Do NOT Take NO for an Answer.

“NO”.

“NO, that just won’t work.”

“NO, that’s impossible.”

“NO, we CAN’T do that.”

“NO, you’ll NEVER be able to do that.”

“NO, you can’t get into that class, succeed with that business, change the country for the better, achieve what you desire. AND HERE ARE ALL THE REASONS WHY YOU CAN’T.” (Insert lengthy, depressing, weighty, soul-sucking, and apparently airtight argument here.)

In other words: “SIT DOWN, SHUT UP, AND ACCEPT THE WAY IT IS.”

Refuse to accept that.

Do not just come quietly.

Take a stand for what you believe in, and fight for what you want.

I can tell you that whatever it is you want to achieve or do, there will come a point – possibly multiple points – where you hit a hard “no.” Where the facts are overwhelming, depressing. Where someone who knows much more than you talks to you for a half hour about why it can’t be done (and makes a smart argument, too).

In particular, I’m thinking of an excerpt from the book Undaunted by the Kara Goldin, founder of Hint water, who – when seeking advice from an experienced, big-time player at Coca Cola – was told very clearly that her goal could not be achieved.

Reading about the incident, you can practically feel the weight of this Coke executive’s arguments pulling her down, as he drones on and on, using technical jargon and careful reasoning to tell her that her goal of a natural, unsweetened, flavored water with a reasonable shelf-life could not be successful, and that people would not want it.

The way Goldin recounts it, you can practically feel the spark being drained out of her, the color and optimism from her outlook being grayed and extinguished, the weight pulling her down, as this highly respected gentleman drones on and on, relentlessly… logically… pessimistically… thoughtfully… about why her idea won’t work.

On and on….until she gives up.

She gives in, and says he can just HAVE her company. He can just take it. For free.

She’s so discouraged, depressed. She’s beaten, demoralized. The facts are just that it won’t work.

He doesn’t even accept the offer. He doesn’t want it.

NO.

That’s what a a “no” feels like. When you’re faced with someone telling you that it “won’t work,” and their pessimism and logic is so strong, that you yourself feel it completely drain your mood, as you realize….”this just won’t work. It’s impossible.”

At least, you think you realize that.

Because in fact, Kara Goldin went on to do EXACTLY what she was told was impossible, and create a wildly successful multi-million-dollar company.

But she almost had given up. In fact, for a moment there, she had given up…for a few seconds. Somehow later, she convinced herself not to back down. And it’s a good thing, too, because she went on to enjoy some insane success.

But back to this one anecdote:

What was really dangerous about this conversation wasn’t the factual content, but the fact that on an emotional level, she was so discouraged and demoralized.

It might sound sort of touchy-feely to say this, but I truly believe that the most dangerous aspect of this conversation was that it negatively affected her EMOTIONS so much that she almost gave up permanently.

So my advice?

Do WHATEVER you have to do to not let a “No” affect you on an emotional level.

Expect that generally, your first reaction to new or ambitious ideas will be a vocalized or situational “no,” but don’t let it touch you, emotionally.

As Chris Voss – negotiation expert for the FBI, who’s had decades of experience with literal terrorists and hostage scenarios – puts it, “‘No’ marks the beginning of the negotiation, not the end.”

(By the way, Chris Voss has a surprisingly excellent book on negotiating called Never Split the Difference which I highly recommend.)

So look – you’re going to hear “no”s. Small ones, and sometimes big ones, to the point where you almost give in permanently.

And “no”s come in many forms. Maybe it’s someone literally telling you “No, your idea won’t work.” Maybe it’s a class that you want to get into, which is full – with a wait-list. (That’s basically a “no.”) Maybe you tried to do a run – or really, achieve any goal – and you didn’t get the results you wanted, and it made you want to quit. (Again, no one’s actually telling you “no” here, but it’s basically a “no.”)

And it’s okay to back off, to readjust your strategy, to consider alternatives.

But what I NEVER want to hear ANYONE reading this blog do is take that “no” on an internal, emotional level to the point of being demoralized into submission. Definitely not permanently.

As Kara Goldin makes a point of saying in her book, when it comes to your goals, and you hear a “no” – interpret it as “maybe.”

But on an internal, emotional level – do NOT take “NO” for an answer.

Meta-Improvement

In my first blog post, I said I would fill you guys in on the strategies and tactics I used to drop 10 pounds in 30 days.

(I’ve been using those words a lot lately, “strategies” and “tactics.” Let me clarify what I mean: tactics are highly specific action steps, while strategies are overarching approaches.)

It would be fun to jump right into all the cool tactics, but I think I’d be doing you a disservice.

Because when I started, at the beginning of the month, I didn’t even have all of the tactics myself.

Actually I really wasn’t sure what I was going to do.

I hand-drew a 30-day calendar, and – again, not knowing how I was going to do it – decided I was going to get in shape and lose weight during the next month, keeping track of what happened.

I, like you, have heard lots of weight loss advice from various sources, much of it extremely contradictory.

And I, like you, have tried many, many times to lose weight….largely unsuccessfully.

(At least, I’m assuming you’ve tried to lose weight. But who knows, maybe you’ve always been effortlessly thin. Anyway.)

So while I’ve been at this “weight loss” thing for a while – and you would THINK I’d have it FIGURED OUT BY NOW – I didn’t.

So I decided to start fresh. Forget everything I “knew” to be true. Try to find out what really worked, for me, and what would be healthiest for me.

NOTE AT THE OUTSET: I do think that was an important distinction. I knew that I wanted to lose weight, but I didn’t want to sacrifice health, or well-being, to do it. (In other words, I didn’t want to over-train or kill myself – or sacrifice any overall happiness at all, really – to lose weight.) So I did make that promise to myself before diving in.

(Does that make sense? Ok good, because shit’s only gonna get crazier from here on out. Strap in.)

30 days, and no tactics.

But I did have a strategy.

One simple overarching approach going into the month. And I did feel pretty smart about what I had in mind:

Meta-Improvement.

The idea of getting better at how you get better.

Let me explain my thinking. I’ll start from the beginning.

The way I see it, most people are “outcome oriented.” Let’s call that a “Level 1” improvement mindset.

If you’re outcome oriented – and, for example, you want to lose weight – you’re focused on stepping on the scale and looking at the numbers. You want the numbers to go down. (You have a vague idea about what your approach is going to be, and whatever that is, you do it as hard as you can). But as soon as possible, you get back to the scale, checking your number.

And when it doesn’t go down, it’s devastating. When your approach doesn’t work, you start to feel like you’re stuck, permanently. You start to think, in a defeated tone, “I’m just _____ .” (Insert weight here).

“I’m just the type of person who’s overweight”

“This is just in my genes”

(Notice the specific way in which the word “just” is being used. It JUST won’t happen for me. I’m JUST an overweight person. That’s JUST how it is. That should be a bit of a red flag for you, if you ever hear it used like that. It means that someone isn’t currently thinking with a growth mindset. Don’t EVER talk to yourself like that.)

So that’s Level 1. You’re outcome oriented. You focus on the numbers on the scale – on the results – and if what you’re doing doesn’t bring results, well, your situation is permanent.

Supposedly.

But there’s a whole next level to looking at improvement:

“Level 2” thinking – being Process Oriented.

This is an enormous upgrade from Level 1 thinking. If you’re process-oriented, you’re focused not on the numbers of the scale, but on consistently following the steps you’ve decided to take to improve. For example, you’re making sure you hit the gym a predetermined number of times per week, eat predetermined healthy foods, and stick to positive habits.

Instead of focusing too much on how much you actually weigh – which will drive you crazy – you focus on doing the things you’ve determined you should do to ultimately make you healthier and thinner.

Got that?

You avoid the emotional turmoil of the numbers not always being what you want them to be. You get much better at following through on your plan.

This is because your entire goal has shifted:

It’s not “lose weight” anymore, it’s now “follow this process really well.”

This is an enormous upgrade in thinking. If you’ve never thought like this before, then start. Try it. Get here, nail this, you’ll be a thousand percent better off. Seriously: habits and consistency – being process oriented – pay off IN MULTIPLES compared to simply being “outcome oriented.”

This type of thinking is ultra achievable, and ultimately leads to much better results.

Except for when it doesn’t.

Because sometimes, you dial in an excellent process – and you focus on it – and at the end of the month, you check the scale (or the body fat percentage reader), and nothing significant happened.

Fvck.

(And we’re back to square one, feeling like “this JUST isn’t for me….”)

Well, here’s the thing: your process, while it might’ve sounded excellent – while it might’ve even had some great qualities – probably wasn’t actually as ideal as you thought. Maybe it wasn’t the perfect approach for your specific body. Perhaps it even could have been a lot better.

And we were so focused on STICKING to the process, that we didn’t even bother to really consider that.

Welcome to level 3 thinking: Process-Improvement.

In other words, Meta-Improvement. Not just improving, but improving how you improve.

(Sorry, I know that’s confusing. Did anyone take Calculus? Something about this is making me flashback to derivatives….)

If your orientation – your goal – is NOT improving the number on the scale, and not even sticking to a process, but instead IMPROVING your process as much as possible, you are unstoppable.

Sure, you’ll probably start out by coming up with what seems to be the best process you can think of, with whatever knowledge you have at the time. And you’ll stick to it really well. Sort of “Level-2” type stuff.

But as you go, your entire goal will be to improve the process as much as possible.

Let me say that again:

The ENTIRE goal becomes NOT to lose weight, NOT EVEN to rigorously follow a process, but to IMPROVE THE PROCESS as much as possible.

(You may notice, at this point, we’re so removed from the actual scale number now, we’re like three levels deep. This is Inception type stuff).

Your goal, when you’re focusing on Level-3 thinking, is simply to improve your process as much as possible. You’ll remove things. And add things. And tweak things. And keep coming at everything with the rigor and consistency we learned back in Level 2, from Process-Orientation, but now with your mental energy directed towards noticing things you could do better.

You’ll find yourself consistently asking broad questions such as: “How could I make this more enjoyable?” “How could I make this more effective?” “What tactics am I not implementing that would be useful?” “How could this be easier?” “What should I cut back on?”

(Often just literally just posing these questions, out loud, patiently waiting for an answer to come to mind – even if nothing does.)

Because ultimately, by focusing on improving your process as much as possible – by simply asking these questions a lot – your process will improve.

And if your process improves, then your results will drastically improve.

And this was my secret weapon during my 30-day fat loss experiment in which I dropped ten pounds.

I used level 3 thinking to improve the rate at which I improved.

The difference between Process Orientation and Process-Improvement Orientation is sort of like the difference between linear growth and exponential growth:

So, recap:

30 days, a blank calendar, a couple of priorities, and a simple strategy: Meta-Improvement.

(I can give you my specific tactics later, if you want them – they’re kinda exciting too.)

But what’s really cool, is that this overarching strategy – Level 3 Process-Improvement thinking – can be applied to anything you want to improve.

Instead of focusing on the results, instead of even focusing on the process (which is still much better than focusing on the results!), focus on IMPROVING the process. Improve the rate at which you improve. Get better at getting better.

Consistently take action, but consistently improve how you’re taking action.

It’s meta, and cerebral, I know. And you won’t have all the answers.

Just start doing your best to think like this.

Notice things, write stuff down, track everything you can, ask yourself open-ended questions, and try out new approaches and tweaks.

And know this: any time spent in Level 3 thinking translates to many multiples of output in the lower levels.

(Again, kind of like Inception – I really hope you’ve seen that movie, so you’re getting these references….)

In other words, any small amount of time pondering how you can improve your weight loss process will ultimately translate to many actual pounds of fat lost.

And if you do that a little bit every day for 30 days – while consistently taking action – the results are incredible.

Meta-Improvement.

“You musn’t be afraid to dream a little bigger, darling.” – Eames (Tom Hardy), Inception.

P.S. – if you really want to get lost in the Limbo of self-improvement, try improving your ability to improve how you improve. In other words, Improving your method of process-improvement.

Or don’t. It’s too hard to think about.

Becoming a Runner During Quarantine

I KNOW, I KNOW – YOU HATE RUNNING.

You hate it, you’ll never do it, I can’t convince you otherwise, running is the last thing you’d want to do, you’d rather get acupuncture with rusty nails than go on a run.

That’s exactly what everyone says. (Not the acupuncture thing, I made that up).

I concede, I probably won’t be able to convince you otherwise. Let me just share my story:

I’ve always hated running. Running sucked. It hurt, I was never fast as I wanted to be, there were always people a lot better than me, it was hot, competitive, miserable, and did I mention – it hurt.

But welcome to 2020. Gyms are shut down. Group fitness classes (like Krav Maga, a highly effective martial art that I love) are closed. Options are limited.

Technically, I have “gone on runs” before, at various times in my life. I certainly had to do some running during compulsory education – remember that? How miserable was that? Running at elementary school or junior high, clocking our mile times… I hated that. (No wonder nobody wants to run anymore.)

But despite that minuscule amount of experience, I would absolutely not consider myself “a runner.”

So, self-experimenting masochist that I am – with options limited during Covid-19 – I decided: screw it, I’m gonna pick up running.

Well, I started up, and I used some crafty high-leverage tactics to help me get started and improve (I can tell you more about that later, if you must know). One of these techniques, though – and I kid you not, the most powerful – was going for a walk every morning.

And I should clarify what I mean by walk:

I mean, after sipping some coffee, stepping outside my house, and leisurely walking to the end of the block (maybe an entire 100 feet) before lazily taking a few deep breaths and turning back.

A stupidly easy little trick that would take me about 30 seconds every morning. I would often do it coffee in-hand.

(Side note: in addition to the vitamin D and gentle exercise, getting outside in the morning sunshine is great for your circadian rhythm.)

Weirdly enough, I started enjoying this. Looking forward to it.

In fact, I started doing this every single day.

(I dare you to experiment with this for 2 weeks and see what happens to your mood. It’s amazing.)

It soon became a cemented habit – every single day I’d go on a brief, tiny, coffee-fueled morning walk.

Sometimes I’d even allowing myself to walk further, if (and only if) I felt like it.

But something sort of magical happened. Because of this habit, going on runs became easier.

Like, a LOT easier.

Any day that I’d already gone outside on a tiny walk, it was infinitely easier to get myself to go on a run later on.

(Words cannot do justice to this phenomenon, you just have to experience it for yourself to truly understand what I’m talking about. Don’t believe me? Test it out on yourself for two weeks. Message me if it doesn’t work, I’ll help you.)

Now, a couple months later (thanks to some other nifty tactics and jedi mind-tricks, as well as some support from my dad, who frequently brings me out on runs), I run multiple times a week, consistently.

(Again – if you want – in a later post I can tell you about some of the other strategies I used to get started.)

But now, I can now honestly say this. Almost sheepishly:

I actually love running.

I’m one of those people.

Let me tell you what I mean when I say “I love running.”

I go to bed, actually looking forward to going on runs the next morning.

They give me this wonderful endorphin-fueled “runners high.” They let me spend some time with other runners and friends. And overall, they improve my mood so much that when I take a break from running for a few days – and I go out again – it’s like getting a hit with a drug that I’ve been deprived of.

It feels so good. Not as a competitive outlet (at least, not for me), not as a peak-performance type of thing, but as a healthy, enjoyable, lifestyle.

And yeah, as the cherry on top, I recently went out to clock my mile time (….yes, like we used to do back in school…)

My first attempt (again, with a little coaching and pacing from my dad), I ran a 6 minute and 7 second mile.

And just last Saturday, we went out again, and I ran a 5 minute and 47 second mile.

For me, that’s nuts. Absolutely insane.

But more importantly, I like running now. It’s something else that not only keeps me healthy, but that I look forward to.

Oh, and I would definitely say – I now view myself as a runner.

Naysayers and Intellectual Laziness (Feat. Neil deGrasse Tyson)

I was taking one of those online Masterclasses with (renowned astrophysicist) Neil deGrasse Tyson the other day, when he hit me with one of the most though-provoking quotes I’ve heard in a while:

“So imagine someone comes up to you with some crystals, and they tell you that there’s sort of a crystal energy embedded within them, and if you rub them together, this energy field will release, and it will enter your body and cure you of your ailments. All right, I have several things to say about that. One, it is equally as intellectually lazy for you to say, great, give them to me, how much, here’s my money, I’ll use them tonight, as it is to say, this can’t possibly be true, get out of here, you’re a charlatan. Both of those are equally intellectually lazy.

Neil deGrasse Tyson

Genius.

If I were to attempt to paraphrase:

It is equally as intellectually lazy to outright reject something as untrue – without investigating it – as it is to blindly accept it as gospel.

Now I think most of us – those of us who consider ourselves to be even somewhat critical thinkers – tend to not make the latter mistake. (At least, for the most part.)

Most of the people I know, at least, tend to be pretty skeptical, critical thinkers. We don’t just blindly accept things to be true without evidence. Which is great.

But it’s easy to fall into the other extreme of “intellectual laziness,” under the guise of intelligent skepticism.

That is to say, someone might come up to us – perhaps not with crystals, but with some promising idea – and say “hey, I’ve tried this out, and it works really well.”

And the knee-jerk response might be “no, that can’t possibly be true – after all: I’m an intelligent skeptic.”

The question Neil and I would pose in that situation is – are you being an intelligent skeptic? Or are you being intellectually lazy?

I’ve fallen prey to this many times. I dismiss new ideas that sound like they won’t work:

“You journal nonsense stream of consciousness for four pages every day? Ridiculous, that can’t possibly help you.”

“You trick yourself into feeling like you already have achieved something you want, and you say it helps you get it? Nonsense. Go buy some crystals.”

But you know what, before I outright dismiss something as categorically untrue, I’ve started forcing myself to immediately ask “well….have i TRIED it?”

Have I at least looked into it at all?

Or am I just saving face, protecting my identity as an “intelligent skeptic,” by dismissing it outright?

Because according to Neil deGrasse Tyson, that’s just as intellectually lazy.

So if you find yourself dismissing something outright, without even looking into it at all – or best yet, testing it out on yourself, to SHOW that it either works or doesn’t – give pause for a moment.

And if you have something that works, and any naysayers respond with “B.S. – that can’t possibly work” (without having researched it, or tested it…) just remember:

Rejecting a new and promising idea as categorically untrue – without so much as looking into it – is equally as intellectually lazy as blindly accepting it on faith.

Biohacking – What Is It Really?

The unlimited power of biohacking!!! Credit: Shutterstock.

“Biohacking” – that’s a term that’s thrown around a lot these days.

If you’re like many people, it brings to mind images of science labs, cryotherapy, Dave Asprey, DNA, and superhuman mutants.

Some people spew vague health advice as “biohacks” (“eat your veggies” “get more sleep!”) – does that really count as a “biohack” ? While others – looking at you, David! – are making a lot of money off of certain tactics (like an extra special type coffee with butter in it?) that may not necessarily have much evidence to support them.

(I’m also confident that there are some people out there – solely trying to make money – selling “biohacks” in the form of pills, homeopathic medicine, or other voodoo magic tricks that literally do nothing.)

VOX defines biohacking as “an extremely broad and amorphous term that can cover a huge range of activities, from performing science experiments on yeast or other organisms to tracking your own sleep and diet to changing your own biology by pumping a younger person’s blood into your veins.”

With such a vague term, and money involved, there’s bound to be some controversy and polarized internet articles on the topic.

What really is it? What counts?

I humbly offer my perspective.

I think “Healthline” gets it reasonably close: “Biohacking can be described as citizen or do-it-yourself biology. For many “biohackers,” this consists of making small, incremental diet or lifestyle changes to make small improvements in your health and well-being.”

(Though I would hasten to add, the the “small” changes can lead to improvements that might not always be so “small.”)

A “hack” – as the term is used commonly, today, – is simply a way to do something more efficiently or more effectively.

And Biohacking, as I see it, refers to the process of improving physical health, aesthetics, or performance, particularly efficiently or effectively, through the use of self-experimentation.

It’s a broad definition.

To put it even more simply:

If you’re experimenting on yourself to try to improve, you’re biohacking.

That can be as simple as changing the tiniest variable. If you’re going to bed one hour earlier, and seeing what happens, you’re biohacking. If you’re adding in a vegetable smoothie every day, and seeing what happens, you’re biohacking.

(Of course, you have to actually track what the changes are, and maintain consistency in your experiment. A halfhearted, vague attempt to “eat more veggies” that you forget about in a few days doesn’t really count as an experiment.)

However, if you add the habit of ‘going outside for 5 minutes every morning for two weeks,’ and you actually track something – even your “tracking” is just a quick journal about your mood for that day – you’re biohacking.

The cool thing is, is once you start, things can get pretty exciting, pretty quick.

Once you start viewing your body as something that can be improved and optimized through your habits, and you start running little experiments, you start to realize how much power over yourself you actually have.

And sometimes, you discover ways to drop significant amounts of weight quickly, lower your cholesterol, or live longer, through very cool (and often unorthodox) methods.

(This tends to be where the traditional image of ‘biohacking’ comes in – with the “unorthodox” methods.)

So my suggestion to you is simple: try experimenting on yourself.

(No, no, I don’t mean just jumping right in and injecting crazy substances into your body. I mean changing ANY variable – no matter how small – in a way that you suspect might be good for you. And watching what happens, with an open mind.)

Because you know what? You may just surprise yourself and discover a highly efficient or effective way to improve your health, looks, or athletic performance.

And if you do, please share it with the world. So hats off to fellow biohackers who are genuinely trying to improve themselves through self-experimentation. And honestly, hats off to Dave Asprey and the like, who are seeking to become better, live longer, and be healthier, through some open-minded experiments and an optimistic attitude.

(And if some individuals are making money off of untested “biohacks” or spouting ideas that simply don’t work, we should be critical of the specific techniques in question – but not give up on Biohacking as a whole.)

Because you can improve yourself.

You can start now, today.

It helps to have a little optimism, and an open mind, and patience. But through a little self experimentation, you may just surprise yourself with the amount of power you have over your own body.

And ultimately, you may be able to upgrade your life, just by starting with some small self-experiments.

Sometimes, Something Just Clicks.

That rare moment when something you’re trying to achieve suddenly works – really well.

Photo by Jessica Lewis on Pexels.com

My name is Dolan Ingraham.

I’m a self-optimization and improvement addict who has:

• Taught myself from scratch how to profitably invest (earning an annualized return of 24%), and released a course on the subject
• Learned how to travel the country, staying in amazing hotels, on a shoestring budget
• Figured out how to enjoyably lose 10 pounds of fat in 30 days

From $70 round-trip flights to cities I’ve always wanted to visit (staying in beautiful hotels that I paid ~$100 total for), to aggressive yet calculated stock investments, to adventures in fasting and green tea, I’m constantly learning, experimenting, and self optimizing to have the best life possible – and I may just be able to help you make your life a little more adventurous too.

The thing is, recently I’ve been struggling with weight loss. Fat loss, to be more precise.

While working a hotel job that involved a lot of unhealthy free food and night shifts, I put on more weight than I’ve ever had in my life.

A little background – I’d recently learned how to put on muscle mass (something I thought would be impossible). I had always had this dream of being able to actually gain visible muscle, which I was NEVER able to do. No matter how much I went to the gym (4 times a week, religiously), I couldn’t change how my body looked. Long story short – maybe I’ll tell you more another time – I finally cracked the code and was able to put on some quality muscle mass with a totally different approach. It involved eating a lot.

BUT THEN along came this job.

This stressful, night-shift, fast-paced, food-abundant, nutritionally-questionable, hospitality job.

And without realizing it, slowly, over time, I put on more weight than I ever have in my life.

I went from being decently proud of my physical health, and the muscles I had finally gained to looking at the mirror at a rounded face and belly. What. The. Fuck.

When I actually stepped on a scale (at my brother’s urging), the number shook me a little more than I’d like to admit.

My cholesterol was too high. Total cholesterol was at 223. My doctor made a point of talking to me about it.

Eventually, I realized….I wanted to lose weight. (And not the muscle mass that I had worked for – I wanted to lose fat.)

So I started researching it, and doing everything I could to lose weight.

I tried everything. (Ok not EVERYTHING. But a lot. I really experimented with everything I could. And I went pretty hard.)

CrossFit, Paleo, Slow-Carb, Counting Calories, Counting Macros, the “Fast-Metabolism Diet,” even a bit of the Weight Watchers point system.

Here’s the thing: I understand that weight loss is supposed to be a simple formula, (Calories In) minus (Calories Out). (I also understand that some people think that’s bogus, and that you should just focus on eating certain types of foods rather than count calories.)

Here’s the thing: othing worked.

(I should clarify – that’s not totally fair – there were some benefits to various approaches.)

BUT I DID NOT LOSE SIGNIFICANT WEIGHT.

Occasionally a pound or two would come off from various tactics, after a ton of effort. But it would tend to come back.

I had a basic problem – the fewer calories I ate, the worse I felt.

Even cutting my calories a little bit felt awful.

But over the past month or so, I’ve been able to lose 10 pounds in the time-span of about 30 days and actually FEEL GOOD. Really good. (And since losing that first ten pounds and hitting my goal, I’ve actually lost a little more weight…) My total cholesterol has also dropped to 153. My doctor was blown away – she had never seen anything like it.

So since a lot of people seem to be going through similar problems, I thought I’d start here. Maybe, if you have any extra fat you want to lose, I can help you.

Only, this is my first blog post ever, and I’m getting tired of writing, and you’re probably getting tired of reading.

So, perhaps in a future post?