No Excuses

I am renewed

This is amazing! When my teammate and friend Al Clark Died of a heart attack I got a call from Van Hall my assistant officer in charge of the two platoons Al and I deployed with at SEAL Team Four. I asked what happened to Al and Van said “He broke his leg, they medically retired him and he stopped being active, he got big and his heart couldn’t take it” Then he asked me “How are you doing?” I told him all I was doing was walking and I weighed 238 lbs. He got in my dish and gave me a good scolding. Long story short, I am down to 170 lbs, I just ran two and a half miles at sub seven minute pace, no tense muscles or cramps. I never thought I would be able to run like this again.

I ran six miles on Thursday and Friday and I was amazed that I didn’t get the lactic acid build up I normally had experienced. When people asked me how I lost so much weight I would jokingly say “I gave up my assigned seat at Golden Corral” I told my wife “You know that documentary ‘Super Size it’? I did that with Golden Corral” I have been undoing the effects of pour eating habits since 2011. The combination of consistent exercising and changing my eating habits. Drinking no sodas, mostly water except once week of less Arnold Palmer lemonade and Iced Tea. My wife cooks healthy meals and we don’t overeat. I take the dog out every morning for between 20 and 30 minutes. Walking until today and we ran about two and a half miles. I do abs on Monday and Fridays, push-ups on Tuesdays and Thursdays and Saturdays I do a Navy SEAL Stretch PT. Then I go to the boxing gym and put in 16 to 20 rounds of jumping rope, shadow boxing and hitting the heavybag. I sprint between every other light pole a mile going and returning from the gym.

I am sprinting faster than I did in high school! I can do more pull-ups than I could when I was a Navy SEAL! I have lost 78 lbs in the last year and a half. I recently learned about F3 and I am very excited about it but I am not receiving the same enthusiasm from church leaders I am promoting the program with. I am not saying it was easy but once I went through therapy with Mary Thomas Miller from Innovative Therapy, three times a week for six weeks, my shoulder pain diminished enough to where I could go all out on the heavybag with my jab and left hook and with the increased activity I dropped even more weight and increased my stamina.

I am appealing to my brothers in Christ, I want to see you live and have a better quality of life. I want you to experience what I have experienced with my body healing and being rejuvenated. Before you dig you heals in, is sugar and cream in your coffee, donuts, soda and buffet eating worth the pain and lack of mobility in your body? I am trying to say it nice but Van Hall didn’t hold back when he counseled me about my health. He got in my dish! Sometime you have to love people more than you like them. Let me ask you, when you die of cancer, will your family be able to keep the house you live in? If not will they move in with your family or you wive’s? If you really don’t want to change your eating habits and start exercising, do you have enough life insurance to keep them in the same life style they are used to now? If you are not going to take care of your body, you might want to start on this plan?

Don’t give me any excuses!

It is all in your perspective

It is all in your perspective

                Today was the Toastmasters Area Humorous Speech Contest. We had four awesome speeches. My wife Janice Wright was the Chair Person for the meeting. She was so thorough and meticulous getting everything together, including food. I don’t mean just snacks. We had gourmet coffee, freshly brewed, a fruit tray, vegetable tray and she made quiche and breakfast egg tortilla cups. We had enough Toastmasters to fill the judging roles, timer, sergeant at arms and Toastmaster. There were only three guests. The winner brought two of them.

                I have been a Toastmaster since 1994, president of four clubs and there is one thing I always heard and put into practice, if you have a hard time finding someone to fill the Toastmaster or functionaries’ roles, you can’t get a speaker or Table Topics Master, invite more guests. That is always the solution.

                The first club I became president of, I went to a regular weekly meeting and I was the only one there. I learned then about a progressive strategy incorporating growth with the leadership. As a new member the best thing to do is always invite friends, family and fellow employees to your meetings. It is a great way to promote yourself and your message, other than just at Toastmasters. Then you should start off as Vice President of Membership. Then Vice President of Public Relations starting off by having your members get you in with their companies to promote the member of your Toastmasters group who work there as presenters or to start a chapter on site at the business. Then the next progressive step is to then run for president but you need to have someone committed as your Vice President of Education. Then the next progressive step is to then be the Vice President of Education.    

                This way you will have a foundation of support for achieving Distinguished Club and other recognition for your club or as a speaking contestant.

Preparing for the transition

Preparing for the transition

Today the Fight House boxing gym was closed because the trainers are focusing on getting their pro fighters ready for their upcoming bouts. I don’t want to lose ground in my conditioning so I went on a six mile run. Tomorrow morning I will I will run three miles to the Edinburg Municipal Park and do my complete BUD/s workout. If nobody else shows up, it on takes me about 28 minutes and then I will run another three miles back home. If I get some participation it will take around 45 minutes.

Saturday I will be a functionary for the South Texas Toastmasters Humorous Speech Contest, 10:00 AM (But you better get there early, at least 15 minutes) at the Texas A&M Recruitment Office at 5277 North 23rd Street McAllen, TX 78504. There are going to be some very entertaining speeches I you can attend. Toastmasters is known as a speaker’s club but there is more to it than that. There is a leadership development process involved. It is amazing how it works. When there isn’t strong leadership, it never fails, attendance at meetings drops off and it becomes very hard to maintain the levels the clubs might be used to like distinguished club status. It is amazing how people start getting it together when their status is in jeopardy.

I am that way with my fitness and conditioning, this whole situation with The Fight House Boxing gym closing October 1st has me scrambling to adjust and figure out how to supplement the activity I was getting at the boxing gym. I enjoy boxing so much because I don’t have to think about the workout. I am focusing on mastering the technique. The workout is a byproduct of working on the skill.

In Toastmasters the leadership is a byproduct of effective communication. When the members start getting more confident in their presentations they start inviting their friends and coworkers to the meeting to hear they speak. Two things happen. Either they have the club member give a speech for their office or organization or they join too and start working on their public speaking skills.

The techniques utilized in the manual are applicable to a lot of practical applications, like sales. I was a Navy SEAL, when I was getting out of the Navy every time I wrote a resume it came out looking like the only job I was qualified for was something carrying a gun. I really didn’t want to do that anymore. Because of Toastmasters I was very comfortable presenting in front of people and I was able to transition into sales.

I am trying to figure out how I can utilize these public speaking and leadership skills to influence some Christian men to start working out with me and get an F3 workout group going in the Rio Grande Valley. Tomorrow morning I will be at the Edinburg Municipal Park, under the first pavilion wearing a black T-shirt with a white F3 on the front if you want to participate.

All in God's Plan

All in God’s Plan

I have been working out at The Fight House Boxing Gym for a year now. I am 54 years old and I know I am not going to be fighting any more but I decided to work on things I wasn’t good at while I was competing. When I first started training for Roy Jones Sr. he had me throwing a straight jab. I would use it to line up my opponent to a corner and come behind it like a battering ram and take them to the corner and then let go of my hooks, uppercuts and do my inside fighting.

When My son Devin started training with Roy Jones Sr. he was taught how to throw a whipping jabs like Larry Holmes and Thomas Hearns were known for. I started working on this jab which I never did before a year ago, along with shooting to the side establishing an angle after my straight right hand and left hooks. Now a year later, I am amazed at how effective my jab is. It hits the heavy bag almost as hard as my straight right hand.

Now that I have perfected this technic, The Fight House Gym is closing its doors October 1st. I really don’t want to lose the conditioning I have achieved while training at The Fight House Gym but it seems that God has something in store for me. My confidence is at a high point right now, due to my physical conditioning and skill level I have obtained since my training at The Fight House Gym. Somehow I need to take this foundation I have established over the last year. I have my evening free so I have volunteered as a Trail Life Troop Leader at Center Church and I am trying to foster an F3 workout session on Saturdays at Center Church.

Another situation which would appear as a setback might turn out to be an opportunity. My UTeach class at UTRGV has been canceled for STC students. This opens up Wednesday noon time frame for HUB City Toastmasters and gives me time to market High SIerra Group to food service businesses in the Rio Grande Valley. My income from High Sierra is enough to absorb the loss of my stipend I would get for attending four classes a semester.

This opportunity opens the possibility to help my wife attain her dream of a residential facility for pregnant teenage foster girls. I am highly motivated to work towards this goal. The whole mastery of my newly developed boxing skills has taught me that consistency and persistence working on any goal, you will reach that higher and seemingly unattainable goals. This my be the most important skill set I will need as a Trail LIfe Troop leader and an F3 workout leader.  

Thank You For Your Congratulations

It's all in God's plan

                Thank you all for your congratulations on my new position with The High Sierra Group. I still have Valley LED Solutions my LED Lighting Manufacturer’s Rep company and I still represent CSP Strategies for drone deterrent and detection technologies and I still represent FAVNET to data and communications resources and I am still attending college for a degree in mathematics.

                It all works together. When the financial industry collapsed on my in 2008 through 2011 I ran into a retired sociology and economics professor who told me “We are going to a Global Secular Reshuffling. All of the systems and processes we have depended upon and gotten used to are no longer working. There is going to be an equalization. Everyone is trying to find the new path that is going to bring back prosperity and until that happens things will be unstable.”

                Since I began education, myself in new technologies, drones, sensors, LED Lighting, microbes, and the effects of chemical fertilizers on our agricultural land, oceans and water ways these opportunities keep coming my way. The interesting thing is that it all seems to be coming together. Just the other day, shortly after learning about how to find the variance in a statistical curve I had someone send me a TED Talks video on swarming drones. The algorithm the robots use to reference each other’s location in reference to each other is the same formula.

                Then while talking with a possible client for drone deterrent and detection technologies they get all excited about high-speed communications using LED lighting. I first was made aware of this when I first got involved with LED Lighting. It’s no longer about retrofitting tube lights and lamps or even color changing RGBW lighting but using the same fixtures for communications. Then there is hydroponics which require LED Grow Lights. All of these sectors are merging and have been for a long time.

                God has put me directly in the path of all of these new uses for technology and the information on how to use them. My work in life as a Navy trained electronics technician, Navy SEAL and marketing has given me the background and ability to communicate these concepts and new uses for technologies. My relationship with The High Sierra Group is all part of my repeteur of resources to improve productivity and open new markets. So don’t think I am having a hard time figuring out what it is that I want to do. There is a master plan and I am trying to follow it.

Eating the Elephant one bite at a time

Eating the Elephant

                Last night my wife Janice Wright and I attended an event hosting John Scotland, we had such a good time, and we are going back tonight. It was a riot, especially when the two ladies came in late. We got home around midnight and we were up at 5:30 AM this morning. I went to the men’s bible study at Center Church with my work out matt, dressed to work out. We had a good lesson and then at 10:00 AM I rolled out my matt and got busy. I had no takers but Joel and Fernando promised to work out with next Saturday.

                I know what it is like getting back into shape. After Al Clark died I went to Planet Fitness in Carrolton Texas every day after work and this 22 year old kid would torture me. But I started seeing progress. Then I moved to Mercedes Texas and worked out doing calisthenics in the mornings and trained at Ray Huerta’s gym in the evenings. It was so hot I thought I was going to pass out but I started getting used to the heat. Then I moved to Edinburg and started working out at the Fight House Gym. That was almost a year ago.

                Now I am close to the conditioning I was in when I was 38 years old. I am better at a few things, my jab and creating angles. It is exciting that 16 years later I still got it. Now the gym is about to be closed but I have one more month before that happens and I am going to make the most out of it. I am going to increase my effort a little bit this next month.

                I am in classes again for the fall semester at STC and UTRGV. I was going to switch my major to Organizational leadership in applied sciences but if I do that I won’t qualify for the UTEACH program at UTRGV. I have to see the advisor to figure out my degree plan next week.

                Not going to the boxing gym every night might be a blessing, allowing me to focus more on my studies. I took Developmental Math this semester. I should have taken it before I jumped into college algebra. It is not too easy, I am actually doing some things I have never done before like finding the area of a cone and a cylinder. I have a better foundation at this point of understanding how to find the X intercept, use the Quadratic formula, how to find the apex of a parabola,  Synthetic Division, Determinant of a matrices, Logarithms, the compound interest formula and Logarithms.

                So when I am working out with these guys who might not be in the best shape, I am going to be gracious. Get them started slowly and not hurt them. I want to help them and bring them along progressively. Build their confidence, give them a feeling of accomplishment and increase their health.

Anything is possible with the right level of encouragement and enthusiasm.

                If I can learn college level mathematics, these guys can get in shape and be healthier. It is all eating the elephant one bite at a time.

Turn on your lights

                                                                           Turn on your lights

 

I have exactly one month left to train at The Fight House gym before it closes. I am 54 years old and I am never going to fight again but I like where I am physically. I am doing things in the boxing gym now that I haven’t been able to do since I was training with Paul Vaden at the Boxing Club in San Diego back in 1998. I am consistently creating an angle after throwing my straight right hand and my left hook. I am doubling up on my left hook like I haven’t done since 1994. That is over 20 years ago.

One of my Pastor’s, Eli Lara, replied to my blog post yesterday when I wrote about The Fight House Gym closing it’s doors. He is looking for a building to hold church services. I got excited because it is right down the street from where I live.  I could hold F3 workouts which is a Christian based workout men’s group and lead a Trail Life but the building doesn’t have A/C, it is infested with rats and the owners don’t have money to put into the building. They are even behind on their property taxes. If someone had the money, they could steal the property by just paying up the property taxes but there is a lot of work that needs to be done. It is in a good location as the area is growing like crazy. There is a new housing development right across the street and if looks like either another housing development or a commercial center going up kitty corner to the building.

We went to bible study at New Life Church with Eli Lara last night. There were all of the people I first met when Janice and I got together and married. They had about 70 people attending. They are trying to create something, like a lot of churches. I really do not understand how these pastors strategize growing their ministries. I was witness to three churches in San Diego California who had rapid growth. Two of them had similar strategies; they used the talent of their flock, music and theatrical. They put on plays and concerts. They asked for donations and they grew fast. The other church had a very charismatic Pastor but his congregation did an excellent job of promoting him and inviting people to their church and that became The Rock Church in Point Loma which is the church my wife Janice used to go to in San Diego, California.  

My wife Janice is amazing. She has a heart that is so inviting. I have to check myself because everyone wants her attention. She has a heart for young girls and actually does everything to guide them onto the right path in life. She put together a curriculum and taught four classes every week at a middle school in the Valley. They put together leaders, both the good leaders and the bad leaders. Both Janice and the Principal didn’t distinguish who the good ones or the bad ones were, just that they were leaders. She wrote out a whole course with lesson plans and got busy with these kids. The superintendent wanted her to teach at four of his middle schools in the valley but it went to committee and when the school year started. The proposal is under review. What she is really good at doing is paying attention to people. It is a shame that not everyone returns the courtesy. She is a certified trainer for the John Maxwell Team and she knows how to use the John Maxwell resources well. Then she brings her own style to the party. People gravitate to her. They trust her and tell her all of their concerns and she listens. She is honest and then offers suggestions; sometimes things they might not want to hear but because it is coming from her, they accept it.

As I am writing this, I am thinking about the Pastors I know who have a similar message, such as Elias Flores. He is extremely knowledgeable about the scriptures and very passionate. I believe that he is one of those pastors like Miles McPherson at the Rock Church. Everyone should be promoting him and his dynamic style of preaching. Eli Lara is much the same way. So heart felt in his message. John Jaramillo from New Hope in Weslaco is one of those very cerebral Pastors who has an in depth understanding of the scriptures but also taps into the Holy Spirit too.

Just like my wife Janice Wright. There are a few people who understand what she brings, like Bridgett Krause, another leader of the John Maxwell team here in the Rio Grande Valley who are heavily dependent upon Janice’s talents and wisdom. The world needs what she has. All of these Pastors are tapped into the same source and when you hear them, you can tell. They all just need to be promoted the right way.

I remember seeing Joel Osteen at the San Diego Sports Arena, now the Valley View Arena. The place was packed and they had pastors from the area get up and speak. One of which was Bishop George Dallas McKinney from St. Stephens Episcopal Church in South San Diego. It is a little church but Pastor Stephens is well known. He is best friends with TD Jakes. They grew up together. He was honored and you could see the respect, not just from Joel Osteen but the other Pastors and Ministers on stage.

I am not suggesting that we bring in Joel Osteen or TD Jakes to the Toro’s new stadium or State Farm Arena but put together an event where these dynamic ministers can be heard and bring God’s word and edify each other. There are so many out there who are lost and not getting fed, people need to know not only that the spirit of God is here in the Rio Grande Valley but that they aren’t alone.

That is what happens, people accept the Holy Spirit and then they wander around thinking that they are all by themselves. Not realizing that there are other believers all around them, wandering around thinking that they are all alone, not realizing that there are other believers all around them who think it’s just them against the world too. We all pass each other in our own quiet tunnel, thinking we have to do it by ourselves. We are the light. We just need to turn it on.