A Year Behind Me!

Today is the one year anniversary of my heart attack.

How am I doing?

Well, let's see... this Saturday and Sunday I did the Relay for Life 24 hours of walking/running.  I logged just over 75 miles in about 22 hours on the track.  I guess I'm doing OK!

My blood pressure is 106/60.  I guess I'm OK.

My resting heart rate is 43.  I guess I'm OK.

Looking back at the last year, I've made a lot of new friends in the health and fitness world.  Very cool!

I'm not exactly certain how I expected to feel today, what I do know is that I am definitely blessed!  And that is a pretty good place to be!

And now I think I'll go for my second run of the day!

Amazing Grace and the Incredible Run!

I will be the first to admit that my Christian walk is not exactly what it should be.  I do however enjoy listening to all kinds of music when I do long runs including contemporary Christian music.  I find it to be peaceful and rejuvenating.

This morning as I ran my 8 mile loop which takes me out about 5 miles before I hit the infamous Santa Monica 4th Street stairs. View Video

I was listening to one such artist, Chris Tomlin.  Now throwing the stairs in at mile 5 is a pretty cool and extremely taxing exercise and I'll admit, there was some handrail holding going on by me as I made the climb up to the top.

As I reached the top and continued my run the thought hit me about just how blessed I really am to be here at this moment climbing stairs that many people won't even try especially not in the middle of a run.  When you add to that the fact that just about a year ago, I was lying in a hospital bed after having a heart attack, it takes on additional significance.

Suddenly, as if almost on cue Chris Tomlin's rendition of "Amazing Grace (MyChains Are Gone)" came on my ipod.  I often refer to running as an emotional and almost spiritual experience.  This topped it all!  I have to admit, for the five minutes the song played there were no dry eyes for Tim!

Say what you want to say, believe what you want to believe, in my book there is absolutely no doubt that there is a Higher power than us and for me it is God!  Needless to say the remainder of my run was highly empowering!

What a great day!  Amazing Grace and an incredible run!

Why Your Health Is So Important To Me!

Another Saturday training session on the books! We had a great session, with everyone feeling like they could have done more and still we were out for 50 minutes, twice what the schedule called for! I think everyone should be as proud of their efforts today as I am of all of you!

That being said, there are many who have not even made one session yet and at the risk of offending, you need to make this a priority. The question begs to be asked; “If not now... when?”

I thought I would share with you why this is so important to me and why I may be a little pushy on this subject. Hopefully give you an understanding of where my passion comes from.

Each and everyone of us has our own reasons for wanting to do this. For some its just simply to shed a few pounds. You may not even be that convinced that you need a lifestyle change as much as you just want to get rid of the pounds and move on. Still, for others you may have been told by your physician that you needed to make a change. You may be committed to losing the weight, but still figure once you've lost it you'll be able to get back to normal. There are certainly countless other reasons for undertaking this program. For most of you at this point, to take part or not is still a choice. Count it a blessing that it is still exactly that... a choice you can make.

Here's my inspiration:

I have been an on again off again runner and fitness enthusiast my whole adult life. Through March of 2008 I had run 4 marathons and countless shorter distance races. I had even competed in a bodybuilding competition in my late teens. And yet, that didn't mean I was always in great or good or even fair health. I certainly knew how to take care of myself. I am after all a Certified Endurance Fitness Trainer and Personal Trainer. And still, knowledge doesn't guarantee results, action does!

Its funny, if you asked most people who knew me they would tell you that I was active, I mean I was a marathoner you know! What most people didn't realize was that I was the “Grand Poobah of Yo-Yo'ers. No question that in spite of everything I knew; I ate the wrong stuff, drank too much and even smoked! Great example of health, right?

Monday May 18^th, will be an anniversary for me. It will be exactly a year ago and 60 lbs heavier that in the middle of a 40 mile bike ride I had my heart attack. Yes, at 45 years of age, my refusal to apply what I knew caught up with me.

You might at this point be thinking; “That could never happen to me!” Guess what? I thought the same thing. To a person, everyone who knew me thought it should have happened to them not me. I was after all the active guy.

My one concern in telling this story is that you might take away from it what some of my friends did. If the healthy guy has a heart attack, then what's the point, I might as well have another beer and a cheeseburger!

The fact of the matter is, I only appeared to be healthy. I am a big guy, frame-wise and so even with an extra 60 lbs of body fat, I didn't appear to be overweight. I had that “Week-end Warrior”, “Guy” mentality that said I could eat what I wanted, when I wanted, drink what I wanted, when I wanted and then just workout once in a while and everything would be honky-dory.

As an example; I had almost a full year to train for my first marathon from the time I signed up until the time I had to run. Guess how many times I ran during that year? 300? 200? 100? 50? 20?

How about none of the above! I literally ran 10 times in the year leading up to my first marathon. Everyone knew I was training for the marathon. What they didn't know was that I would go home from work, put on my workout clothes, sit down and turn on the TV and never get out the door. Pretty soon all I did was think about putting on the workout clothes and just go right to the food and TV routine.

Don't get the impression that if you are genuinely active, you are no better off than if you just say forget it, because I was not the stellar example of health everyone thought I was.

The fact remains, when I hear someone talk about how they are going to get active and healthy and then they come up with every excuse in the books as to why they don't, I know exactly what's going on in their brain at that moment. I've heard, given, used and created pretty much every excuse you can imagine as to why tomorrow is a better day to start getting healthy than today. You can't surprise me with one I haven't at least thought of at some point in time.

Truth is; you still have a choice and that may not be the best thing in the world. I don't have a choice.

Actually, I do. Live or die!

Which would you chose? I've opted for living. I've kind of grown accustomed to it!

You have lots of choices that I no longer have. If you are a Weight Watchers member, you have a points system that pretty much allows you to eat anything on the menu as long as it falls within the allotted points. I don't! I am a Midwestern boy at heart. Which means I do love food! Food is now fuel for me. The leaner and more pure it is the better and enough to keep me running in top condition is all I'm really interested in. I have zero cravings anymore. Why? I want to live and after a year of very pure eating for fuel, I just don't' crave anymore. I know by how I feel exactly what type of fuel I need and that's what I eat. No more, no less!

You have the choice to be active or not. I don't! For the rest of my life, I have to constantly work to improve my cardiovascular endurance and cardiovascular strength. Its not an option, its a must!

Fortunately for me, I find extreme joy in running! And, now that I'm actually doing it on a regular basis, I'm enjoying it even more.

Don't get me wrong, I love my active lifestyle. So much so that I'm training for my first ultra marathon next January of 50 miles. Its just that getting to this point became non-optional.

So I hope that you can understand, that when I am pushy about getting you out to our training sessions its not for me. Its that I would never wish what I went through on anyone... ever!

And when you throw out your excuses, I'm not being judgmental, but in the back of my mind I do hear myself throwing out the same excuses over a year ago. Trust me if you haven't figured this out already, once you come up with one way to let yourself off the hook, it just gets easier and easier with every one.

No one who has been to our training sessions would walk away saying anything but how enjoyable walking with the group is. I truly enjoy it myself. I also enjoy the solitude that a long run by myself brings.

Please get active, while you have a choice. I will do everything in my power to help make it something you enjoy now and for the rest of your life and yet it all begins with you!

Have an incredible day and go get active!

Gratitude

I haven't written much about running lately and today is not going to be much different.

Today is my birthday and a very special one indeed. Not because I'm a certain age, I'm 46 (which is not exactly a milestone birthday as near as I can tell), rather because this is the one that almost didn't happen.

If you don't know me well then you may not be aware of the fact that last May, I had a heart attack and it was a doosie! So the fact that I am here to celebrate another birthday, this being the first since my heart attack makes this a pretty special day for me!

What do you do on such a birthday?

As with most days, it starts with a good long run! And then I will do what most of us don't do enough of. I will spend the rest of the day in total complete gratitude!

I believe one of the most powerful tools or gifts we can give ourselves is gratitude.

It's so easy to get caught up in the hustle and bustle of every day living or "the daily grind" that we lose sight of all the things in our life we have to be grateful for.

It seems it is easier sometimes to focus on all of the negatives or the things we don't have yet or how bad things are with life or the economy. This makes for a pretty miserable life! And even worse, it sets you up to get more of the same!

No matter where you are at in life, if you are living and breathing, you have something to be grateful. And the more you are grateful the more empowered your life will become.

As Zig Ziglar says; "The more you show gratitude for the things you already have, the more you will have to show gratitude for."

So where will I begin?

Obviously, I'm pretty grateful to be here to have another birthday. You know, once something like a heart attack happens to you its hard to look at life the same ever again. (Its a shame that for some of us bull-headed people we have to go through something like that to finally pay attention.)

Then it's total gratitude for my family and my incredible friends. And how about the fact that I can write this. And then of course there's the fact that I live in sunny Southern California. My list will go on for hours and hours I'm sure because as I show gratitude for one thing another will come to mind. By the time my day is over I will be unstoppable!

Gratitude is one of the greatest gifts you can give to yourself. If you practice it regularly, its life changing!

I personally can't think of a better gift to give myself on this a very important birthday than gratitude!

Have an awesome day!

It All Begins With One Thing!

Think about a time when everything seemed to work for you. A time when you had a plan and it actually worked out the way you wanted it to.

What happened?

Why were you able to accomplish this particular goal, while day in and day out you struggle to complete just about everything you set out to do?

Why doesn't everybody accomplish every goal they have?

If you're one of those people (most of us), who struggles with goals and frustration, don't panic! There is a way out. And it's not your fault!

There are literally thousands of books, articles, audio series and seminars on setting and attaining goals available for you today. Most of them are reasonably accurate in their description of the steps to a goal.

The problem with most of them is where they list the most important step. What is that step? What is it that keeps most of us from reaching our goals?

Let's take a look... shall we?

I'm not going to cover the goal setting process here, rather I'm going to say this about it...

the goal setting process is exactly that... a method for figuring out what you want in life and how you will go about getting it.

We are taught through different methods to figure out what we want, decide how to do it, decide what's most important to do first, figure out who can help you (if you need help), and then finally as a subscript to the whole beautiful plan you've created the final step is...

Take the first small step.

An entire 360 page book can be filled all the way to page 359 with how to figure out what you want and then finally, almost as an afterthought, the author suggests that you take a small step, the first step towards your goal.

It's like saying that it's not actually important to achieve the goal, it's just the figuring out that matters!

What?

I am a firm believer in having a clear vision of what's important to you in life and I think it's a shame that most people don't ever have any idea, however, knowing what you want alone is about as fulfilling as as going to a fine restaurant, ordering their best steak and then when they bring it to your table just sitting there staring at it.

What's the point?

Whatever you want in life. Whatever you don't have or want more of or really believe is important in your life, will never come to be unless you do something to move you towards that end!

A new car, a healthy body, a great relationship, an incredible career... none of those things are just going to fall out of the sky into your lap! Yes, fortunately, cars don't fall out of the sky!

The "Last" step in most people's goal setting programs is taking action. WOW! The last step? It's no wonder most folks read a goal setting program and come out with a big list of ideas and not much more!

I love reading and listening to Tony Robbins. The reason? Not because he's a guru. Not because he's so full of energy! No, the reason I enjoy him is because right from the very begin of any program he presents, he is encouraging you to get moving and take action.

And, yes I know, if you do something it could be wrong, but how will you ever know if you don't try?

If you sit around waiting for everything to be perfect or until you know all of the answers or until you think it's the right time... ten years from now you will be in the same place wondering what went wrong!

Do you really want to be sitting around ten years from now making a new list of the same goals you made ten years ago but never went after?

Or...

Do you want to look back ten years from now absolutely amazed at what you've accomplished in life? Do you want to sit sadly wishing for a different life or do you want to look back gratefully at the incredible experiences you've had in life on the journey to your goals?

Don't you want to be sitting down ten years from now setting new incredible goals that are based on the higher level you created for yourself because you actually took action?

I know for myself... that's what I want! And I know that the only way that's going to happen is to DO SOMETHING NOW that will move me in the right direction. And I think you do too!

It doesn't have to be the perfect first step. You just have to take action!

What are your goals?

Whatever they are... do something! Get up and go for a run or go to the gym or read that book or unplug that TV or hire a Personal Trainer or get a life coach or apply for that new job (even if they don't have a help-wanted ad) or sit down for a conversation with your loved one or whatever it is... do something now!

I promise... you'll be amazed!

Do You Really Believe That?

(I originally posted this back in June 2008 and it bares repeating.)

Why did you get up this morning and go to work or go for a run or whatever else you might have done?

I bet you answered something along the lines of; because I have to or maybe ; because I get to or maybe; because it's what I've always done.

And if you did, you just confirmed one of the universal truths in our lives. Most of what we do in life is based on our beliefs!

What if you could completely change what everything in your life thus far means?

What if you could take any situation, event or even a thought and turn it into something completely different?

Imagine if you could take an event... let's say, getting fired from your job (normally a negative) and turn it into the best thing that ever happened to you!

How would this change your life?

Would it open new possibilities?

What if you could really believe deep down inside that what ever you wanted in life you could have?

What if you could take a $135,000 debt and turn it into the springboard that launches a whole new opportunity in your life? An opportunity so empowering that you became almost unstoppable in your thinking and beliefs!

The Good News is that the way you experience everything in your life is based completely and wholly on your beliefs. And... you can change any experience in your life by changing your beliefs.

The only bad news here is that until you and I change that one belief; that everything we believe is in our control, we won't be able to use this powerful tool to our benefit.

So, if you're willing... let's begin!

Let's start by exploring where our beliefs come from. Virtually from our very earliest days in this life or as soon as we begin to be aware of the world around us, we begin to assign meaning to the things in our environment. Early on it may be as simple as; that heartbeat is where I came from or that voice is where I get my food from.

A little later it may be; if I cry I get attention (some of us never lose that one even in adulthood).

Why do we formulate beliefs?

Every second there is so much information being thrown our way that the only possible thing we can do other than being totally confused is to begin to organize our world. By generalizing what different types of input mean, our brain can quickly decide what needs to be received and processed and what can be filtered out and ignored. An example is when we learn that touching a hot burner on the stove causes pain, we need to take action to avoid it. We create a belief that says something like; hot burner equals pain.

If you think about being able to change what you believe, this is a great place to begin. Did you know that the mind is so powerful that it can actually manifest physical affects on the body?

In one test they were able to convince a person that a piece of ice would cause a burn and that individual actually experienced blistering where they came in contact with the ice. Simply by changing the meaning of a sensation, they got a whole new set of physical manifestations.

If this is really possible and it is, imagine the wealth of potential you have for changing meanings in your life! The opportunities are absolutely endless.

How does this all work?

Why does one person have a terrible day just because they didn't get bacon on their breakfast sandwich at the drive thru while another suffers a serious life altering accident and comes out with all kinds of possibilities and opportunities?

Its all in the meaning you assign to events in your life. So let's look at one event in my life and see if I can help you understand what I'm talking about.

A month ago, I had a heart attack while out for an extended bike ride. Most people would agree that this could be considered a life-altering event. It would have been very easy for me to have a nice little pity party after such a traumatic thing like this and I had to act quickly or it could have gone that way in a hurry.

Thoughts flooded my brain as I tried my best to make sense of this whole situation. To add to the complexity of things, I had been in the process of changing career paths and as a consequence not only was I not working, I did not have any insurance.

If this happened to you how would you evaluate things?

Being totally honest, my very first reactions were not what I would describe as stellar. I believe in full disclosure whenever possible so I'd like to share some of those initial thoughts with you.

What would people think of the guy who was supposed to be a runner having a heart attack? I was honestly concerned about my credibility as a fitness trainer and personal trainer.

What would this do for my dreams of running an ultra marathon?

Should I just go back to my old career path and forget my dreams? At this point, I was closer to my previous career of 25 years than I was to my new venture. It wouldn't be giving up it would be acting responsibly.

How could I ever talk about life improvement or success or empowerment with this hanging over my head? Again the credibility issue was looming big time!

How on earth was I ever going to handle the $135,000 bill I had just been presented with? This one will get most people's attention, I think.

How could this happen to me? Why me? How am I ever going to get back on my feet again? I'm trapped! There is no visible way to overcome this, I'm just going to spend the rest of my life in a job I hate paying off a huge bill.

Not very empowering thoughts for a guy who is arguably one of the most positive people you will ever meet! I wrestled with this for a couple of weeks maybe a little more. It was tough, I mean really tough!

Little by little, I began to come out of my haze. Instead of turning on the TV, I listened to Cd's by people like Tony Robbins, Zig Ziglar and James Ray. If I was going down, it was going to be a spectacular, full blaze of glory!

And then the questions began to flow!

What else could this situation mean?

I know everything's not perfect right now, but what can I be happy about with this situation?

How can I use this experience to never ever let it happen to anyone else again?

What can I create so that when other people are faced with a similar event they have a road map out?

What do I really want?

What's pretty cool about everything that's gone on in the last three weeks?

As I began to ask these questions and dozens more, I began to get different answers. The meanings I had given my heart attack just a few weeks earlier changed and they changed dramatically!

I began to realize that I could use this in an incredibly empowering way. My feeling of doubt about credibility went flying out the window when I began to realize that there is probably no better person in this world to talk about how important your health and fitness are than the guy who has had a heart attack. I mean, if anybody understands the importance if good health, it's probably that guy wouldn't you think?

I had been working on some writing projects on and off over the last five years. Suddenly my fingers began to fly as the words flowed from my brain like an erupting volcano. Don't tell my cardiologist this, but there were several sleepless nights where it was just me and the keyboard all night long producing page after page of quality writing.

Ultimately what happened is I changed what things meant to me. I went from believing that I was trapped by an event that I didn't have any control over in the first place to; this heart attack that I brought on myself (nobody sat there and forced me to eat poorly and smoke cigarettes) was going to be the springboard for my new and empowering future. I was finally going to lose the weight, get in the best shape and even more importantly use all of the lessons from this experience to powerfully impact the world that I live in.

This was a dramatic change in my beliefs and the Good News is that anyone faced with the same situation could make the same belief changes to get different results.

Let's look at one more, simple example that you can do yourself which can make a huge difference in your life.

If you ask, in fact I did, what most people want in life invariably between 8 and 9 out of 10 will say something along the lines of; to be happy. Are you in that group?

What has to happen in your life in order for you to be happy? Does something need to happen in order for you to have happiness?

Asked these questions most of us will come up with at least a small list, for some it's a monster list of things that must happen before they can be happy.

Bull!

Happiness is a state of mind which means that at any time you can decide to be in that place and you can go there. Happiness is not an event and yet we treat it like it will only happen if X,Y and Z all occur simultaneously and then only in the presence of a full moon!

Think about how you feel when you're happy. How do you stand or what's your posture like? What are you thinking about? If you can describe those things to me, then why couldn't you at anytime think about what makes you happy, put yourself into that same posture and be happy?

Try it! You'll like it! If you were successful, you just changed your beliefs about what it takes to be happy. And even more importantly you now know how to be happy at anytime. So who's fault is it if you're not happy?

That's right, it's yours and that my friend is a very empowering belief! Knowing that other people or events don't have control over you gives you incredible power in your life!

So, if you really believe something and it doesn't empower you... change what it means.

Change your beliefs and you will change your life!

How Long Is Five Years?

(This was originally posted on my other now defunct blog back in September, it just kind of fits with a lot of the conversations I've been hearing lately.)

If you're at all like me you probably have served up more excuses to yourself for not exercising than you can count.

Let's be honest. We all have days when we just shouldn't workout. Days when we're genuinely sick or hurt and training is not going to fix anything or may even do more harm than good.

I'm not talking about those days. I'm talking about the other 360 days of the year when the only thing between a good workout and you, is a great big excuse!

Now I understand, I know how hard it can be to tie a pair of running shoes after a long day of work. And then there's the dilemma of not having the right outfit to wear. And there are at least a half dozen things you should be doing each day before you even think about going for a run. Life is busy!

But... let me ask you a question: Where were you in your life five years ago?

How many of the goals and dreams you said you were going to accomplish actually came to be? And based on the response I assume most of us gave; where will you be five years from now?

I'm not a pessimist, quite the contrary, I'm a huge optimist. I mean as one of my all time favorite speakers, Zig Ziglar say; "I'm so positive, I'd go after Moby Dick in a row boat and bring a five gallon bucket of tartar sauce!" or "I'm so positive, I'd spend my last two dollars on a money belt!"

The honest to goodness truth is that most of us have fitness goals we're not meeting and the biggest reasons are nothing more than excuses.

Maybe you don't have grandiose aspirations in the world of health and fitness like I do. And that's OK. I will suggest, as I learned the hard way, that while it's alright not to want to be an athlete, it's not OK to not have a plan for your general overall health. Every year in this country a greater percentage of our population slides into the "Obese" category and we go on like nothing's changed and everything's just fine.

As I look honestly at the pictures of myself just 3 1/2 months ago before I had my heart attack, I am embarrassed to say that I had slipped into that group of Americans who take health for granted and do little to improve it. I was kidding myself into thinking because I ran once in awhile and had done four marathons in the last two years that I was healthy. I even lied about my weight when they were checking me into the emergency room. I say lied, but the truth is I had paid so little attention to it lately that I wasn't aware of how big I had gotten.

Despite what I thought, I was a stout 250-pounder and all you have to do is look at the picture to see it. Amazingly, I ran a 5K race just three weeks prior. Had I gotten the race pictures back sooner, instead of the day after I got back from the hospital, I might have realized just how bad my condition was.

Fact of the matter is, most of us do this on a pretty regular basis.

Oh sure, we all know we aren't in perfect shape, but we'll get around to fixing it sooner or later, right? And five or ten years later we're still sitting around thinking about getting around to doing something about our health.

PLEASE, START NOW!

I can't say enough about how important it is. I can't impose, impress, stress or anything else, that you have to do something now, if you don't admit to yourself it's time to change now. The saddest part is that most of us know we need to eat better, exercise more, drink less, stop smoking, whatever and still we do little or nothing at all. Incidentally, if you know you are overweight, smoke, drink too much, have high cholesterol, high blood pressure, diabetes or anything else of that nature, please don't go out once a month, over train and call yourself fit. I for one would rather have you around than have you dead.

You don't get in shape overnight. It takes time. If you are overweight, there are two issues to be addressed; the weight and your cardiovascular fitness. Sometimes, it's important to work on the weight first just to get to the point where you can improve your heart. This all takes time. But again, let me ask you the question; If you don't start to make a change now, when will it happen? Where will you be five years from now?

Do you remember five years ago? In some cases it went by so fast it seems like only yesterday doesn't it? Trust me, the older you get the faster it goes! You blink at forty and suddenly, you're forty-five. What happened? And more important, what's changed for the positive?

So what do you do?

As I said earlier, there are a million excuses for not exercising and you've got to get rid of them all.

If you're overweight, start simple. Take a walk in the morning or at night... or both. This is arguably the best fat burning exercise around because it keeps you in the zone where you are burning fat the whole time you are exercising. Start with twenty minutes, ten minutes out and ten minutes back. If you handle that well, increase your time. If you are seriously overweight don't automatically try to graduate to jogging. We want to drop some of those pounds before we work too much on the cardiovascular system. I will promise you this; if you will commit to walking everyday for at least forty-five minutes a day, you will notice a difference in your weight and your shape within two weeks and instead of water weight, which is usually the first thing to go when you diet alone or try jogging, it will be fat loss.

Just do this! If you can afford it, get a personal trainer and join a gym. If you can't afford it, contact me and I'll help you with a training program and a plan to get you healthy free of charge (it's that important to me).

Incidentally, walking is also great because it doesn't require lots of fancy equipment or shoes. If you're embarrassed to have people see you, wait until dark, but at all costs get out and go! Besides, most of us see someone out of shape exercising and think: "Go for it!"

For those of you who have fitness goals involving competitions or races, let me just say... no more excuses! Today is the day where you get serious! If you really plan to run a 5K, 10K, half-marathon, marathon, ultra marathon or compete in a triathlon or some other fitness event, it's time to put your training first.

I know we all have the time constraints involved with work, family and such... so be it. If you're going to compete, it's the other stuff that has to be evaluated. Stop reading this blog and go run! Which will be more important to you five years from now, the fact that you took on a physical challenge and succeeded or the fact that you watched a particular episode of your favorite TV show?

Nothing in life worth having is easy. Anyone who tells you otherwise is trying to sell you something! It's just that simple! Do you really think there is such a thing as "Five minute abs"? I don't know anyone who exercises five minutes a day, period. And likewise, if you want to complete some form of athletic endeavor, it's not going to happen in five minutes a day. You will find the time when your goal is important enough to you. When you finally decide that this is something you truly want for your life and you will be proud of five years from now when you look back after completing your twentieth marathon or whatever and say; "I did it!"

Tomorrow almost didn't come for me. That may one of the greatest blessings I will ever receive however, I don't wish that on anyone. The key is to get the "don't waste another day" feeling without having to go through what I went through. When you get that feeling, you stop accepting excuses from yourself.

I was talking to a good friend of mine the other day and I said to him, "I spent the last five years of my life, "Actively Disengaged". What that meant was, I was going through the motions. I had a good job, making decent money and I worked hard at it, but only as hard as I wanted to because it was in a business I had been in for twenty years and I could literally do it blindfolded with one hand tied behind my back. I mean it just didn't require me to be actively involved mentally. Accordingly, I unplugged in other areas of my life as well. I'm all for being laid back and relaxed, but I took "going with the flow" to all new levels. That's why it took me ten years to run my first marathon. I'd get to the end of a long day and even though I had promised myself I would go for a run after work, someone would say let's go have a beer and I was done for the night.

Actively disengaged is that point where you go on auto-pilot in life. It may be where you're at right now. You may have dreams or goals in your life, but their attainment is something of a haphazard approach of whatever, whenever or even, if ever. It's not a really cool place to be. Most of us have something more we want for our life and when you are actively disengaged you get a lot of feelings of frustration because you're not really moving in any particular direction, let alone towards your desired outcomes. It's kind of like being in neutral.

For me, having been through a heart attack, I know that allowing myself to be actively disengaged no longer means "neutral", it means "park" and "park = dead"! I am at greater risk now that I've had one to have another and even more likely not to survive if I do have another one. How's that for a stimulating ultimatum? I no longer have the choice to be disengaged. I have got to do everything I can to get in the best shape of my life. As odd as this may sound to some, it really is a blessing! I'm not really interested in being dead right now, so my alternative is to get in great shape.

Are you actively disengaged in your life? Do you get home from work and instead of throwing on the workout clothes, you sit down in front of the idiot box... (most homes now have two different kinds of them; the TV and the computer) and chill out. It's easy to come home and tell yourself you just want to unwind for a little bit by doing something mindless. Stop kidding yourself. That TV show you're watching is not going to make you feel any better and it certainly is going to be of no use at mile 18 of your next marathon or halfway through the swim in a triathlon. And there is no scientific data to back up the theory that two hours of mindless TV can improve your 5K time by 20%. There is however, a lot of data to support doing some good solid running or weight training or cycling.

Being "Actively Engaged" in your life is not easy. Oh boy, here we go again with the whole; it's not easy thing again! It is however, very rewarding. When you take the time to know what's really important and then follow up with the right decisions to ensure that you take the right actions, you will experience abundance like you've never known. Look at all the truly great athletes in life and you will see a group of people who knew and made the right decisions more often than not.

I'm not saying you can't be spontaneous once in a while when everyone in the office is going out for a celebration, it just can't be every single night and in lieu of training. If you're serious about your training, people around you will know that and act accordingly. If they'd rather have you out with them every night, even though they know how important your training is to you, you might want to re-evaluate who you hang out with. "If you ain't for me, you're agin me!"

If you're actively engaged in life you make plans and you do what you can to stick to them. It takes (I know people don't like this word)... discipline, but it's worth it!

So, how long is five years?

Not very long and yet it can be a lifetime! It can represent the best or the worst part of your life. And more importantly, you can decide today what you will feel when you reach five years from now. You can commit to what's really important and go for it or you can let life take you like a leaf in the wind. The choice is absolutely yours!

Make it a great five years!

Conquer Your Demons!

There are times in your life where no matter what you do something seems to be holding you back. Maybe it's a belief that you have or a habit or simply a lack of motivation. Whatever it is, you know that it's keeping you from "Going for it" a hundred percent.

If you're like me at some point in time you're finally going to say; enough is enough!

You're either going to beat this thing down and rise above it or its just going to consume you.

When I had my heart attack back in May of 2008, I was on a route to my brothers' dealership some 21 miles from my house. I was not running, I was on my bike and still there was this route.

Since that time I have tried on several occasions to get myself to run that distance down to see my brother. Trust me when I say it was not the distance that was bothering me.

That particular route goes south from my house. I have run north towards Malibu and east towards Los Angeles for distances similar in length and yet there was this route.

In the back of my mind every time I thought about doing this, the thoughts of that day kept sliding in. If you've never had a heart attack trust me when I say you don't want to!

It was thoughts of that day that kept me off my mountain bike for nearly three weeks after my heart attack. It just took me that long to get my brain around the fact that I could ride again without having a repeat performance.

Is this ridiculous? Maybe! You have a heart attack and then tell me how it affects you. Until then... don't!

Yesterday, my brother was going to ride his bike from his home in Irvine to the dealership. His wife and daughter were then going to pick him up at the end of the day.

"Here's my chance", I thought. I figured I could run down to the dealership and meet up with him and the family for some dinner after he got off work.

I had been thinking about this all week long vacillating back and forth. I knew that they would still drive up to see me whether I ran down there or not.

Excuses:

1. They're coming this way no matter what so I really don't have to do this today.
2. I haven't run as much as I should have in the last couple of weeks and I might not be ready.
3. I have been having small problems with my hip flexors on the right side and my hip literally gives out sometimes when I'm running.
4. It could be really hot.
5. I will need to wear my backpack (15 lbs of extra weight) for a long distance.
6. This will be the longest run I've done since my heart attack and I don't know if I'm ready for it.

I had a load of pre-run excuses as you can see and even more would pop up as I ran. I was as they say a "Game-time" decision.

Sunday morning arrived and I had pretty much made up my mind that I would just let my brother and the family drive up to see me when he got off work. I told myself I would just get in a decent run at home and that would be enough.

And still, I couldn't get around the fact that this was looming out there literally controlling my mind.

About 10:45am I called my brother to check on his ride. We talked about the spoke blow-out he had and how he was actually glad it happened on a training ride. He is training for an Ironman Triathlon in August of this year and as he put it; "I was wondering how I would handle things if I had a breakdown in the middle of a 100 mile ride during the Ironman." Well, he handled it with flying colors and now he knew!

When you're in a competition and you have a problem, you either fix it or get a big fat "DNF" next to your name. DNF = Did Not Finish.

As we hung up the phone I knew what I had to do. I had this demon hanging over my head long enough and I had to do something about it!

Gear up, pack up, double check everything, double check again! On long runs you don't want to get caught short.

As I walked out the door, I was convinced I was going to do this. Within a hundred yards of the door, I wasn't convinced anymore.

The excuses started rolling in. I have very good running form especially for a big guy. I spent several months after my heart attack changing from a "Heel Striker" to a "Midfoot Runner". What that basically means is that when I run in good form I have very few issues with lower leg pain, like tight calves or shin splints.

On this day within a mile of my house I was already walking from the intense pain in my shins. This was a mental thing. How can a guy who never has shin splints suddenly have them?

I was in a mental wrestling match with myself.

Then came the heat. I'm not exactly certain how warm it was, although we'd been in a cold snap in Southern California and so the mid-seventies temperature (I'm guessing) felt more like a hundred.

With heat comes hydration issues. Normally, I can run any distance under ten miles without even a water bottle, although I don't recommend it. On this day within three miles of my house I had gone through three quarters of my first water bottle.

What was going on?

I actually quit in my mind several times in the first six miles or so.

There's a line in a book by James Arthur Ray called Harmonic Wealth, that just simply goes: "That's not me, I'm so much more than that!"

When you find yourself focused on the purely negative of a situation, saying those words can help you refocus on the positive. I must have repeated those words a hundred times during the first six miles.

As I made the turn onto the bike path that runs along the ocean and headed south to my destination an ocean breeze came up and suddenly everything became doable. That's right, it took six miles of agony to finally even commit to the fact that I was going to do this.

About eleven miles of this route are run on a bikepath along the ocean. On a beautiful sunny SoCal afternoon I began to release all of my feelings and fears about this route and the events that took place just eight months prior.

A little over halfway into the run, I got my first little physical alert. This was the one I was waiting for and quite frankly having covered close to this distance several times in the last eight months I don't know why I was expecting it other than "This was the path".

I experienced a slight amount of angina. Just so you know, angina is nothing more than chest pain. It doesn't always come from your heart, although it can be associated with heart disease. It can and often is caused by indigestion. Having had a heart attack, I immediately began running down my checklist.

Am I moving too fast?

What's my heart rate?

Is that really what I felt or am I imagining it?

It kind of freaked me out for a couple of minutes. Ultimately, I slowed down for a little bit and it went away.

Just so you know, angina is not... I repeat, not what you feel when you have a heart attack and in fact it turns out to be indigestion more times than not. However, if you are overweight and out of shape and you experience it, go see you doctor and get checked out!

From that point in it was just reeling in the miles one by one. There's a quote which I have modified for my own purposes:

"If you believe it you can achieve it. When you can see it... its done!"

One of the great things about running along the coast in Southern California is you can see for miles. When I made the turn onto the bikepath about six miles into my run I could see the first of three piers in the SouthBay area, the Manhattan Beach Pier and I knew it was a done deal. Once I hit that pier I was within eight miles or so of my destination.

Once I passed the last pier I turned inland to the Pacific Coast Highway for the final four and a half miles. This is where it got emotional for me. I began to remember that day last May when everything just went wrong. As I moved along, I teared up knowing just how far I had come since that day.

Then just over the top of a hill I could see the gas station where my brother had come and picked me up. When I reached the intersection I stopped and just stood there. It was a surreal feeling. I just stood for probably ten minutes realizing that I was not the same person who had last been at that corner some eight months and fifty pounds ago.

And yes, I took pictures. Goofy? Maybe, but this was my release!

Now with only a mile to go I began to run knwing I had made it! I had killed the demon that had been holding me back. I had conquered all fear and destroyed the boundaries that stood in my way.

One last call to my brother to let him know I was just up the street. It had taken me a little longer than I had anticipated, but that's not what this run was all about. This run was about taking control. This run was about determination in the face of adversity and prevailing. This run was about understanding that pain is a temporary thing which should not define your limits.

I arrived after dark at the dealership just in time to see them closing up. I could see my Tom, Becky, Raelynn and a couple of the salespeople standing on the showroom and I knew once and for all, I had conquered my demon!