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...