So you wanna be like me, huh?

Then here's the deal, it's goona take some sacrifice. All good things do. Listen, when I weighed 567 pounds I didn't want to do anything about it, I wanted the magic cure. Then something snapped me back to reality and I realized that the only way this is goona happen is if I do it, and if I take the long hard road to do it.

So first thing, you have to forget about all the foods you "love". What do I eat? Yesterday for breakfast I had 1 cup of oatmeal, plain oats, with 1/4 cup of sugar free maple syrup. 315 calories, and no, it doesn't taste good at all. For lunch I had 1 cup of plain white rice, 1 can of mixed veggies, and 1/2 can of tuna. All together it's 460 calories. It's.. decent. The day before I had the same. And the day before that. Etc. You get the idea.

For dinner I had two 4oz strips of excellent grilled chicken, with some "Free" Caesar Italian dressing on top. I also had 1 cup of chicken rice, then probably 8 cups (hah, not really, but you get the idea) of mixed veggies capped off with a Peach fat-free light yogurt.

You also have to forget about sleep. I woke up this morning at 6:20am, and that's pretty late for me. Usually it's 6am, but I stayed up until midnight last night -oops. Anyway, you forget about sleep. You shower once at home, pack your gear, and are out the door a minute or two before 7am to do the 30 minute and almost 8 mile commute by bike to work.

I should say.. 3 mile commute, 5 miles exercise. Who said it was going to be easy?

Every afternoon, change clothes and get ready for 13 miles on the way home. Rain, shine, wind, or humidity you're goona have to do it. Some days it rocks, some days it sucks but no matter what - guess what - you gotta do it.

Weekends? Forget about 'em. Tomorrow I'm waking up at 5:20am so I can be out the door by 5:45am and leaving the trailhead for Cortland at 6am. Cortland is about 27 miles away, and the route there gravel, all gravel. Lots of rolling hills and gravel. When I'm back around 11am, I'll have ridden 55 hot, dusty, and hard-earned miles. Probably more, but you never know.

Sunday, guess what? Alarm will be buzzing at 6am, and I'll be on the bike by 6:30. I'll be back home by 8 or 9 with 20 or 30 miles under my belt.

That's your weekend. You want to lose weight? You want to get in shape? There you go. Notice in there is no mention of fast food, beer, or anything related. I might have a beer or two, sure thing, but there's none of this all night hammer the beer fests. I prefer my early morning hammerfests, thank you very much.

So there you go. You want the rewards? So do I. But you have to work. There's no magic pill, magic surgery, or magic anything that's going to do the work for you. If you want REAL success and CONTINUED health, you gotta work. And you have to work your ass off, day in, day out.

That's how you can be like me.