The Joshua Tree Principle

Sorry, fellow readers, for the long hiatus between posts.  As a band director, there are busy times in my life and band camp tends to be one of them.  I will say that I have successfully completed band camp (side note: I have an amazing group of staff and students...which helped a ton!) AND stayed on track with my P90X plan.  Honestly, on occasion, I did take a day off, but made it up some other time during the week and made that my rest day instead of Sunday.  Not what Tony had in mind, I'm sure, but worked for me and my schedule!!

I want to say just a tiny bit about the progress that I've made and then I'll move on to why I chose "The Joshua Tree Principle" as my title.  First...I was pretty juiced to find out that I have moved in 3 belt holes in this last month!!  This has me excited for 2 reasons...the first being that IT'S 3 BELT HOLES, and the second is that I've done this before, but after much more weight loss which suggests to me that I am developing more muscle and burning a lot of fat rather quickly.  I'm now at a point where people are noticing...people that didn't know I was trying to become more fit.  Feels pretty darned good...remembering to tell a fat man that he's looking better when he's trying to GLF (Get Less Fat) is kinda along the same lines as remembering to tell a lady that she looks good!

Note:  if you recall from an earlier post, I mark my weight loss by how much my children weigh.  A few weeks ago, I mentioned that I lost the equivalent of my youngest daughter (a little over 8 pounds).  While I have not caught up to my 3rd child (25 pounds), I have lost the equivalent of my youngest daughter while in a Chicco KeyFit infant carseat.  As I was carrying her down to our van today I wondered what that weighed and much to my surprise...it equaled my total weight loss (18 pounds).  So...if I ever want to consider what life was like 30+ days ago...I just need to haul Sophia (the youngest) around in a carseat...pretty cool!

Now...to the significance of the title.  A long time ago, I took a Graduate Level Class which required me to read the book, "The Non-Designer's Design Book".  Within the body of that book, the author describes this principal.  I don't remember the story exactly, but it goes something like this.  The author wanted to do some landscaping in her yard.  She wanted to be unique with the type of plants, trees, etc. that she used in her yard and found a tree that really fit the bill.  It is called a Joshua Tree.  As I'm sure you'll agree, this is a pretty interesting type of tree.

She believed that it would set her property apart from the rest.  Very shortly after her new Joshua Tree was given it's new home in her yard, she went for a ride around her neighborhood to discover that almost every yard in her development ALSO had Joshua Trees in their yard.  As many times as she had driven around her neighborhood, she never noticed them until she had her own.  I can relate to that story every time I buy a new car...I tend to notice all of the other ones similar to mine on the road, where I didn't pay any attention before.

P90X has been my own version of the Joshua Tree Principle.  When I considered doing this program, I thought that I was the only one around that knew anything about the program.  Then I talked to my wife (Bekah) about it and she said "yeah...I talked to you about this program a while ago and you didn't think it was worth the money...I think our friend is doing it, give him a call and see what he thinks."  And then it began...P90X graduates and enthusiasts started coming out of the woodwork.  As I've been blogging, I'm hearing more and more about it.  Relatives and friends that were considering doing it tell me about it...friends that are P90X graduates contact me telling me about their success stories, etc.  The list goes on and on and on...

So, in conclusion, I never thought I was in this alone...many people are supporting me as I progress through the program, but WHAT A BONUS to have a core of friends and family that have done it, are doing it, or have graduated from it. 

On a side note...I've never really been one for getting tattoos...but I told Bekah the other day that if I get good and ripped...I want to get a big tattoo on my shoulder/upper arm.  She snickered in a "yeah right" kind of way...knowing of course, how I feel about tattoos.  Well, then I talked to a buddy of mine and he suggested that I get a tattoo of my weight before P90X.  Neat idea...any artists out there?!?  If so....send me some pictures of designs with the number 293 in it!  Oddly enough, I'm actually considering it...not seriously, but not totally dismissing it either....

Thanks for reading...TTYL (Type To You Later - I'm getting the Blogging Lingo down!!)