Day 31: One down

31 days of posts are behind me. I figured I would take a quick glance at how I am coming along... yeah that was pretty quick and not much has changed! I am five pounds lighter and no less in debt. My car is running and is still mine (unfortunately) and I have yet to win the lottery!

All that aside I have made some significant progress in laying the ground work for the next 11 months. I feel confident that I am on the right track. I can't expect everything to just change overnight... unless I win the lottery, which I haven't given up on. I am optimistic about the coming month and feel good about where I'm at... even if it is just a few steps past square one!

Day 30: Golf

Back on the subject of hobbies... I find it extremely crucial to find something important to you that you're continuously good at. This activity should be relaxing and stress free! It should be a time to become one with your surroundings and thereby make it possible to let go the worries on your mind and achieve something akin to inner peace... if you have ever tried to play golf then you know that it is not what I have just described.

One of my favorite quotes ever goes something along the lines of:

"Golf is like a mistress, if you keep it casual it will be a lot of fun. Tell her you love her and she will break your heart!"
                                                        Lee Trevino


Mind you, I really have no basis of comparison for the quote and the game, but I sure can appreciate the analogy. I watch my brother practice and play, and practice and play some more. He is so focused on becoming a scratch golfer that he has become obsessed with the game. Being that I don't have the expendable income that he does I am relegated to going out once every three or four months. I know I am not going to shoot a 72 on that level of practice... and I am okay with that. In fact I shot a 96. I would be lying though if I were to tell you that I don't get frustrated. In fact I hate the damn game! I don't really know why I play it other than the fact that I always know that I have the chance to do better the next time.

For that reason I love the game. You have 18 chances to start over. if you get a 5 on hole one you can get a 3 on hole two to make up for it. It puts life in perspective in a way that few other things can. A man's character can truly be seen on the golf course. Don't ask me how or why, but the best and the worst in people shows up on the course. I am guessing that is why so many companies use it for business deals. The overall key is to realize that this hole is not the end of the world. There are 17 others that you still need to play and they could be entirely different. I try and take that away from the course. In life there are numerous holes of golf, be it a work week, college, marriage, or debt. The key is to remember that all of these things make up a part of your life and that if they are not going according to plan, you can make it up! There will be an opportunity for a par save, but sometimes you need to take a double bogey. When you write down your score the important thing to focus on is not double bogey you are taking now, but the birdie you are about to!

FORE!!!!

Day 29: Extensions

I'm not here today to talk about creating new hair looks quickly via a multitude of ways to trick the men in your life. Sadly, I am here to talk about something a little more boring. Tax Extensions! I spoke a few days ago about what you can do to get the IRS to work with you on your back taxes. I forgot to mention something very important about tax extensions. For those of you who don't know, a tax extension gives you until October 15th to file your return. That is pretty self explanatory,  but what they don't explain is that  you still are responsible to pay the balance owed (if there is any) on April 15th.

This is very important because you incur interest and penalties from Uncle Sam on those six months you wait. This also has been known to produce certified mail from the IRS that doesn't say very nice things! The best way to avoid this is to... ready... PAY YOUR TAXES!

On a side note it is hard to neglect the uncanny similarities between being deceived by hair extensions and by tax extensions! They both are meant to look like one thing but are actually something completely different. I am just not quite sure which one is more dangerous!

Day 28: P-Funks V2.0

I hate that I CONTINUE to smoke!

I know that I  said I was going to have everything all wrapped up by the 25th, but I haven't. This is proving to be much more difficult than I expected and I seem to be faltering a bit. My determination is still there... it seems that my will power has decided to take a vacation.

I know I could pick a lot of different excuses for not quitting yet (I have been doing it for years), but it truly comes down to whether or not I care enough about myself to make the choice. Currently I don't give a shit! That has to be the truth, right?!?! What other explanation could there be. I just know that I am feeling worse and worse about the whole thing and it is beginning to get to me.

I can't say what it is going to take to get me to end this decade long affair, but I do know that I am searching for it. I hope that if you are out there searching too that you find your answer. I pray to God that I find mine soon...

Day 27: Taxes

A while back I received a letter from the IRS trying to discuss my back taxes. First off, let me state that I am by no means in massive tax debt in addition to my other debt. The reality is that I do owe Uncle Sam a few bucks. These past few years have been dificult and I have pushed really hard to make ends meet. That being said... PAY YOUR TAXES! Uncle Sam can be one scary dude. It isn't necessarily a good thing to owe your government money when they are broke!

The thing about it is they will definitely work with you. So, if you are up against the wall with them, give them a call! Surpissingly they can be very aimiable. They set me up on a payment plan that works with my budget and should get me clear in just a few months. So as we move back into tax season I feel like I am prepared to get my next W2... at least until I have to do something with it!

Day 26: Brakes

That whole "driving my car off a cliff" idea is starting to look better and better by the minute! The brakes on my POS are definitely getting to the point that they need to be changed. I showed them to one of my techs at the shop and he informed me that I was probably going to need a whole new brake assembly which is going to cost around $700. This does not bode well for the debt relief strategy of paying off my credit cards!

Luckily I have a buddy who can get it done for me a little cheaper, but it still doesn't change the fact that I am pissed to have to spend it in the first place. Its not like I wanted to spend the money frivolously anyway... I wanted to do something nice for the GF! Valentines day is coming much quicker than you think... that shit creeps up on you!

I have to believe that when I check my lottery tickets I am going to be 121 MILLION dollars richer tomorrow. So if this is my last post... its because I am RICH! I will still be thinking about you guys anyway, just so you know, on a beach in Costa Rica! If anyone needs to get ahold of me I will be here:

www.thespringscostarica.com

Day 25: Faith

Today sucked! It seemed that nothing really was going well at work. On my way home I took a second to relax and clear my head. I said a little prayer to myself and assured myself everything was going to be okay. I was pretty worried about my finances when I woke up today and I wasn't quite sure how I could get through the next few weeks. I got home and checked the mail. I had two letters. The first was a check-card from one of my venders for selling a  body for a truck. I knew that was coming and that there is no money on it until I deliver this truck. The other letter I didn't know was coming. It was from the manufacturer of the trucks I sell. Apparently someone did some accounting on their end and found out I was owed for a promotion that had going on last year. I new I was going to be receiving a gift card for $300 from them... I was pretty surprised to find out it was just a check for six times the amount! I guess some deals I had done last year came through as well.

I set out to deposit the check and had to stop by the store. For fun, I bought a $2 scratcher ticket... I won $22 dollars! Now, I am a firm believer that good things come in threes and so I quickly purchased a couple of Mega Millions Lottery tickets. The jackpot is $121 Million. I am saying another little prayer right now that nothing good happens to me until about 7PM tomorrow night!

It just goes to show you that a little faith will go a long way. I believe that there are greater forces at work than you or I can see. IF you want something bad enough... it will come to you. More importantly, if you ask hard enough for help... it will be given to you. It isn't always the way you would expect, but most of the time you will look back and notice it was there!

Day 24: Favre

I think that I am just going to completely give up on football. It would be okay if I liked the Cleveland Browns and Texas A&M. If that were the case I really wouldn't get my hopes up or care too much in the face of utter defeat. But to have watched my Longhorns go down in flames and now my football hero, Brett Farve, choke in almost the EXACT same way as two years ago is almost unbearable. I am at a loss for words.

I think that I am just completely switch over to English Premier League Football/Soccer. Manchester United isn't having a banner year (even though they are only a point out of first) so I think if I make my move now I can wash away any of the hurt before the San Antonio Spurs suck in the NBA!

Red Devils out!

Day 23: Aging

Week two of wiffle came and went. All in it was a good day. I got some pretty decent exercise and really went after a couple. I may have actually gone too far. As I close in on 30 I have come to realize that I can't do the same things I did ten years ago. I mean... REALLY! Now, some of this may be in part because I am out of shape, but I really think that my body is giving out! I feel as though I need to look into some multi-vitamins and joint care because my knees feel like someone took a sledge hammer to them! I can only imagine how soar my thighs are going to be tomorrow morning.

I guess it is part of the territory and, truthfully, it should only spur me on more! I know that if I can drop fifty pounds that the majority of these issues will take care of themselves. That being said I still get a constant reminder every time I workout that Father Time is a bastard! So seriously, anyone know of a good vitamin... maybe Centrum Silver.

Day 22: Goodwill

A buddy of mine is a great photographer, and about five months ago he used my condo for a photo shoot. The premise was to have high fashion models in the midst of "mundane things." Mundane things turned out to be me and the GF performing random chores and situations around the house. So technically I'm a model now, and believe me I use the word model in the loosest sense of the word.

I'm excited to see how the photos turned out! We are heading to a viewing party in a little bit to see them all. I believe I  may even get a copy to post up here for you guys. I may have to amend this post if that is the case. Anyway, off I go.

Day 21: Food

I stepped on the scale earlier and I am a little behind where I thought I was going to be at this point. I started out the year at 265 pounds and the scale showed 260 pounds this morning. I guess I shouldn't complain all that much considering I have dropped 5 pounds. I don't know what I was really expecting either. I haven't hit the gym as much as would have liked yet because I have been sick. That being said I guess I have dropped the first five elle bees with diet.

I made a point this year to try very hard to not over eat. I have been making a pretty conscious effort to leave at least 20% of my food on the plate. It doesn't sound like much but if you are eating 2000 calories a day that is almost 3000 calories a week you could walk away from.

It seems to be working so I guess I will continue to roll with it...

Day 20: Karma

I'm not here today to talk to you about cosmic forces or about how what goes around will eventually come around. I actually wanted to further what I talked about yesterday. One very important factor in getting out of debt is to manage your credit score. Ultimately this is what will decide if can get credit and how much the lending institution will allow you to borrow.

The past two years have been tough on my credit score! The key factor in fixing that is knowing where you stand. It is free to obtain one detailed credit summary a year through the major credit reporting agencies. I recommend everyone do this! There are also various websites that you can pay to see your current score (www.freecreditreport.com). I, however, have found the ultimate site that is truly free!

www.creditkarma.com

They have a wealth of information and useful tips. One function that I find very useful is the "credit simulator." This allows you to see where your credit would be if various positive or negative situations were to take place.

I can't stress how important this is to me and how much it can help you to make sure that you are doing the right thing. Check it out, you don't have a thing to lose and it is always nice to have Karma on your side!

Day 19: DMP's

About 9 months ago I finally realized that I was in a financial downward spiral. I needed help! I turned to the person I hold in the highest regard of all the world for some advice... my older brother. I wasn't asking for money, I was looking for help. See, I had done everything my brother had told me to do leading up to this point since I first reached out to him three years ago. In all reality I should have been flying high, but the drop off of the economy had left me grounded. I was promised an opportunity that was going to change my financial standing for life. The only thing that had changed in the first year and a half was the amount of credit cards I had.

My brother knew that I was doing everything in my power and so he recommended I talk to someone about my debt. At first I was scared. I didn't want to "settle my debt for a fraction of what I owed" because I knew that it would have ill effects on my credit. My brother continued to tell me that there are different types of services. He sent me a website to check out:

http://www.clearpointfinancialsolutions.org/

I went to the website and filled out the information inquiry. Not long after that I received a phone call from a counselor that took me through the steps of what the counseling service does. He explained that they set up what is called a DMP (Debt Management Plan) to help people get their lives back the right way!

Ultimately I found out that they are there to help! My counselor, Brandon, was really awesome in assisting me to gather all of my debt data. They spoke to my credit card/loan companies and created a plan. What most people don't understand is that the credit card companies have programs to help you to pay them back. Most of these programs won't even effect your credit.

When it was all said and done Brandon had created a payment plan that dropped and consolidated my monthly payments into a manageable single bill that I see results from! The average APR drop was over 10%! 10%!!!!!

I just passed 6 months of being on my Debt Management Plan and have seen my total debt shrink by 25%! That is a massive drop. If I go along at this pace I will be debt free in another year and a half!

The whole point is that there are options! You have ways to get out of your holes! You just have to look for the information. I am supposed to check in with Brandon soon to re-evaluate my situation. I will keep you posted on how things progress as we move along.

Day 18: Globed

Just a quick post to recap the Golden Globes. First of all, I thought that Ricky Gervais did a great job! I found myself laughing at him more than usual. I particularly liked the fact that he nonchalantly eased the TV audience into the fact that he was pounding beers all night.

I think this is about the only solace he will have to make up for some of his more ill timed jabs, namely at Paul McCartney who was not at all impressed, of the evening. The use of alcohol as an excuse for said jabs worked out splendid, however, when he introduced a seemingly Mel Gibson.

As for the awards, well, it is good to see Sandy Bullock get some praise albeit ironic that the star of Precious still was looked past and under appreciated in real life. Monique was impressive and heartfelt. My inner smile truly broke through while watching her seem so excited.  It goes to prove that you too can star in a movie the caliber of Soul Plane and still be considered for top awards some day. That gives me hope. To round things out... Avatar started its run to the Kodak Theater, Nine still sucks,  T-bone Burnett should never speak, Martin Scorsese is a very small man, and Robert Downey Jr. should be a comedian. Maybe he can go that route on his 14th career restart! Sadly though, I don't think we will see it.

Overall I think it was a very good evening. The whole ride was a lot of fun and has gotten me ready for the Oscars. Thank you Hollywood Foreign Press!

Day 17: Sickness

As you may have read earlier, I am training for the Los Angeles marathon. I was supposed to wake up this morning and run 8 miles with my training group. It was raining outside and my throat is about twice the size it should be. I didn't think it was the best idea to take the chance of getting more sick on the run. As much fun as wiffle was yesterday I think I may have pushed a bit too hard. This makes me very worried though because I have missed quite a few weeks of training now and feel that my overall performance is going to be lacking moving into the crunch.

There are really only 8 weeks left to train for the big race and I am beginning to wonder whether that is enough time. I don't want to postpone my race, but I fear I may have to. I know that it is most important to be healthy and ready for the race, but I just don't want to quit. I will feel terrible about the whole thing. I am tired of pushing things out. I know that, again, this is a health concern, but it doesn't make me feel any better about the whole thing.

I guess I will ponder this as I prepare for the Golden Globes...

Day 16: Wiffle

At 8:45 this morning the 2010 Wiffle Ball season began! I can try to explain to you what this means but I don't think that you can ever truly understand unless you have played it. For those of you that don't know, wiffle ball is baseball with plastic bats and balls. A very simple description for an amazingly complex game! About two years ago a buddy of mine invited me to go play some park wiffle ball with some of his friends. I happily agreed thinking that it would be a fun Saturday morning. That one Saturday turned into five and then another five again. The next thing I know I am three seasons deep of plastic action!

It is pretty well akin to "The Sandlot" when we get together. A group of about ten guys between 25 and 40 acting like they are 12 years old at a time when most people in their right mind are still in a comfortable bed. No matter how late we are out the night before we respect "the wiffle" enough to be bright eyed and at the park ready to connect some plastic.

I am pretty sure that just about all of us have played it at one time or another growing up. We try and keep it fun, but normally our self divided allegiances get the better of us and some serious competition sets in. Today was no different! I hit 4 home runs and brought about 8 runs in throughout our 3 game set.  After all that I was the only one to not win a game the whole day. It was ironic though because I had the best stats. The season is young though and I have faith after todays exhibition. The off season training I have done has paid off (no, I didn't train in the off season).

I guess the thing to take away from this is I feel very fortunate to have found something in my life that is simple, yet gives me a lot of joy. It has brought me together with some great people, some of whom I would consider friends that will be in my life for years to come.

So take time to appreciate the little things in your life because often times that is where we get the most joy...


Play Ball!

Day 15: Parliaments

Soooo...


The smoking thing isn't quite going as I had expected. I am finding it a lot harder to kick the habit than I thought. While I have drastically reduced the overall number that I am smoking I still can't seem to kick it completely. This doesn't help matters much as I have had a chest cold forever four weeks and I can't kick that either.

I truly want to quit! It just seems that I get really stressed out when I see a pack of Parliament Lights and I just have to have one in order to get me through whatever it is I am dealing with!

I know the truth. I know that I am consciously/sub-consciously making and excuse and enabling the habit. I still haven't finished my book that is supposed to make you want to give it up on the spot either. I think I that may be on purpose as well.

I guess it is fitting to follow my own advice and set a sub-goal to have finished the book and be done with smoking by the 25th of this month! That gives me 10 days to get my butt in gear. Now, if only I can remember where I hid that book?!?!?

Day 14: Goals

As i've said before, I believe that having goals is very important. Most people will sit down January 1st and devise their goals for the coming year. A lot of people will try and shoot for the stars with their goals or establish a goal that is too vague to be accomplished. Often times this is more detrimental that helpful because the goals are too hard to reach and fall quickly out of sight. An easy way to counter-act this is by setting your goals and then creating sub-goals and a plan that will launch you into the heavens.


Let’s look at a new year’s goal that just about all of us has set. We have all told ourselves on January 1st that “this is the year I am getting into shape!” What does that actually mean? We are all in some “shape.” I, for instance, am currently rounded! Such vague goals are the reasons why there is a 45 minute wait for an elliptical machine at the gym until a about January 20th. Twenty days is all it takes for people to get bored, give up, or convince themselves that they don’t look that fat in their size 40 jeans.


Now, if we go back and look at that goal in a different light and start of by saying “this is the year that I get into my target weight range coupled with a healthy body fat percentage!” Automatically we can see a drastic difference in what has been laid forth. By setting this type of goal we have a start, a direction to go in, and a finish. If you do a little research it is easy to find out where you fall on the healthy weight zone scale. This is the start! Let’s say for instance you are 265lbs with 28% body fat. If you are 7’ tall this may be okay. Likely you are more in my range of pretty close to 6’1”. A healthy range for someone my size with a larger bone structure is to be between 190-215lbs with a body fat percentage from 14-18%. That puts me about 50lbs outside my range. This is my direction! Healthy weight loss accomplished by diet and exercise should yield around 10lbs of loss per month for men and around 6-8lbs for women. Knowing that I can deduce it should take me 5 months to get into my healthy range if I hit it hard from the get go. Don't think you have to go balls out from the beginning. Take things slowly! Set sub goals for yourself. Take it in steps. I have compiled an example of the first three months my own personal process to losing 50lbs and 12% body fat (the finish) below.




GOAL- 50lbs and 12% fat loss!



January-

1. Get a gym membership
2. Start exercising 2-3 times per week.
3. Cut out fast food.
4. Cut back on beer.
5. Drink one glass of water for every soda.

February-

1. Increase exercising to 3-4 times per week.
2. Pick up a sport.
3. Switch to diet soda.
4. Drink 2-3 liters of water a day.

March-

1. Increase length and intensity of workouts.
2. Switch from beer to vodka.
3. Increase the amount of home cooked meals you eat.

By creating sub-goals that you can monitor on a day to day basis the end result is much easier to attain. I promise that if you were to follow that brief three month plan alone you would see a drastic change in your appearance. The same rules apply to things like personal debt. If you want to be out of debt in 2010 then start by paying your highest interest rate credit cards off first. Set a goal to take care of one card every two months and make the small changes in your life to attain that goal.


I know this post was a bit long winded, but it is amazing information that has been passed onto me. I promise if you heed it you will not be one of the people that vanish from the gym on the 20th! Good luck.

Day 13: Commitment

So I was looking at my profile and I see that I have " 11 views (approx)." What does that even mean? There have been approximately 11 people that have read this so far? Does that mean that 11 people clicked on this blog, but one guy was watching TV at the same time so that doesn't really count? Or could it be that it counted my mom twice for when she clicked back before the page had finished loading because she thought the internet was broken when in actuality it was because she is still running on a 56K modem? I mean, get with it Mom! I think I read somewhere the other day that the Amish just got DSL.

Whatever the truth may be it isn't really a shock to me. I actually haven't really told anyone that I am doing this. There is no real way to find this unless you ran across this by sheer luck. I am okay with that for now because I am doing this to prove a point to me first. I am tired of telling people that I am going to do something and never actually getting it done. Now, it should be stated for the record that I am not a quitter! I just overlap things to a point that time doesn't always permit me to see things through to fruition. For instance, I was too busy eating pizza and watching football on Saturday to go running. I had the best intentions. Well, we all know where good intentions lead.

The point is that this is supposed to be about me changing those parts of my life. And while I kid about the pizza and football; I do feel that I need to really work on my follow through. As you may have read a while back I am training for the Los Angeles marathon right now. The problem is that I have been sicker than a dog for the past month. I don't know how many of you have ever tried to run with a chest cold, but it isn't pretty.  The excuse is there for me to take it and back down. I don't think anyone would say a thing. I would know though! Deep down inside of me I would know that I took the cop out. I am not going to let that happen any more!

Whether it be with work, exercise, friendship, or love I refuse the cop out! This is not easy! In fact this is one of the harder things I have had to do in my life. I just have to set my focus and work toward my goals. Every day that I wake up and choose to commit to something, in whatever sense it may be, is one more in the bag.

For what it is worth, I promise to get through these 365 days! When you think about it... that is a pretty hefty promise to make to approximately 11 people!

Day 12: Alchemy

One of the first things I did as the new year started was to pick up my fifth copy of the book "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho. I have had five copies of the book because every time I buy it I read through it and pass it on to someone else that hasn't read it. If you only listen to one thing I every write in this silly blog let this be it...

READ THIS BOOK FOR IT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE!

The book is an easy read. You can curl up with it on a rainy afternoon and be done by dinner. The story follows a young shepherd from Andalusia who seeks his fortune at the base of the pyramids of Giza. The boys quest is one of happenstance that quickly evolves into the discovery of his own personal legend. I won't go to deep into the story, but I promise you that you will never look at life the same once you read the final page. It truly is a masterpiece.  It is very rare that ones soul can truly be uplifted in the course of 192 pages, but this will do it. Now, go to the little search bar on the right of this post and plug the book in! Buy 2 copies, or five even, as you will want to share this with people as I share it with you!


What are you waiting for??? GO!

Day 11: Perseverance

Back to work after quite a weekend. I woke up this morning to head off to work and as I began to pull out of my garage I was greeted with a long piercing whine. I paused for a moment and had a few words with the X-terror which, after being edited for this blog, sounded something along the lines of "hey... you silly machine... why are you acting so strange? I can't believe I am still paying for you! I wish that you would find a happy home with someone else with out me knowing it!" Granted, there were a LOT of explicitives and that was the extremely paraphrased version.

After I felt a bit of the tension release from my ongoing frustration I returned to the problem at hand. I reversed a little more and the whine came back. It was pretty obvious to me that the alarm on the brakes had begin to sound (for those of you who don't know, most brakes are designed to whistle/whine when the brake pads have worn to a certain degree). I looked into replacing them and it is likely going to cost me around $300 dollars! DAMNIT!

It may be a bit confusing as to why I titled this post perseverance. I feel that my X-terror is a prime example. Why you may ask? Well that is easy! Not a single day goes by that I get in that vehicle that I am not reminded of past mistakes. Every time I pay that bill and I see the 20% interest rate next a buyout amount that hasn't moved in two years staring me in the face I want to cry! As I watched the odometer roll over 90,000 miles I waved bye to additional $2k in value to the car. This effectively placed the car so far upside down it should be in Australia! It really isn't the poor old boys fault, he has been pretty good to me, but then again, it wasn't Old Yeller or Kujo's fault either!

The point is that everyday I am reminded of these mistakes and it gives me the strength to continue to dig out of it. It lights a fire in me that makes me want to sell 20 units in a month so I can be rid of the damn thing once and for all! It is important to push through and persevere your adversity and ultimately only you can do it. Utilize the problems in your life to discover solutions and it will be easy to overcome anything that may come your way.

Day 10: Goodbyes

I just dropped my friend off at the airport. It was kinda sad to see him go. I was talking with a buddy of mine back in Texas earlier about how lucky my group of friends are to have found each other. I know everybody has their " best friends," but my guys are pretty top notch. I can't rightly express on this page what genuinely good people they are. The majority of the group is back in Texas. Bi-weekly I get a half-hearted phone call asking when I am going to move back. They all understand that I have some amazing things going on out here (namely the GF) and I am not heading back any time soon.

It makes me wonder though whether or not I am in the correct place, if I am doing the right thing for me, and if I could be happier back in Texas (with the GF of course). I struggled a lot in my transition out of the film industry because I know deep in my heart that I am supposed to be a part of it. It took a lot for me to say goodbye to film and yes to doing something else. I was burnt out with my work and I needed to re-center my life. It is a precarious line to walk though because when one walks away from something new questions arise as to if they did the right thing. For example, if I am not in the film industry why I am I still out here and not closer to my family?

I am so afraid of making the wrong choices with my life! I dwell on the decisions I make until I have worked every possible angle, but the future always will throw curve-balls at you. The key is to try to make decisions that are going to make you happy. That way when you say goodbye you will have no regrets!

Day 9: Hangovers

Holy bajeebus! This weekend is flying by. It is great having my best friend in town and I am showing him around as best I can. The one thing about getting together with friends I haven't seen in a while is that the beer in my fridge seems to multiply at an exponential rate. So much so that they start overflowing into the local restaurants and, inevitably, the bars situated close to those restaurants. It is strange because I somehow feel it my duty to reclaim said beers from the establishments so as to not inconvenience them. I pay them a fee for any space they may have taken up and then I happily drink them down knowing they are safely in a good home. For the night... all is well.

The other problem with catching a few drinks with friends you haven't seen in years is that you inevitably revert back to thinking you are as young as you were when you last saw one another. This would be fine if you didn't drink accordingly. All I can say is that I am DEFINITELY not 27 any more. Which, when you think about it, is a pretty sad statement in itself. Needless to say my head is killing me!

The things I do know are that:

1. The hangover is probably worth it.
2. Who am I kidding... no it isn't!
3. For me to get skinny I am going to have to let those beer gremlins go home with someone new for a while.

I will touch more on the caloric reasoning for statement three as we get further along.

Day 8: Smoking

I have been a smoker since I was 18. I am not proud of it, and as time goes by I feel that I am looked down upon more and more. When I first started smoking it was acceptablr just about anywhere you went. Now I litterally have to do it in a designated space on the street in front of my appartment. I legally can't even smoke on my balcony. I have had just about enough. It has gotten to the point that I go driving around just to smoke.

I can truly say that I am ready to quit. I have quit multiple times in the past, but this time is different. I am spending this year on me and I have to do this! It is time! I have to do this... for no one other than myself!

Wish me luck in the process...

Day 7: Disappointment

You know... I was really hoping that we could have pulled it out!

For those of you that watched the BCS National Championship game you know what I am referring to. Texas lost tonight and the final score doesn't do the game justice. Alabama played well, and they effectively only had to beat our second string team due to Colt McCoy's early injury.

I am actually running short on words right now, but I will say that life is consistently going to present you with disappointments. To quote the best boxer of all time, Rocky Balboa,

"it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get it and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! Now if you know what you're worth then go out and get what you're worth. But ya gotta be willing to take the hits, and not point fingers"

I think I will leave it at that!

Day 6: Friends

I have to say that I think I was blessed with some of the most amazing friends in the world. A lot of people will tell you that they have friends that will take a bullet for them. While some may be telling the truth I would say about 80% of those people are either lying through their teeth or just oblivious. I, on the other hand, can honestly say that I have 8 to 10 guys and ladies in my life that truly would.

I happened to go to The University Of Texas... tomorrow is a BIG deal! For those of you who don't know tomorrow is the BCS National Championship game is being held in Pasadena. My best friend in the world arrived tonight at 6:15. He hasn't been to LA in 18 years. We just got back from a little restaurant called Father's Office. If you are in the Santa Monica area go there!

I'm excited for tonight, I'm excited for this weekend, and I'm excited for you if you are lucy enough to have people in your life that are as special to you as my friends are to me!

Day 5: Finance

I have to admit that the fantastical day dreams I had as a wide eyed college graduate do not quite match up to my current financial state. I had pictured myself at this point being a high powered movie producer with a big house and a BMW M3 in the driveway. Truth be told, I have an apartment and a 2004 Nissan Xterra. The Xterra (or Xterror as I like to call it) serves as a mode of transportation to my day job as a Peterbilt truck salesman, but it also happens to hold the record as the most expensive Xterra ever sold!

Don't be misled here, there is absolutely nothing special about this truck! I paid $21K for it off the showroom floor in 2004. However, due to lack of experience, a bit of stupidity, and two ill thought out refinances I still owe $15,256 on the thing with a monthly payment of $486. When it is all said and done I will have paid around $54,000 for the damn thing. This is particularly vexing because a 2010 BMW M3 is $53,000! I will delve more into this topic later when I discuss why you should never refinance your vehicle and how Wells Fargo is the devil!

I digress from the point of my dreams and my reality not matching up. This is important because they definitely do NOT! Anyone who reads this that is in sales knows what the last two years have been like... shitty, What compounds this situation is that I had zero savings when I switched careers and moved into sales. For the greater part of the past two years I have been juggling credit cards and loans in order to get me over the proverbial "hump" to lay some solid groundwork with my finances. This elusive "hump" has yet to show up. In fact the only hump of any sort I have managed to locate is a seemingly insurmountable mountain of debt that has been topped off by a flag that some crooked banker erected with a smile to read "Average APR 18.9%." Needless to say that this has done wonders for my credit score. The damage has been done though. I had spent the previous four years making up for horrible college credit card mistakes, and now I will be spending the next few on these.

In my darkest hour, when I was at least a month behind on just about every bill I have, I decided to take a stand. I took some very good advice and got some help straightening out my debt. I have been holding steady and have started to chip away a little bit at a time. In the coming months I am going to share with you what I have done to get my head back above water. I no longer feel lost and anxious when it comes to my debt. I am not where I envisioned myself 8 years ago, but that is okay for today. I still have some time to get that M3!

So here I am, a 29 year old impromptu mountain climber ready to scale that mountain of debt. The one thing I know for certain is that when I reach the top I too will erect a flag (after burning the current one) that will read "DEBT FREE."

Then... I will smile!

Day 4: The Weigh In

First day back to work and the start of a brand new year! Although normally my office is full of the hustle and bustle of numerous people running around with heavy tools working on very expensive machinery that was not the scene today! Today as I walked into the office the setting was more like a glamorous press conference the week before a long awaited prize fight. The scale was ready and our makeshift scoreboard was created.

All in there are 7 contenders vying for the "Great 2010 Slimdown" crown. Various weights were measured and recorded until finally my turn arose. As I strode up to the scale I grabbed as many various office supplies of considerable weight as I could. Once I had stuffed a stapler, a tape dispenser, a box of binder clips, paperclips, a maglite, and a monkey wrench into my hands and pockets I took my place on the scale. Unfortunately my plan was thwarted due to the fact that I took all of these items in front of everyone else and they didn't seem to think that it was the most, shall I say, "accurate" measure. So after unloading enough stock off my personage to keep a small Office Max running for a week I stepped back up on the scale...

265 pounds!

HOLY HELL! That scale had to be wrong (I hope)! Either way it was wrong across the board and now I have a starting point to get things going. Which I have done. I came home and headed directly to my room to change and get my ass onto pavement jogging. I knocked out about three miles and felt pretty good.

I know this isn't going to be easy, but I am doing it for a good reason...

Day 3: Health

I wasn't always fat. Not too long ago I was actually in pretty decent shape, and I know exactly when things started to change. Two years and one month ago I completely changed my career. I went from following my dreams to working for the man in around two weeks. Mind you, this was the wise decision at the time. Sometimes though, the wise decision isn't always the best one for us. By "us" I mean our souls... who we are on the most primal front. Change is always difficult for humans and this situation was no different.

I slowly watched as I gained five pounds. Those five pounds turned into ten. The next thing I knew that ten had turned into a gain of forty five pounds in eight months. FORTY FIVE pounds in less than a year folks...

...

I actually just sat and stared at the last line for about two minutes still trying to wrap my head around the whole thing. It is still hard for me to believe. I think it is safe to say that what caused the weight gain and how it occurred can be fodder for a lot of posts in the future, but for now what we need to focus on is what is currently being done about the situation.

Tomorrow morning starts "the great office slim down of 2010." This is one of a few things that I am doing right now to actively lose weight. I will get into the other things soon, I promise, just bear with this one for now. About half of my office is entering into a contest tomorrow morning to see who can lose the highest percentage of their body weight in 90 days. It fits pretty amazingly with what I am trying to do right now so naturally I am all about it. We are all going to weigh-in and keep track of where we are at every Friday for the next three months. I am actually really excited about the whole thing. That being said, I totally pigged out today in anticipation. Domino's chicken bacon ranch pizzas should be illegal! Seriously!

I think it is very easy for all of us to agree that the way we perceive ourselves in the mirror really plays into how the rest of the world sees us. Their perception is based on how we present ourselves to them. If we are not happy with what we see in the mirror then how can we expect to present ourselves to others in a manner for them to feel any different? By changing our outer appearance to something that we are proud of we automatically change our inner selves. We automatically will feel better! Gradually, as we feel better, the way we project ourselves changes too. This ultimately leads us to being all around happier people!

This is one of the easiest concepts for people to grasp and one of the hardest to actually act upon. I just hope that this contest gives me a little motivation to get going.

Wish me luck on the weigh-in!

Day 2: The Plan

What an amazing day! I took a long bike ride up to Malibu today and the scenery did its best to remind me that where I live does NOT suck! The time spent on those two wheels quickly reminded me that...

A) I haven't ridden a bike in close to ten years.
B) my butt is really REALLY going to hurt tomorrow.
C) If I am really going to make these 365 days work for me I need a plan.

The plan I have laid out to this point is to set small goals and work on a lot of different fronts. The three major areas I want to work on are health, financial, and career. While the second and third areas are somewhat connected they are very separate when it comes to making me happy. Money will help to make my debt disappear, but it wont take my soul to a place that I can find true happiness.

Throughout the next 365 days I will layout individual goals and plans to achieve them. By fixing the parts, theoretically, the sum of the whole will ultimately be fixed as well.

And that... will lead to a better me!

Day 1: A New Beginning

Let's start with this, I am 29 years old, overweight, in debt, and unmarried. I don't own a house. I don't have a dog. My car loan is so upside down that I am seriously contemplating driving it off a cliff to claim the insurance money. And to top it all off I am ostracized by the majority of the denizens of my native Santa Monica, CA because I tend to occasionally smoke 20 cigarettes a day. All that being said I do have one important thing... hope! I have hope for change. I have the desire to make the necessary changes needed in my life to turn all the aforementioned ailments around and I believe it is going to take me roughly 365 days! One year. An important and pivotal year in my life journey. I mean, I Am turning freaking 30 this year and that alone is stress enough. On top of that... I want to overhaul my life!

and to that, Hooray for 2010...

It's a new year and a new decade. Our economy seems to be trudging out of the murky depths and many Americans are hoping to put a very rough couple of years behind them. The thought of a new and prosperous future looms just inside our reach and I, like many others, am choosing to grasp at it.

I have a decent job, a college education, and a nice apartment close to the beach. I am blessed with wonderful friends, a caring family, and an amazing girlfriend that treats me exceptionally well. I would say that I have a pretty great base to initialize the transcendence out of my own mire and into the person I want to be.

Each day I am going to move a bit closer to where I want to be and each day I am going to put it all on the table for you to see. I am not planning on coming out the other side of the 365 married, in a four bedroom house with a white picket fence, raising 2.5 kids, and driving an Aston Martin with my golden retriever Jake's tongue flailing in the breeze. I do however plan on being debt free, 60 pounds lighter, and a non-smoker! I want to be ready to take the next step in my life. Okay, I guess I can throw the dog and a new car in too.

To quote the great Bill Murray in WHAT ABOUT BOB? -

"Baby steps to the elevator. Baby steps into the elevator. Im in the elevator. IM IN THE ELEVATOR!"

I'm in the elevator...