I'm not really very tall but the average American man is only 5'9" tall, and none of my friends are much over 5'10" if I had to guess. It's not like we ever measured each other, but my older brother and I did. The big dummy thought he was taller than me but he was a whole inch shorter. There's a picture of me and my brothers that my mom had us take at a photo studio as adults. We're all different heights and we're arranged like stair steps with me being the top step. My younger brother is short and outweighs me by a lot. When he decided to get in shape he must have chosen the shape of a beach ball. I'm still way too fat but at least I have big bones to carry the weight. My dad was short and my mom is tiny, and the runt of the litter takes after them. One time I was looking at some different camouflage shirts and pants in a catalog and they used the same measurements as army BDUs. They came in short, regular, and tall. I need short or regular length pants but tall shirts to come all the way down to my wrists. If my legs were more in proportion with the rest of my body I'd be closer to 7' tall than 6'.

If you see me out on the trails I'll be easier to recognize now. Look for a big fat guy with the bottom of his jeans worn out from dragging on the ground, and his belly and back showing when he raises his hand to wave. Actually I've been buying mostly tall size T-shirts lately, but if they aren't V-necks they're all sliced open in front so I don't feel like I'm being strangled. I've been doing that for longer than I can remember and I guess it's my "trademark". I wish the V-necks were "deep Vs" because they bother me too but so far I haven't cut one open. When T-shirts cost $30 apiece I try to make them last. And unlike most people who say they're big boned, I actually am. My wrists are so big I can't even reach my big hands around them, and no matter how much weight I lose they aren't getting any smaller. One time some jewelry company called trying to sell me a men's bracelet and when the guy told me how long it was I laughed. It was more than an inch too short to fit around my wrist. When I told the salesman he said they make extensions I could buy for it. I told him I wasn't interested. Besides, real men don't need extensions.

 

I was anxiously reading through ''your'' describing ''your'' miserable fat self! while hoping to get to a place where you had decided to take charge of your life, and start doing something about it....nothing! not a WORD!! just the same 0, same 0, vicious circle! complaining about the rut you keep mentioning, ''your in'', I know what that RUT is like! For years I keep putting off, which in our minds ment....WORK!! to lose the FAT....but its NOT!! it's all in our heads, thinking its, work to lose it
IF YOUR A WIMP PLEASE DON'T TRY THIS!
#1 Can anyone just stand up, get off ***, and just lift 1 leg, then extend arm into the air, making a fist, yelling, YES!....your telling your mind, you're in control, and you just exercised!! tricked you, ha ha you just exercised! Now was that so hard? Now, set your fat *** back down, at least feeling proud of yourself...you started....don't do any other workouts today, the key has unlocked, that part of the brain, telling it, your in it! to win it! You've taken CHARGE! YOUR THE MAN! Proud of you mister! If you got this far, in the program, here, that is lol

#2 Day 2, By now you're very anxious to do more! since it's so easy, right! because by now your whole body is anxiously revving, like the feeling we get, when first getting out on trails, just before the first ride, of the season, ''kind of a feeling''! its magical, you'll feel it! Now that your freaking to get started, don't over do anything, just pick a time/place to enjoy your ''new found sport'' try to get into a routine, the same time every day, so as a reminder, doing the simple jogging....well in your sad shape, just lifting a leg up in place, and pounding it down, lol, then the other fat leg....see how easy, but your doing it! and it gets addictive! just do one minute, and don't exert yourself, but try to stay the course, lol Who doesn't have ONE ''little minute'' in a whole day 24 hr day! to do for yourself, think of it, like when we treat ourselves to a big bite of our favorite candy bar, that same kind of eye closing, stop the heart, jaw dropping, kind of joy! this will be your new kind of joy, you'll see! if you have managed to go this far, that is, on day 2....now after your 1 min. of enjoyment, ''the exercise''! thrust fist, high in air/congratulating yourself/yelling....YES!! You did it again!! congrats! end of day 2, you made it, BIG BOY!! be very proud of yourself, you survived the challenge and feeling powerful, because you took charge of your LIFE! Each day add just a few more steps....not minutes, you don't want to over do your (I won't use the word....''workout''...) it's not that, it's a thrill/joy, like trail riding, the experience, and it is, you'll feel it right away, from day one, it's not something that takes weeks/months to get the benefit/feeling/joy from, it just takes that, day ''ONE'' to get started, just stand up, like the men we are, and START! So easy, but it truly is magical, just stand, lift one leg, then pound fist into air, and yell YES!! and the key is turned on, You've unlocked the power of the mind! Now go and be fit/proud! FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE! Your heart, lungs, knees, hips, self worth, appearance, will all thank you, from now....ON! YOU! THE NEW MAN! Women are going to stop and pay attention! Your the dude!

#3 We'll talk about #3 ''the diet'' I know BAD< BAD word! Don't think about that right now! It doesn't exist....Stay with your Joy! after you've managed to accomplish steps 1 -2 lol We don't want to pile on too much, too soon, you have the hardest part of the program to do first....lift one leg and set down....wow! big deal, but that first part for some reason is the hardest, THE just getting started! is the hardest part! Trust me! yet so easy, it's funny! It took most of my life to face it, and now that I've started, I can't understand why it took me so long to start, I was in denial, thinking too! it would be WORK! and if riding is work, which is way more work than anything in life we can ever do in life, ''we know this''! It's excruciating, painful, workout, but don't we feel invigorated after a good hard ride, so oxygenated, all over our bodies....tired as hell, but feeling great! It's the same feeling! You can go on in life, and never start, but why would anyone want to? Just because it's one minute out of our day? PLEASE!! or is it that it's too hard to just stand up! lol
Next time we hear from you, we all want to hear something, way more positive, nothing negative....PRIVATE!!
I lost 56#'s this way almost 2 yrs ago....already! (it didn't take but a few months, to lose it, not years!) which doesn't seem like that much weight, until you try to pick up 10 5# bags of sugar, because that is exactly what I dropped....was mainly SUGAR! I sir am and have been an addict to sugar, my entire life, I fight it daily, and will, to my dying breath, but it can be controlled, on step #3 you'll see! Stay with me here lol The secret of my results is yet to come....yes you too, can follow my life giving secrets, for just $39.99....a month, you too! can look as good as I do! lol I accept credit cards, CASH, food stamps, an all expense trip, up camping, trail riding....my choice of STEAKS!! '' A thich prime rib'', cooked out on the Barbi! I'll even go out of my way! lol to prepare it!....JUICY!! Hurry up with the program, I'm getting hungry....after all that exercising we need to reward ourselves, now and then, espicall after burning most of it off, on the trails lol
Happy Mothers day!!

 

Maps of 6,300 miles of Michigan forest roads open for ORV use added to statewide database

Off-road vehicle riders can see new updated maps, available at Michigan.gov/ForestRoads, showing which state forest roads are open to ORV use.

 

Looking good in Pink! lol

 

You think I'm doing nothing about it, but I've already decided to take charge of my life, and start doing something about it. One of my doctors had me taking pills that come with a long list of possible side effects. One of the big ones was it can cause weight gain. After I put on 30 pounds the doctor decided to lower my dosage and kept lowering it until I tapered down from 300 mg every night to 25 mg. Last week I took my last 4 pills every other day instead of every day and didn't get a refill. I took my last pill Thursday night and when I saw my doctor Friday I told him I'm not taking it anymore. He wasn't happy about that and spent some time explaining how all the different side effects it can cause that I had weren't because of the medicine. He said the dosage I was taking wasn't big enough to cause all those things and something else did, and he said we'll see what happens. One thing that happened in the last couple of years is that I lost 40 pounds, the 30 I gained while taking that medicine plus another 10 pounds. And if you saw how I can make my calves pop out so they look like like they're chiseled out of stone, you'd know I do something more than stand up, lift one leg and sit down. In other words you don't know $#!^, you just think you do.

Both of my feet and both legs were messed up from the moment I was born, but they've been fixed, well, more or less. The rest of my body is such a mess that walking is the only exercise I can do that doesn't cause me more pain than I'm already in. But I have to do physical therapy before I can go for a walk. Swimming might be okay too but I have a nasty surgical scar on my back I like to keep covered with a shirt. It looks like a doctor got stoned and tried to do a sex change on me while blindfolded. I don't want anyone to get aroused, and people at the pool would look at me weird whether I had a shirt on or not. Plus the last time I swam in a public pool they had to add so much chlorine because of people peeing in the water it made my eyes sting. It didn't matter what color you were when you got in the pool, you were white when you came out. Everyone's situation is different, and mine is more different than many others. Like they say, I'll do me, you do you.

ETA: I changed my diet and in the last 2 years I ate fraction of the amount of sugar I used to. I even buy sugar-free candy but can't eat much at a time because it's a super-laxative if you eat too much.

 

Keep up the way things work best for you, hope everything works out for you! all we can do is our best, can't do better than that, and hope it's the right choice, good luck with that, we all fight diet, weight on a daily basis and sometimes it gets overwhelming, but with good days not so good days lol I'm caught in between these days, most every other day lol, constant battle! for sure!

Here's the latest DNR map, updated often, showing the current ORV trails, around St Helen, they can be printed up before ea ride, I'll bring copies for ea of us, of this map and adjoining maps. Plenty of over 50'' trails available, shown!

 

 

Lets make this trip up to St Helen a learning experience, using our new GPS units, taking our time plotting out one trail to the next, making certain were staying on course, of trails legal for your ride. We can plot our destination as we roll lol Should be fun, never had/used these vvmaps before, and hope they perform as seen on You Tube with great reviews, but if needing backup, I'll have DNR maps on the ready as well, and we can compare the two for accuracy! Trails should be pretty dry when we get there, with little rain in forecast, so if we get any precept. it should help keep dust down, hopefully lol I had so much dust blown into all the nicks and crannies, on last trip to Baldwin, 2 weeks ago, it would be impossible to ever clean it all out, especially under seat, glued into wiring, components, everything in there! lol

 

If your Garmin is like mine, we might need to secure the device better, with the rough trails at times, helping to eliminating it from popping off, possibly getting roughed up, or flying off vehicle, maybe under tires, or hard surfaces! I'm thinking since it rests up next to the winch controls, I might somehow mount them together, which should help! Not too happy with the ball type/kind of swivel attachment!

 

Frank....I hear ya...I am not supposed to go jogging or do vigorous excercise on machines either..doctors orders! With my arthritus it only makes it worse. And the meds for it destroy your immune system. So I dont take them either. My instructions are walking and more walking. Doc says best excercise you can do is walk and swing your arms. Have to watch what I eat like everyone else, its just those damn cookies and donuts that are the problem.