My nephew, Ryan, has been stationed in Iraq for almost a year. We can’t wait for him to come home.
A few days ago he sent me an email about his quest to look good naked and I asked him if I could share it with all of you.
Even in Iraq
When I got to Kuwait I weighed about 240lbs. Probably extra weight gained from the amount of stress and depression I was going through.
As shitty as Iraq can be, it taught me a lot about myself. IED's and car bombs, blowing up throwing me off the top of my truck, bullets ricocheting against the t-wall next to my room, battling fear every time we left the wire which was almost every day. Constantly thinking this could be my last ride. But the biggest battle for me was myself.
When you are in this environment you can't control what might happen on the roads or what might fall from the sky. You can only control yourself. That's it.
On top of sweating it out with 75lbs of gear on all the time, I made an effort to eat better and work out when I had the energy. If I did not have the energy I did not always push it, only because it was 135 degrees out and I was walking around police stations in Baghdad all day.
At the "JSS" (Joint Security Station) where I lived there were only about 80 other soldiers there. It was located in the middle of Baghdad, where we could hear and see a lot of the "action."
At a JSS there isn't a lot to do but act like jack asses, play video games and work out. So I tried to use that time wisely. I ran when it was not to hot out, 7.5 laps around the base was 2 miles. First time I have ever run anywhere where there is a chance I might have to get to cover!
I struggle with asthma, more severely than I allude to the Army, only because I wanted to deploy.
My squad mates, a lot of whom are phenomenal runners, would run with me and motivate me and cheer me on. They wouldn't leave until I was finished. They take the warrior ethos with them even to a run, where they “leave no man behind”. I learned to fight through a lot of it, and suck up the pain.
I went with the others in my squad to the gym. It was always an entertaining trip for us. We made lot of jabs at each other, but especially at my squad leader who is the most vein person I have ever met!! He literally stares at himself in the mirror all the damn time.
I did not understand it at first. I thought it was annoying and that he needed to get over himself. But then I took a step back and watched all the hard work he put in. He had the most difficult job out of all of us. Not only was he in charge of our entire squad, he had to plan all the missions and deal with the BS that comes with working for a Colonel.
With all of the BS and hard work he put in, he always made it to the gym no matter what. You could hear him yelling "WOOOOOOOOO!" from the gym all the time. He did it before missions too. I think he did it to get himself amped up.
He is also a father of two boys and is married. So I figured, “Man if he can balance all of that, I can better myself.”
I continued my work in the gym. We moved from the JSS last month. We went from doing stuff everyday to doing absolutely nothing. So he and I have been on a work out plan together along with another soldier, and it has been a great stress reliever.
For example, I never used to work out my legs. I absolutely hate working legs. I yell things like "Legs are for communists and hippies!", because I hate it so much. But he has a way to motivate me and the other guys.
Having people there for you when you are at your worst and best is the key to getting through something difficult. I am now proudly 215 lbs., which was my goal when I got here.
Not only did I meet my goals but I grew close to my squad while doing it. I am thankful every day that I have been safe here and for all the great friends I have made. And now I can look good naked when I return home!
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Setting Goals
On an overcast, raining Sunday I looked up from doing my work to see my twenty year-old daughter run by my window. In that moment, I saw her look down at her watch and then keep on running.
In my quest to look good naked, it reminded me of how important setting goals can be. I have daily, weekly and monthly goals for my diet, exercise and weight loss. The simple act of setting those goals helps me to push through my moments of weakness to attain them.
On a larger scale I have watched my daughter turn herself into a scholar/athlete by setting goals and believing in herself.
Kourtney was an average runner and an average student in high school and she enjoyed a wonderful high school experience.
She was disappointed when she didn’t get accepted into her preferred colleges. She didn’t have the higher GPA or the accomplishments of a superior runner to gain the attention of those colleges.
I remember distinctly the day that my son Sam and I drove her to the University of Maine at Orono and dropped her off to spend a week training with the cross country team before the beginning of her freshman year there. She was so timid and nervous. When I picked her up 6 days later, to take her to her cousin’s wedding, she looked and acted like a completely different person. I could see in her face that she had achieved a higher fitness level as it was narrower and her wonderful cheekbones, lightly covered with freckles, looked higher.
What really stood out was her enthusiasm and exuberance in regard to her teammates, the team and the university. She wouldn’t shut up on the whole two hour ride home. It was in that moment that I knew she was going to be fine at college.
What I didn’t understand was how she was in the process of turning herself into a high achieving student and athlete. She won’t talk about her first semester because her GPA, as she puts it, was “way to low”. She trained with the cross country team but she wasn’t accomplished enough to run in the meets.
Things started to click in her second semester as she made the Dean’s list with a 3.6GPA and ran much faster than she had ever run in high school.
She also started her first relationship and I loved watching the way the she handled it with such maturity. She didn’t learn that from me! Her boyfriend’s name is Chris and he is also a motivated, goal setting young man.
At the start of her sophomore year she returned to school with Chris. He had gotten seriously ill with spinal meningitis just before school started for the fall and he could barely walk or do much of anything. Just standing up would make him throw up and get enormous headaches.
In addition to her own work, Kourt help Chris in every way she could.
With running, tutoring other athletes, helping Chris, studying and managing some chronic running injuries she achieved a 3.8 while Chris achieved a 4.0.
There were many moments during that semester and her entire sophomore year when she was overwhelmed but breaking things down to smaller goals helped her to push through the tough moments.
Her chronic injuries kept her from running much and she had to cross train to keep and improve her fitness level. She trained with the cross country and track teams she didn’t actually compete at all during that year.
Where she was able to compete was in the classroom and that spring she achieved her first 4.0. I know her high school teachers would say, “Kourtney "who" got a 4.0?”
Last summer she slowly increased her running and kept up her cross training. When she returned to school they had their first time trial to see who would make the cross country team. She placed 8th and for the first time in her 3 year college career she made the team. I can’t really describe how excited she was or how much fun it was for me to watch her run in those college meets all last fall.
That semester she achieved another 4.0 and as the indoor season started it was clear that she was rapidly becoming a completely different runner than she had ever been.
She concentrated on the 3K and the 5K indoors and after her first race and a personal record I realized that instead of trying to achieve a certain time in those races it is actually better to beak the race down into a time per lap. It’s easier to focus on 200 meters at time then 5000 meters all at once.
It’s the same reason that I have daily goals and overall goals in my quest to look good naked.
With Kourt we were able to simply calculate what each split needed to be in order to keep her on track and I made sure that she heard each split whenever she raced. Combined with her training, this worked remarkably well as she set personal records six races in a row and placed in her team’s conference championships in the 5K.
She has come a long way since high school. Her emotional, intellectual and physical developments are rapidly moving forward and she knows there are many more great goals to be attained.
I know that at 51, if I use Kourt as my inspiration, that I have many more goals to attain.
This morning I weighed myself and found that I have lost 22 pounds since November 1st and that I only have eight pounds to go before I reach my goal. I plan on following Kourt’s example and breaking down my goals and pushing through the tough times even when I don’t feel that exercising at all.
I know I’m going to look good naked by my 52nd birthday!
In my quest to look good naked, it reminded me of how important setting goals can be. I have daily, weekly and monthly goals for my diet, exercise and weight loss. The simple act of setting those goals helps me to push through my moments of weakness to attain them.
On a larger scale I have watched my daughter turn herself into a scholar/athlete by setting goals and believing in herself.
Kourtney was an average runner and an average student in high school and she enjoyed a wonderful high school experience.
She was disappointed when she didn’t get accepted into her preferred colleges. She didn’t have the higher GPA or the accomplishments of a superior runner to gain the attention of those colleges.
I remember distinctly the day that my son Sam and I drove her to the University of Maine at Orono and dropped her off to spend a week training with the cross country team before the beginning of her freshman year there. She was so timid and nervous. When I picked her up 6 days later, to take her to her cousin’s wedding, she looked and acted like a completely different person. I could see in her face that she had achieved a higher fitness level as it was narrower and her wonderful cheekbones, lightly covered with freckles, looked higher.
What really stood out was her enthusiasm and exuberance in regard to her teammates, the team and the university. She wouldn’t shut up on the whole two hour ride home. It was in that moment that I knew she was going to be fine at college.
What I didn’t understand was how she was in the process of turning herself into a high achieving student and athlete. She won’t talk about her first semester because her GPA, as she puts it, was “way to low”. She trained with the cross country team but she wasn’t accomplished enough to run in the meets.
Things started to click in her second semester as she made the Dean’s list with a 3.6GPA and ran much faster than she had ever run in high school.
She also started her first relationship and I loved watching the way the she handled it with such maturity. She didn’t learn that from me! Her boyfriend’s name is Chris and he is also a motivated, goal setting young man.
At the start of her sophomore year she returned to school with Chris. He had gotten seriously ill with spinal meningitis just before school started for the fall and he could barely walk or do much of anything. Just standing up would make him throw up and get enormous headaches.
In addition to her own work, Kourt help Chris in every way she could.
With running, tutoring other athletes, helping Chris, studying and managing some chronic running injuries she achieved a 3.8 while Chris achieved a 4.0.
There were many moments during that semester and her entire sophomore year when she was overwhelmed but breaking things down to smaller goals helped her to push through the tough moments.
Her chronic injuries kept her from running much and she had to cross train to keep and improve her fitness level. She trained with the cross country and track teams she didn’t actually compete at all during that year.
Where she was able to compete was in the classroom and that spring she achieved her first 4.0. I know her high school teachers would say, “Kourtney "who" got a 4.0?”
Last summer she slowly increased her running and kept up her cross training. When she returned to school they had their first time trial to see who would make the cross country team. She placed 8th and for the first time in her 3 year college career she made the team. I can’t really describe how excited she was or how much fun it was for me to watch her run in those college meets all last fall.
That semester she achieved another 4.0 and as the indoor season started it was clear that she was rapidly becoming a completely different runner than she had ever been.
She concentrated on the 3K and the 5K indoors and after her first race and a personal record I realized that instead of trying to achieve a certain time in those races it is actually better to beak the race down into a time per lap. It’s easier to focus on 200 meters at time then 5000 meters all at once.
It’s the same reason that I have daily goals and overall goals in my quest to look good naked.
With Kourt we were able to simply calculate what each split needed to be in order to keep her on track and I made sure that she heard each split whenever she raced. Combined with her training, this worked remarkably well as she set personal records six races in a row and placed in her team’s conference championships in the 5K.
She has come a long way since high school. Her emotional, intellectual and physical developments are rapidly moving forward and she knows there are many more great goals to be attained.
I know that at 51, if I use Kourt as my inspiration, that I have many more goals to attain.
This morning I weighed myself and found that I have lost 22 pounds since November 1st and that I only have eight pounds to go before I reach my goal. I plan on following Kourt’s example and breaking down my goals and pushing through the tough times even when I don’t feel that exercising at all.
I know I’m going to look good naked by my 52nd birthday!
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