Sometimes we have to know our limits...

I AM TIRED!!!

I have been busy lately. One thing I have promised my trainer that I would do is post on this blog at least 2 times per week and make a list of the things I am proud of and happy about each week...Its hard to find the time to even workout, much less post a blog and make lists, take the trash out keep the dog occupied, pay bills be a Dad, date and work two jobs and sleep and stay positive...There has to be a way to find an equilibrium in all that mess (my hand is in the stop position making a circular motion while I say “all that mess” in my head, as if I am in a Madea movie)!

The truth ... I am burning the candle at both ends and need to either blow the candle out or use a stronger wick!

It’s so easy to say, I’m just going to call in today, or let’s sleep 5 minutes longer, or the dog can wait a few more minute…It’s easy to go by a Wendy’s fatburger or a McKill-me Big Artery clogger than it is to plan meals and pack food. It saves time to let the bills pile up and pay them on your next day off, (a month later) It’s not that hard to fall asleep with your clothes on, forget to put on deodorant and shave with instant oatmeal because you can’t take 5 minutes to go pick up shaving cream, and does the dog really need treats when a hand full of dog food can do the same thing? Let’s not forget to mention that I haven’t seen my daughter in two months!!!

I AM Tired

I have been busy lately…

My daily schedule starts at 5am…I wake and instantly feed the dog and put him in the yard for his play time with the critters that I can’t see cause its still dark…Then I workout, intensely (thank you Daniel), this workout wakes me up and is probably the biggest motivating event of my day. I eat my oatmeal and egg, drink an airborne and shower, put the dog in his kennel for naptime (cause it’s his favorite thing), then I go to work, at 7am…I sit here, and I think, about work, I market myself, I drive around handing out flyers and business cards, I book appointments, I clean the salon, I organize my life and I blog (:}) and I basically wait for my business to grow, which it is, at a fantastic rate, thanks to people like Jon and Joy Garner, Elizabeth Verdell Walter and Emily Rogers, and Kim Stevens, Robbie Flatford and Kaye Dillard and Aaron Creech and Dean Sewell and my parents…(just to name a few). They have been with a lot of other people (that I WILL recognize eventually as time goes by)by spreading the word about us and sending us their friends, LOVE YOU GUYS. I sit here early tying to get traffic from the very busy road that runs next to the salon…I sit here and do all of that, and do my appointments as well until 2pm each day when I pack up and go to work at another full time job until 9 pm. I then spend time with the dog, my folks, or on the phone with people I have been trying not to neglect and one person recently in particular that I am trying to get to know better. I do that till about eleven or twelve midnight. Then I go to bed for what feels like a few minutes and I get up and do it all again!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My days run together and I feel so worn down that I just wanna go back to the “It’s so easy to say” paragraph and give up!!!

I am TIRED!!!

I Have been very busy lately!!!

Then I remember something… No matter how tired I feel, no matter how busy I am, no matter how scared or depressed or anxious or terrified I might be… IN EVERY SINGLE ASPECT OF MY LIFE…someone or something is depending on me to keep going, Cesalee, Cooper, my folks, my sisters my friends, my readers, my clients, my bank my bill collectors and my own damn self!
As I come to this realization, I raise my head and look out at the beautiful sunshine and the awesome day ahead of me, and I find a smile through the sleepiness, and I find renewed motivation to get through yet another day of “non-stop interstate JOURNEY traffic”!

Can I get an AMEN?!?!?

CAN I GET AN AMEN?!?!?!

Have a great day, and if you’re having the same issues I am right now, take a look at the blue sky outside and remember that there are people under that blue sky dying to keep your blue skies safe enough for you to be tired under…If that does not work, go get some damn coffee and shut the heck up!!!

So I have choosen to use a stronger wick, to use the slower burning candles and to keep plenty of fuel nearby in case the flame goes out on me! But friends, I gotta be honest, I need your help!!!

Check this out, Daniel is sharing his secrets to fitness success!!!

http://truhealthquest.com/2011/09/whats-hot-whats-not/

This is how I am doing it folks, Metabolic Resistance Training, Daniel explains it in his latest blog post and it's hot!!! Im only a LITTLE miffed with him for giving our secrets away, but it's all good!

Check out by clicking the truhealthquest blog link to the right of the page, it's some good stuff to read from the guy I trust the most with my fitness!!!

Map out your Journey!!

I was getting ready for work this morning and forgot to do my food list for the day. I guess most of you don’t know what my food list is all about. I start by writing down all of the food I plan to eat during the day. I plan on eating my daily allowance of food and try not to deviate from my list. There is a second column next to my food list which is where I put all of the food I eat throughout the day that was not planned, whether it was an unexpected piece of candy, gum or even cake. Even an unplanned trip to a restaurant gets logged. This keeps me honest with myself and allows me to more closely monitor my progress. If I see a dramatic weight gain or loss I can look back and see where I went wrong or what I may have done right to achieve the weight change.

I stopped my program recently and noticed that I was rather quick to put a few pounds back on and I think that when we lose weight, we seem to do it methodically, we follow techniques that provide results but we don’t make those techniques part of our lives. Once the goal is reached or we feel better about ourselves, we tend to kick back into old school mode and we eat ourselves fat again. What I am trying to do is get used to this list making and exercise routine and I am trying to make it a habitual part of my life. Putting the food I eat in writing and making the list adjustable helps me to see my progress and helps me “road map my success”.

We get lost in our lives when we don’t follow a map, sometimes it’s a good thing most of the time it is not! I have my workout routines, which alternate, written down for me to follow. They are there to provide me with the “road map” I need to reach my fitness goal. I have my food list to provide me with the “road map” I need to get to where I want to be with my nutrition and my weight loss. I have a road map spiritually as well. What are some of the tools you use in your own journey that can be described as road maps?

Do you have a “road map” to assist you in your relationships? Do you have a list of the qualities you look for in a mate? Do you have a routine written down that helps you get to your goal professionally? Spend some time today looking and assessing your “road maps” and see if they are taking you to the right place?

I was, back in the earlier days of the blog, posting the foods I was eating and making them public for everyone to judge and discuss. I stopped because I began to see, at that point, that we are ALL different and what is working for me might not work for you. I eat a lot of yogurt, A LOT OF YOGURT. I am the Michael Weston of Chesnee SC (I eat a lot of yogurt), but a lot of you might not be able to physically handle the amount of yogurt I digest. I also eat a lot of bananas, to the debate of hundreds; nonetheless I eat lot of bananas. I also eat about a third of the US consumption of Tuna and roughly my own body weight in eggplant each month and a trees worth of pecans a month. I am assuming that right about now some of your stomachs are turning but I like what I like and it is all helping me to lose a great deal of weight. I still keep track, I just don’t make it public. This is a good example of how the wrong “road map” can almost get you lost. My private list helps me to see what I am eating that helps me to see what is making me feel better. There are a number of different advantages to keeping a food list and I highly suggest that everyone use a food list as one of your “road maps” on this journey. Keep it with you and keep writing in it as you eat, not just when you pack your food for the day.
This is something that is working for me and I hope it helps you this week.

Thanks again for all the great BD wishes! I had a blast!!!

IM 38!!!and the Huffington Post might be in my future!!!

It’s already shaping up to be a great day!!!

I just wanted to write a quick post about my year. What an amazing roller coaster of a year it has been!

I quit a job I hated, got a better job, really took control of the reigns and moved forward into an even greater job, where I am my own boss, am responsible for my own choices and am not doing to badly.
I discovered that through careful thought and meditation that my spiritual life needs as much attention as my physical one and I feel closer than ever to the powers that be. I am actually feeling liked by the powers that be as well.

I lost over 80 pounds and will continue to lose weight and become the healthiest person I can be, for the rest of my journey through life!
I have learned a lot about who I am. I am fighting for the things I believe in, being my own advocate and being more honest about my wants and needs. I am living MY life and that‘s something I have NEVER done before!
I am closer with my daughter than I ever thought possible!

I am blessed to have tons of friends that I love and am grateful for! Whether I have known them 25 minutes or 25 years (more like 30+ for one or two of you), I am happy to be in their lives and wouldn’t know what to do without them!!!

Thanks to everyone for all the support with this blog, I have had as of yesterday, over 4000 IP views have 3700 people signed up for the daily Email from Robirobtheblog.com and these hits do not include the facebook, twitter and Google+ views as they are third party views and are not shown on my blog.

I have recently been asked to sample weight loss droid apps in development, been a guest post on another blog and was just asked this morning to write an article for the Huffington Post’s AOL Healthy Living internet newspaper as a featured blog post. The Huffington Post has over 17 million readers worldwide!!! (This is big for me, but my article has to be good and be accepted, but an invitation to write is pretty damn cool)!!

SO 37 were outstanding for me! I can’t wait for 38 as it is already shaping up to be the best year of my life!!!

Thanks for your continued support and let’s see what’s coming round the next turn!!!

I LOVE MY JOURNEY!!!

I'll be 38!! how many tomorrows are left? Start trusting the people that get results!!!

Well, Tomorrow is my big 38!!

I still can't believe it... I will be 38 years old. Seems like yesterday I was turning 30 in a huge panic and my friends had a party for me, I realized that it wasnt all that bad to turn 30 after I turned 30. It's funny how you realize the possibilities in life after it happens.

I have been having an awesome year. I have met alot of new people and have been having great success in all avenues of life.
I am getting smaller physically, I am getting healthier and I am learning that it's the science behind my health that is being updated daily, not just the idea or the words.

How many people do you know that are in "love" just to be in love, or are more in love with the idea of being in love or are just scared of the possibility of being alone? They are willing to spend their whole lives miserable but will never face being by themselves.

How many people do you know that preach work ethic and responsibility and claim to be this or that in business, then they turn around and steal a client from you, claim to be lower in price or use false advertising just to get someone's business?

The same thing holds true for fat people. We all claim to know that this diet will work, this pill will work, this surgery will work or this attitude works for weight loss. We all talk about how metabolism does this, we should eat less of that and more of this and we should work out this muscle and do that much exercise...then we sit back and eat a whole box of little debbie cakes and a whole pizza and say "I'll try again tomorrow". We are in love with the idea of health, but truly know nothing about it. What we claim to know is based on what we hear not on true experience.

What's different for me this year, is that instead of using (or not using) my knowledge (or lack thereof) about health, I am turning to people that REALLY know something about it. My Doctor (certified) my trainer (certified) and am even getting advice from an Holistic Nutritionalist (again...CERTIFIED)! These people all have incredible knowledge, massive skill and amazing physiques, they dont only know their junk, they live their junk! (get your head outta the gutter Dean Sewell, im using "junk" instead of the "s" word)

Folks, in the blink of my life I am about to turn 38. I sat on my couch day after day saying "tomorrow i will try harder". IT"S TOMORROW!!! Learn something new, use the tools that you see will give you results from the people that actually use those tools (and get proof that they use them), and get to work. You never know when today could be your last "tomorrow"!

Love you all!!!

These people know health!!!

Bully part 2

The reason I posted the video I posted yesterday was to help make people understand that it isnt just the bully that gets the message when people stand up and fight back against them, it's the person being bullied that gains confidence and looses fear when they see that there are actually people out there that are not afraid and are strong enough to withstand whatever other people might think! In the video, I got chills when the kid being bullied realized (by the look on his face) what had happened when the older kid stood up for him by coloring his hair to match his own...It took my words away and all I could do was post it.

We need to teach our kids that it is OK to disagree with someone. It is OK to actually not like someone, for whatever reason. Most importantly, we need to teach our children that even though we may not like someone or what they believe, or who they are, IT IS NEVER OK TO TEAR SOMEONE ELSE DOWN VERBALLY OR PHYSICALLY BECAUSE THEY ARE DIFFERENT!

Be brave parents. If your child is a bully or is being bullied and you don't know what to do, contact their school counseler for help, get online and go to www.bullying.org and get some help before it's too late! If YOU don't stand up for your own kid, how do you expect them to stand up for themselves!

Bully!

I wanted to type a long post about the terror behind bullying and what we need to do to stop it, but this video said everything that I wanted to say plus added a visual!!!



Stand up!!! Do something anything!!!

I have been diagnosed with IEB and I will not let it beat me!!! PLEASE READ THIS!!!

!

Sometimes I have no trouble staring down that piece of cake or that extra helping of pasta. Sometimes nothing and no one can stop me.

How often do you feel like you are so hungry that you could eat everything in sight? I feel that way every night when I get off work. Then, as I contemplate what I will gorge myself on, I stop and think…If I still feel this way when I get home I will go back out and grab whatever I want. (Living in the country tends to make you think twice before just “running” out for anything)!

Usually by the time I get home the craving is over and I am fine with my normal dinner and I am all the better for it.

What about the times when my cravings or my wants for sugar or horrible food gets in the way of my reason and I gorge myself anyway? Well I have come to know these binges as irrational eating binges or IEB’s It’s my technical term for this weird behavior, you can pronounce it by the letters or just sound it out…”IIIEEEBBBS” This is a new word and I will be using it a lot this week as it is my birthday week and I know there will be party’s involved.

More about my birthday later in the week…

So when I feel the IEB’s coming on what am I supposed to do? Call a friend? Give in and eat? Beat myself with a stick? I call it IEB for a reason. Irrational behavior cannot just be stopped, it must be reasoned with and usually the best way for me to reason with anyone, is either through typing out a post or by a song. As it turns out, reasoning with me is not that easy. After all, reasoning is basically finding a reason for something and using it to convince someone into a behavior, right? RIGHT! I know my reason for being on my Journey and I fight the IEB’s with that reason every day!!!

I have to keep myself in check all of the time. I have to keep my four key Journey ingredients protected all day every day or I will fall. Notice I said fall not fail.

Until now I have been referring to my journey in three parts, mental, physical and spiritual. I have, as of this week, added Professional to the groups because so much of my stress and my time and my energy are used up in my professional life which has now taken on a much bigger role. (Thank you Jesus)

Work seems to keep me energized, it keeps me going and it keeps my clarity crisp and refined, when I leave work I shut down most of my senses and that’s when my IEB’s kick in. It is very important that we realize what sets off our triggers and when we need the most support. If we don’t keep a firm grasp, mentally on all of life’s challenges we will give in and IEB all over the place and on every key group of our Journey and we will fall and find it really hard to get back up.

So after reading this long and winded essay, most of you are probably still looking for the point. Well, my point is this: There are times when we are all irrational and times when we all have to reason with ourselves. Don’t let food be your murder weapon after a rough day. Don’t let “unwinding” turn into unraveling, and most of all, learn what YOU are all about and figure out that being in control means commitment, and that commitment needs a reason to exist, use that reason to solve poor rationale. Then go out and live your life outside of the fear that you are not in control of your journey! That’s all guys! Have a great Monday and don’t give in to the IEB’s!!!

Perfectly Pampered Day Spa

Come see me at the Perfectly Pampered Day Spa in boiling Springs SC!!!! (just a quick plug)!!!

HOW DO WE DO IT!!!???!!!

IT really is not easy!!! It is really really tough to get back on track once you have let your program fall into ruin!
Why does this happen? I don’t understand how we can feel SO charged and motivated one day and then all of the sudden it all falls to crap! We are eating too much, eating the wrong things, slacking off in our workout and avoiding our friends because we feel we might have gained weight!
(Today’s post will be short and sweet, I promise)!!
I have finally begun to take charge of my professional life! I am working two jobs, one to pay the bills and one to build a reputation so that I can pay more than just the bills later, and working two jobs, being on the go from 6am until 10 pm every day can be taxing to say the least, in fact I get SO into my routine that not only have I been not eating right, not working out right and not sleeping right, I have also been not relaxing right… I have been so focused and straight laced (lol) that I even go into a weird glazed over with drawled kind of daze when I am not working.
It’s great that I am working toward my future and Cesalee’s future, but it’s not great that I am letting it become such a distraction from my Journey that I am falling off track!
SO!!! This is my game plan:
1. (AS PER MY TRAINER DANIEL WOODRUM) I must be in bed by 11pm and get at least 7 hours sleep….
2. I must follow the workouts outlined and get enough exercise to sustain me and provide me with the calorie burning energy I need to continue to lose weight.
3. I must eat right to support rule number 2
4. I must spend time with Cooper and Cesalee, be it phone or video or texting with Ces and or having someone go play with Coop if I can’t.
5. I must turn off my brain at night somehow.
6. I have to pay attention to the people in my life outside of my job (others can learn from this too, you know who you are)!!!
7. (should be number 1) ask God for help!
Ok, so the rules are not so bad, and I can almost hear what some of you are thinking. “How do we start”?
This is it folks, this is how it’s done…
Get up, put your shoes on and get dressed, go for a walk, grab a .50 yogurt, or an egg, and a banana and a hand full of nuts, and smile because you will have just “gotten started”!!!

This pot ain't gonna get stirred!

What causes drama in your life?

Is it a specific person? Is it you?

People that thrive on drama are people that are used to getting attention or people that have never gotten any attention. Yes those are two very different groups of people but that is why dram runs rampant, because you have it bouncing off of and back and forth between two very different groups of people, attention getters and attention seekers.
There is a trick to avoiding drama and there is a trick to stopping drama. TURN AWAY from it!

Don’t allow your pot to be stirred!

Tell the person you don’t do drama and turn your back to them until the drama passes.

Simply ignore it!

Drama has been a big part of my life. Not really because I like to cause drama, I don’t. It happens more because the people in my life like drama and I let it happen. I DO like to talk, I do like to gossip and I do like to meddle, (all serious character flaws) but I don’t like hurting people and I don’t like being hurt.

How does all of this relate to my journey?

I have noticed that no matter how old you are, and how much crap you have gone through in your life, there is always going to be someone that wants to bring the drama in your life and guess what? It is a major food trigger for me. So the reason it is the subject of my post this morning is that I want to make clear my intentions and what I hope will be your intentions toward drama in the future…EXPELL IT! Kick it out, fire it, push it back, send it behind the house, bury it in the yard and spit on its grave.
Gossip and using your mouth as a weapon is the mildest form of violence. It is dangerous because loose talk can destroy lives and it can cause resentment and anger. It is bullying no matter how you look at it and you all know my stance on bullying.

Drama gets in the way of our health and I am not gonna let it keep me down. So if you have something to say to or about me, say it, I will return the favor, as long as you say it too me.

Let’s try to make the world a little better and just be nice, even to those we can’t stand, even to those we disagree with and let’s try to talk through something instead of just about something!
I love you all and hope you have a great day…and no this is not an angry post and nothing happened, I just wanted to discuss it…in other words…”Just Sayin”!

There is no right and wrong if we believe in the power of one word!

I hear all the time that being a parent is mostly trial and error. That there is no instruction book for raising kids and there is a right or wrong way to do this and that with our children … ok, so that’s great and all…but what about our own lives, our own well-being and the right and wrong in our personal situations?

Let’s start with the right and wrong.

I know that when I don’t eat all day and am out of my mind with hunger, I should not go to the grocery store and buy a bag of tater tots and eat the whole thing in one sitting with half a bottle of ketchup. There is still the knowledge that what I am doing is wrong and yes I have the free will to say, HELL NO! SO why would I ever find a rational excuse for doing it?

Trial and Error.
Some things work for me and some things work for you and vice versa, however, why is it that we continue to do the things that don’t work and then get mad when they don’t work just like we had no clue it could go wrong. For example, I love to watch Tony Horton on his workout videos, he is hilarious and pretty motivational, I bought power 90 (the wussy version of p90x) and watched it once. I never did the workout and never used the tools to help get me into better shape. But I won’t sell it. I look at it and think, “Wow. One day I should do that”. But I never do. Then I see a commercial for some Zumba workout and actually consider buying it. Why are we like that folks? I know I will never use it but still want it!!! WTH?!?!?

INSTRUCTIONS!
Some would argue that the instruction book for life is The Bible and for those that believe otherwise it is The Torah or The KORAN or the Book of Mormon or Essential Tibetan Buddhism or a personal book of Shadows or a journal of personal experience. Whatever you believe to be your instruction book, good for you and I hope it is working for you. I believe we were raised with values and morals and our instructions were passed to us through society and the knowledge we received from our caregivers whomever they might have been (yes I used whom correctly). The books I mentioned before are great when it comes to telling you how your maker wants you to live, or how your actions affect your life but honestly folks, let’s look at this from a SMALLER picture…

The Earth and its progress (or lack thereof) is a lesson of terror, experience after experience of mistakes and misguided fortune. We, as individuals have a much easier task of living and loving the best way we can, helping others and working together, making mistakes and making the right choices are all part of how we get to the end of our individual journeys.

I honestly believe that through trial and error we find the path through the right and wrong choices and therefore the instructions we have been given, or not given, are not as specific as we think.
All the books I mentioned above have one truth that is constant. LOVE
I think if we love each other, if we love all things and all people. If we love the animals and the Earth, if we love our families and our love ourselves and yes even if we love our God, or our religious knowledge and our experience, we cannot truly go wrong.

The truth to this post is, There IS no right or wrong if you have love in your heart when you choose.

There is no error when you face your trials with love oozing out of your pours!

Your instruction books, with all the inspiration and meaning, all their guidance and stipulations, mean much much more to your everyday life when you read them with LOVE in your heart, with love in your eyes and with love in your hands.

I hope all of you have a blessed day, look at the sun that is shining or the rain that is falling or the wind that is blowing and remember to smile because you are even alive to witness it!
LOVE YOU ALL!