An amazing thing happened!

Hope this inspires others

Yesterday I was at a work dinner that was given to all of us that got promoted this last year. Yep, I was announced as someone with a promotion at the end of the year. What made this promotion so special? Let me tell you. You know you are valued as an employee of a company that you have been working for almost 5 years when the sign they put on your door spells your name wrong. Yep that is right, they did not spell my name correctly. Now this is not a new thing to me people spell my name wrong all the time but it is normally my last name. I totally get that, Bumpus is not the most common name around and I don't speak up all that much on the phone so I can give people that one a lot of the times. What made this one different was they spelled my first name wrong, yep, the first name Justin, J-U-S-T-I-N pretty hard I know. I can cut them a little bit of slack since it has ONLY been 4.5 years I have been here. Anyways, I digress, that is not the reason for the post I just wanted to get it off my chest.

Here is what you should read

While at the promotion dinner I got an email from Beachbody (the people I always talk about), makers of INSANITY, P90X, and all kinds of other great workout programs. The reason for the email, every time you finish a workout program you can send them before and after pictures so that you can get a free T-Shirt. Well the last program I did (you can find it by clicking the fitness programs tab) was Tai Cheng, I used it to let my body recover and work on balance and body control. Which on a side not saved my bottom from eating it yesterday when I slid on a bad patch of ice in the parking lot, but that is another story. They were so impressed by my results (I sent them my total transformation) that they named me the December Beachbody Challenge winner for my age group. What does this mean? It means that I get a check for $1000 dollars for being the winner (I got the email just a few minutes ago that it will be coming) and will be putting me in the quarterly voting for a trip to LA, $5000, and a chance to win the $100,000 dollar grand prize, can't ask for too much more than that. I will post the link here so you can go and vote for me!!

What to take from this

I am just a normal guy, nothing special or spectacular about me. I made a decision that I needed to make a change in my life for my family so that I could be around for a while and not on my way to the grave like I had been the way I was living. I stuck with my determination and 18 months later I was down over 120 lbs and 16 inches off my waist line. I think that most people to don't reach their goals because they have not found the real reason they want to lose. I should know I had tried several times before to lose the weight I had but had failed each time. What was the difference between this time and all the times before? I didn't just wake up and decide to get fit. I really thought about it, decided why I wanted to do it kept that thought in my mind when things got hard or when I didn't want to get up in the morning and workout. That thought, the thought of growing old with my family is what kept me going. I know the thought is going to be different for everyone I just want to make sure everyone knows to go ahead and find that reason make it a good one and hold on to it, before you know it you will reach your goal.

One last thing

You heard me say wake up early...that is right I choose to get up in the mornings and workout before I do anything else. I know it is hard for some people to comprehend because everyone loves their sleep but for me I know that if I had a crappy day at work or if something happens where I can't be home on time I know that I will skip workouts. I guess you have to ask yourself, what is more important another 30 to 60 minutes of sleep each morning or more years on this earth to enjoy the time with your loved ones.....just something to think about!