My wife, Teri, and I love the Bavarian town of Leavenworth located in central Washington. In fact we love it so much, we’re considering buying a vacation home there and maybe eventually retiring there. I guess now that I’m 44, retirement is (hopefully) closer than it isn’t. There is ALWAYS something to do in Leavenworth. Whether your tastes lean towrd the active side of hiking, biking, skiing, snowshoeing or river rafting. Or the more mellow side of shopping, relaxing, dining and drinking, there is something for everyone in Leavenworth, all year long. Founded in 1906, the town was a sleepy logging town, just a blip on highway 2 until in 1962, the project LIFE (Leavenworth Improvement For Everyone) committee decided to turn Leavenworth into a mock Bavarian town. (Source:Wikipedia) What a fabulous idea! Throughout the town, all the facades of the buildings were made to look like Bavaria. Lots of … Read More
Big Dreams and Living Low Carb in Sin City
This week I’m at a Real Estate Conference in Las Vegas. I’m with nearly 4,000 individuals at the Mike Ferry SuperStar Retreat. Now if you know anything about real estate trainers, and coaching companies, the name “Ferry” is pretty high up on the list. Not only has Mike been training Real Estate agents for 40 years, his sons, Tom and Matt have also gotten into the real estate agent training game. Another prominent name in this forum is Brian Buffini. Now if you know anything about me, you know I’ve been part of Brian Buffini’s system for over 11 years now. I credit Brian and his “Referrals By Design” system with much of my success in my career really since it began. I’ve been to probably 15 turning point retreats, two masterminds, and had a private coach for the better part of four years with Brian’s company. I believe it’s … Read More
My Mind’s Eye…
I’ve written ad nauseam about my journey with my weight. Not so much here, but on my other blog at http://johnhurlbut/blog It’s been something I’ve struggled with all of my life. I mean I have literally tried everything to lose weight. Weight Watchers, Atkins, South Beach, Cabbage Soup Diet, Hypnosis, Lap Band Surgery, I have done them all and a host of other things as well. Right now my journey includes 3010 Weight Loss For Life. And to be honest, it’s the most success I’ve had with a diet (lifestyle change) ever. I’m currently down 42 pounds in 9 weeks. Now do the math on that and it’s just shy of 5 pounds per wek. I’ve got 9 weeks left and am hopeful for another 30-40 pounds in that time. If that happens, I’ll be about 20 pounds heavier than when I graduated high school. That just blows my mind. … Read More
Just a Couple Random Notes…
Personal – I weighed 275.7 pounds this morning. That officially puts me lower than the lowest I got after lap band surgery. It also means that when I walk into my office on Monday morning, no one there has ever seen me this “thin”. The next milestone to fall will be when I hit 266 pounds. That was the lowest my weight was in 2002 after a few months and losing 50+ pounds on Weight Watchers. When I hit 265 and change, it’s a good bet that no one in the past 18ish years has sen me at that weight? I think I was around 270 in 1997 when Teri & I started dating. There was a lot of working out then, but I don’t think there was much weight lost at that time. I have 12 or so weeks to go on 3010 Weight Loss For Life. If I … Read More
My First Learning to Fly Post Not About Flying
So the tagline of my site is something like “Just a guy trying to fly, both literally and figuratively”. This probably fits into the latter category. Anyone who has ever read any of my blogs before knows that probably the biggest thing I struggle with is my weight. I’ve always been overweight, obese, or morbidly obese. In 2009 I tipped (shattered) the scales at probably close to 360-370 pounds. I stopped weighing myself after I hit 350 and had basically resigned myself to the fact that I was just fat. At some point that year I investigated weight loss surgery and opted to go in for the Lap Band procedure. My official starting weight was 358 lbs at my doctor’s office. They required me to lose 10% of my body weight before my surgery, which I did. I was in the 320’s when I had surgery in August of 2009. … Read More