28 Days - Day Eighteen We're So Easily Swayed

Thursday morning, cool crisp day. I thought it was a little warmer than it was before we came out. And this segment's going to be longer than my normal opening segment. I promise it'll be worth it. But today at mile 1, I miscalculated. My audiobook ended at mile 1, and I didn't want to take my gloves off, and I didn't want to get my hand cold to set another one and, you know, kind of break my stride. So I decided just to go with the silence. I thought, you know, we don't spend enough time with ourselves. We're constantly being dragged away, our attention's dragged away by things that are outside of us. And so I thought it was a really good opportunity, and I can't believe some of the things that I realized. First of all, for about the first mile, everything I thought about had to do with the audiobook I'd been listening to. And it's funny how our brains work. One of the things I was talking about was happiness, and then all of a sudden when I was in my silence, just me, thinking about happiness, and then all of a sudden that Pharrell Williams, I think that's his name, song "Happy" came into my head, and I was singing it for a while in my head, then I thought, you know, I ought to have a little more upbeat song. That'll get me going running a little bit faster. So then I started thinking about "Locomotive Breath" by Jethro Tull, and then I thought about "Crazy on You" by Heart, and somehow or another I got off of that. And I started thinking about just running, and I started thinking about the fact that we're coming up on this marathon. And as I thought about that, I thought, you know, well, I did say that I wasn't really worried too much about weight loss between now and the marathon. And then I thought, well, I wonder how much weight I have lost since I was in New York. We were in New York for New Year's Eve. And then I realized, you know, I've lost 7 pounds since then. Now I gained 4, so it's a net 3, but nonetheless, I've lost 7 pounds in a couple of weeks. And then I got to thinking, about how, you know, I ought to do the next series on losing the final 20, 30, whatever I decide it's going to be. And then I got off of that track and I started thinking about my nephew, and I thought about how yesterday I did a little trick on him. He was having a ribbon cutting for his business, and I've done a lot of those since I was a Chamber of Commerce guy. And I called him up and made sure that he had food, drink, and all that. And then I said to him, I said, of course you got the ribbon candy, right? And he said, ribbon candy? What ribbon candy? I said, oh, come on, don't tell I said, "Don't tell me they didn't tell you about the ribbon candy. You got to have ribbon candy. It's a ribbon cutting." And he got very, very nervous. And then of course, I let him off the hook because I could tell he was, he was a little nervous. But the point is, of all of this, if you think about all of that rambling I just gave you, we are so easily influenced. It's unbelievable how we're just nudged by the slightest thing. And the slightest thing can take us off course. So here's the last point to this. So the last mile normally I'm in my silence again, and normally the last mile is the hardest mile for me. I've talked about that before. And what I did was I just focused on my breathing and my running technique. I never do that. I'm not one of those people. But I just focused on it, and I thought about it, and I heard myself breathe in and out, and I thought about how my feet were striking the ground, and I really just focused on running. And it was amazing how much easier the last mile was. It was amazing how much faster the last mile was. So the point is, realize you're going to be distracted by all sorts of things and realize that you ought to be putting in your way the things you want to be distracted by. You don't want to be focusing on just whatever comes your way. Focus on what you want and you'll get there. Leaving the club, it's, I guess, about 7:45. Feeling great today. I mean, really good. I don't know, that quiet time I had with just myself and my thoughts really did a lot for me. And then I had a good workout here at the club, spent some good time in the sauna, and we're done for this part of the week. Really excited about it. Walking outside, the sun is just beautiful. What a great day.

We're back at it Thursday afternoon.

It is a really, really pretty day.

I say really a lot, but I mean, it's really pretty today. It's 65. It's almost 5 o'clock and the whole gang is out. Carson's back at it. Tammy's back at it. Grant and I are doing our final little bit for This string of the week. Tomorrow is a day off and National Wine Drinking Day is today.

I don't know, but, uh, might be having some wine after this walk.

Happy National Wine Drinking Day. It's Tammy's tent time. Beautiful afternoon to spend some time together, just recuperating from our walk. Of course, I'm going to recuperate with a glass of wine. Good for you. Thank you. I've come to the realization that everyone has had a rough life. It's just a question as to whether they want to acknowledge that it was rough or they want to acknowledge what they've learned and move forward. I have been corrected. Today is not National Wine Day. Today is National Drink Wine Day, which I have done. One of the great things about going through something like this and losing a lot of weight or making a big change in your life is when you have people come up to you that you admire. And today I had that opportunity. Somebody that I really respect and admire came up to me and said, Am I mistaken, or are you like half the man you used to be? And I said, no, I'm probably two-thirds, but yeah, I have lost some weight. And it was a lot of fun. But one of the most rewarding things is, is that quite often somebody, because they've seen that you've had success, will say to you, you know, they'll ask you for advice, or they'll even say, you know, I'm thinking about doing this, and I'm thinking about changing that, and what do you think about it? And today I had someone that I care very much about who came to me and said, I'm thinking about changing my diet, and my advice to them is very simple. You need to find something that works for you, and you need to stick to it like glue. Whatever it is, stick with it. Don't bounce around, don't change around. Find something, get into a routine, and stay with it for the long term. That's the only way that you'll find success. Thursday evening, day 18, 28 days, wrapping up a good day today. Uh, got everything done early, and then I had a, a full day. And it was interesting because the beginning of the day I was reminded about spending time with myself, just kind of with my thoughts and all of that. And today I had an opportunity to make a lot of deliveries and spend a lot of time with myself. I turned the radio off, I turned my phone off— didn't turn it off, but didn't really receive any calls— and just was able to spend some time just thinking about the things that I want and focusing on how I want things to be. And it was really good for me. And so when I got back this evening, was able to enjoy a walk with the family, spent a little bit of tent time with Tammy, and have a glass of wine, which was nice. It's important that when you're striving for a goal that you have those little intermediary rewards and I've used Thursday and Saturday night for those things, mostly just Thursday night. But you've gotta make sure that you keep yourself on track by giving yourself some rewards and something to strive for. It's important to have the long-term goal, but if you don't have it broken up with some short-term goals, it gets very, very hard. So tomorrow's a day of rest. I'm gonna enjoy a breakfast tomorrow with a good friend of mine and not run tomorrow morning. We got some work tomorrow afternoon, and then we're gonna prepare for a weekend where we're gonna just tidy some things up and make sure that we're ready to go next week, 'cause on Thursday we'll be wrapping up to head off to New Orleans for the Marathon. So that wraps it up for Day 18, 28 days, 10 days before the Marathon. Tomorrow will be in single digits. It's getting very, very close and very, very interesting. Very excited about how, uh, this is all panning out and all the things that I'm learning and experiencing and sharing with you.