Trust Your Instinct And Knowledge

I woke up this morning from a dream in which I experienced a series of different events. It was one continuous dream but I would flash forward in the dream to a new point where something was about to happen and that certain something almost always ends badly. Not in this dream, every time something was supposed to end badly, it turned out to be an even better consequence.

     I haven't remembered my dreams for quite a while so it's nice to wake up with a recollection. Anyway, I feel like my subconcious was telling me to continue on the path I'm on and everything will be alright.

 "No matter how tough the situation looks, you will prevail with something good out of it." 

That's the message I got from my dreams last night. I'm currently cutting fat for summer and I'm getting close to having a 6-pack for the first time in my life. I weighed 230 pounds about 5 years ago and have been learning through trial-and-error how my body works. This has taken a lot of time and I didn't see too much of a difference until I changed my diet up. As soon as I exchanged some fast food for veggies and red meat for chicken, an entire world opened up to me. I started to learn what ingesting certain foods will do for your body and how certain foods can help you perform better in the gym as well as maintain results and cut fat.

I'm always nervous about cutting fat because there is also a muscle loss. Bodybuilders work so hard to make muscle gains in the gym and they can entirely lose their muscle gain during their "cutting" phase and all of that hard work goes down the drain.

So, now I'm cutting and I could lose all of the hard work I put into the gym. Now that I had that dream, I'm going to trust my instinct and roll with it. No matter the outcome, I know I'm going to be happy with it in some way, shape, or form.

Have a great week everyone!

It's been a while!

So it's been about 2 1/2 weeks since I last posted a blog, it's been far too long! How's everybody doing? I've been too busy for my own good, finals week is coming up, I'm getting my own fitness company started, I'm at the gym 5-7 days a week, and I'm working 20-30 hour s a week. I'm taking 6 classes in college and I'm almost out for summer!

     So, I just received an e-mail from my school confirming that as long as I pass my classes this semester, I'll obtain an Associates of Arts degree in Business Administration and another one in Economics. I'll be the first person in my family to have multiple degrees of any type. A lot of my family never went to college and are uneducated so it feels great to set the bar. I want to set the bar, not only for my self, but for the rest of my family. I want them to know that you can do anything you set your mind to, you just need to get to it.

      My father dropped out of high school and graduated from adult education when he was 26, my mother dropped out of high school in grade 10. Already being able to top my parents is already something that I look at with pride. Being able to top my parents while staying in great shape, starting my own company, working, as well as going to school full time....it feels good.

     Through all of this work, I've learned a lot of things. We can't worry about what others are going to say or think. I've kept a close couple friends and worried about myself. A lot of my friends party and drink all the time but I can't afford to do that even on the weekends, it sets me back. Setting goals has given me a destination, creating a plan has given me the path there. I've kept my eyes on the prize and have done everything I need to do to get where I've gotten and I'll continue this philosophy. If you want any tips on moving forward and continuing with success, feel free to send me an e-mail or comment on this blog. I'm here to help motivate others and give them choices in life. Carpe diem!

4/20/2013: One Year of Being Single.

So today, 4/20/2013, is my one year anniversary of the big breakup I had with a girl that I once loved more than anything. This was a girl I met in high school and grew tremendously with. She helped me develop and learn so much about myself, I did the same for her. She helped me through numerous problems, as I did with her. These weren't just small problems in life, they were problems that formed a very tight and different kind of bond.

She broke up with me on 4/20/2012 and I was shattered. I lost the love of my life. I'm a little bit unlike the average person, I moved out when I was age 14 and lived with a friends family. At 18, I moved out and went to college. While going to college and working, no matter how many people you're around, you tend to feel lonely. Go to school, work, gym, then come home to do homework. Rinse and repeat. My parents were never around so that created somewhat of a problem with me, emotionally. This breakup devastated me.

After about two months of dwelling on the past and mourning my lost relationship, I decided to live for myself. It was great, exciting. I learned that there is so much knowledge to obtain not only about life but as myself. It was time for me to learn who I was and grow as an individual, fast.

Ever since, I've flipped my negative perspective on life and tend to think about the bright side of life. Life is far too short to dwell on a past relationship when there are so many other fish in the sea. My physical appearance improved, my grades improved, and I finally just recently got employee of the month at my job. As an individual, nobody but yourself holds you back. I no longer feel like a 20 year old but feel like an experience late 20's adult.

Just wanted to let anybody reading this that might have fallen in love and been crushed that everything will be alright, just keep your head up and keep trucking. There are so many things to do, people to meet, and opportunities to take. Never let your happiness rely on somebody else! Have a great weekend everyone :)

I came, I saw, I conquered.

It's 7:28 AM right now and I'm eating my breakfast. It's my ordinary eggs, oatmeal, and milk breakfast. Being a college student, this is usually the time when I get some thinking done and so far, I've thought about how tough this week is going to be. This week is littered with quizzes, in-class essays, exams, group projects, double shifts at work, and of course my 5-7 days a week at the gym. Deep in thought, I ask myself how I'm possibly going to find time to get everything completed at 100%; I'm shooting for straight A's. My answer: 

Do whatever it takes and find the motivation to not only complete the tasks at hand but EXCEL through the tasks at hand. Life is 85% mental and 15% physical, we can do practically anything we set our mind to. Right now, I'm going to have the best most hectic week I've had this semester. Go into your hardships with this quote in mind by the historically famous Julius Caesar: "Vini, vidi, vici." 

The English translation to this statement is "I came, I saw, I conquered." 

So, let's not just finish our chores and projects with a mediocre performance. Let's EXCEL through what we need to do and look damn good doing it. You only go as far as your work ethic takes you, just a little word from a busy college student who prides himself on hard work and obtaining a high level of success in the future and along the way. Happy Monday everybody! 

P.S. The more responses/page views I obtain, the more motivation I obtain. I see myself as a motivation vampire, please feel free to comment on the page and let me know what you think and/or share this with your friends. Thank you everyone! :)

Progress: One of Many Keys to Success

Hey everybody! Like I've said before, I created this blog in an attempt to motivate and inspire people to lead a more positive and healthy life. I now have a 1-year progress picture from when I first started to be more positive. This happened April 3rd, 2012. I realized that my girlfriend (that broke up with me 2 weeks later) was straying away and it was now time for me to figure out who I was. I started to be more positive and open to change, here is what happened to me.

Top left: age 17. Top right: age 19. Bottom: age 20

I started lifting when I was 14 with almost zero knowledge about the fitness world. I knew how to eat and I knew how to move weight, it's much more complex than that. From age 17 to 19 I learned VERY little about nutrition, but I learned my body from a weightlifting standpoint much better. At age 19, I figured it was time to start on the long road to having abs. The highest weight I reached was 230 pounds when I was about 16, terrible time in my life. It's one of the main things that motivates me to reach goals like this one. 

I got to where I'm at because of the willingness to learn, to change, to grow as an individual. Insanity is defined as doing the same thing time and time again while expecting different results. Nothing different is going to happen unless we stray away from our comfort zone. Concentrating on one area that you're interested in can teach you a lot about yourself. Bodybuilding taught me a lot of valuable skills that I will continue to work on through the years. I've learned what patience is, what hard work can get you, what having a positive attitude will do to your happiness. So many valuable lessons and I enjoyed every opportunity to grow physically and mentally. Hope this helps you in your journey to success!

Goals - The Main Ingredient For Success

Goals have become a large part of my life and attribute greatly to my success. They say success is measured not by how far you are but how far you have come. I lived with a friend through high school, graduated with a 1.81 academic GPA, and had ZERO study skills going into college; I barely passed high school. Another problem of mine was that I was overweight if not obese throughout high school. I played football but that's no excuse to weight 230 at my biggest at a whopping 5'9. I entered high school at 180 and left high school at 190, never dropping below. I'm typing this up in hopes to inspire or motivate ANYBODY, even if it's only 1 person. Making a difference in ONE persons life means a lot to me, so this is purely to help you. (the reader) I'm currently finishing up my 3rd year in college and have a 3.07 GPA, I plan on having a 3.25 GPA after this semester and transferring to the local university!
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 Goals

 Dictionary.com defines the word goal as follows, "the result or achievement toward which effort is directed." Achievement, something accomplished, is one of the best feelings I've ever had. When you set a goal and achieve it, a lot of things are happening that you might not be aware of. Here's an example, you've set a goal of getting an A in your hardest class, you achieve your goal. Not only do you feel good about yourself because you achieved an A but you're family is going to be proud of you and other classmates might follow you or ask you for help. I believe goals are an enormous part of the equation to success and that everybody should set them.

 How to Set a Goal

 I'd say a majority of people don't set goals for themselves and/or don't know how to set goals. The first step is recognizing what you want. If you know what you want, then go get what you want. Create a vision in your head and the next step is to fabricate a battle plan to achieve that goal. I recommend starting small. We all dream big but you never want to jump into anything too fast. If you want to lose weight, maybe make one of your goals to learn about the macro-nutrients in the food we eat. After learning about how much energy is in the food you eat, you can now apply that to your bigger goal of losing 10 pounds. Once you've set a goal and worked out the battle plan for it, the only thing left to do is take action and achieve. I've found that the best way for me to reach goals is writing them down. I bought two white boards and have goals written on them so everyday I walk by, I see my goals. This reminds and motivates me to move forward and reach those goals at almost any cost.

 Types of Goals

 I've set MANY different types of goals for myself. They range from not eating desserts day-by-day all the way to one day travelling to space. You can never set too many goals and it's always good to have a variety of them. You've got small, medium, and large goals. Short-term/long-term goals. Life, social, relationship, personal, physical, mental goals. There are so many different types of goals and that's what makes this fun. 

How to Reach Goals

 Reaching goals that you've set for yourself is definitely a skill. We aren't born with a skill but we learn to hone our skills through hours and hours of beating on that certain skill. Obtaining a goal requires will power, gratitude, a positive mental attitude, hard work ethic, sacrifice, and the drive to succeed (motivation). If your heart isn't in it, forget about it. You've got to really believe in what you're doing and ENJOY the path to reaching that particular goal or those set of goals. Sometimes in life we have to do things that we don't want to do. To be honest, sometimes I really don't want to be in college. Sometimes, I want to just drop it all, move to Europe, and work a low-wage job and enjoy the atmosphere. Unfortunately, that won't help me much in the long run and I'm doing very well in school, so why not continue? We all have doubts and suppressing those doubts with motivation is the best prescription for being down and out when trying to reach a goal. Tell others about your goals, they'll help you reach them. If someone says that you can't do something, prove that you can. Don't let "haters" bring you down in your journey to success.

 What Do Goals Do For Me? 

 Personally, I've found that goals have made me more outgoing, positive, successful, happy, and motivated to help others. I've never been happier in my life. The idea of reaching even the smallest goal makes me ecstatic to set another goal. Each goal that I reach is seen as another building block to who I am and what I've achieve. I'm VERY confident in myself and never succumb to peer pressure, I know who I am and what I should/should not be doing. Goals have helped me find out who I am as an individual. They've helped me find out what I like in life and the kind of friends that I should or should not have in my life. They've made my family happy for me. They've given me the will to motivate others.


 I woke up at 7 AM this morning to work on this blog because I enjoy helping you. I want to stress a positive attitude and hard work. I want to hear from you and your ideas, I want to know that there are more people out there like me. People motivated to succeed at almost any cost. I want to learn from you, there's way too much knowledge out there and I don't have the physical resources to reach people on the other side of the world, so I've created this. I hope this helps you and feel free to leave feedback, it would be much appreciated. Carpe diem!

Everybody is different...

I live in California and this whole gay marriage ordeal is the talk of the town. We passed Prop 8 in November of 2008. Prop 8 eliminates the rights of same-sex couples to get married in the state of California. I'm not religious nor am I prejudice in any way. I understand that everybody is different, but haven't always. In my younger days, I used to dislike gays and talk differently ABOUT them. I never took action against them but was always courteous and respectful when in their presence because even then I understood they were still people. I wasn't raised to treat certain types of people differently, although I easily could have. I come from a white family and we really have no races other than Euro-white races in my family tree.

Everybody is different no matter what you want to say. Every black is different from each other, every gay is different from each other, every teenager differs in one if not many way. White, black, yellow, red, green, purple, everybody is different but we are all human. We're all the same species and should treat each other so. 

Church and state

Doesn't America's legal documents seperate church and state? Why should the government have the ability to intervene whatsoever in this dispute? Getting married isn't only a religious thing but has become a symbol of uniting two people that love each other. If religious fanatics want to say they are sinning by getting married, don't we sin every day? People constantly publicly sin and are fast to call others out for sinning. Getting married is not only a symbol of bringing two people together but also a legal document. When two people are married, the receive tax breaks and are valid to receive different types of aid. If two people are really willing to take advantage of the system by going as far as getting married to somebody of the same sex IF they are not gay, well...let them. That's a big move to make and it's one of those things you just have to let slide.

Fact of the matter, gays are human, just like us. They might be different in the sense that they like the same sex but this country was founded with so many different types of people merging together. Race, religion, sex, age, etc. I don't see the harm in allowing gays to get married, it doesn't affect me one bit. It might mean the world to them and that would make me feel good knowing that they are comfortable with the decisions that they have the right to make in life. 

Just a little rant, hope this comforts some and enlightens others. Until next time, peace!