New Year, Old Wes?

Nearly a month has gone by in 2014 and so far so good.

In December I started the 5:2 Diet and so far I've lost about 15 lbs and down about 2 jean sizes! 

Now I've been here before with other diets, including Body By Vi, which just didn't seem to work well for me in the long term.  I was told by one person that folks with the A blood type don't do well on Body By Vi, not sure if that's true but it didn't work for me long term.

That being said, I'm committed to this thing and praying for God's guidance.  After all He was the one that created the human body anyway, so if anyone knows how it works it's Him!

This coming year I've got several goals in mind in regard to my body.

1. Lose 25 lbs and if I meet that goal fairly soon, then go for another 25!
2. Lose enough weight that I never, ever have to do the walk of shame on any coaster, and I especially want to lose enough weight to be able to ride El Toro, which I was denied in 2010 because I couldn't get the restraint down far enough.  This goal may not happen this year, but I'm working towards it.
3. Run a 10k!  Yes that's right, yours truly has set a goal to run his first 10k.  I ran my first 5k last year, and despite some challenges during the run, I finished... and I wasn't even the last one to finish!  For my first 10k my goal is to finish strong, and to finish.
4. If all goes well, I hope to do my first M.S. cycling event in about 10 years.  Back when I was thin, several years I did the Breakaway To The Beach event that is 150 miles over 2 days on a bicycle. And yes I finished it at least twice!  I even rode a century once (100 miles in ONE day) and that was probably the toughest thing I've ever done on a bike.   I may do a one day event, around 60 miles or so to start back and then in 2015 go for the 150 miler again.
5. Get healthier, be filled with joy, be content whatever my scale says and just take better care of myself.

Our society seems to be running at breakneck speed and has no time to slow down and take care of ourselves.  2014 I want to push myself physically, but not from lack of sleep, lack of exercise and lack of good nutrition.

I'm stronger than I've let myself believe the past 10 years or so, and it's time for the real Wes to come to the surface and God to get the glory.  Cause it's really His grace that has held me, and kept me pushing forward, even when I wanted to give up.

Philippians 4: 12-13

12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty.  I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

Most of the time we just quote verse 13 and it sounds great, but we skip what Paul was saying in verse 12.  He was talking about being content, not just overcoming things in life.

It's always a struggle for me to stay content, I see the good things others have and want them myself.  But most of the time I'm not really willing to do what they did to get those things.  Am I willing to work 60 hours a week to have that BMW?  Not really.  But I am willing to put in the work to make myself stronger and healthier both physically and spiritually. 

2014 is a clean slate and we've got 11 more turns of the calendar to make something of it.  Join me on this journey! Together we will be new creations and maybe we won't even recognize ourselves by the end of the year.

Until next time... please sit on your sandals! 

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First Class Guy

Tonight was a special night.  I got in some small way to say goodbye and thank Mr. Jesse who was one of my Assistant Scout Masters in Boy Scout (BSA) Troop 65 in Mint Hill.

Mr. Jesse went by the book, but he never threw the book at you.  He was always respectful and always interested in that scared shy kid I was back almost 30 years.

I loved Mr. Jesse for who he was and for the fact that he never put me down, like some leadership at the time when I left Scouting.  If Mr. Jesse had been in charge I may have never left.  But that's an argument I can have with myself for the rest of my life and never win.  What happened, happened. At the time I felt like I had to stand up for myself in the fact that the leader at that time, I felt like treated us like were under a dictatorship and not in something that was supposed to taken serious, but at the same time fun.  Fun wasn't a word we heard or even thought about at that time or at least that's how I felt about the situation.

My brother Brian and I sat on the back row of the Mint Hill McEwen Chapel and I took in the "Court of Honor" a tradition in the BSA for special occasions and this was very special.

I was struck at how central God was to the service, and amazed that in our politically correct world that the Boy Scouts of America are still standing up for faith and respect for beliefs of others at the same time.

I ran into my cousin who is now the Scout Master for Troop 65, and couldn't help but be struck by the fact that one of wildest boys of the troop back in the day, turned out to be a great leader.  I sat there with a bit of pride in my cousin for how far he's come in life and how well spoken he is.  I could tell the boys respected him from just a few interactions I saw between them.  Respect for elders and authority is something sorely lacking in our all-about-me society.

And now I get to my title of this post and the badge you see above.  When I left Scouting, I was at rank of First Class.  Next would have been Star, then Life, then finally a very small number of boys go on to Eagle Scout rank.

I still admire boys that make it to the rank of Eagle, it's not an easy task.  It's a lot to remember and do and try to do for all the right reasons, but yet some do make it to that level.

I heard my cousin read part of an article that Mr. Jesse had brought in one Monday night (Monday night was/is the troop's meeting night) about how many former Boy Scouts go on in life to be very successful leaders and men in their communities.

I'm proud to be a former Boy Scout, the organization has been under attack the past decade or so and while I won't go into that debate, I'll just say that I full support their current beliefs even the most recent decisions because it is based on a Biblical view and the BSA are founded at the core with Christian values.

I'll close this post with what I tried to remember tonight and say with the other Scouts the Boy Scout Oath:

On my honor, I will do my best to do my duty to God and my Country 
and to obey the Scout Law;To help other people at all times;
To keep myself physically strong, mentally awake, and morally straight. 

If we could all follow that oath in life, what a better world this would be.

In respect for the above blog, I'll forgo my normal closing and just say Godspeed Mr. Jesse , I'll see you on the other side.

The Moral Of The Story?

I'm back again for another blog that probably no one will read, but that's o.k. when I run for political office someday it will give them something to fuel their fire of lies.  Just kidding.

In keeping with one of my previous blogs, this is an update of sorts on where I am in life and a few lessons I've learned along the way, and hopefully won't have to relearn again along this ride of life.  For those curious why I've got He-Man pictured, for those that never watched the show like I did as a kid, at the end of each show there was a "moral of the story" or whatever they called it.  Basically they recapped the show, told you what was good about what happened and what was bad about what Skeletor or another villain had done that show.  With that short explanation, along with the blog.

To start, I'm loving my new job!  TricorBraun is a distributor for bottles, caps, jars, all that sort of thing.  So it's a new industry for me, and I'm learning a lot and trying to catch up on this learning curve.

When I was let go from Aon Hewitt I was denied unemployment benefits.  I had no money coming in!  I was living off very little money, and trust me I was scared!  But this is where our story gets good.

God impressed upon me the scripture "Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths." Proverbs 3: 5-6

To my best ability I started trying to do just that: trust that God was faithful and would take care of one of His kids while he was out of a job and trying to find one, and not having any money coming in.

God came through in so many big and small ways.  People would show up at restaurants I hadn't seen in a while and just pay for my meal, a friend sent me $200 out of the blue and my car had to have some work done that week, and my church and so many wonderful friends prayed long and hard for me.

I'm here to tell you that prayer works.  Now that doesn't mean we can demand God do what we want, but if we come to Him humbly and our friends and family are praying as well, God can do some amazing things in our lives if we just ask.  Jesus said "You have not, because you ask not.".  So don't be afraid to ask!  The worst thing God will say is "no".  We don't understand just how madly, head over heals God loves his children.  If you are a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ, then God loves you and wants the best for you!

At this point I want to jump track a bit and say thanks to our Federal government.  What you say?  Actually giving kudos to the Obama administration?  Well, maybe not so much but hear me out.

One of the roles of the Federal/State governments in my opinion is to help people when they have no other place to turn and in all honesty they are in a desperate situation.

With no income, and no immediate hopes of a job I did something I had never done in my 20 years of adult work, I applied for food stamps or SNAP/EBT as they call it now.

It's humbling to have to go ask for help when you've always tried to provide for your own needs and not be a burden to anyone, but sometimes you just have to.

I was approved for the SNAP program and it was a huge  help to me!  Not having to come up with money to buy groceries each week was help beyond what you can imagine.

I know there are people out there that abuse this system, but there are also people like me that need the help and are very thankful to get it.  I did see that at least the agency does follow up and make sure people aren't abusing the program, so that's a good thing.

That being said, the unemployment system really does need to be looked at.  When someone like me who has only been on unemployment ONE time in 20 years applies for a second time, in this economy, you shouldn't automatically deny them benefits.  If there is say a 15 week backlog, like there is right now, wouldn't it be better to help people out with say SOME income until you can review the case and make an educated decision?

But I'll leave that alone for now, it's water under the bridge and I hope I never have to apply for unemployment again, ever.  Being let go from 2 jobs within 3 years was an experience I never want to repeat.

So what are a few lessons I've learned the past 6 months on this ride of life?

1. Save more money!!!  Money can't provide everything, but if I had had a better savings, my time of unemployment would've been a bit less scary.
2. Trust God even more!  God has proved in a bigger and even more powerful way than I've ever experienced in my life how good, and faithful He is and will always be to me.  Me personally, not just me as part of a collective of Christians but me on a personal level.
3. I'm stronger than I thought I was.  This goes beyond what I've said above, to my boot camp workouts, to riding longer rides on the bike and just life in general.  I can certainly whine like the best of them, but when it comes down to it, I've found I can dig in there and surprise myself and even others sometimes too!
4. I've been reminded yet again the value of family, friends and faith.  So many people prayed for me during those dark months of unemployment, when I was trying my best to stay positive and trust God, but sometimes my humanity would get the best of me and when I needed an encouraging word, someone always gave one.  While having a lot of money would be great, friends are way more precious than gold.

I'm sure there are many lessons I've learned/been reminded of the past 6 months, but that's good enough for now. If I can get those 4 down in my life, I will be going a long way down the right path.

I hope this is an encouragement to someone if they ever read it. There is a lot of darkness in our world but God is still the light and can shine His love and light into YOUR life today!

Until next time, remember to sit on your sandals!

Shift Into Turbo!

For those of you that remember Power Rangers Turbo, you'll remember this guy pictured and my subject line.  Lately I feel like I've shifted into another gear in my workouts and life in general.  I guess you could say I've shifted into turbo!

After a couple months of plateauing and not losing any weight, I suddenly started losing again although the scale doesn't seem to show it, my clothes are getting looser.  And to boot I can tell I've gained some muscle mass as well.

I've started working harder at our Mt. Harmony boot camp workouts and adding more mileage on the bicycle.  One weekend I logged 60 miles on the bike on my Easter 3-day weekend!

This leads me to my next challenge.

I've made a commitment to do my fist long range cycling event in probably 10 years.  I'm planning to ride 130 miles on my bike, on one weekend in September (with a group of other insane people) to help raise money for Multiple Sclerosis!

I used to do these MS rides back in the late 90s and early 00s but then I let my weight come back and got lazy (just keeping it real) before I knew it, I was over 300 lbs.  At my smallest weight as an adult I weighed 185 in 1998, by 2005 I was around 300.  Crazy.

But then Jason Rhymer and his insane boot camps at Mt. Harmony helped me to refocus and get excited about getting back in shape. 

It's taken about 3 years to get to where I am on this journey, and if the Lord doesn't split the Eastern Sky this year (which would be fine with me if He did) then I'm challenging myself to ride 130 miles over 2 days, with a great finale ending at Sunset Beach, NC!  Last time I rode this MS ride, it ended at N. Myrtle Beach, SC... so this will be a whole new route for me and I'm looking forward to it!

If you'd like to help me out with my fundraising goal for MS, please visit this link!

So the "Ride of Life" is taking on a new meaning, referring originally to my love for roller coaster and the general analogy for life.  But now with my desire to get back on the bike in a big way, it will take on the significance of my big ride coming up in September!

In other news (you knew there had to be a roller coaster story coming up at some point)... I can now ride Afterburn at Carowinds on the back row again!  *Happy dance time!*

I have been denied riding the "sweet spot" on this, one of my favorite coasters not just at my home park Carowinds, but in the entire United States until opening Friday March 29 when I got to ride it without any problems.  The two previous seasons I was relegated to riding the "big boy" seats, which are bigger and would allow me to ride, but are in the middle of the train and aren't nearly as exciting as the far right, back row seat.

So my next milestone will be when I can belt myself in on the back row without any help.  I'm so very close to this happening, I hope to have this milestone in my rear view mirror very soon.

Until next time... Please sit on your sandals and join me on this journey and shift into turbo with me!

Got To Brag On God A Bit

It's been a few months since my last post and a lot has happened in that timeframe.

In December I lost my job and was also denied unemployment benefits.  To say that I was scared and fearing the worst would be an understatement.

I had many nights when my mind would race and think the worst, but then I would turn it over to God the best I could and He always gave me peace and I was able to sleep through the night.

During this time, I prayed that God would give me a verse to hold on to until I found work and while I was trusting God to meet my needs.

I believe God gave me Proverbs 3: 5-6 "Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths."

After i felt like God gave me those verses it was just amazing how God would remind me of that verse.  It popped up on Facebook one day, showed up strangely enough in a funeral I attended and just today after my good news (getting to that) a church close to where I live posted it on their outdoor billboard.  

Yesterday I was offered a job!  And to see that verse today yet again, it was like God saying: "See, I had you in my hand all the time."  

I write this to encourage you, whether you are a believer or not to trust God and reach out to him in your good times and bad and watch what He does.  He doesn't work in our timeframe, but He is working it out for our good and working on our character in the meantime.  

If you're not sure if you have a relationship with God, check out this link.

Until next time, please sit on your sandals!

200

I'm back from Virginia!  Sorry, last week I was sick and didn't feel up to blogging or doing pretty much anything.

For those that don't know, I was working towards the goal this year of riding my 200th roller coaster, and I was able to hit that goal September 28 at Busch Gardens Williamsburg!

Photo via rcdb.com

Verbolten, shown on the left is a great coaster and Busch Gardens is my favorite park so I couldn't have asked for a better 200!

The coaster launches you into the "black forest", really a building with cool effects and many twists and turns in the dark.   Before leaving the building, you drop VERTICALLY!  This is something that's never been done on a coaster in America.  Pretty cool.

After the drop, you are launched again up to the bridge you see in the photo on the left, before a fast couple of turns back to the station.  It's a great ride, and not too intense that kids wouldn't be able to enjoy it.

And to clarify, yes that means I've been on 200 different roller coasters so far.  It took my 33 years to ride my first 100, and 7 years to ride my next 100.

So that brings me back to the blog, first the positives: No denials the whole trip.  Didn't have any coasters or rides that I wanted to ride that I wasn't able to.

That being said, I still have some motivation besides my desire to ride El Toro, because I had to ride the "big boy" seat on Alpengeist and I barely fit in the regular seat on Griffon.  I also had to move one seat over on Busch's drop tower for a bigger seat.

So that brings me back to reality a bit and helps me re-focus after vacation.  I must say I was a bit disappointed I had ride the big boy seat, but that was a good reality check that I've still got a long way to go and this is not the time to get lazy.  So it was back to boot camp last night and Jason kicked my butt for sure, but that's what I need to get the rest of this weight off by my trip to Canada next year!  I want to be able to just hop on a coaster next year and not even think about if I fit or not, that would be pretty sweet.

Finally before I go, I also wanted to give a shout out to this guy, I don't know him personally but he's recently lost  130 pounds  and one of the things he wanted to do after the weight loss was ride a coaster!  Check this out.

Until next time, please sit on your sandals!

24

You may think this post will be about Jack Bauer, but sadly no.  As much as I'm a fan of the show 24 this is about another thing entirely. Since August 2 I'm down a total of 24 lbs!

It's incredible and crazy all at the same time to think I've dropped so much so quickly all thanks to Body by Vi and some hard work.

Last time I mentioned the genesis of this whole process, my denial from riding El Toro which is located 10 hours away in New Jersey

El Toro figuratively and literally has become my goal in weight loss.  The coaster is incredible, its one of the steepest wooden coasters and fastest on the planet and has just been named the best wooden coaster yet again, in the Golden Ticket Awards (an amusement industry award).

So when I was denied my ride back in 2010, I wasn't just denied a credit (coaster enthusiasts call it a credit, any time we ride a new coaster for us), I was denied an experience that thousands of coaster enthusiasts have already been a part of since the coaster opened in 2006.

So that brings us to today.  You may look at the 24 lbs and think, wow that was easy and in some ways you'd be right.  The nutrition part has become so much easier using the Body by Vi shakes.  But the journey has not been an easy one since 2010.

There were nights when I didn't want to go to boot camp, I just wanted to sit in the recliner and veg out.  But I didn't, I went to boot camp at Mt. Harmony each Tuesday and Thursday at 7:30 and tried to work my hardest.

One night recently I literally thought that if I ran another step, I'd probably drop dead.  Which sounded pretty good at that moment, no more boot camp!  But I digress.

At this point, if you are thinking about joining this journey, go for it!  That sounds all motivational speakerish, but really what have you got to lose (besides some weight)?  You may stumble a couple times on the way, you may struggle to find your path, but if you just make up your mind to not give up then with God, you can do all things!  God loves you so much, and wants you to join Him in His work, but to do that you've got to be healthy.  So many people have cut their life short because of poor health choices, but don't let that be you.  You are robbing this world of the blessing of YOU if your life ends prematurely!

I've heard studies that basically say it's never too late to start living a healthy lifestyle.  You may be 60 years old, but it's still not too late!  You can do this!

And last time I promised you the story about  "Please sit on your sandals!": sometime back, I was visiting my favorite amuseuemnt park, Busch Gardens Williamsburg and riding Alpengeist.

The driver of the coaster (the operator at the front of the ride that releases the ride to dispatch) was a bit emphatic about safety, which isn't always a bad thing.  But when she would go through her safety speech, when she got to the policy about riding on your sandals, she would basically scream it:  PLEASE SIT ON YOUR SANDALS!  This was a bit hilarious to us, to say the least.  So I never forgot it and now I will sign my blogs the same way.  Be enthusiastic about the ride of life!  If you have to scream to the top of your lungs!  And until next time, please sit on your sandals!