A Very Proud 2012

Well this is it ladies and gentlemen.  Tonight is the end of 2012 and the beginning of 2013.  I have a lot of goals for 2013 but for now I’m thinking back at what I’ve accomplished in 2012.

2012 started out fun.  We had some good friends over a year ago tonight, they stayed with us that night and we all went out for some go-kart fun on the 1st.  I also started a blog on Jan 1st, 2012 where I would celebrate a different food holiday every day.  The secret I didn’t tell people is that I was dieting 6 days a week but would cook and eat my food holiday foods on Saturday as part of a cheat day.  This lasted until April when I totally burned out on the grind of putting together a blog like this.

February was a very up and down month for me.  My family and I moved to another part of town where we are much happier.  My parents came to visit to help us move but we lost my grandma the same weekend.  It is something that still hurts even now.  I went off my diet and began gaining weight again.  This weight gain lasted until June.

In late May I had been reading a couple of books and had seen some research that suggested that you could exercise a few times per day in short duration and still benefit as if you’d gone to the gym for an hour.  I decided I was going to try this and write a blog about it.  It took me a few days to flesh out my program but ultimately, as many of you know, I settled on push ups, sit ups and squats.  At first it was all three each day but I would get tired and need to take days off to rest.  This is when I started doing one of each per day and my program really took off.

In June I started dieting and experimenting with food and weight loss/gain.  I ended up losing 29 lbs before feeling the need to stabilize for a while.  I felt at that point I was losing too quickly and needed a break.  Yes, I know, this is a great problem to have!  The fact is, I have been working on writing a book about my experiences and the research I had done had given me so much knowledge that I really feel my mental state couldn’t keep up with my physical state.  In other words, I got the program down but my mind was stuck with a comfort level that was at a higher weight.  Does that make any sense at all?  It did to me.

Physically, my biggest setback hit in late September.  I was having trouble doing push ups and determined that I must have strained my rotator cuff.   I kept up with some exercises for a while but round about November I decided I should take the rest of the year off to rest my body.  I was doing my push ups wrong.  I had my elbows out when they should be closer to my body when doing a push up.

With the holidays coming I acclimated myself back to eating bread and some cheese and I thoroughly enjoyed Thanksgiving dinner and all the Christmas festivities I attended.

So how does 2012 end for me?  My wife and kids are still in Michigan and I’m in Florida working tonight.  I’ll put the TV on and watch the ball drop… I dislike that ball… and text and call my friends to say happy new year.  Tomorrow I’m getting back to the grind and will be running, doing push ups, sit ups and squats.  I’ve already gotten myself back on my diet and am feeling optimistic about it.

I will work harder on my book and hope to have it completed soon.  Don’t worry, I can’t always proof read my blog posts due to my family and work schedule but the book will be proof read, and read by a few people before I put it out there for people to read.

I also plan to write more on the blog like I did for a the first few months.  I want to give you some advise for reaching your goals based on my research.

Here’s to a great new year!