So you may or probably may not be asking yourself, why hasn’t Jeremiah posted his last post. There are two reasons:
- As always I am on the road.
- I couldn’t find my camera.
So I am going to tell you my story and add shot from someone else because I have that.
Don’t ask me who this is in the picture. I was conferencing last week. I threw some parties and there where lots of people there. I also take a lot of daily booth photos with the webcam and you can see the slim new me daily.
So lets get real
What did I achieve:
- I lost 15 lbs.
- I am now a size 33 jeans down from 36
- I am a size 16.5 dress shirt down from 17.5
- I had to get my glasses tightened.
Overall I am so happy, but there is another side too..
- I wasn’t very good at the social component.
- I traveled a lot more than usual during the PCP.
- I still have not found equilibrium in sleep
- I miss beer like I miss my mom.
- My stomach still needs work.
- I suck at pull ups.
I’m there… I am not there
I have arrived at the end of this a much healthier person, but if you have read my posts you know that I wasn’t out of shape. I am just not in my goal shape. That also said if you have been reading my posts you know that I am working on a lifestyle of fitness. I want to live a simple balanced life. You see the dirty secret is that I nearly had a mental and physical breakdown in February of this year.
I was under so much stress. Microsoft had take the last shred of energy I had and beaten it out of me. I don’t blame anyone, other than myself. I had made choices in my career that put me in a bad job and I worked 16 hour days trying to prove to my manager I was good enough. So in March at the advice of a friend and my doctor, who both told me I was killing myself, I quit.
Yep, I quit a 100k plus job in the worst economy in 50 years. Because unlike most people I do know that it isn’t what I do that gives me value. My faith, My Family, My health; they all mean more to me than a paycheck. The PCP came at a time when I have been redefining what it means to be me.
I still work hard. Very Hard. I also push myself in ways that many people probably don’t. (I prefer big failures to mediocre successes) but along with PCP I am working on refocusing all of my life.
What is to be gained?
I have never been accused of humility. I am a ceaseless self-promoter and amassed some relationship and political capital that I have spoiled on businesses and endeavors I have not believed in. But that is changing. I found work almost right away after leaving MS, but I make time now to meet with my out of work friends and counsel them. I workout daily to improve my health and as much as I miss the sweets that once were a part of my life they have been exchanged for seasonal fruits and vegetables.
I have recommitted myself to my faith and to my family; which has only added to my travels. See as funny as the picture is above, (this was taken as a part of a friends art project.) I want to be known for so much more than this.
I have very much enjoyed seeing your posts show up in my Google reader. Reading them from 30,000 feet encouraged me to jump rope when I landed. Patrick’s mails have been an inspiration to me and I look forward to re-reading them. The truth is that I don’t know any of you but I was sure pushed by you guys.
On to the next thing.
So what is next? I asked patrick last week, Can I start over? I want to do it again from the beginning. And the truth is I am going to follow the diet week by week again, but I have decide that I was jealous of the personal attention some of you were able to get from Patrick. So I pinged an acquaintance who writes the Sweat and the City blog at the Seattle Post-Intelligencer about a studio she is a trainer at in Redmond.
So starting tomorrow, I will be getting some weekly one on one attention at ZenRock fitness in Redmond. Jennifer and I have met and I talked about the PCP and where I struggled and she promises to have me doing pull-ups in no time. They focus on functional training and yoga. I loved the studio as there is almost no equipment there. I will be focused on using my bodyweight to keep moving forward. (Funny where have I read about using my bodyweight.) I am also glad they have such a quiet place where I can practice my Yoga in a 1-1 setting for a while.
Patrick’s email about checking out fitness centers really resonated with me because I am in and out of the places all over the country when I travel. Most of the places are sad attempts to capitalize on people not achieving their goals but guilting them into another month.
The outcome
I highly recommend the PCP to anyone, I am really hoping to see Patrick when and if he makes it here to Seattle. We can do a workout at ZenRock. There is a pair of Ultimate Ears in it for you. Has the PCP turned my life around from the nearly broken person I was when I left Microsoft. Nope. It has been just a part of the turn around. I couldn’t have done it all though with out the help of Patrick and your inspiration.
