So I just wanted to say that today I had a Dr.’s appointment.My HDL was 46 & my LDL was 49!!! I guess all that oatmeal I’m eating is paying off!!!!WOO HOO

Well.. I keep learning new things about me, about my blog, and about my blogging and of course about the good ole’ Blogosphere.

I keep trying to emulate all those wonderful blogger’s out there that do such a great job with spreading there thoughts and sharing their words. They have those great looking websites, with great layouts and cool graphics. They also have the catchy domain name and even some really cool icon’s that reverberate their theme.

I on the other hand have been wasting my time trying to be them. Trying to be something I can’t be. Heck just trying to be something I’m not.

I’m not a full-time blogger. Hell, I’m hardly a part-time blogger. I’m what I like to call a some-time blogger.

I work a full-time job.I have a family. I attempt to maintain a healthy lifestyle. I do enjoy my hobbies. I am an internet junkie and computer-technology- gadget geek. And I blog sometimes.

Somehow my priorities got all mixed up. I was stressing about getting in time to read all my fellow blogger’s blogs so I could return the favor they showed me by visiting my blog. On top of that I wanted to post a few blogs of my own. (I stupidly have subscribed to a slew of blogs, that takes way too long to sift through)

It was supposedly good form to try and post something between 3-6 time per week. Which roughly equates out to a post every day or every other day.

Well that has been a huge problem… as you can tell. My posts have been blegh. I cut them short with simple bullet points of information, just to say I posted on my blog. Heh heh.

I tried to create a blog that could please the masses. I talked about it before. When I created the blog name, I asked my wife for some help. I wanted to know what is my significance? What kind of theme could I sell? I asked her what one word describes me… and she gave me the word Strong.

So ‘To Be A Strong One’ was born. It of course fell into the ‘fitness’ arena with the greatest of ease. Uhmm.. duh.. exercise – fitness- strength- strong. I however have found out the hard way just how many frackin’ fitness and weight loss blogs and websites are really out there!!! It’s mind-numbing! Everybody talking about everything… the list IS endless.

And here I am thinking my voice is going to stand out in that kind of crowd.

So my twist was more of a total strength. Keeping your human condition strong.

Aahh there is a great concept. The human condition : all the experiences of being human.

That’s what I’m really trying to get at here. A Strong Human Condition. And that’s the goal of my blog. It’s not just about fitness, not just about exercise, or weight lifting, running, dieting, healthy lifestyle, and all the activities that encompass ‘health’. This blog is also about keeping the human spirit strong. Maintaining a healthy mind, a healthy spirit, a healthy soul. Being a Strong Human.

So the long.. or even longer explanation of my thoughts is that I’m going to blog about what comes to my mind. I’ve tried to focus on fitness, but it’s just to broad of a subject, and honestly everyone else seems to have the best approach and the best answers these days.

I like to blog about what motivates me, what entices me, what lights that fire we call our spark. Anything that moves me (good and bad), anything that affects or effects the life I’m living, or the life of others around me.

So hopefully you’ll stick around to read my gibberish, at least for the entertainment value. If not, that’ ok too. I’m glad you visited.

Take care of yourselves and yours.

Carpe Diem

You know you’re a nurse if…

You would like to meet the inventor of the call light some night in a dark alley.

Your sense of humor gets more warped each year. Almost everything can seem humorous…eventually. 

You know the smell of different diarrhea to identify it.

You wash your hands BEFORE you use the bathroom.

You can tell the pharmacist more about the medication they are dispensing than they know. 

You check the caller ID on your day off to see if anyone from the hospital is trying to call and ask you to work.

Discussing bodily fluids over a gourmet meal seems perfectly normal to you.

You think that caffeine should be available in IV form.

You get an almost irresistible urge to stand and wolf your food even in the nicest restaurants. 

You believe that unspeakable evils will befall you if you say, "It’s unusually quiet around here today"

You have ever had a patient look you straight in the eye and say "I have no idea how that got stuck in there".

You notice that you are using more 4 letter words than you even knew before you started nursing.

Every time someone asks you for a pen you can find at least 4 of them on you .

You live by the motto "to be right is only half the battle, to convince the doctor is more difficult."

You’ve told a confused patient that your name was that of your  coworker and to holler if they need help.

Your bladder can expand to the size of a winnebago’s water tank.

You find yourself checking out other customer’s veins in grocery waiting lines. 

You avoid unhealthy looking shoppers in the mall for fear that they will drop near you and you’ll have to do CPR on your day off.

Your finger has gone places you never thought possible. 

You have seen more penises than any prostitute.

If you are not a nurse but know one, this is just to help you understand our mind set and questionable  mental status/sanity. Most of the time we function in spite of this sick sense of humor, fairly normally and very responsibly.

Carpe Diem

Would you do it over again?

What if you knew ahead of time the consequences of your actions?

Do you think the drug user who is suffering from bacteremia, or HIV, or AIDS would have made a different set of choices when faced with that first drug? Would they have said no?

How about the severe alcoholic who is suffering from liver failure, or pancreatitis? Do you think he would have said no to that first drink had they known?

Or what about the long-time smoker who is battling COPD, respiratory failure, and/or ARDS? Would they have said no to that first cigarette/cigar had they known?

The reality is. They all know. They all knew. They ALL were aware. Whether or not they were listening, remains to be seen.

So why do we still have our hospitals populated with the chronic liver failure patients who continue to drink alcohol?

Why do we still have the COPD patient smoking a cigarette with their home Oxygen tank sitting next to them?

How do we educate the public?

How do we educate our youth?

What would you say to them?

I don’t think there is a human being out there that doesn’t know the ill-effects of smoking, drugs and alcohol, but it’s still a very real and very debilitating national problem.

What if I showed you this machine  and this piece of equipment early in your smoking habits?

And told you that in the end, you’ll be breathing through a tube with the circumference the size of your index finger, or worse, you’ll be breathing through a hole in your neck.

Or when you are early in your drinking frenzy, show you slides of how your skin will turn yellow.. The whites of your eyes will turn yellow.. And your body will eventually starve to death?

Why don’t scare tactics work?

What would work for you?

What did work for you?

Carpe Diem

Do you want to know what the difference is between winning and losing, or between achieving a goal and setting a goal?

The extra inch you gain, or the extra second faster you move, or the extra pound you lose is not achieved on your best days at the gym. It’s not achieved on your best day of discipline when you stayed on your eating plan. It’s not achieved on that day you ran faster, or lifted stronger, or stretched farther.

Greatness is achieved in our darkest hours.

Your goal becomes closer on those days when it hurts the most.

On those days when you want to quit.

On those days when you don’t feel like getting in the car and going to the gym.

And you find the energy, the courage, the perseverance to ‘GO ON’ and get through another day.

It was probably not a good day. You probably cheated today. You may have ate that sweet you shouldn’t have. You probably skipped an exercise in your workout that you aren’t fond of. Or maybe you only had the gusto to simply walk.

It’s having the perseverance to continue on when it would be easier to just quit. No matter how horrible the day was, you still did something. You didn’t just sit. You didn’t break all discipline. You didn’t give up.

It’s THOSE DAYS that get you one step closer to your goal.

Here’s to the bad day’s we all endure, here’s to the good day’s we love to have, and here’s to never giving up.

Carpe Diem

Lately I’ve been reading a lot of blogs, and news articles about motivation. What do you do to motivate yourself? How do you keep up with the regimen? How do you stop yourself from giving up? How do you prevent the laziness factor?

HOW? HOW? HOW? HOW?

We all want the secret formula to fitness success. We all want to be able to say "I DID IT!" But the reality is the percentage of people achieving what they set out to do is relatively low.

I’ve heard some people talk about posting a before and /or after picture of themselves. Or some will post a picture of a ‘fit’ person, or a picture of what the would like to look like.

If it was easy, everyone would be doing it.

In my opinion, a great motivation tool is ANYTHING that can motivate you. And not just motivate you once, but a perpetual motivator. – Yeah… I like that. Perpetual motivation. A perpetual motivator.

The problem is, most people look for someone or something to motivate them, instead of looking at themselves, within themselves, or maybe even ON themselves.

I use many different motivational tools and techniques, but this one is the simplest and often the most effective perpetual motivator.

The next time you think you can’t do it anymore. Or the next time you need that ‘kick’ to remind yourself NOT to eat that Big Mac. Or the next time your feeling just a lil too lazy, and rather not exercise.

Reach down to your waist line, or reach under your arms,  or maybe even reach for your inner thigh(s), and give yourself a ‘pinch’. Yep. You read that right. Pinch yourself.

Do you still have something there, that you want to get rid of? Is there too much of something you don’t want and not enough of what you do want. (yeah.. Too much cellulite, and not enough muscle)

If any of the above was answered yes, then you still have work to do.

Are you sick? Are you dying at this very moment?

Are you injured? Are you hurt?

Do you still have the capability? Your not lying in a hospital bed are you?

NO?

Get off your lazy ass and get to work. Work it out before it works you out.

That’s what I called the "Pinch Prompt".

Carpe Diem

MENTALITY MONDAY –

Energy is neither created or destroyed in any given instance of time, but instead transferred.

This concept is familiar territory for anyone in the land of Physics, but it also holds true and has many applications in the land of the living… more specifically the human condition.

We consume the energy around us, using and absorbing whatever is available. I jokingly call it the ’cause and effect’ phenomena.

We all have experienced it before. You’re mood, your attitude, your ‘liveliness’ is affected, and or attributed to what surrounds you. How do you feel when someone is negative, or cynical to you, or to someone around you?

How do you feel when someone is upbeat, happy, and positive?

How do you tell the difference?

So – Energy creates energy.

Which energy do you want to create?

Carpe Diem

“Well I almost got it done”

“I almost finished“

“It’s almost complete”

Almost:

very nearly but not exactly or entirely

At least I attempted it, or it’s better than not doing it at all right? Almost should be enough right?

It was almost correct.

In this game of life, falling short of your goals is very common, and in some cases expected. But should you strive to almost complete your goal?

Do you train to almost win?

Almost can be inevitable, but it’s never acceptable.

Only in horseshoes and hand grenades.

Carpe Diem