You wake up to the sound of your awful alarm hours before the sun even dares to show it’s face several days a week. Around the time most people are waking up to start complaining about having to roll out of bed you are finishing a workout where you just busted your ass for a few hours. You get home and then get to work on your most important job and that is being a good husband to your wife and an incredible father to your three children. After getting everyone up and ready to start the day you head to work at your own full-time job to support your family. The evening comes and again you place your time into your kids and wife without hesitation. Some days you’ll break away for a half hour to get a good sweat in, but what’s a half hour to a man that’s already been hard at work for fifteen to sixteen hours solid?
“I don’t have enough time to workout.” Tell that to this guy. A father of three with a full-time job that takes every moment to work on his marriage that STILL gets into the gym four days a week and keeps a mindful eye on what he eats daily.
You don’t have the time, you make the time.
You’ve meticulously tracked what you’ve eaten every day down to the gram and not because you had to, but because it was important to you to get it right. Everyone has their bad days and gets stressed, including you, but you never let that be an excuse to break your nutrition plan or skip a workout. You’ve learned to eat what you want when you want as long as it fits your plan. Do you eat pop-tarts? You bet your sweet ass you do. Do you eat out at restaurants? If the occasion calls. Have you gone on vacation and just enjoyed yourself? Absolutely. You have learned to not deprive yourself of living a normal life.
You don’t feel like you’re doing something that you can’t stick to. You are in this for the long haul not short-term, unattainable results. You’ve hit a milestone that was incredibly important to you for so many reasons. Through your accomplishments you’ve motivated more people than you know, but none more important than your daughter. The person that sparked the fire in you is now seeking guidance from the flame.
I did not do this for you. I merely pointed you in the direction and gave you a set of tools. What you’ve done with them has been of your own desire and discipline. You are a man on a mission.
The best thing of all? You’ve only just started and there is not a damn thing that will stop you from achieving more.
I’d appreciate it if you would check out this progress post from Danny and follow his blog. Danny is one of the purest examples of a hard-working man that I’ve ever known. On top of that he is also a great client of mine and wonderful friend. I’m incredibly proud of you, brother.
otontin: I did it
Mission one: Goodbye 200 pounds. Accomplished.
So many thoughts and emotions have come and gone since stepping on the scale today. I won’t talk about them all because some are very personal to me and I’d like to keep them that way. (Oh, and please excuse the tiny portion of my dragon tattoo that shows in this pic. Trust me, there’s a lot more to it. It looks weird from this angle.)
I do, however, have to give major thanks to my coach…and one of my best friends, Daniel. There is no way this would have been possible without him. He took a guy on that had no idea what to do, but he saw how badly I wanted it. There were moments along the way where I doubted myself, doubted methods, and just did not have a positive attitude about training and dieting. He never gave up on me and he kept motivating me. He always says that I’m the one putting in the work, but I wouldn’t have been able to do it without his guidance and knowledge. Thank you, bro.
I also want to thank all of you that kept encouraging me via Tumblr/Twitter/Facebook/whatever along the way. You guys and girls have no clue how much I value each and every one of you. My only regret is that I can’t thank each of you in person.
So, goodbye 200’s. I hope that I never see you again…unless I’m just packing on muscle like a mad man. But for now, time to keep trimming down and getting closer and closer to looking like the badass I aim to be.
(Source: demolift)
No one will ever know the specifics of what you’re going through, but they’ll know exactly how you choose to handle it.
I don’t want to spam out my daily log updates on here seeing as I use The Spartan Warrior to primarily post articles, research, links and motivation for myself and others. So, if you feel so inclined to follow my daily log of training and nutrition please check out the above link.
Thanks and let me know if you have any questions/comments!
Alright, for those of you not interacting with me yet on Twitter you can do so by following @tswdan. Feel free to drop me a line anytime.
Twitter is, by far, the easiest way to get in touch with me and I really do enjoy hearing from all of you out there.
Need more?
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Waking up early does not mean that you are hard working, it means that you wake up early to get to a job you have. The way you work is different then when you work.
I was in Money magazine (20 something years ago) because my father, one of the hardest working people I know, was featured in it. He started a major grassroots movement through his own non-profit that helped to sway a bill that is still in effect in my state’s legislature. In March of this year they had the 20th anniversary of the bill passing and ran stories about my dad again. That’s neither here nor there.. I’m just proud of what he’s accomplished through his hard work.
Just because a job is lower paid does not mean it’s harder. I’ve had plenty of jobs and the one I was paid the most for was the hardest in my personal experience. Career level employment is much different than working your way through school or working in retail or even the food industry, which I’ve done also and waiting tables is absolutely brutal. All jobs can be hard depending on your efforts.
I have experience with not going home to much. It wasn’t long ago that I had to sell everything I owned in my home just to be able to afford to buy groceries and pay rent. I have experienced not being able to have a gym membership. Those aren’t the points of the quote I posted that got you so fired up though. The point of the quote is to treat your body as it’s important because it’s going to be with you for your entire life. Don’t be proud of what you have, but be proud of who you are. It’s not your possessions that are important. It’s not the house that you live in that develops character. Who you are, the way you treat yourself and the way you are to others is what is most important above all else.
You wanted to snidely and sarcastically remark about how the dedication I put in to responding to people does not make me a hard worker. Well, I personally believe in working hard no matter WHAT you do. I feel that whatever it is you do that you should do it with all your heart and effort because that’s what makes you feel good about it when you’re done. I gave everything my all and that is what matters to me.
I don’t quite understand why you’re so miffed at me personally, but I’m not here to win a popularity contest or to see that anyone likes me. I do what I do because it makes me happy and I could possibly be helping others out there achieve some of their goals.
I had a dream last night where I was the head of a team of mastermind criminals using inception on Doc Brown to steal the secrets of time travel in Back to the Future.
Awesome, but slightly strange.
I live in Oklahoma.
Three earthquakes in three days each ranging from 4.0-6.0.
75º weather in November.
Tornadoes also sprang up today.
Oh, and my OSU Cowboys are ranked #2 in the BCS.
All are signs of the apocalypse, I’m sure.
So, to wrap up the mother nature happenings.. today there has been tornadoes, rain, hail, lightning, thunder and.. earthquakes.
This picture is a few months old, but I still enjoy me some B&J ice cream. I’m not good at sharing.
Alright, so I won’t lie.. I am having a bit of trouble communicating with my followers all of the time. I, unfortunately, can’t always respond to every message or reply I get, but I do try my best to shoot you a response I promise.
The majority of the messages I get are from people asking for help with their diet or workout program. I love helping and am doing my absolute best to do so, but sometimes it’s a little difficult to diagnose what exactly you’re needing from me.
So, I need to ask a few things from all of my followers out there:
I love hearing from you guys and gals out there whether it be to tell me about your workout, ask for help or if you just want to strike up a conversation. Truthfully it always brightens my day to hear from some of you.
That being said, I miss some of my “old” followers who have been around since the beginning. If you’re still out there or have been following this blog since the way-back-when then please shoot me a message!
Looking forward to hearing more from you all out there.
-Daniel
