Happy New Year! Resolution time, anyone?

First and foremost, I would like to wish you all a very Happy New Year!

I don't know about you, but 2008 was filled with many trials and tribulations...mentally, emotionally, and physically. For starters, I won my work's Biggest Loser competition, losing nearly 30 pounds and reaching an 8 year low in my weight. Unfortunately, I allowed emotional woes to get the best of me and bring me back up to 255 lbs, 10 lbs more than I weighed at the beginning of 2008. In 2008, I forged the first real friendships in my teenage/adult life, from which I experienced true happiness for the first time in over a decade. Within seven months, that true happiness was replaced with true heartache, for reasons that I will never understand. As a result, I am left without a friend to my name once more. Finally, my irresponsibility has further dug me in the financial ditch known as debt. At first it was managable, but due to the current state of the economy, the lenders of my credit are taking action to protect themselves, cutting my credit limits in half. Where my debt to credit ratio was in good standing three months ago, as of today, I now have far less available credit compared to debt.

If I could sum up 2008 in one word, it'd have to be "depressing."

I'm not one who's easily depressed, so you'll forgive me if I'd like to forget that the year 2008 ever existed. From hence forth, my only concern is what transpires in 2009, and if I have anything to say about it, this year will be far different, far better, than these past 12 wasted months of my life.

What are my resolutions? Well, as a fatty, I'm pretty sure you can guess what the number one vow will be.

I know I'm able to lose weight, gain muscle, and become healthy...after all, I've done it before. I've allowed so many things to interfere with my goals as of late that it seems as thought I've just given up alltogether. In fact, I haven't given up on the hope or the efforts. My discipline has been loose to say the least, so with the new year and the refreshed sense of hope that comes with it, I'm positive that I can get my act together and keep my eyes on the prize.

My second resolution for this new year is to pull up the roots that I've been planting for far too long. I have allowed myself to become accustomed to the everyday routine, doing the same thing, living the same life, day in and day out. This false comfort has stunted my growth in life, from losing weight, making friends, and finding a careerpath that would allow me to maintain a prosperous way of life. I am far more messed up that I'd like to be, and along with finding my way to 185 lbs and 8% body fat, I'm looking to reshape the social and professional aspects of my life. Forging friendships has always proved rather difficult for me, painfully so, but I welcome this challenge with open arms.

This is perhaps the most difficult resolution of the lot. I work a dead-end job, getting paid small bucks for a job that others get paid so much for. Living as a border in my mom's house, the only child paying rent while purchasing my own food, with bills including credit cards, charge cards, insurance, DirecTV, and Verizon Wireless...I don't make enough money to live comfortably unless utilizing any available credit to my name. For someone with so many responsibilities, I haven't been living all too responsibly. While I have vowed to live off a very strict budget for as long as it takes, budgeting will only go so far towards paying off a debt and preparing for the future. I need to work towards finding a career, deciding not to work as a graveyard shift stockboy for the rest of my life. I don't know what this will entail, but I'm willing to do whatever's necessary to advance to the next stage in my life. It's time to finally grow up....

There are probably other resolutions that I hope to keep throughout this year and many to come, but these three are of the utmost importance.

What are your resolutions? Surely you've got at least one. Whatever they may be and however you go about accomplishing them, I hope that you find the solace you're looking for in this new year.

As always, I appreciate your time and attention. Thank you for keeping up with me here and on YouTube. Knowing that I've got good people keeping tabs on me helps to keep me accountable, and any success on my part wouldn't have been possible without you. As you continue to follow my journey, you will come to find what one man can do when he really puts his heart, soul, and mind to it.

You all mean more to me than you know, and again, I wish you a very Happy New Year!

Much Love!


-TripleQ