Things have been really quiet around here, but that doesn’t mean I have fallen off the wagon. In fact, after nearly three years, I am finally have my head back in the game. Since I last wrote I have been making some fantastic progress, and though I can’t tell you exactly how much I have lost since I last blogged, I can tell you that I am down 18.6 pounds since the beginning of the year. Did you just read that?? WOW! It did not hit me until I read this that I have nearly lost twenty pounds! I have noticed though. I have already had to buy a new pair of jeans and I need some new khaki pants.

As many of you know, I fly a lot for work. In fact, that is a big part of the silence lately. My job has been busier than every with lots of flying. In fact, as I write this I am on my way to Las Vegas for training. Just yesterday it hit me that I have been in four time zones in as many weeks. Not fun. This is the last of the trips for a few weeks though, and I am hopeful that it will be more laid back than any of the others recently.

With all this in mind, how about a funny story? So as I said, my pants have been getting a little loose. I also said I fly a lot. Well, if you have flown through any major airport lately, you know there is this neat little device you have to walk through that images your body. To do this, you have to have removed your belt AND you have to raise your hands above your head. No, I haven’t had an accident and exposed myself yet, but wow, it has come close.

So you may wonder what I am doing to lose all this weight. Overall, I have never left my way of eating, I had just started eating too much. So as a reminder, my way of eating is loosely tied to the South Beach Diet or Atkins Diet. In fact, it is also very close to the Paleo Dieting too. It is really quite simple. I try to eat foods that are processed as little as possible. That means lots of raw veggies, raw fruit, cooked veggies, a little bit of cooked fruit, nuts and nut butters, and meats. I do avoid processed meats, but I don’t hold back on eating meat. You’ll notice there are no grains in this list. There are seldom occasions where I will eat a piece of bread or popcorn, but it is rare. I also don’t eat white potatoes or any other corn besides popcorn.

Like I said, I haven’t really changed that, it was just the quantities. When I got this back under control, the weight began coming off, albeit slowly. There is nothing wrong with that, right? Then I ran across an article about Intermittent Fasting (IF). WOW! How could I have forgotten this? This had become a real part of my way of eating, and my body did really well with it. So, I have started this back up too. Most days I am just skipping breakfast, and eating a normal-sized lunch and dinner. I also stop eating right after dinner. Some days I skip lunch too. It really depends on how I feel. The point here is not to starve myself, but instead to give my body what it needs and no more.

I had stated a couple of months ago that I had some news to share. That didn’t develop quite like I had hoped, and honestly it was a bit of a punch in the gut, but I am over it now. I do have some other things I want to share on here, but it may take a bit. My posts will continue to be sporadic and probably rare, but I am still here.

I also want to thank those of you who have checked in on me. Nope, I don’t plan on taking the blog down, but as I just said, my posts are going to be far less common than they once were. Honestly, I am also not reading other blogs. I just cannot sacrifice the time right now. That doesn’t, however, mean that I don’t think of all of you. I do. Oddly, I consider many of you to be my friends even though we have never met. For that, I think I am a fortunate person.

Blessings to all of you! Until next time.

Since my last post I have really had a real run on good eating. I haven’t blown it, not even one single time. Furthermore, the weight loss is showing this. I have lost over eight pounds! As you know though, weight loss is secondary to health to me. I have some exciting news regarding this that I will share in the next ten days after I get confirmation on one last thing.

Unfortunately, the lack of posting is one of the realities in today’s world for me. Life is just too busy, and something has to give. For me, daily posting is one of those things. That doesn’t mean I won’t be here. I will. It just means it won’t be regular.

I hope things are going well in your world. Keep sparkin’ sparks!

How about some news that might spark your interest:

Is Fructose Making You Fat? “Scientists have used imaging tests to show for the first time that fructose, a sugar that saturates the American diet, can trigger brain changes that may lead to overeating.

Of course, some say the Secret to Longer Life is Being Overweight?. Personally, I agree with many others who think BMI is Bunk. It’s too bad they chose this as their meter. If you don’t understand, peruse some of these photos at Illustrated BMI.

Speaking of sparks – I want to give a special shout out to Shannon over at Superwoman Spirit. Thanks for thinking of me – your encouragement came at a great time. Shannon’s not the only one I owe thanks to. You know who you are.

One thing I really miss about blogging is the relationships. Shannon brings up a good question though – have you found your spark? If so, what is it. For me, it is the same as it has always been: health! As I wrote a few days ago, even that had to be put on the back burner as I did what it took during some challenging times. Right now, at this very moment, I am happy to have the spark back.

Long-time readers will know I like boxing analogies, especially when it involves the Rocky movies. It hit me this morning that I can’t say I am the best. I can’t say that I throw the strongest right hook or that I am faster on my feet than anyone else. What I can say, though, is that I have tenacity. Sometimes it may not look that way, but let me describe my thought a little more by continuing on the boxing analogy. Sometimes a boxer comes out swinging, and sometimes a boxer wins by wearing the opponent out and frustrating him through their quick feet. Finally, sometimes a boxer wins by just getting up.

This past 24 months I would say I have been hit a lot. I have been knocked down a lot. In fact, there were some who have already said the fight is over. Some have already said this more than once. Even so, I keep getting back up. Nope, you haven’t seen me throw any punches lately. Why? I lost my composure, but I knew it. I still had enough wits about me to know I couldn’t throw any punches right now and stay on my feet, so what did I do? I blocked. The punches have continued, and I haven’t been able to catch a break, but that’s okay because the blocking has allowed me to regain my composure. Do you know what that means? It means it is time to start punching again.

I didn’t go to bed last night thinking of New Year’s Resolutions, at least not any more than I normally think of what I want to do in the future. But as I sit here this morning, I realize that if I have my composure, I need to start punching again. After all, you don’t win a boxing match if all you do is get punched.

I am not going to go into the particulars of how life will change other than to say there will be appropriate eating and exercise. I am dealing with two physical problems right now, one being a congested chest and one being a pulled muscle in my side that won’t go away (thanks cough), so I will have to be cautious with the exercise, but I can do something, which is better than nothing.

I want to start off by thanking the few of you that have contacted me recently and in the past. Truly, the friends I made through this blog are still people that are on my mind often. Every single one of you made an impact in my life and for that I thank you all.

Some of you have asked what is going on in the life of South Beach Steve. Life has been busier than ever, and in fact too busy. Even so, things are good right now. I’ll try to hit the highlights here:

• First, the problems I wrote about earlier this year have totally subsided. I need to do a whole post about this, and truly I feel I owe this to all of you. I need to devote more time to a post like that, and I am not prepared to do that this morning.
• Second, my weight is finally stable, though it is much higher than I would like it to be or than it needs to be. I have not lost all the progress I made during my dedicated weight-loss efforts, but I have gained much of that weight back. I can also tell my fitness level is far from where it once was.

  I often said I couldn’t tell a big difference in how I felt as I progressed with my journey to a healthier and more fit Steve, but I can sure tell the difference now.

• I have learned something big about myself, something I think I have known for a long time, but was reinforced so strongly during the last couple of years, and even more so during this year, that I now cannot question it. I have learned that as dedicated as I can be to something, there is only so much Steve to go around. I consider myself to be a mentally strong person, but just like I have learned about my body, I cannot focus on more than one thing at a time. Most of the time that is okay, but when more than one major thing is going on, something has to give. In other words, when the going gets tough, I have to make decisions on what to give up. It was arguably the wrong decision, but I obviously gave up, or rather set aside for the time being, my weight loss journey.
• Next, I have learned that I needed to try harder to stay on task with this. Ultimately, my overall well-being is impacted by my level of fitness and the extra weight I carry around. I can’t change the past, but I can change the future.
• Finally, I learned that a dead, quiet blog can still garner attention. You wouldn’t believe the number of contacts I get to review products or soliciting an opportunity to do a guest post. If someone I knew wanted to guest post here, I would be more than willing to work with that person, but a total stranger who I know nothing about? I’m not finding a real interest in that right now. The product reviews, however, are tempting, but I realize I cannot in good conscience take someone up on that right now.

Work has been the “busy” part of my life. I have been on the road traveling a lot lately, but thankfully that is coming to a close. My job has been extraordinarily intense, but like the travel, I think the intense spell is coming to a close.

While a lot has been going on, there are things that are still the same. Even more than ever I have looked to photography and gardening as means of relaxation and rejuvenation. Believe it or not, I am actually still growing some greens right now in a homemade hoop house/greenhouse.

I am not sure what the future is here on the blog. To be honest, I miss it. As I sit here writing today, I am more aware of that than ever. I have to admit though, I enjoyed being the motivator, not the one that needed motivating. Right now, I am the one that needs motivating.

I appreciate the care you have each shown, especially those that have left comments and sent private emails. It is so encouraging to know that people out there still care. Who knows, this little visit to the blog today may be a new beginning here.

No matter what you are facing now, no matter where you are at in your life, know that you can make today a great day!

On April 17, 2012, I begin noticing I was having trouble speaking. It was as if I couldn’t get the words out all the time. On April 21, 2012 I began noticing a constant dizziness and a slight headache. It was below a 1/10, but it was there. The headache has went away for the most part, but the dizziness is present daily. On April 23, 2012 I began noticing trouble typing and handwriting. It isn’t present all the time, but when it hits I am unable to type fast (read: VERY SLOW), and I can’t handwrite at all. This typically lasts for less than a minute, but it happens frequently. Sometime after that I began to notice that I was having more trouble shaving. It was like I had just removed a weight from my arm – I just couldn’t control it well. The dizziness gradually began increasing to a 3/10, and now it stays there most of the time. While the speaking and typing have gotten better, the writing is a little worse. In the last week or two I have begun to notice severe fatigue. I am exhausted by the end of the day, and in fact, I take a nap after work many days.

My GP ordered an MRI, which came back clean. I have been to a neurologist, who ordered a CTA and advanced bloodwork, which didn’t seem to point to any problems to him (note: I disagree with his thoughts on this, as it showed a positive ANA, high cortisol, a past infection of West Nile Virus, and a past infection of Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever). The CTA came back clean He has since referred me to a Neurotologist at Vanderbilt Hospital in Nashville, Tennessee. This takes place on the 13th.

On top of these issues, I have also developed a problem with my ankle. At first I thought I had Achilles Tendonitis, but now I am not sure. It appears to have at least been partially gout, but since it hasn’t cleared up for a month, I am afraid something else is going on. Tomorrow I expect I will have an MRI performed on my foot.

I named this post Hotel California at the advice of a very good friend. My last post was Peaceful, Easy Feeling, and right now I am quite the opposite of that. Those who are fans of the Eagles will know that Hotel California is anything but a Peaceful, Easy Feeling. That is somewhat how I feel right now.

There is actually some good news in all of this, which I will not get to tonight. I suspect this will be a two or maybe even three part post, and in one of those coming posts I will tell more. The point of this tonight it to remind everyone that life is short and we aren’t promised tomorrow. Even if we get there, we aren’t promised it will be easy.

If you are a believer who prays, I would appreciate the prayers. If you have thoughts or suggestions, those are welcome too, although as I already indicated, I have some other thoughts coming on exactly what is going on soon.

This won’t come as a surprise to some of you, but my life has become exceedingly more stressful over the last couple of years.  I had a bit of an eye-opening experience the other day when talking to a doctor at a wellness center, who after going over a long survey with me and running some tests told me, “You are constantly in the fight or flight mode – your body doesn’t know how to get out of it now.”  To be honest, I took a little offense to that statement at first, but the more we talked, the more I realized that he was right on target.

I had already picked up on some of this myself, well really thanks to my wife, and I have taken up photography again as a relaxing hobby.  We interrupt this blog post for a little shameless self promotion — if you haven’t checked out my Facebook photography page, go do that now.  If you like what you see, “Like” the page.  This is the end of the shameless self promotion.  So the last two nights I have had a great opportunity to spend some relaxing time watching American White Pelicans at one of our local dams (Barkely Dam).  This has been so very relaxing: hearing the rushing of the water of the dam, listening to the birds, hearing the wind whip through the trees.  All I can say is truly amazing!

I thought I would share a couple of the pictures I have taken there with you guys:

And what about this little creature my son caught last night???  Yes, it was alive, and moments later it flew away.  I know the question is going to come up, so I’ll go ahead and answer it: he hit it with the car while driving down the road and went back to check it out.  When he saw what it was, he carefully bagged it up and brought it home.  After it regained its senses it was able to fly off again.

So the real point of this post was not the pictures, but destressing.  You know, one deterrent for weight loss is stress, and truly if we are going to be healthy all around, we sure don’t need it in our lives ALL.THE.TIME.  Right?

I realize part of what I am missing right now is the daily exercise, but I also know that I am not prepared to commit to that just yet. Even so, I am ready to start making it part of my life again. I suspect as long as the warm weather stays around, my wife and I will go for walks many nights of the week. I know that isn’t enough though. I really, really need to start strength exercises again. Like I said, I am not ready to commit to that yet, but change is in the air.

Even though I have blown it two of the three days since I last wrote, I am still feeling excited and energized about this again.  Yesterday was a great day with regards to eating, and with the late evening walk I actually can say I exercised too!  Woot!

Question of the day:  What is the weather like this week in your part of the world?

That being said, I feel as if I am far from where I need to be with regards to health. I feel more motivated than I have in some time though. Spring is on the horizon, and that certainly makes it more encouraging, at least for me, to get out and do something. Just yesterday I spent a fair amount of time working in the garden. While it was relaxing for me, it was also exercise.

One thing I need to succeed, and I know this, is accountability. I am working with a very good friend on this, and it is helping a lot, but I also need to be posting here more regularly. In fact, that is one of my goals for the week — to post at least one more time this week. The other goal is simply to not overeat.

That’s all for today — see you mid-week.