How I Became a Time Traveler

I didn't need a time machine to go back 50 years in poundage.

All it took was a Vegan diet and persistent exercise over the course of a year to take me back to my high school weight...and my long lost 32" waist.

Last year I got serious because I'd grown too old for clowning around. I changed to a physically demanding job, went completely Vegan and joined a local gym. My weight plummeted dramatically--from 200# to 145# and my waistline, of course, went down with it: from 40" to 33"...then 32-3/4".

I should have felt good for a man of my age. Maybe I should have felt great. I did not, though: the CG (crowning glory) mocked me, as did the mini-roll of lard around my waist.. I bought items for home workouts: an Iron Gym pull up bar with straps for hanging crunches and leg lifts.

The cargo pants I wore for work only came in even sizes, so I wore 34s with suspenders, worn also to hold up my loose 33" jeans. I felt a like a hick from the country. Furthermore, I felt alarmed: my waist had gone down but my weight had gone up from 145 to 150. Still, the Iron Gym bar and straps were already showing results. So possibly, just possibly...

I didn't know. I only knew that I refused to be mocked any more by the magic number.

Yesterday I went to Macy's, half hopeful the weight gain was muscle, not fat, and half braced for heartbreak

Well...

I ended up leaving with three pairs of 32" slim fit Ring of Fire jeans and a belt instead of suspenders. And all were had at ridiculous low prices.

I felt back in the day in a new kind of way and ready for brave new adventures.

And here's my highest hope for you:

Don't surrender your own crowning glory to time or circumstance for as long as I did. Don't be too quick in assuming that gravity's against you and that the odds are too high. Don't let even your best friends discourage you. There is a way, there is always a way, to realize your dreams

Spare yourself the misery of waking up daily and telling the face that you see in the mirror:

Maybe next year...or the next year...or the year or the decade that follow...

Start today with confidence that your CG awaits you!

The August Assault: Introduction

We all have 10 weeks until August 1: time enough to mount our siege on the dream that's eluded us now for so long--and whatever has kept us at bay.



It could be anything, really.

Year after year after year, for instance, you may have sworn upon your soul to show the world a beach bod:




Or you may have sworn to quit smoking:





Or have you dreamed less and less of writing a great break-out novel?




I'm sure we're all on the same page now. No matter what we've accomplished, there's something we've lost on the way. Something that's eating away at our souls and making us feel incomplete. And, regardless of gender or color or age, our starting point remains the same. We need a sense of urgency--and not a mild one either. For our failed dreams fester within us. And with each excuse we make we rot a little more.




Do not think for a moment that your lost dream was childish or is unworthy of you now. And do not give a moment's thought to anyone's opinion. If you've sworn for years to do something, failing again and again, be assured of this: in one way or another you have been paying the price.

What I call the August Assault resulted from a nasty fall I took on April 5. Nothing was broken, but I'd suffered deep tissue damage in my right pelvis and hip, along with severe back strain. I ended up taking a long-planned vacation, including a round-trip cross-country train trip. But I was in agony all of the way and those I met in Buffalo--a sister and a friend I hadn't seen in many years--were shocked by my condition. I looked and felt like a tired and beaten old man. Back in Seattle, my misery grew: I couldn't exercise or do anything, it seemed, but eat. And I hated how I'd come to look.

But:




Today I'm here to tell you, though--even with my cane--that all of this was good. One morning I awoke with a white-hot sense of urgency: I could no longer live with the "me" I brought to Buffalo, old and whipped and beaten. I needed to return to the fabulous condition that I used to be in when I lived in San Francisco in the early 80s.

Urgency! No dallying!

Slowly and painfully, I returned to my home workouts.

I began making green smoothies and eating mostly raw.

And, to fuel my commitment, I promised online to produce a limited edition photo postcard revealing the results by August 1.

I have ten weeks and miles to go. But I'll share my results with you because we're all in this together. Each of us has a lost something that cries out to us for completion. Join me, friends, with your own August Assault.