June 1st, 2012: Finally. Down one pound. Like I wrote yesterday, I more or less expected several days of static. I did not expect to gain all that I did, and it was rather disappointing. However, I did as promised and remained obedient to the program and it rendered me the one pound loss in return. 267 today. Back on track I hope and slowly, but surely, getting the train moving again.
You ever listen when a train stops? Boom-boom-boom, all the car’s hitches bang into one another. Same sound when the train starts up again. To me, the metaphor there is how when the scale stops or starts moving again it effects so many other parts of my life.
June 1st, 2020: In boxing, when you aren’t stronger than your opponent, you need to be faster. If your opponent is stronger and faster, than you need to have more skill. If your opponent is stronger, faster, and more skillful than you, then it comes down to two things that any one of us can achieve: desire and endurance. When all else fails, you’ve just got to remember how bad you want it and just outlast that fucker. Out-suffer him and remind him that you are not going to go anywhere until you have what it is you want.
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result. As with so many common sayings, there is a degree of interpretation that needs to be applied. I once saw my friend Cory work the pull starter on an old snowmachine at least 100 times. I had given up at about 20 pulls. We had been working on this thing for a week and somehow Cory just knew that on the 101st pull it would fire up. And it did, blue smoke and all. 10 minutes later we were zooming through the field with a large trail of blue smoke.
The moral of that story is that if there is any spark of possibility in this thing you are doing over and over again, then by God, keep pulling that starter cord and outlast that fucker. Never mind the insanity, we’re all crazy anyway.
A different take on it is this: I use the stairmaster at the gym almost every single day. In an hour, I’ve technically gotten nowhere. The monitor says I’ve climbed over 330 floors, but when I look around, I’m still on the 2nd floor of the gym. If that isn’t insanity, nothing is. However, my take on it is that I’ve done far more than simply climbed 330 floors. The success was hiding within the leaves of the trying. I scorched those calories, that was the true result. Who cares that I didn’t even really walk up a single floor on that stairmaster in the last hour.
