well it is a new year, with new goals and new things happening. the holidays were pretty good to me socially. i got to see all of my family, at least the ones that i wanted to see. i know that sounds bad but i will go more into that later.


the drive home was hell incarnate. i left illinois around 11am on friday after getting some extra sleep. well after a few snow showers, driving at 35mph, a stop in the middle of the expressway for 2 hours, more driving at 35mph and then finally some decent driving it took me 11 hours to get home. thats 6 hours longer then it normally takes. i was so friggin frazzled by that drive it wasn’t even funny. anyhow, i was happy to be home.


i spent the next few days finishing up holiday shopping. i spent christmas eve at my aunt carols house and then xmas day at my mothers and then my fathers house. it was a lot of fun hanging with family, shooting the breeze, and eating the goodies. and lets just say i had my fair share of goodies … more on that later as well … hehehh …


the remainder of that week i spent mostly hanging out with mike and lori helping them get ready for their move, pack the trailer up, and generally getting prepared for the big day. mike has helped my family out a ton over the years. he has moved my mom a few times, me to and from chicago, my brother umpteen times, and he has helped my dad quite a few times with miscellaneous things. anyhow, i really wanted to help him with this move to make it as smooth as possible since i knew how much it meant to him. anyhow, thats what i did. it went off without a hitch and in fact we got him moved a day ahead of schedule. between me, amy, mike, lori, ellis, and mike’s dad we knocked it out pretty quick. there was more time preparing that is for sure.


amy was supposed to arrive in michigan on friday at around 6pm … well they canceled that train so she left the evening before and was supposed to arrive at about 2am. planning on that i helped mike and lori late that night, thinking i was just not going to sleep. well around 11pm i get a call that her train left late and she didn’t get out till 8pm which means she was not going to get in until 4am. well needless to say i went home and “tried” to get some sleep … stressing on tried since i had already drank a ton of coffee etc to stay awake till past 2am. anyhow, i got up at 4 and drove to pontiac, and 20 minute drive. and then i waited till 5am, no train. i rang amtrak on my cell phone and i find out they were delayed even further until 6:30am … i was not happy. so i then tried sleep in my car. picture this … 15 degrees below zero, 5am, big guy trying to sleep in the back seat of a car. it was not a fun evening … but she ended up getting in at 6:30ish and we went home and slept till like noon.


lets see what else … my mothers side of the family tried pulling a last minute job on us. they call us up the thursday before we are helping mike move and tell us they are celebrating xmas on saturday. my mom said something about us not being able to go because of gifts … that was not it at all … i had already told my best friend that i would help him move. i respect him and know he needed the help, and besides that i only hear from my moms family when it benefits them. ever since my aunt lynn moved to california they have ignored us, never calling us at the holidays, no cards, no nothing. well i had a life now, i had obligations, and i’ll be damned if i was going to dump close friends that mean a lot to me over their last minute xmas. they cried on the phone, giving us a pity story, but no, sorry, none of that shit here … next ….


for new year we had a little party at my brothers condo. it was just me, amy, ellis, christina, mike, lori, andrea, kris, and michelle. i think some others were supposed to show up but they didn’t. my father and kelly ended up showing up around 12:02am and missed the cheering but it was cool that they made it. they were up north snowmobiling and came back that night. anyhow, it was an interesting evening … amy got drunk, i tried but for some reason was literally unable to sustain a buzz. i slept well that night though …


we drove home the next day and made it home in like 4.5 hours which was great … now on to some more depressing news.


over the holidays, or shall i say the last 3 weeks of december i did not work out and i did not watch what i ate. if there was something at work or something at home to eat i ate it. sweets, sweets, meats, sweets, you name it … it was good yes, and my body felt like crap yes, and i was literally in the bathroom ever 2 hours yes, but i for some reason figured “hey it’s the holidays it’s no big deal.” well it turned out to be a big deal … how you ask? well i gained 27 pounds … yes that is twenty-seven. i think about 10 of that is water weight but that is still a shit load of weight. i basically pushed myself back to where i was in july. that is a depressing thought … but i can learn something from this … i can.


i learned the my body is in a very fragile stage right now. it is not sure if it is fat or wanting to be thin and it will do everything it can to remain fat. every calorie i consume that isn’t used to keep me running “will” get stored somehow to get my back to my original weight. i also learned that the holidays does not mean eating like crap and over endulging. i bet i could have gotten away with 4-5 bad meals instead of 3 bad weeks of meals. i may have gained a few pounds but it would not have been so severe. i learned how much i miss that rush of success and accomplishment i miss from the first half of last year. i want that back … i want to reach my goals … and you know what. i will … i started back hard core yesterday on the program, and i am going to 100% hard core from here on out. eating right, exercising right, hitting those 10’s and making no excuses. this is my year … this is the year where i get everything working for me. my body, my mind, my finances, my relationships, everything.


i entered the first round of the 2001 body for life challenge. i will lose 60 pounds of fat and gain 10 pounds of muscle during this challenge. i will eat healthy and not over eat on my free days. i will not extend any free days, no matter what the circumstances. i will do this for me first and foremost. this is really important to me … kind of like a one year anniversary gift to myself since i started on my new lifestyle about one year ago this month. i knew this would be a long road to my goal since it took me so long to travel down it … i have learned a lot along the way .. and i am sure i will learn even more in the upcoming months.


amy and i are doing well … we exchanged gifts over the holiday … spent some time before i left together and then she came to michigan to spend the arrival of the new year together. she helped my friends mike and lori move … that was cool of her. we also hung out and she got to know my friends and family better. there were some tense moments, but she really really likes them all. i get the feeling that some of them aren’t giving her a chance but in time i am sure everything will work out. she had a great time with lori while mike and i were out doing miscellaneous moving stuff so thats good. i was hoping she would bond with one of my friends … her and i are getting along better. i think we are learning, or should i say i am learning, more and more as we date longer. i am out of practice on the little things and i often get side tracked with work or other things and forget the little things, taking them for granted. i will do better at that … i am sure of it. no more excuses …


well i think that covers the major things …