Dicovering your inner strength

1. Discovering new challenges

If you think you are weak and considering giving up on yourself, I must tell you that would be a mistake on your part. Trust me, I have gone through my pains, my struggles, my defeats, my misery, and my pain, and will continue to go through that every day as I go through my weight loss journey. I let my excuses and weaknesses get in the way of my goal. But one day, I looked in the mirror and told myself, “No more excuses.” It was time to really work. Put in work, do the work, and stop complaining about the work. And damn it was when I rediscovered my inner strength underneath my weak spirit. My spirit grew stronger. Now, I am not finished with my journey by a long shot. I will always be working progress just like every person on this earth. But, finding my inner strength has been the best thing for me, and I can’t tell you how much better I feel about myself. The steps I take.

1. Accepting new challenges.

2. Physically challenging myself

3. Mentally challenging myself

4. Never accepting defeat

5. Removing toxic energy.

There will be a thousand more steps you can take for your journey of inner strength, but for me, those are some of the few steps I take, and there will be more to come. You will grow, and you will learn, and you will endure to build a new you. During the height of the pandemic, I grew scared of the world. I was letting my anxiety defeat me every day. Missing out on great moments and feeling sorry for myself and just eating fast food every day. I’m sitting on my butt watching youtube clips and playing Madden all day. I was wasting away, and here was the real sad part. I had a gym membership and was doing nothing with it. One day, I talked to one of my best friends, who was helping his mom while battling throat cancer. But she kept fighting, not letting her cancer be an excuse, and we had a heart to heart talk, and she told me, “I am very concerned about your health, Devin.” She was talking to me like a concerned mom. And of course I gave her the old classic “I’ll work on it”. She looked me dead in the eyes, held my hand, and said, “No, you won’t.” It broke me because deep down, I knew she was right.

Something in my said to me, “This is your last chance,” and I kept listening to her in my mind with those words, “No, you won’t.” And kept hearing it over and over, and honestly, I got sick of it. I think she knew those words would drive me to do something, and thank goddness, she said those words. The first thing was to help with my mental health, so I seeked therapy. It was a major help. Then, I decided to use my gym membership and push myself to limit that I never thought I could reach. I wanted more; I wanted to keep pushing challenges, pushing for more, and more. I was done with fast food. I began hating my couch, lol. I just wanted to see what limits can go past.

1. 3:30 am 1 hr yoga session

2. 2 hour work out session at gym

3. Finding new challenges

4. Meditation

5. Work on new projects

6. Strict diet plan

7. Do it all over again.

8. Never give up on the goals

9. Endure punsishment and defeats

10. Learn from that punishment and defeats

A little sweat never hurt nobody, and a deafeat doesn’t mean you have to stay defeated. The struggles and losses were massive, but I wanted that, not for the excuses to give, but I wanted to learn. I didn’t mind embarrassing myself at the gym. I wanted to come back to prove myself, “I can f***ing do this.” Everyday, I told myself that and still do. I guess the reason why I am sharing this is because there are people out there going through the same struggles that I am going through, and I want to tell you and all of you. YOU CAN F***ING DO IT!!! All you have to is just get up and try.

Thank you for taking the time to read this blog, and if you have experience, please share your story, give helping tips, or just give a motivation speech. Anything for positive energy helps. But in the meantime, thank you and have a good day. Peace.

New Years, fresh start.

For the most part most of us we have the many questions going into the new years like “what is going to happen this year” and the answer is, well there isn’t just any answer to that question, its a matter of what you plan on doing about the new year. Are you looking at the new year as a fresh start, or a continuation of a path that you currently following, or is it a chance to find something new? We all have our reasons to for the way we look at new years. For me I consider it a fresh start. New goals, new tasks, new accomplishments and new beginnings. Me, personally I love new years and usually can not wait to see what the new year brings.

I do not make new years resolution, i make new goals and focus on them throughout the year. Do accomplish my goals, no but i still work on them, focus on them and do the best I can to achieve those new goals. Now I know there is a lot of people brining in the same problems they had the previous year as well and that is okay. Your fresh start can be focused on taking care of your previous goals or challenges and can help you move on to new and better things in life. What i am saying to you readers is take advantage of the fresh start. Bring some new fresh air to your life and go out there and achieve the goals that you have always wanted. It can be done if you want them done. But in the mean time i hope everyone of you had a great holiday season and new years and i will be bringing you more content for this blog and hope you continue reading and enjoy. Until then my friends, stay safe and enjoy the good times life will bring you.

The battle with covid weight

If you are struggling to beat the covid weight you put on, I have a news flash for you, if you are putting in the work you are winning already. The reason why I say that is if you are putting in the time, the work, and the effort with a clear focused mind you will be this weight. Before covid hit I was 240 lbs, lean with decent health only issues was my asthma. Then covid hit but that didn’t stop me from training. I just used a mask and fought through it. Then my gym closed for a couple of months. I used covid as an excuse not to work out. After that I blew up to my highest weight of my life. A womping 335 lbs. Sitting on the couch, playing madden eating Mcdonalds almost everyday along with Popeyes and etc.

I was destroying myself everday and night just sitting, being lazy, not working on my writing, letting my mind and brain rot away, wasting away time and effort that I could be doing something useful for my body. But I let covid get the best of me. I used that excuse every day just to avoid jogging outside. I became a complete embarrasment, I was very hard on myself but I continued to be weak. I would look at myself in the mirror and not even reconize myself. I couldnt believe after all the hard work I put in to get in decent shape I destroyed it all.

Then one day it just hit me. Covid was not my enemy, I was my worst enemy and I had to re-learn everything again that helped me get back into shape. I had to ask myself everytime when I drove past popeyes or mcdonalds “Do I need this?” And before I let the excuses come in and convince me that I did need the fast food fixing, I would answer “No”. Eneough was enough and I wanted to win this war. I went back yoga, weight training, and every workout I can possibly find without a gym being open. No more excuses.

I decided not to be hard on myself anymore because beating myself was not helping me at all. I also followed the great words of Master P aka Percy Miller. He once said “I dont take losses, I take lessons” and thats the way I look at this period in my life. Now I wont be showing any before and after pics of myself since I am not much of the selfie type. But take my word for it. I am now down to 295 lbs, feeling alot better physically and mentally. Being strict with my diet. Now if you are going through the same stuggles as I did, let me tell you if I can get up and do it, you can too. It’s not easy, its not fast and it will be a challenge but you can do it. Do not beat yourself up about the gain, focus on what you can do. Visualize what you can look like after all the hard work and effort. My journey is not done and it wont be for a very long time. Now the time limit you give yourself is up to you of course. But just be sure not to kill yourself trying to beat the covid weight gain. I hope your journey is a success and hope for the best for you and if you need words of encouragement I am in your corner. Good luck on the journey and be well.

Binge watch weekend

To all my my fellow nerds, fans of great animation and superhero content do I have a special gem for you to watch this weekend. If you are looking for something new to watch with great brutal action, something that you can somewhat enjoy a chuckle or two and get lost in a great story and listen to a great voice cast well your in luck. A comic book series that has been around since the early 2000s and is now getting its own show on Amazon Prime, I present to you

The premise: 17 year old Mark Greyson(voiced by the talented Steven Yeun) is not your average, sure to his friends he is your average teenager going to highschool and going through the issues that every teen would but behind closed doors he is the son to the most powerful superhero in the world “Omni-Man”. Voiced by the very talented (J. K. Simmons). As the world is full of turmoil, super villians and the epic loss of “Guardians of The Globe” the world is at a loss and now Mark Greyson who starts developing his powers knows that its time to step and become a superhero who is being trained by his father Onmi Man himself. He now becomes “Invincible”. As he trains he goes on adventures along with other superhero’s. As time as hero goes on it also casuses issues in his social life as a highschooler. Also something is very off about his father.

Overall I loves this show and I hope there will be a season 2. Now be warned to parents around my age with young kids. This defiantly not a show for the young ones but if you are a parent that allows young kids to watch content like this well you’re cool in my book. There is alot of blood and guts in this. The death toll is up there but if that is your thing then this show is for you. But there to this show then just action. The show and comic book honors the traditon of comic book storytelling. The chemistry between the characters is on point and the animation is just beautiful.

There is alot of great adult humor that is not forced. This isnt your Mcu formula show so dont expect a joke the end of every fight scene. The voicing talent is incredible. You got to love J.K. Simmons as Omni- Man, he knocks it out of the park in my opinion. The show has so much going on for it, I hope it continues for years and if you are a fan of this show, I say thank you and the reason why I say that is the more support it gets then we will get more seasons. Now I don’t know much about the history of this character or story but I am going to give it a shot and learn more.

The villians are amazing on this, but the main one, well if you havent watched it yet I am not going to be the one to spoil it but you find out real early.

Overall grade I give this show a 10/10. I have no complaints except for when I had to wait a week for the next episode but thats okay because now all 8 episodes are out for your enjoyment. So if you have no plans this upcoming weekend and need something to watch then give Invincible a shot. And if you are dissapointed then you have no pulse. I am just joking but please enjoy and have a great and safe weekend.

Toxic Surroundings

Sometimes being surrounded by toxic people, toxic surroundings could help you build a stronger mental health. Being battle tested, more experience on how to deal with a toxic enviorment. We all have been there and we know a lot about it. Knowing the best way to get out of it and cleanse yourself. Now its never a quick fix, it takes time. Sometimes you have that really good friend who always puts you down for wanting to try new things and eventually you learn that their toxic negativity is effecting your friendship with them, its tough trust me i am going through it and it sucks but i also progress and work through it. I have worked through a lot over the years and the work will continue. As for the toxic surroundings just remember you always have a choice. Stay around it and or steer away from it. And also remember it takes work. If you feel that your enviroment has been taken over by negativity and its effecting your mental health. Take the time and think it over and work on yourself instead of falling into the trap. There is so many ways of doing it. Find new hobbies, find new challenges for yourself. If you have new ideas, go for them. Keep yourslelf busy and then you will find yourself having less time for the toxic surroundings and toxic friends.

Keeping busy

I found myself in a very deep depression, feeling alone, nobody to really talk to. Social media was getting worst for me every day. I ate more and more and let myself to ballon up to a weight that i am not use to. I couldnt keep myself away from toxic energy. But one day, one day i look at myself in the mirror and told myself i am done. I am done and decided it was time for me to fix myself. I have a beautiful family and i needed to do something for myslef so i can actually be there them. I decided to take on new tasks, new journeys in life. I decided to get busy for myself, for my sanity, for my family. I decided to get back into weight training, drop this massive weight gain. I decided to focus on my writing career again by writing a book and write multiple screenplays. I even picked up cooking and found out i am actually not half bad at it. I am alot happier since i have made the changes. I still have my battles just like everyone else but keeping busy has been a very great gift. Keep busy my friends…..