Day 330 An Imperfectly Chaotic Day and I Didn't Know He Was Reading

Day 330

An Imperfectly Chaotic Day and I Didn't Know He Was Reading

Wow, today has been a very busy, chaotic, imperfect, tiring, and mind altering day! But, it's been successful. It started out early and stressful, became less stressful, then just when I started to hit a groove this afternoon, the storms started to roll and it was weather coverage time. It was nearly 6:30pm before the storms broke enough to leave the studio and then I had a decision to make. How do I best utilize my time this evening? Workout first, then get home--eat something and try to start on the blog? Eat something, get to writing, then go workout? Or what I ended up doing: Eat something (grilled chicken and mashed potatoes) while trying to start the blog, fall asleep at the computer, decide that a “quick” refresher nap was what I needed--because I just can't write while I'm fighting sleep--, then my “quick” nap turned into three hours of solid sleep. I slept through two alarms and twenty-three phone calls trying to wake me up, I was out. I really needed that. Another announcer had to go in and continue weather coverage when the storms started to fire again in the middle of my slumber. I never really worry about losing too much sleep because my body just takes over when it really needs it and I'm out like a light. It severely wrecked my evening schedule, but it's certainly not something I haven't dealt with before. I'm going to be alright. I've completely missed my workout and it's embarrassingly late for me to be writing considering the morning alarm is set for 5am, but this is what happened, and so it is what it is...I have to write about these things. I really have been getting more sleep lately. I think it really showed in the 7 pound loss last Wednesday.

Sometimes I think of my old habits like they're “bad friends” with horrible influences that hang out in the back alleys of my mind and yell at me occasionally: “What? You too good for us now? Hey look guys, Mr. Good Choices thinks he's hot stuff.” “Looks like somebody missed his workout tonight, why don't you come around and let's hang.” “Look big man, Vinnie's got the hook up on some sweet stuff, tin roof sundae Sean Boy, it's one of your favorites...whadda ya say?” “Oh, I get it, you're 'acting as if' we don't exist—yeah, we read your little blog---whatever man. Keep walking away, there you go...but remember, we had some good times, real good times.” “We almost got ya killed, but we had some good times, right?” I use to be one of them, but I'm not anymore. I don't miss those “good times” anymore. The way I feel now and how it continues to improve, well...that's a hundred times better than hangin' with these miscreants. I'll just keep turning my back and walking the other way.

I received an e-mail this evening that completely left me stunned. Remember on Day 303 when I wrote about seeing an acquaintance in the racquetball court who had lost over 100 pounds? I talked about how I had heard that he maybe wasn't eating enough unnecessarily, and I even mentioned that I might stop by and talk with him. Well, I never did. I guess I was afraid of offending him in some way if the subject of calories came up. Because you know how passionate I can be about this stuff. I just avoided that altogether. I received an e-mail from him tonight! And his story just left me shocked. It turns out that he did recognize me that day at the Y. He had to look a couple of times, but then he knew it was me. He was in the middle of a match at the time and I was starting my workout, so we didn't talk. But after seeing me that day, he remembered a loved one telling him about my blog. He looked it up and started reading from Day 1. He's read everyday so far. And he knew I was talking about him on that day. I honestly never thought he would read. I told you, the guy is the picture of confidence! If I would have read something someone had written about me like that, I would have had to call right then to clear up any misconceptions. But the guy is just straight up confident in who he is and what he's doing. And what he's done has absolutely saved his life. It's really remarkable.

He shared his story with me today in that e-mail. He was seriously on the brink of death when he made his “iron-clad decision.” I hope to be able to share more of his story with you in the coming days. I really should talk to him first about that. As it turns out, he's eating just fine---and I feel like a butt-head for ever talking about it without first getting a better understanding of his situation directly from him. So far he's lost 120 pounds and is working on losing the last 30 to 40 pounds, or whatever feels right. He certainly has an amazing survivor story. I hope our schedules will mesh tomorrow for a brief visit. This time, I'm really going!

It's time to go back to bed and get ready to get up again. Oh, the crazy schedule I keep sometimes! Irene scoured some family albums today and found some “previously unreleased” before pictures. Oh my, some of these are really embarrassing. I'll have to post some real soon with new “in-progress” pics of course! I sincerely appreciate you reading! I hope to get caught up on reading my blog roll tomorrow. If I've missed you recently, forgive! It's been crazy around here. Goodnight and...

Good Choices,
Sean