When I was getting into the business, I did as much research as possible. I talked to people in the business and people that were selling routes. I didn’t know many of these people very well in the beginning. It was difficult to tell what information was real and what was a sales pitch. I read several eBooks that I purchased online about the Bulk Candy Vending business. I found some blogs associated with vending and read all the posts on them. I devoured all the information that I could. I wanted to make sure that I knew what I was getting myself into.

Then, I started buying. I bought half a dozen preexisting routes as small as 6 machines up to the largest being 165 machines. I bought all the Vendstar 3000 machines that I could find for sale on Craigslist. Even if people were asking $100 or $150 each, in the end I never paid more than $50 for a machine. I stopped buying when I got to 500 machines. Based on my initial research, servicing a route of 500 machines would basically be a full time job.

Even after all the reading and research that I did, there was still a lot that I had to learn the hard way. Most of the books that I read about the business were horribly inadequate, double spaced and filled with “fluff” without much real useful information. I didn’t realize it at the time, because I didn’t know anything about the business. Now that I have been running and optimizing my vending route, I realize that the authors of those books don’t know much about the business or how to run it successfully.

Many books that I read promoted the vending business as “a great way to earn passive income!” I even referred to the vending business as passive income in a previous blog post. Now, I know better. It sounds like a great concept, but the vending business is a lot of work. Especially in the beginning, I worked many 12+ hour days and 7 day weeks. This type of thing doesn’t bother me. Part of being an entrepreneur is willing to put in the work necessary to get a new venture off the ground.

A few months into it, I was really getting the hang of it. I realized that most people, including other people I know that have been in the vending business for years, don’t really know what they are doing. Within a few months, I had my route optimized to the point of where it is only taking me 2 weeks every month to service a route with 500 machines. I am at the point now where the business is generating a substantial (equivalent to a good full time job) income and I am exploring the possibility of hiring someone to service the route for me so that I can dedicate my time to other things.

One of those things that I have been working on in my free time is writing a book called “The Sweet Truth: Confessions and Strategies from a Vending Insider” about everything I learned about the Bulk Candy Vending business. It explains how to get started buying machines cheap and negotiating the purchase of preexisting routes. It goes into extreme detail about how to optimize your route so you are making the most money possible for a small time investment. I’ve seen the other books out there, and this covers much more ground and goes into much more detail. I’ve finished that book and I’ve started selling it as an eBook.

You can check it out here.

I have a few other big things happening right now, both in my personal and my business life, but I don’t want to let any secrets out just yet. Bis später.

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Lately, I have been looking for a passive income or semi-passive income business to buy. First, I was looking at laundromats. Over the past 6 months, I have looked at a half a dozen laundromats. Laundromats are also a great business that I have researched a lot and read a lot about. I put this “book knowledge” to the test when I got out there and made offers to purchase and analyzed laundromats that I was looking at. The thing about any cash business is that the income is usually not reported but instead is spent or put under the mattress. People trying to sell laundromats apparently use this as an excuse to brag about all the unreported cash the business generates. Of course, there is usually no way of verifying this. Or is there?

When analyzing a laundromat, I will ask for 3 years of tax returns. These usually don’t exist or are inaccurate. I will ask for 3 years of water bills. After taking a complete inventory of all the equipment, I contact the equipment manufacturers to find out how much water each machine uses. I developed a spreadsheet that will calculate the amount of income from the washing machines given the number of gallons per wash and the vend price. The dryer income can be estimated fairly closely given the wash income.

I came very close to purchasing a particular laundromat, but the sellers were slow on getting me the water bills and all the final financials. The deal had been under agreement for several months without this information being provided. When the information was finally provided, I was put under pressure to close the deal immediately and the broker tried to rush me. He called my lawyer and set a closing date for later that week even though I specifically told him that I needed more time. I started to get very suspicious and had a feeling that I was being scammed. The financial picture from the bookkeeper did not look good at all. The seller had told me that the business was making substantially more money than his bookkeeper had recored. After looking at the water bills, the truth was that the business wasn’t even making enough money to pay the employees and rent. It was running at a loss each month! I confronted the broker about the situation. He admitted to knowing the business was running at a loss, but tried to convince me to buy it anyway. I didn’t walk away… I ran.

After running into a few situations similar to this, I got a bit disenchanted with laundromats. Yes, they are a cash business and they can be lucrative, but all of the sellers I dealt with lied to me and the businesses were not really making much money, if any. Most of this was due to bad management and could be turned around, but I wasn’t going to pay a premium for that. I told one laundromat seller that I would be willing to assume the liability of his business and take it over for nothing, but it wasn’t actually worth any money. He was offended. That was more than 6 months ago and he hasn’t had any other buyers.

I started to look seriously at vending, particularly bulk candy (gumball and candy machines). The profit margin in bulk candy is generally about 80% which is totally awesome. Gumballs are the best. You can buy 3 lbs of small gumballs at BJs for $5. With a typical machine, they will sell for $8 per lb, or $24. Not bad!

For the past couple weeks, I’ve been obsessed with researching bulk candy vending and looking at business classifieds, to the point of not responding to email or returning non-critical phone calls. Sorry if I ignored you, don’t take it personally. I’m a man on a mission.

I’m happy to report that a couple days ago, I bought a vending business consisting of 41 triple-head candy machines. The business has been poorly managed and needs someone with the skills to turn it around. Many of the machines are in under-performing locations and will need to be re-located to higher traffic areas.

My plan is to get all the machines properly located and generating at least $1000 per month. Once my goal is met, the business will require very little ongoing maintenance of only 2-3 days per month. We’ll see how it goes. I am already daydreaming of buying more machines to expand the business or other vending businesses after this one is doing well.

photo credit gumball machines: rick
photo credit laundromat: mfshadow

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Are you totally stressed out? Or just a teeny bit stressed?
Why is that?
Is it possible to live with no negative stress at all? Would you want to?

I challenge you to think about the answers to these questions.

photo credit: bandita

I’ve seen several studies and a lot of research showing the correlation between high stress levels and health problems. It’s obvious that this thing we call stress is hazardous to our health, wealth, and our general well-being in life.

What is “stress”? We hear people complaining about it all the time, but what is it really? I’m referring to job and emotional stress affecting people (not the force exhibited on objects in physics experiments and not the accent on a syllable or musical note).

There are two types of stress. Distress (negative stress) and Eustress (positive stress). Eustress will be the topic of another post. For now, when I mention “stress” we are talking about distress.

I looked up “stress” on dictionary.com:

a specific response by the body to a stimulus, as fear or pain, that disturbs or interferes with the normal physiological equilibrium of an organism.

That’s interesting. Stress is a response to a stimulus. Is stress is a response that you create? If that’s true, shouldn’t you be able to control that response?

When I talk to people, they tend to view stress from their job or whatever as some external force that attacks them. They act as if they have no control over it. If this were true, then it may not even be worth talking about or trying to improve. But think about it. Is this true? What is the truth in this situation? Is stress something that we create, that we control, or is it an external force that acts on us outside of our control? Do you ever see people act cool, calm and collected despite disasters and destruction occurring everywhere around them?

Based on my own research over the years and my own personal life experiences, I have found that stress is something that you create in yourself, either consciously or unconsciously. You may not believe me just yet, but continue reading and let me know what you think at the end.

I always feel more “stressed out” when I am in a bad or negative mental state. Which is to say, when I am focusing on the negative things that could happen and all the bad things about a particular situation. I noticed that if I was thinking positive, focusing on that vacation I was going on the next month or mountain biking or something I am passionate about, the stressful situation would barely affect me at all. Nothing would be able to phase me.

My theory is that people think that they “should” feel stress, so they cause themselves to feel it. They get upset with themselves for not being able to do something well enough, or they tell themselves that something is impossible to do in the time alloted. These thoughts aren’t helping though. As I am sure you will agree, we all perform better when we are not stressed out.

I have found that just about everything in life comes down to having the right attitude.

“Happiness doesn’t depend on any external conditions, it is governed by our mental attitude”

- Dale Carnegie

Nobody’s ever going to be perfect. You will experience some level of stress. But through practice, study and awareness I have exponentially decreased the amount of bad stress in my life. I have a very low stress level in general, and you can too.

I’d like to hear from you. How much stress do you have in your life? What can you add to the discussion?

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Image courtesy of Pat G.

Ah yes, how I sometimes long for the carefree days of my youth. Riding my BMX bike over jumps, having my Mom make me lunch, and of course LEGOS!

But the great thing about Legos is that I can still enjoy them! I recently rediscovered playing with Legos through building them with my cousins, and now my brother even went out and bought some legos and the two of us were building stuff the last time we visited my parents.

The best thing about playing with Legos is building cars, obviously. And the more realistic, the better. I have a bit of an obsession with vintage Mercedes-Benz, so I was ecstatic when I found this. A guy named Pat G. made A very convincing replica of a 1980s Mercedes 300D! I really want to build this. Here are some pictures of the Lego car being compared with the real thing to show how realistic it is.

I had seen this Lego creation several times in the past, but just today I realized that Pat also made a 280CE AMG which is absolutely amazing and looks great in black with the AMG signature blacked out trim and body kit. He also made a 300TD (the station wagon version) which I used to have! I will have to get some Legos and try and re-create these models. They are probably the best Lego creations I have ever seen.

This makes me fantasize about being a professional Lego designer. That would be fun. Sean Kenney is a professional freelance Lego designer. He has a lot of interesting things on his website, like this display he made for FAO Schwarz.

I also found something else that is really cool… the Lego Factory! Lego has a free software application called the Lego Digital Designer where you can design your own Lego models on your computer, and you can even design the box covers and have the sets custom made and sent to you. Now that is cool! It is every kid’s dream. Fortunately, my computer isn’t good enough to run the Lego Digital Designer. Otherwise, I may never get anything done.

You can even upload your creations to the gallery, and other people can look at them and buy them. The only way to make this better would be to pay royalties to the designers, much like redbubble for artists, where you can upload your designs and get paid a commission when people buy them. If anyone from Lego is reading this, you should totally do this. Then everyone would be able to make money selling their Lego designs online and it would give people an incentive to create some great things.

I’m looking forward to the time when I will have more passive income and when I’ll have time to play with Legos more. Or maybe I should just get married and have kids. That would give me a good excuse to play with Legos too.

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photo credit: Doonvas

I just gave a new speech tonight for Toastmasters, called “How to Choose a Speech Topic”. I just made a recording of the speech available under the speaking section, and here is the text if you’d rather read it. Enjoy!

How many of you tend to procrastinate?

Good, so I’m not alone!

Are any of you perfectionists?

I am.

I hold myself to a very high standard and it’s usually unrealistic. Even so early in my speaking career, I feel that I need to have a professional quality speech and deliver it perfectly. Maybe some of you could relate to that.

I am here to talk about choosing a speech topic. The main thing that I want to get across to you is, don’t over think it. Just pick something from your life, and tell a story to support your point. Add some humor- it’s like putting some Tabasco sauce on your mashed potatoes. It keeps things interesting.

It’s funny how I came to this realization. I give myself a hard time and feel like I have to be the best at everything. I prepared a speech on the importance of making mistakes. It was very serious and I wanted it to have a profound message. After working on it for hours, I hated it. I didn’t think it was up to my standard at all. I couldn’t even stand reading it silently to myself, let alone out loud. That’s how bad it was. I knew it needed a lot of work, but I kept procrastinating and avoiding it. I procrastinated for several weeks.

Then, Monday came around. That was yesterday. I didn’t have a speech and I tried working on what I had, but I was just making it worse. “Well, I’ll just have to cancel my speech at the last minute” I thought to myself. “No other choice.” I can’t speak without having content worthy of publication in “The New Yorker”. I’ll make a fool of myself and people will realize that I’m not really a great speaker yet. My house of cards will come tumbling down on me and they will see that it was all an act, even if it was a clever one.

Ok, I need to speak on something. I’m not going to cop out. I’m going to give the speech. I need to come up with a topic quickly. I know, maybe I can look up a bunch of random stuff on Wikipedia until I find something worthy of a speech. I read about I-Fest, the international festival of Christian puppetry and ventriloquism. That’s a great idea! I could even make some puppets and put on a little show! But then I realized my sewing machine is broken and I’m running a bit low on sequins.

Brainstorming other ideas wasn’t working either. All of my ideas just seemed lame. I mean, who wants to listen to a speech about how often I clean my bathroom or what I ate for breakfast this morning. Those are just bad ideas.

Since I couldn’t come up with anything, I decided to write a speech on an aspect of writing a speech. Those who can’t do, teach. I’ll write a speech about selecting my speech topic! But there’s a slight problem here. I don’t know how to select a speech topic, that’s my whole problem! I started writing, and hoped that I could figure it out along the way. Maybe I could confuse the audience, throw in a joke or two, and they won’t notice that I didn’t actually give them any pointers.

The funniest thing happened though. Once I thought about it, I realized that your choice of topic isn’t a life and death decision as I previously thought. Life will go on. My speech could never create world peace overnight. It was heartbreaking, but I realized for the first time that the world doesn’t revolve around what I do.

We’re all here for the same reason right? To get experience and to learn. If you can’t think of a good enough speech topic and you never get up and speak, that’s counter-productive. I’m in toastmasters to give speeches and to get experience speaking. And I hope that’s why you are here too. Just write something on a piece of paper, get up here and speak it. I don’t think anyone is going to make fun of you or ridicule you. At least I hope not, for my own sake. Take the initiative to improve yourself. That’s all that matters.

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photo credit: teadrinker

We could all use a reality check from time to time. This is healthy on a daily basis. Just today I got caught up in thinking about all the things I have to do and all my problems. I could use a reminder that compared to most problems of the world, my problems are minuscule.

If you are reading this, then we both have a lot to be thankful for. We have been provided with luxuries and wealth far beyond the dreams of most people living just a few generations ago, and even beyond the dreams of many people living in the world today.

Living in the USA is wonderful. We have our problems. Still, we live in one of the best countries in the world. For people reading this in other countries, you need a computer and Internet access to read this. Only 20% of the world’s population has access to the Internet, so you are already in the top 20%. A quarter of the world’s population lives without electricity. Imagine that!

Travelling in Europe has taught me that in the USA, we take so many things for granted and have far more common luxuries than other 1st world countries. These are things that we don’t even think about as luxuries. Hot water that works well and the best showers in the world. Heat in our homes that works well. Air Conditioning. Discretionary income to go buy a latte from Starbucks or whatever, and to go out to eat when we want. We have the cheapest and best cars in the world, and the cheapest gas.

The basic stuff like clean water. Half of the world’s population does not have ready access to clean water. We can just turn on a faucet and get water clean enough to drink at anytime we want, in any quantity we want. An abundance of food of almost every type you could possibly want. What if there was a place where you could get just about any type of food that you could want from anywhere in the world? There are about half a dozen of these supermarkets within just a few miles of my home.

We live in the best time historically to have ever lived. Our life expectancy and quality of life is better than any time in history. In the 1700s, the average life span was 30 years. Now, it is in the 80s. Life expectancy has even seen noticeable increases in the past 50 years and is continuing to increase.

Although many refer to the “health care crisis” that this country is facing, the facts are that the health care we take for granted today was not even available a generation ago.

“Hard work” is another thing that has changed quite a bit through the years. It used to mean physically demanding labor, 10-12 hour days of back-breaking work. Today, it means sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day. I don’t even think that most of the US population could survive if they had to go back to doing real “work”. We’re just too spoiled.

It is healthy to remind ourselves of these things and most importantly to give thanks for what we have. It puts things in perspective, and allows us to see how well off we really are. This reminds me of a great quote.

“When you are grateful fear disappears and abundance appears” - Anthony Robbins

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While reading “The 4-Hour Workweek” by Tim Ferriss, I found myself reading Chapter 8 - Outsourcing Life and hysterically laughing out loud all through the whole thing. The chapter wasn’t written by Tim Ferriss, it was written by A.J. Jacobs, an editor at Esquire Magazine (excerpts are available online). Who is this Jacobs guy and how can I find out more about him? He intrigued me.

A.J. Jacobs is a crazy guy. Crazy in an amusing and friendly way.

I read some articles he had written for Esquire. “My Life as a Hot Woman” explains how his son’s babysitter was 27 and single, and he talked her into letting him create a profile for her on Match.com and screen all her potential suitors. The article kept me glued to my computer and it was witty, extremely entertaining and had me laughing out loud on many occasions. This guy can write! He can make the simplest story seem hilariously funny, engrossing and entertaining. Then, I started to feel a bit jealous. I want to be as good of a writer as A.J.! One thing is humor. I feel I am a good writer, but lacking humor in my writing. How can I develop this?

A.J. Jacobs has written a couple best sellers, both with very unusual premises. The first, “The Know-It-All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World” is an autobiographical account of a year-long experiment. He decided to read the entire Encyclopedia Britannica from A-Z, or more accurately, from a-ak to Zywiec. This really peaked my interest. It is so off-the-wall that it sounds like something I would try and attempt, if I had that much time. Instead of reading the encyclopedia, I could read the book and live vicariously though Jacobs. I found the introduction and the first chapter online on A.J.’s website, and after reading it, I was hooked.

I immediately went to Borders and picked up the book. I continued reading it in the Borders cafe. I was startled and interrupted by a girl who asked me in an accusatory tone, “What are you reading?” I quickly mentioned that I was reading a book by a guy who reads the encyclopedia and talks about it. She snapped, “You were laughing out loud so much, I thought it had to be interesting. But what’s so funny about the encyclopedia?” I told her that Jacobs talks about oddball trivia, all this crazy stuff that he is reading about, relates it to his life, and tries to impress people at cocktail parties with all his new found “knowledge”. His attempts to impress usually backfire and the stories of these incidents are always laughable. She is so rude I don’t even know why she is continuing to talk to me, but she tries to put me on the defensive, “So… he is making fun of the encyclopedia, that’s real smart.” I fall into her trap. “He’s not really making fun of it. He relates it to his life and makes all these crazy references, and it is absolutely great!” She gives me a puzzled look, tries to argue with me and obviously thinks she is above this kind of humor. “Just check out the book and see if you like it!” I exclaim, hoping she will get lost. Then, I go back to my reading. Seriously, some people need to lighten up.

In the book, Jacobs also talks about his personal life, like how he thought he was “the smartest boy in the world” when he was a kid growing up, all of his rationalizations of this and his disappointing discovery that it may not be 100% accurate. He talks about his rivalry with his father, who started to read the encyclopedia but only got up to the mid Bs. He calls up his father and tells him “I am going to finish what you started”. “I’m not sure I follow” his dad responds. He chronicles his ongoing rivalry with his brother-in-law Eric, which is too funny to explain, just read the book. A.J. chronicles the perpetual annoyance of his wife as he weaves facts from the encyclopedia into daily conversation on every topic. It gets to the point where she institutes a $1 fine every time he mentions any “irrelevant fact”.

Jacobs interviews Alex Trebek of Jeopardy! fame with the intention of tripping him up with his new found trivia. He joins Mensa International, competes in a crossword puzzle championship, spends a day at his old middle school trying to impress the kids and teachers, goes on “Who Wants to be a Millionaire?”, tries to outsmart the guides and patrons of several museums, makes a lot of really corny intellectual jokes with the intent of convincing people he is really smart, and countless other crazy escapades.

I was glued to the book since I got it and read it within a matter of a few days. Even when I was hanging out with friends, I couldn’t put the book down but instead transitioned to reading it out loud for 2 hours to them.

Now that I’ve finished reading it, I feel the urge to read it again. I feel like A.J. Jacobs is my friend. I got to know him very well by reading the book. His personal life, his business life, his quirks and insecurities. Now if I could just get him to be my friend on Facebook, all would be right with the world. The best part is, I feel that Jacobs’ writing style is starting to rub off on me, if ever so slightly. Mission accomplished.

Now, I’ll be reading another book by A.J. Jacobs, called “The Year of Living Biblically: One Man’s Humble Quest to Follow the Bible as Literally as Possible” which features Jacobs following all 700 or so laws he found reading the Bible, in both the old and new testaments. I expect that it will be even more hilarious and also enlightening. I will keep you posted on that.

“The Know-It-All” will make you laugh. And according to a study done by the University of Maryland Medical Center, laughter was found to prevent heart disease. As you may or may not know, Heart disease is the number one cause of death in the United States today. This study gives new meaning to the saying “Laughter is the best medicine”.

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I pretend not to. I usually don’t, contrary to what you may think after reading this story.

What was the most valuable thing that you learned playing video games?

I generally avoid video games when I can. But just last week I learned something surprising playing a game on my computer. And this isn’t any silliness about video games increasing my IQ.

First, let me get this out of the way. I have a confession to make about a previously closely held secret. Make sure nobody is reading over your shoulder. I wouldn’t want this to get out. I was addicted to one particular video game recently for an extremely long time — almost two days.

I could make up excuses for myself, maybe I already have, but I’m not writing this to share them. I am writing this to share a valuable lesson from an unexpected source.

Before we get into the timeline of my story, just a note for viewers: do NOT try this at home. I already wasted 2 days, so you don’t have to waste any of your time to get the same message.

Tuesday, April 8th, 2:24 P.M.
I’ve been working for the past couple days on my blog and my website. Learning CSS and making a new theme for WordPress. I’m satisfied with my progress. I deserve a little break, don’t you think?

I install the Zuma demo on my computer. It is a puzzle game where you are a frog that shoots colored marbles out of your mouth. I heard this game was cool, I’ll just play it for 15 minutes and then I will make some phone calls.

Tuesday, April 8th, 3:24 P.M.
WHAT?! My 1 hour trial is up?! But I was just getting warmed up!! I’ll just buy the game, play for another 15 minutes and then I’ll make some phone calls.

Tuesday, April 8th, 8:46 P.M.
I died! Just one more game (starting Level 3 over again)

Wednesday, April 9th 2:56 A.M.
I died! Just one more game (starting Level 5 over again)

Wednesday, April 9th 10:11 A.M.
I died! Just one more game (starting Level 8 over again)

Wednesday, April 9th 11:54 P.M.
??!! What am I doing?! I just wasted two days!! (even though I slept in the middle there without telling you)

Why are mindless puzzle games like this so addictive? This is even more addicting than reading random stuff on Wikipedia! I decided that this subject required some serious thinking and maybe even an academic study.

I am a very ambitious person. I enjoy “success” in all of its forms. In this context, “success” could be defined as completing the level, or beating the game. There are 10 levels with several stages in each, each level increasingly harder than the last. Pretty basic. If I run out of lives on say, Level 5 Stage 3 (5-3), then when I start a new game, I can start at the beginning of Level 5 (5-1).

Whenever I experienced a “failure” — running out of lives and the end of the game, I immediately started a new game. No thinking was needed. I wanted to complete the level. That was the goal in this exercise. I kept going endlessly like a madman on a mission.

Was I afraid of my game-self “dying”? No. What was there to be afraid of? When the game ended, I knew what I had to do. Start it again. I didn’t have to stop to think. This was an automatic reflex. Improve my game. Play better, faster and with more skill.

After a few hours, I got sick of playing the game. So sick of it that I would question why I was even still playing. Then I would remind myself of the goal. I had to complete the level. I had to beat the game. There was so much riding on my completion of this goal.

Success was inevitable. I kept getting better and better each time I played. I kept getting farther and farther. I was learning how to react to the situation and how to improve my game.

But then I asked myself, “Is the game worth winning? Is it worth the price (my time)?” Interesting. I just assumed that it was. You know what they say about people that assume. I stopped playing the game when I realized what I had been acting like.

In the aftermath, I started to think crazy. Is the game just a metaphor for life? A miniature frog-like version of myself going for my life goals?

Maybe the game is a metaphor for the sales process?

You start off playing the game with the prospect, you’re doing well, but you get to a point where your skill level just isn’t enough to keep up. You lose. Game Over. The prospect rejects you. Ouch.

What do you do? If you have the determination, if you are in the right mental state, you start a new game. You are talking with a new prospect, but this time you start off at Level 2 since that is where your skill level is at now. You’re doing much better than before. You get much further. But still, you get to a point where you just can’t handle the situation. Game Over. More rejection.

This happens over and over. You win some, you lose some.
When you lose, do you pick up and go on?

When you’re playing a video game, there’s never a question. At least not for me. I start a new game immediately. I know that is the only way to win the game, the only way to get to the goal. Do I feel any rejection from a video game? No. It’s just a game! I don’t care what the game thinks of me. That would be silly!

In sales, I can feel beat up when the prospect rejects me.
If you are dating someone and you get rejected by them, you may stop dating altogether.
When I am going for my life’s goals, I can be hurt or discouraged by other people along the way. Am I going to let this stop me?

I’m not perfect. I still get down, I have my off-days. But I will always remember the lesson that I learned while I was addicted to playing Zuma.

First, make sure that the game is worth winning. The formula for winning at anything is to keep going, over and over again, increasing your skill level along the way. If you fail, don’t think about it too much. The more you think about it, the more you will let the rejection and temporary “failure” drag you down. If you suffer defeat or your game is over, start it again, as quickly as possible and without thinking.

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It’s been about a month, and I wanted to share what I have accomplished and help inspire you to do the same. I also want you guys to hold me accountable and give me a hard time if I start sliding on my commitment.

My fitness and health circa February 27th, 2008
I felt bloated and slow most of the time. I was in decent shape, but I didn’t feel like it at all. I hadn’t done much real exercise since the past summer. I had an exercise bike that I would ride off and on, but that didn’t seem like it was really doing anything for me. I was dehydrated and not drinking enough water, but I didn’t really realize it at the time. My diet wasn’t bad, but not that good either. I went out to lunch almost every day and my idea of cooking dinner was heating up a frozen pizza. Disgusting. This is why I decided to make such a radical change in my life. I knew I was sliding and I didn’t want it to get any worse. It was time to turn over a new leaf in my life — or maybe just cut the whole tree down and plant a new one.

I joined a local Gym, Answer is Fitness, in North Attleboro, MA.

They did a body composition test using the Biodynamics BIA 310 bioimpedance analyzer. Check out the results to the right of this text.

My fitness and health circa April 3, 2008
Physically, I feel better than I can ever remember feeling. It is such a dramatic change. I have much more energy. I get up at 7-8 am (it was more like 9-10 before). I get up and go to the gym first thing in the morning every day. I lift weights on Mondays and Thursdays and do cardio the rest of the days, taking Sunday as a rest day. I am using this strategy because I am training myself for strength and endurance for bicycling.

I have been eating healthy, and eating smaller meals, more often. (find a link about this on bodybuilding.com) I am actually learning how to cook, and I am learning just by trying to make things and seeing how they come out. I have not used any recipes yet.

After a month, my body fat percentage went from 12.6% to 10.2%, I lost 4 lbs of fat and I gained 3.39 lbs of muscle. I also had 1.7 more liters of water in my body and I stay much more hydrated now.

I feel great and I even started to get rid of my mini-gut. Now I am at a crossroads though. I can either continue as I have been going, or I can go the path of putting on some serious muscle. I would like to gain more muscle mass, but I wonder if the extra weight will hinder my mountain biking agility and performance. One of the reasons I am so good at mountain biking is because I am so light, it is easy for me to maneuver and go really fast. What do you think about this dilemma?

I read this on Tim Ferriss’s blog and was very intrigued.

“From geek to freak - How I gained 34 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks” by Tim Ferriss

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My website might not be 100% functional yet, but I am working on it as you read this. Let me know what you think, and come back in a few days to see it once all the bugs are worked out!

I was using blogger before because of its ease of use, and in retrospect because I didn’t know anything about blogging when I started this blog back in December.

There were always some things about Blogger that I didn’t like. I couldn’t figure out how to make it integrate into my website properly and I had to use frames for my blog page, which is so 1990s. Blogger was really lacking in features and could not be customized to do the amazing things I have planned for my blog and my website.

After much research, I decided that Wordpress is the platform that I want to be using. Most serious bloggers (including Tim Ferriss) use it. It is much more configurable, and it is open source. I installed it on my web server. I spent the last couple days making my own template to integrate it into my site which was such a pain! Good thing I have gVim for windows. Even though I did it, I had to learn CSS which was seriously starting to drive me mad, but I am all better now.

Now I have my blog on the main page of my website and I am planning many more better things to come also, so stay tuned!

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