you are probably going to sweat (even if you swim).

I was reading this and I think when Dr Oz dies from some fad diet, I can take his place.

Thanks for the shares and comments!
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If you like this blog, you might want to consider reading my new book - but at least watch the video and have a smile or two. It's HERE.

You Read My Blog, How About My New Book?

Did you ever wonder what food creates the most sensual body shots? Maybe you wanted to know the most common injuries incurred during pole dancing and why the treadmill isn't much safer. Maybe you want to be entertained by my listless and neurotic self-talk as I pump myself up to run a marathon.

I try to answer some of the most important questions about life, running and weight-loss in my new book.
Maybe you already know that I suffered congestive heart failure in April of 2011. Or that I write hospital ER and OR reviews (not really - but I am like a connoisseur). Or that I can help you prepare for a plethora of surgical procedures and give first-hand pharmaceutical advice.

I am also hoping that you won't find out that I am not as funny as I think I am.
I have been blogging about my fitness journey for over 2 years. Somewhere along the way, I have been encouraged to write a book about my weight-loss, my running, and my recovery from heart disease.

Today, it gives me great pleasure to announce my new book, ICU to Marathon - Diaries of a Nearly Dead Man.

In it you can read about a 5K race where I ran behind a pooping poodle. There is a story about the time my pants fell down in the security line at the airport. It's actually not all that funny. The good news is that I had on clean underwear which made it bearable for the other passengers.

One of the things I loved about doing the Kickstarter video was that after I had asked my daughter to keep quiet during the filming, she had an urgent need - all captured in the background audio! Even if you don't care about the book, be sure to skip ahead to the video outtakes.

To those who have encouraged me, we are in this together. Thank you for your kind words, blog comments, well wishes and prayers. We have 34 days left to get this done. Here is where to pre-order your copy.

Live, love and laugh - and get fit. David

Challenges, Facts, Fiction and Fallacy

Let me start by apologizing for the screwing up of a near perfect alliteration in my title. As weight losers, humans, athletes and wannabe athletes, we face many decisions during our journey. Some of those decisions you would think would be no-brainers, however; based on the staggering amount of controversial health and fitness posts in cyberspace, that is not at all the case.

Excuse me a moment while I put on my own guru hat.

Challenges: There are dozens of them every day. What do we eat? When should we eat? What should we do if we blow it? How should we train? How much cardio? How much strength training? How many long runs? Are these running shoes cute? What underwear chafes less? Do avocados make you fart?

There seems to be science to back up every position, which makes getting it right, overwhelming.

The best approach to managing challenges is to have a plan. A plan needs to have a goal such as losing 20 pounds, training to finish a 5K in under 30 minutes, or to bench press a baby elephant - that sort of thing. Then the plan needs bite size steps. No matter what you are doing, if you can't make it a priority, it will continue to challenge you, and probably defeat you too. Make a schedule to reach your goal and adjust it as needed.

It's OK to switch your long run day to one that is sunny instead of a blizzard-ing.

Facts: Fact just are. They are true and never predicated on theory. Most of our science seems to be based on the logical outcome of selected facts. That is junk science. (seems to work for politics and religion too) Real science takes into consideration, all the facts. An anecdotal outcome such as I drank 10 cups of water and only peed out 6 does not specifically mean that you retained 4 cups of water. The point is there are other ways for the water to escape the body. And when it comes to water, there are many sources unless you are only eating celery powder. Oh - and here's a tip: don't drink out of the same cup you peed in.

Do you want facts? Use a tape measure, a measuring cup and a food scale.

The bottom line is that each one of us is metabolically different, and that is a fact. Some are prone to gain weight depending on their protein/carbohydrate /fat intake ratio. Some are sensitive to sodium, others are not. Some have a thyroid problem, and others have a sugar addiction; we are all different.

Fiction: Worse than junk science is outcome based logic which is not backed by facts. There are a lot of hypotheses regarding calories, weight loss, marathon training and other health related issues. Although the basic math of calories in/calories out holds an overall truth, it is pretty much fiction because all calories are not created equally. Caloric labels, treadmill displays, and Garmin HRMs are all educated guesses which can be used as a guide. They are pure fiction.

The fiction is based on how caloric content is measured. Basically the testers incinerate the food, but that is not exactly how it happens in a your body. At least one study showed that people who ate the exact same amount of calories of salmon vs beef, showed slightly greater weight loss. I can attest to the fact that it is much easier to burn 80/20 burgers than it is a piece of salmon when grilling.

The bottom line, it does matter what types of food you eat.

When it comes to training and running, most plans are based on some sort of mathematical progression and not on any actual physiological evidence, except that if you have an injury, you pushed it too hard.

Fallacy: Be very skeptical if instant results, magic pill diets and train for 3 days a week marathon training plans. For every person that could possibly achieve those results, there are thousands who cannot.

I am not even convinced that a 1 or 2 pound a week weight loss number is ideal. The truth is no matter what plan you use, what diet, what training you force yourself to do, you will gain back 73% of what you lost for one reason, and one reason alone: You stopped doing what was working.

Did I say you need to adjust your plan to meet your goal?

I lost 30 pounds in 3 months by adding a little exercise (90 minutes a week) and cutting calories. I actually had a couple of 4+ pound loss weeks. I have never gained it back in 2 years time.

The point is this, we need to choose a lifestyle of good foods and regular, and increasing cardio with a mix of solid strength training.

Which brings me to my first point. the challenge is setting a goal with obtainable steps. 

Thank you for commenting and sharing!

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The Kickstarter video for my new book is just around the corner. Follow the progress on http://www.marathonproject.com