Thursday, July 5, 2018

July 5th, 2018 Cantaloupe

July 5th, 2018 Cantaloupe

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I met my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

Mom and Me at the Fireworks broadcast last night

























Cantaloupe!





















Today's Featured Tweet:


Keeping tonight's edition short. It's too late for me! I made it home this afternoon for a nap after the short night last night--and yeah, it's keeping me awake tonight. One of these days I'll get my sleep schedule in better shape. 

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Wednesday, July 4, 2018

July 4th, 2018 Worked Well

July 4th, 2018 Worked Well

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

I slept in very well today! I needed the rest.

Mom joined me for my broadcast from the lake this evening. I prepared crunchy beef tacos and cantaloupe for dinner--not your typical 4th of July at the lake kind of food, but it worked well for my food plan and mom loves tacos too, so it was perfect.

It took over an hour to get through the traffic after the event--and oh my, it's put me up way too late! I have work in the morning!

Thanks for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

July 3rd, 2018 Noah's 5th

July 3rd, 2018 Noah's 5th

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

Mom and I made it to Noah's 5th birthday party this evening. That little guy is pure joy to be around. Little Oliver, Raegan, and Phoebe too--all four grandkids, just amazing to me. I have lots to be grateful for around here.

Keeping tonight's edition short. Mom and I didn't get her back to her place until after 10pm--then I needed to finish up some work at the studio--and now it's super late!

It was a wonderful evening. A few pics from the party:
Noah with his new drum kit!



















He was beyond excited!!

























We're always goofy we when take selfies together!




















I can't believe he's 5 years old. Time moves quickly!

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Monday, July 2, 2018

July 2nd, 2018 Steady Treading

July 2nd, 2018 Steady Treading

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I met my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

The following was originally written on this blog in September 2014. It's interesting to me because there are elements of it that I haven't maintained. "A committed exercise schedule," uh--yeah--I've fallen into a pattern of minimal commitment in that area--and it's something that needs work, sooner rather than later.

The other thing that sticks out is my tendency to self-sabotage good things in my life. I suppose the lesson for me here is that the daily practice I often talk and write about requires a broad approach for it to be the most balanced and complete.

I don't like how I wrote the following in the tone of, "it's done--it's locked in, this is how it is now," because clearly, I've learned nothing is automatic along this road. It takes intentional actions each and every day. Still, I like the message and there are some things in the following that I needed to read and absorb once again.

September 16th, 2014:
It's an incredibly good feeling to be at peace with something. I'm in a position along this road where my acceptance has allowed me the most sincere peace. It's acceptance of my abstinence from sugar, it's acceptance of a committed exercise schedule, it's acceptance for not using food to buffer emotions--it's an acceptance of good things and this, coming from me--someone who has had what seems like an inability to accept good things in my life. To finally feel worthy of good things--and to not immediately try to self-sabotage my way back into chaos, is truly the most wonderful transformation within me.

I'm an affected individual, there's no doubt, all of us are to a certain extent--some more than others. To finally be able to feel some space between me and those deeply ingrained reactions fueled by an inaccurate perception of self, is incredibly liberating.

When I allow my brain to explore the dynamics of it all, I quickly realize the magnitude and how this is about one thousand times more than just weight loss. It goes much deeper than dropping pounds and all the euphoria surrounding weight loss success.  To feel worthy of good things, to once and for all embrace and love me as I am, regardless of anything or anyone else and to view myself without judgment and condemnation...oh my-- My friend, this is what it's all about. To get here, to this mental and emotional place where obstacles are swiped away from our path to freedom, is the most beautiful experience.

Discussing the fundamentals and surface issues along the way is important, of course-- because the commitment to these--a steady treading of sorts, gives us the balance to go deeper along the way.

When I get excited about this journey, it's not always about the most obvious things, like smaller clothes and slimmer profiles. It's about the deep stuff. It's about the transformation of the inside, not the outside that most excites me. Because it's this transformation that lays the foundation for all other transformative experiences to happen and stay that way.
-------------------------
A steady treading. I forget that sometimes.

I participated in a book discussion group tonight. A bunch of the team members from the conference call support group I facilitate each week are embarking on reading and discussing Dr. Marty Lerner's free e-book, "A Guide To Eating Disorder Recovery." It's a powerful book written and offered for free by one of the world's leading authorities on these issues. You can request your free copy at www.milestonesprogram.org It was a great discussion tonight!

I made it out to mom's tonight for a short visit. Tomorrow evening, mom and I will travel the twenty minutes to the next town for Noah's birthday celebration. He turns 5 on Friday, but we're having his party early. He's super excited about turning 5!! I can't believe it's been five years.

Today's Featured Tweets:


Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Sunday, July 1, 2018

July 1st, 2018 Critical Elements

July 1st, 2018 Critical Elements

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

This weekend has been challenging to say the least. But I'm here, I'm well, and I'm ready for a good 4th of July week. We learn things about ourselves when things get tough. This weekend has reinforced some things for me in the areas of staying connected with support. I'm the first to preach its importance but then find myself not doing it when I need to do it. If you've ever heard me say it's sometimes not easy to reach out, uh, yeah---that's from experience.

I enjoyed eleven hours of sleep last night. I can't remember the last time I slept that much at one time. It was needed. It tilted my food schedule today, but that's just fine. I'm under budget by a few hundred calories today and that's not a bad thing.

I picked up mom this evening for dinner out and a shopping trip to Walmart. She walked and pushed a cart the whole time rather than use a wheelchair. She made it just fine, although she's really tired tonight!

I wanted to share something from the archives tonight. The best part is Dave's reply below-- I hope it resonates with you.

From my Facebook page in May 2014:

I've been trying to identify and best articulate the most critical element transforming extreme struggle into harmonious consistency. Having experienced both, it's a fascinating study.

Sure, it's a combination of elements, but what is the one, that without, all the others become ineffective?

Is it acceptance, where suddenly we embrace instead of reject? That's fine, but how do we get to a place of acceptance?

I keep coming back to perspective. Dr. Wayne Dyer says it so perfectly: “When you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” The perspective we choose is paramount to our success, of course. Sometimes, finding the perspective that engages the gear you're looking for isn't as easy as someone saying, “change your perspective.”

In my opinion, we first must identify, one by one—the mind noise and clutter that keeps our perspective in a locked position. It's mental work that's worth the effort. Because if we can get past these things and truly shift our perspective, suddenly what once seemed impossible becomes not only possible, it becomes our new everyday reality, a non-physical transformation where we can finally experience the seemingly elusive, harmonious consistency."

Dave May, A good friend of mine, who's very familiar with me and with the elements of lasting recovery, added this:

"Want. Want is first. If we don't want to change, nothing happens. Belief is second. If we don't believe we can change, nothing happens. Self-awareness comes third. If we don't become aware of the inner self, the baggage of the past, the self-conscious "facts" we already have in place that are working to defeat us and keep us locked into our old behavior, they will, eventually and assuredly derail any attempt to change and again, nothing happens. 

Change, you see is a process and there is ALWAYS a most important element. We move from one most important to the next, and sometimes we must move back to the previous most important element, which brings me to one more "most important" element: Faith. 

If we don't have faith, we are sure to fail. Faith that I CAN change. Faith that the mistake I just made doesn't doom me. Faith that if I get on track, or get back on track, change will come. If we lose faith, none of the other elements will matter, because we won't believe they can work. 

We, of course, could debate the order of these elements or which is the MOST important, but after years of struggle, growth, setbacks, and triumphs, I believe that is a pretty good BASE list of the "most critical elements" of transformation. 

Oh, and let me add one more, lest I forget it and lose all of my progress: HUMILITY. If I ever think "I've got this figured out" I will surely fail. I must remain teachable, and the first element of being teachable is a realization that I do NOT already know all that I need to know. 

So the list I have shared with you here is Want, Belief, Self Awareness, Faith, Humility. 

Odd that I should have almost forgotten humility, and then placed it last on the list. As I sit here typing, the thought occurs to me that perhaps HUMILITY should be FIRST. Perhaps that I almost didn't even think of it is the real root of my problem? Without humility, NONE of the other elements could exist. 

I guess I don't know which is first. All I know is there are a LOT of elements to change and they are ALL the most critical. 

Thank you, Sean, for starting my day off with a good think. Now I will add a prayer to it, and I should be off to a good start."

Thank you, Dave!

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Saturday, June 30, 2018

June 30th, 2018 Relax

June 30th, 2018 Relax

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

Today has been a day of recovery from yesterday. I did a location broadcast today and weather coverage later in the afternoon--but mostly I've tried to take it easy and simply relax. I visited with mom for a little while this evening, too.

I'm tired. I'm glad the weather is over for tonight because I'm hitting the pillow soon and hoping to sleep in gloriously tomorrow morning.

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Friday, June 29, 2018

June 29th, 2018 Day Is Done

June 29th, 2018 Day Is Done

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

Today's schedule was a little on the extreme side. It turned out to be an eighteen hour day on too little sleep. A day like today is rare, thank goodness--because I couldn't function if it were the norm. I made sure to take care of my food plan and stay connected. The day consisted of my morning show, two location broadcasts, and an emcee event tonight at a big reunion. I'm so glad this day is done!

Spent.




















I have a short broadcast tomorrow starting at 11am--but that's just fine, I'll be sleeping in very well between now and then.

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Thursday, June 28, 2018

June 28th, 2018 Core Qualities

June 28th, 2018 Core Qualities

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I met my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

Losing weight didn't make me a better person. Maintaining weight doesn't make me a better person. Gaining weight didn't make me a worse person. Maintaining 500 pounds plus for nearly 20 years didn't make me a worse person. Struggling for so long didn't make me a failure.

For the longest time, years actually, I did attach my self-worth and identity to my size and weight. Disconnecting the power cord between self-worth/identity and weight/size was an important step in helping me see things from a different perspective.

Finding the core of who I am and have always been required a simple question:

What are the qualities in me that do not change?  If I'm 500 pounds or 210 pounds, what positive attributes do I possess at both of those weights?

The same question can be applied to other things, for example: If I won the lottery tomorrow, what positive qualities about me would remain from my previous financial existence?

These core qualities are the ones with us through it all--the stability and certainty, instability and uncertainty.  The list includes not only the way our brain works through compassion, empathy, sense of humor, intelligence, etc., it also includes our likes and dislikes, our roles as parents and grandparents--the things that bring us joy and peace, love and laughter. These things are often overlooked because identity and self-worth have been attached to something that fluctuates.

My identity and self-worth were always hooked onto my weight. Someone else's identity and self-worth might be tied to their bank account.  And another's might be tied to whether or not they perceive their current station in life as stable or unstable. Still, another's might rely on the progression of their career. All of these things fluctuate. And through it all, we're still who we are within our core qualities.

In order for these core qualities to flourish and enrich our lives to the fullest, they must be loved and nurtured like watering a plant. If they're neglected, they wilt and wither. I believe this is where the expression "I feel dead inside" comes.

And when identity and self-worth are attached to anything else, these positive attributes get neglected on both sides of whatever is fluctuating.

When the changing source of identity and self-worth is moving in a positive direction, we feel great about ourselves. And when the source is moving in a negative direction we feel worse about ourselves. Then we get into a tug of war, constantly battling to feel good.

We've all heard, "Happiness must come from within."  Now I understand how that can happen and I understand how it doesn't happen when we rely on external things that change.

Money doesn't buy happiness. Losing weight doesn't magically fix us. Getting the big promotion or settling down into a relationship doesn't do it either. We're truly free when our identity and self-worth is authentically attached to the core qualities of who we are.

And the best thing??

It can NEVER be taken away from us, no matter what.

Today's Featured Tweet:


Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Wednesday, June 27, 2018

June 27th, 2018 More Of These

June 27th, 2018 More Of These

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I met my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

Today was a good day.

I'll take more of these, please.

Featured Tweets:


Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean

Tuesday, June 26, 2018

June 26th, 2018 Worked For Me

June 26th, 2018 Worked For Me

Today: I maintained the integrity of my maintenance calorie budget, I remained refined sugar-free, I exceeded my daily water goal, and I stayed well connected with exceptional support.

The owner of the radio stations I work for is running for State Senate and tonight was his election results watch party. He's headed for a runoff in August, not what everyone was hoping for, but he's still in the race.

Today's schedule was back to somewhat normal. My food plan was back on the proper schedule, and that's good. Last night didn't include storms and tonight wasn't suppose to include storms, but storms are headed this way with an estimated time of arrival somewhere around 1am.

I ate dinner at the watch party. I know the owners of the restaurant really well. I've written, produced, and voiced radio commercials for them for years. I mention this to give a little insight into how I'm comfortable taking my own refined sugar-free and flour-free sprouted grain Ezekiel bread into the restaurant for a burger like I did tonight. I could've ordered something else without the Ezekiel, but a burger sounded good. It worked for me. I don't think I'd attempt this move in another restaurant that I didn't know this well.

I'll wrap it up and get ready for storm coverage. It would be really nice if these storms south of Wichita would dissipate into nothingness before they arrive.

Thank you for reading and your continued support,
Strength,
Sean





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