Thursday, July 4, 2013

Wake up and be awesome !!!

First off, I would like to wish everyone a happy and safe Independence Day. I borrowed the title of today's post, Wake up and be awesome, from runner and 100 pound weight loser, Lonnie St. John who was recently featured in the Runner's Stories section of runnersworld.com.  While Mr. St. John is hardly the first person to lose a significant amount of body weight with the help of a running program, he has once again proved that this seemingly impossible task can and does happen.

In the past month I've made some small changes that seem to have helped my weight move in the right direction. As I've said before, small changes can yield big results. The first small change was to stop buying the pints of frozen coconut milk in favor of the individually wrapped fudge pops and ice cream bars. It's obvious that this change is all about portion control.

Secondly, I was much more diligent about recording my food intake on my Calorie King diary. I also made an effort to increase my exercise including weight lifting. While I think I am heading in the right direction, I know this journey lasts the rest of my life.

This month I started reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. This book was published in 1906 and is an expose about the Chicago meat packing industry. This book is credited with causing the passage of the Meat Inspection Act and the Federal Food and Drug Act, both of which passed in 1906. Sadly, the Humane Slaughter Act was not passed until 54 years later in 1960. I am still at the very beginning of this book and was told by a co-worker that it is one of the most depressing books he has ever read so it may take me several months to get through it.

I came across this poem recently by Edgar Albert Guest that I thought I'd share.  

It Couldn’t Be Done

Somebody said that it couldn’t be done
      But he with a chuckle replied
That “maybe it couldn’t,” but he would be one
      Who wouldn’t say so till he’d tried.
So he buckled right in with the trace of a grin
      On his face. If he worried he hid it.
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
      That couldn’t be done, and he did it!

Somebody scoffed: “Oh, you’ll never do that;
      At least no one ever has done it;”
But he took off his coat and he took off his hat
      And the first thing we knew he’d begun it.
With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin,
      Without any doubting or quiddit,
He started to sing as he tackled the thing
      That couldn’t be done, and he did it.

There are thousands to tell you it cannot be done,
      There are thousands to prophesy failure,
There are thousands to point out to you one by one,
      The dangers that wait to assail you.
But just buckle in with a bit of a grin,
      Just take off your coat and go to it;
Just start in to sing as you tackle the thing
      That “cannot be done,” and you’ll do it.
Now you might want to turn the volume up a bit and listen as Ashe Jaafaru recites this pretty poem.
Let's make July a fantastic month.

1 comment:

jel5010 said...

Great post AD! I have added "The Jungle" to my Kindle since it was a freebie at Amazon. I severely doubt I'll read it but if the inspiration hits I'll be ready. I *loved* the poem and would like to memorize it. But first, someone needs to tell me it can't be done. :)