This comes from an email I sent to a few friends but I thought I would post it. I wrote the email at 3:00 AM. It was in response to a diet plan I am doing right now (lost 10 lbs so far and shooting to lose 50 more). 

Enjoy!

I am grateful I can share with you what I am doing so that it inspires you to DO SOMETHING and to GET STARTED.

There are tons of reasons I want to lose weight down to 240 lbs but here are my 5 main  reasons I decided to get going on this.

1-I am very obese and it flat out sucks. I am so used to being in shape and healthy and now I seriously cannot fit into many of my clothes (haha) how bad does that suck.  Being fat sucks (in my opinion) because I can’t fit into clothes I began feeling not so good about myself. I climb stairs and I am tired. I bend over to put my shoes on and it’s like “what the heck?” I just FEEL horrible. My whole life I have seen people talk about how overweight they are and it used to bother me. Well, I realize more than ever that your health absolutely affects your ‘wealth.’ Not talking about money, but your spiritual wealth, and self esteem wealth and your mental wealth.  I’m tired of NOT being able to fit into my clothes.  Plus, the thought of having to take my shirt off at the swimming pool. . . hahaha.

2-How can I preach excellence and goal setting to my little Zion, high school kids @ MV and the Young Men in my ward if I am not even living it? I talk about setting goals to these young men and taking action, not just talking about it and yet I talk about being healthy but I am not. I must practice what I preach. I must not be a hypocrite. I believe that all things are possible.  I want to be an example of what I preach.  I want to be able to affect people and I must not only be spiritually sharp and strong, I need to be physically healthy and strong as well. Not that I am going to be in my football shape from 10 years ago but I can still be healthy. Ok, let me be honest.  I am shooting to be in better shape than I was in football because I am armed with more knowledge about the fuel that I use to feed my body.

3-I want to live till I’m 125 years old. I would be able to enjoy my grandkids, my kids, my posterity and be happy in it.  Being overweight and unhealthy is so dangerous for your life.  I believe in being ageless.  I’m done talking about how I feel old (what the I’m only 32 years young soon to be 33 in 2 months).  If I don’t do something NOW I’m in trouble.

4-Prevention is far better than redemption.  This goes for sin and repentance and for everything else.  I know it will be 100 times harder when I am 35 or 40 years old to lose weight and fat.  What am I weighting (just kidding) waiting for? Why wait till later to do it? Why procrastinate? What will be different then that is not different now? Why wait till later to be happy and to work and enjoy life? I’m done having the “someday’ syndrome.  The ‘Someday’ Syndrome is like this “Someday I’ll be happy. Someday I’ll lose weight. Someday I’ll start living. Someday I’ll serve and help someone. Someday I’ll do my hometeaching. Someday I’ll read my scriptures.  Someday I’ll overcome my fear and step out of my comfort zone.  Someday I’ll write my book. Someday I’ll take a chance.” This is horrible.  This is good, better best and just doing good.  No way.  SOMEDAY IS TODAY OR IT IS NEVER! There will always be work, bills to pay, church activities, family parties, etc. etc.  There will always be reasons so I decided to finally stop making excuses and do it NOW!

5-I want to look great for my wife! Yep, I want to keep myself attractive for my wife so physically she is attracted to me. It’s amazing what happens when we commit to something 100%.  Every other part of our life gets affected positively because of our COMMITMENT to something.  It’s called the carry-over effect.  When I put forth 100% effort in something I begin to raise my commitment in everything else that I do.  It ‘carries-over’.

I know what I want in life.  Being mediocre in my life is not what my Lord and Savior asked me to do.  He said to be “Even as I Am.” If I am going to reach people to help them become better people and eventually turn their lives to the Lord, I better be doing it in every facet of my life. 

I’ve tried for so long to get into shape and lose weight and I have failed over and over and over again.  I start and then there is a baptism, or a baby blessing, or a bday party or a wedding so I rationalize and then overeat and eat more.  I love to eat.  There will always be something everyday. There is always a holiday around the corner or a bbq or an activity etc.  I am done making excuses and reasons.  It’s either RESULTS or REASONS.  Which will it be for you?

THE SECRET IS NOT IN THE DIET PLAN OR EVEN THE WORKOUTS. The secret is in YOU! The sooner you can realize that the real key and secret is YOU and your mind and heart the sooner you will MAKE THINGS HAPPEN!

People fail in most things (like losing weight or starting a business or you fill in the blank) because their WHY (reason for doing it ) is very weak and not strong at all.  Why are you wanting to do this? It must be very compelling and very inspiring.  When the WHY is not strong and inspiring you’ll see people jump from WHAT to WHAT (diet plan to diet plan) thinking the fault lies in the diet plan.  They are always searching for an easy way to lose weight.  If your reasons for wanting to lose weight are NOT strong like mine, you’ll quit in the first few days.

Figure out a strong why.  I just named you my 5 Why’s of losing weight and fat and getting healthy.  What’s yours?

With that said, this plan is working for me because I am sticking to it and I believe it?  Are there other diets out there that work? Of course there.  But remember, the success will NOT be found in the diet plan or meal plan or exercise program.  The success will be found in your mind and your heart.  The success is always in YOU (thanks Kung Fu Panda)

Are you willing to do what it takes or do you only want it if it’s easy? It’s very challenging but “high rewards demand a high price.’  I am also in this for the long haul so I am not trying to crash diet and lose all this weight and then go back to bad habits.  I am having a change of heart and mind and speech.  I am having that mighty change in my healthy habits.  Being healthy is not a one time thing, IT IS A WAY OF LIFE and a WAY OF BEING.  Hey, that sounds like the Gospel!

This meal plan is for me (I am 300 lbs) so take a look at it and make adjustments to it.  I’ll email you another email probably on Thursday with it and WHY it is the way it is, in other words the philosophy of losing weight with this.  Please think about YOUR REASONS for wanting this meal plan or wanting to know what I am doing.  Your reason must be strong.  When people’s reasons (WHY) is not strong and inspiring they jump from diet to diet and fail every time because they think that the success is in something outside of themselves.  Success is never outside of people.  It’s always inside of them. People who don’t ‘get it’ will look for that right diet plan and never find it because it doesn’t exist.  Only the change in their thinking and their heart is what is necessary to succeed and then hard work and more hard work and taking action. 

Ok, enough for now. I’ll send it in the next 48 hours.  I didn’t plan on writing this long dissertation but a meal plan without context is like a scripture being taken out of context or taking what someone said about you and blowing it out of proportion. This email is just to lay the context and foundation for your success!

Much love,

SG

I had just finished working out with one of my best friends. In the last two years he has lost his business partners who left him with a large amount of debt, which led to him giving up his car and home. He lost clients and even lost some relationships. 

As we left the gym we were talking about how good his life is right now. Heck even how good and great my life is too.

He said something that I won’t soon forget. “They’ll never get me.” I asked him what he meant by that. 

He just laughed as he said ‘they’ could take his possessions, his things, his clients and everything else but ‘they’ would never get him. He would always be moving forward and choosing his actions and reactions rather than letting other people and other things choose it for him.

The truth is, ‘they’ will never get me either. 

I personally know many people who have lost their job, lost their home, had their credit go south, lost a car, lost a business and you know what? It doesn’t matter. ‘They’ only get you if you let ‘them’ get you. You only let this economy affect if if you think that outside influences, situations and circumstances control you.

I know, I have lost much! So I am not just speaking as some positive guru who has money in the bank! I have felt the economy just as much as anyone! 2 years ago I lost my businesses that were producing the cash flow. 1 year ago I stopped paying on everything I had. 10 months ago I lost my first car. 7 months ago lost the next car. 7 months ago lost the last car. 4 months ago I was evicted from my home. 1 week ago we were booted from the home we were living in. Life is amazing isn’t it! I could go on but so what? These are valuable lessons I am learning from!

We have the ability to choose. Personally I have been letting every outside circumstance and situation affect me lately. I’ve been playing the victim role and for some reason even though I know the difference between being a victim and being an agent I keep playing the victim. 

Well I’m done being a victim of my surrounding influences. It’s time for Setema to get back on track of creating value for people, being a Creator of my life and my reality and to never let ‘them’ get me. 

It sometimes takes a serious trial to wake you up and to get you back on track. It is called course correcting. You move forward, evaluate your progress and then course correct. If you are only one degree off on your journey now, you’ll be way off down the road.

So what if they take everything from me? I’ll keep moving forward with the same tenacity and ferociousness for good regardless of my circumstances and situations.

Are you pressing forward and living the life YOU want or are you letting ‘them’ get to you?

Are you living with purpose each day or are you just going through the motions hoping something good will come your way? Be intentional about your life!

What is holding you back from really living? 

If you have been playing the victim of everything around you and been unhappy, STOP and course correct. Stop putting off happiness for ‘when the time is right’. Stop putting off your life for the ‘right time.’ 

There never will be a perfect time to (fill in the blank-get married, go back to school, learn how to play the piano, work on your talents and skills, lose weight etc. etc.)

You make the time right by being a Creator of what you want and choosing the life you want regardless of what hits you in the face. then you work, learn, work, learn, move forward, etc. The ‘wilderness’ you are traveling might be a long wilderness. When I refer to wilderness I mean the trials, challenges and difficult times of our lives.

In the scriptures the wilderness was a testing and trying time for people to depend upon God while they were being led away from bondage towards a promised land. If they didn’t learn the lessons they were supposed to learn then they stayed in the wilderness. The wilderness was also there for people who made very poor choices. Find the lesson and learn it!

You can either wander alone in your wilderness till you finally figure it out or you can be led by cloud in the day and pillar of fire by night! Personally being led by the Lord is the ONLY way to go through a wilderness! When the Lord is leading you then the wilderness is SUPPOSED to be and you can be assured you’ll come out of it the person He wants you to be.

There are many lessons we can learn from our personal wilderness IF we seek to learn the lesson. Suffering alone doesn’t teach people. Humility and open mind and open hearts teach people.

We keep hearing about these stimulus packages from the government. GO AND CREATE YOUR OWN STIMULUS PACKAGE. Go and create your LIFE PACKAGE! If your life sucks, it’s only because you say it sucks and believe it sucks.

Do you really need life to be perfect and without challenge to be happy? If so, you’ll NEVER be happy!

I wouldn’t wish for anything else right now except greater faith, strength and humility. Life is amazing and incredible right now. Yes my credit is shot, I’ve lost a lot in the past couple years. I had some killer cars, gone. I had 7 properties, gone. I had t.v.’s, instruments, furniture that I sold to pay bills, gone. I had immaculate credit, gone. I had a lot of money, gone. I had killer businesses, gone. You know what? They’re just THINGS. I say “Lord, thank you, now show me the Lesson.”

I’ve gained far more than I have lost. I guess I really haven’t lost anything. I’ve just given it back. I still have my wife, my son, a baby on the way, a beautiful home to live in, food in the fridge and on the table, a bed to sleep on, hot water to shower in, a laptop to write on, books to read, great friends, and family members, great partners etc. 

Course Correct Now! Don’t wait, do it NOW!

They’ll never get me. They’ll never get YOU either if you’ll do something  about it!

Special Agent Gali-I am a man who loves his wife, his family and his life! I am a man of faith, a man of love, a man of God! (and if I am not perfect in these things which I am not then YES I am doing my very best to be)

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