Life is fragile, sudden, and shorter than it often seems. – There may not be a tomorrow – not for everyone. Right now, someone on Earth is planning something for tomorrow without realizing they’re going to die today. This is sad but true. So spend your time wisely today and pause long enough to appreciate it. Every moment you get is a gift. Don’t waste time by dwelling on unhappy things. Spend it on things that move you in the direction you want to go. (40 Lessons for Finding Strength in Hard Times!   www.marcandangel.com)

This is one reason I started the “Someday is Today Blog”, it is one reason that I am now participating in things that “have put me in the CRAZY category” according to some of my friends.  This is a big reason why I am now doing things that I feared to do in the past, why I am stretching my boundaries and facing some fears.  Life should be about living in the now, not living for the future because you may not have a future.  I am not saying don’t plan for the future, because when you get there you certainly do want to be able to live life; what I am saying is don’t forget to live, love, enjoy and create memories for yourself and your family and friends.  It is much more comforting to look back and say, “Remember when we did this?  Went there?  Experienced that?”  Then to say to yourself, “We were going to do this…”  “We talked about doing that when we retired”  “I wish we had taken the time…”

Work should not be your life; it should be what allows you to have a life. 

You never know what the future has in store for you, so plan for it, but don’t forget to live in the now, to create happy memories for yourself and your loved ones.  Hang with people you want to be like.  Remove negative people from your life when possible, have positive support for those times you spend with emotional vampires.  Live to be happy and have fun in everything you do.

I think someone should start a Blog on this blog about how unuser-friendly it is.  I can not come to the blog and make a post- I have to click around like a fool until I accidently get back to my home page and then I can post, then the only way to see my post is to go to my very first page\bookmark and then open the current month and click on my last post.  Surely does suck the big one.

My first “Whole 30” experiment is completed on July 3rd.  The only known “cheats” I had were commercial bacon (and about 6 sausage links) in the last week, and excessive amounts of fruit.

Weight: Start 215.2 lbs  Finish 212.6 lbs

Waist:    Start 42.5           Finish  39.5                 

I have seen changes in my body, more muscle definition, smaller waist and I can now get into and button jeans I have not worn in over 10 years.  A month ago I could not button two pair of jeans and now I can wear them.

July 7.

I am now a believer in the Paleo way of eating.  On July 4^th I had BBQ ribs, Ice cream and beer.  On the 5^th I had pizza and Taco Time food and beer… and ice cream.  I feel stuffy, my stomach is upset, I am feeling yucky, bloated and I have put on a few pounds in just these few days.  It is time to start eating good again; and, I have already started with today’s breakfast of steak and eggs and a small fruit bowl.

I have to say, I really HATE this new layout.  I can't easily navigate to anything.  It really sucks.

July 4^th, Christmas in July.  The first day after completing my first Whole 30.  I go to sleep with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head,  Not really, I don’t know what a sugar plum is.  But I have actually thought of a “beer float”  and BBQ with BBQ sauce from Mikes 4 Star BBQ, A Twix, Swimming Rama, a MOD pizza, and to a lesser degree potato chips and that I can, if I want, eat any of these starting Wednesday, July 4^th 2012.

Things I have heard in the last 7 days.

From a friend I haven’t seen since October when I met her in the restaurant. “Dave, you’re a shell of your former self.”  “Dave, you’re looking quite svelte, these days.”   And from a friend at work when I joking about all the food I can eat starting on the 4^th. “You are looking good, why give it all up!  Don’t waste all that you have done.”

I don’t always get what I dream of for Christmas, so I guess the real gift I will have on the 4^th is the “Choice” of what and how I eat, the choice of continuing a life style without being on a regimented plan. 

I am finishing the 3^rd week of my Whole 30 program; my last day will be July 3^rd.  I am not seeing real weight loss, but I am seeing a loss of inches, which I will be happy to announce on July 4^th.  I have not experienced the withdrawal symptoms that many people have reported, but that may be because I had been eating fairly healthy and removing grains and sugars from my diet for the proceeding 6 weeks or so.

This morning my department was in a 4-hour training session, we were notified there would be breakfast type snacks available.  I asked if there would be fruit available as I was not eating donuts or muffins and was told, “Sorry, only donuts.”   I stopped by a restaurant and picked up some scrambled eggs and mixed fruit to eat in front of everyone else that were eating donuts.  I actually went up and opened the donut boxes to look at them; I had no interest in eating one.  I did find myself looking longingly at a platter of cookies that was sitting in an auditorium yesterday.  And the worst time I had was an evening when I wanted something to eat that was not in the house and that was translating into something sweet.  I drove into Poulsbo, picked up a steak, dates and cherries, and made my famous fruit bars.  I satisfied my cravings for sugar while staying Paleo although I probably did blow my carb allotment for the day.

So the Spring Clean-up challenge is over.  I wrote about it in April, fully meaning to write on a regular basis about my experience, but failed to do so.  I did great for 4.5 weeks and then fell of the wagon, not for 1 meal, or one day, but for 5 out of 6 days.  I was so embarrassed about what I ate those days, that I quit filling out the food journal.  I also decided that I didn’t need to stay fully Paleo for the rest of the challenge since I had already blown it.  I ended up losing 4 pounds and 1.5 inches from my waist.

Well, there was amazing weight loss and inches lost by others and it was quite inspiring; I decided that I would get right back to the changing the way I eat and reshaping my body and hopefully losing weight in the process.  I have started the Whole 30 plan, which is Paleo, but stricter and it lasts 30 days.  This is the end of my 2^nd day and I am 1.2 lbs lighter than yesterday morning.  I weight .6 lbs less when I got home today, than I did when I left this morning. 

So far it isn’t hard to do.  I am eating good and full most of the time.  Once again it is hard to find the time to cook and make lunch, especially when I get home late, and tonight I didn’t get in until 8:00.  Luckily I have most of a lunch already for tomorrow all I will need to do is throw a salad together in the morning and if I don’t have time I can buy one.

I think a hard part of this coming month will be giving up fruit or at least cutting way back.  Fruit is healthy for you, but it is packed with sugar, something I didn’t account for in the challenge.