When I look back over 2011 it is a jumble of work, school and more work. I started the year with the goal to lose some weight, but I only stayed the same for the entire year. I got a personal trainer for 3 months and realized that personal training is worthless without a serious diet change – and I changed my diet, just not enough and not consistently enough.

Work was a nightmare. I worked for Denton Bible Church for the first 8 months of the year and was self-employed running both http://www.eddierenz.com my web design business and http://www.soundandshow.com – my DJ Business all while juggling the financial responsibility of Dallas Theological Seminary – which cost me about $5000 out of pocket which might not seem like a lot, but when you have to pay $600 a month on a self-employed/part-time church worker budget it can be a real burden.

As far as actual income for 2011 I did pretty good. I made almost the same Salary that I made with Texas Instruments but I still don’t have health insurance and I sometimes miss the security of that weekly paycheck, but, there is nothing like being your own boss. There is a thrill that comes with not knowing if you are going to make any money for the next month and literally living by faith and watching God provide week after week, month after month. I live a very nice life and the challenges that I face are mostly self-induced.

Some of the Highlights from 2011

1. Found Author Harlan Coben and have enjoyed reading his books.

2. Re-Branded my Web Design business to Chemist Creative.

3. Started going to The Village Church and I LOVE it.

4. Started my Masters in Media and Communication at DTS

5. Started Crossfit

So, what’s in store for 2012?

I plan to kick off the New Year with a 30 Day Paleo Diet challenge. This year I’m doing it with friends and we have consequences for cheating. How do you stick to a plan? Accountability with consequences. Our consequences is 30 burpees for every cheating incident. If you don’t know what a burpee is you can check it out here:

I’m also doing Crossfit which is definitely a challenge for me. Well, I think it is a challenge for everyone that does it and the real challenge is being mentally tough and pushing yourself beyond your limits. Here is a quick video so you can get the idea of the ridiculousness of these workouts:

While personal training pushed me to my limits I don’t think it pushed me like these Crossfit workouts have pushed me. Plus, you are doing the workouts with other people and so there is a community aspect to the workouts.

By the end of 2012 I’d like to look like Alistair Overeem… who by the way defeated Brock Lesnar pretty effortlessly last night in UFC 141.

Big Goals for 2012

1. Reach a Goal weight of 300
2. Pay off all miscellaneous debt
3. Visit Jimmy in Shang Hai
4. Run the 8 Mile at the Turkey Trot

A quick look at some of the snacks we had for the SuperBowl party: Popcorn, queso, chiptole black bean dip, sausage balls, and of course hamburgers and hot dogs. On the couch from left to right: Melinda, Katie, Ryan. Jonathan is currently in the kitchen…

After deciding to do the tryouts the idea of actually going through with it has loomed over me like a dark could. Every bite I took, every time I went to the gym, every time I went to my regular office job I was niggled with thoughts of “What if?” These thoughts were like tiny rats that gnawed on me day after day as if I was some huge 350lb block of cheese.

Last night I had to take some Tylenol PM because I was apprehensive about the tryouts today. I wasn’t afraid of not making, I was afraid of making it.  It would be a dream come true coupled with a nightmare. I’d be leaving the safety and security of my job and my cushy life to face a grueling lifestyle that while possibly filled with a lot of reward would probably break my body down even further than it already is. It was all a chance I was willing to take. I at least wanted to go out and give 110% and see if I had the option of playing or not.

The morning started out with me arriving at the stadium 2 hours early. I checked in and watched the wide receivers going through their routines: running 40 yard dashes, passing routes, and a myriad of other drills. At noon they called all of us linemen down onto the field and we went through a long series of warm ups. By the time we were through warming up I was pretty tired. After that we went through the shuttle, the long jump and a 20 yard dash. We did every drill twice and I thought I was holding my own. When I looked around at the men in my group I was slightly above average in size, but there were two guys that were taller than me and a number of guys who were short, squatty and quick.

Finally we got through a series of drills and the line coach pulled us aside to jump over some bags with high knees, then run through them in a zig-zag pattern. Back and forth it went and my body was screaming out – STOP! But I was hiding and through these first 8 drills the line coach made 3 cuts. Out of 35 or so guys were were down to 20. We started doing some basic 3 point stances and then jumping up and I thought I was doing great and this is where I got cut. What? Cut already? I mean I haven’t shown you how hard I can hit, you’ve hardly seen me do anything, and why did you make me do all those runs and jumps if you were planning on cutting me when I did a three point stance? WHY?!?!?!  Why not tell me that is going to be the key thing that you are judging and then I could have practiced it.

Either way, I’m very glad I tried it. I’m proud of myself for getting through 4 rounds and going through with the whole ordeal. And I’m elated that I no longer have the dark cloud of “what if” looming over my head. Life can go back to normal. I can concentrate on getting my MBA and doing my myriad of projects and just being me.

Thanks to everyone for your words of encouragement and support. I’m not the least bit disappointed so no need to post comments of regret.

OU got beat 45-35 on Saturday in the Texas v. Oklahoma showdown.

The Dallas Desperados are an Arena football team and they play at the American Airlines Center – so it won’t be my first time to perform there, it will just be a totally different kind of performance.

Lately I’ve been doing a great deal of praying because I keep breaking my body down and then rebuilding it and the pain, the good kind as well as the bad, need something stronger than Advil – they need a miracle.

I’m bench pressing 315 now the way I used to bench press 275. I can do shoulder presses with 90 pound dumbells 8 times despite the fact that my shoulders have always been weak due to a dislocation in high school.

My endurance is decent and I still need to lose about 20 pounds, but I’m not stressing too much about it. Stress is really counterproductive to all things physical and so I’m really taking it easy, getting lots of rest, saying no to hanging out with friends and taking care of my school work and stuff early instead of waiting until the last minute.

This week I’ll be focusing on my speed. Lots of running. Better eating. Cooking at home. Going to bed early. 26 days and my life could change forever or it could stay the same, either way it will be fun trying!

This week I started getting up at 6 a.m and going to the gym. I’m always too tired in the evenings to really be productive, plus, working out in the even just takes up too much time. I’ve started to realized that home ownership, plus Grad School, plus general life busy-ness is not something that can be accomplished successfully without taking an aggressive approach. So I’m kicking up the aggression and learning to use it to my advantage.

Along with 6 a.m. workouts I’ve started watching my caloric intake once more. I decided not to be too rigid, but to be mindful of what I am eating, this approach allows for flexibility with liimitations – which is basically a Weight Watchers approach. I’ve been eating lots of lean proteins and veggies and taking fruit to work with me. There is this guy that is always eating fruit during meetings. Chomp, chomp, chomp. He bites away in to crisp Granny Smith apples, plums, grapes, yogurt. He’s very thin and he’s always eating. He’s actually inspired me to take fruit with me to meetings because often times in meetings you are just listening and piece of fruit will keep you alert and it’s good for you.

So my plan is to really take an aggressive approach to my life in all areas, school, work, diet, budget, relationships – it’s very taxing, but I think in the end the results should pay-off. Along the way I am going to get ready to be one of the few people who actually get picked to be a Dallas Desperado. I’ve got 90 days that will be filled with excerise and protein powder. Should be interesting.

Our team leader is really good. He’s probably late 30′s or early 40′s. His daughter and son are on the team and they are 18 and 15. They were also very good.

One of my new team members pulled me aside and started teaching me how to throw. At first I was a little annoyed that he wanted to teach me, I only made one bad pass during the game and that was my only opportunity to pass and so I didn’t really think I had an opportunity to show what my skill level was. Plus, I have been on Frisbee hiatus because of my broke foot. But, I’m not too arrogant to think that I can’t use some extra teaching and if someone is willing to take the time to teach me, I’ll humble myself. We started with basic throw, which I think I’m pretty good at, but then we worked on forehand throws which I suck at and before long I was started to get it. I don’t like to work on things that I’m not immediately good at, but this is something I need to improve upon and so I was actually very grateful and appreciative that he took the time to show me how to throw better.

This morning my foot hurts, but no more than it did before Ultimate. What really hurts is my right glute and right hamstring. They are mondo sore today. My heels spurs are actually hurting too, so much so that I can barely walk this morning. Before this foot injury they were like 75% better, now I feel like I have regressed so much in just six weeks.

Now I’ve got my Ultimate on Saturdays and my Wednesday night ultimate and hopefully we can get a practice game or a pickup game on Sunday afternoons or Monday nights. I am going to see what I can do to make that happen.

I’m very excited about this new level of play. About being further challenged to make myself better. My new team has a lot of cool people on it and I think it is going to be a great experience.

We get so much more out of failure than we do success, people just don’t realize it. It takes a lot to learn how to lose well, to allow failure to expose your weakness, to sharpen you, to help you see what you need to keep working on.

Winning, especially winning easily, makes for hollow victories, complacency and arrogance. Losing allows for humility and acceptance of defeat with grace. Learning to lose well shows character. When we are beaten, we shouldn’t beat ourselves up about it, but instead, we should look for areas of improvement.

I don’t like to lose, but I think succeeding all the time would get old.

Here are his comments…

So my agency was tasked with creating and submitting the some “America’s Cheers” for the 2008 Olympics. It’s for a promotion we’re helping Bank of America launch since they’re the official bank of the Olympics this year. One of the BANK execs set up an inter-agency competition to help kick-off the promotion with the winners receiving 2 free tickets for an all-expense paid trip to the games in August. We all split up and submitted our own “cheers” for the competition.