I Believe…

I believe.
I believe in Santa Claus.
I believe in miracles.
I believe in the power of love.
I believe in the power of a smile.
I believe in the goodness inside people.
I believe in rock and roll.
I believe in Jerry, Johnny, Elvis and all the greats.
I believe in you.
I believe in myself.

It’s very simple sometimes. The basic thought is you have to believe. This is not some Anthony Robbins higher power, smoke up your ass bullshit, this is basic common principal. To change you have to be open to change and even more importantly you have to believe in yourself. Think about it. If you go into a job interview and if you don’t believe in yourself, how great are your chances of getting the job? I’ve been there before. It is frustrating and gut wrenching.

Believing in yourself is not easy sometimes although you would think the opposite on paper. Too many times we compare ourselves to other people. These transformations on Instagram still have plenty of deception behind them. And I don’t think it’s all of them…. so don’t get all cranky because I’m probably not talking about you. It’s just that a persons world online is generally not the same behind closed doors. But to accomplish great things, to push yourself to places you haven’t been, the foundation is to believe in yourself.

I have tried very hard over the last three years and yes, next month this will all be three years old…. my journey…. blog…  all of it…. to be honest and forthcoming…. I told you about the good days and bad… and even I would disappear in a depression when we hit too long of a patch of the bad…. it’s scary…. I don’t care if zero people are reading…. sometimes as I write to you I am making my own affirmations. I can do it. You can do it. Go Franco. I know you love KitKat and Twix bars Franco, but you’d really like these skinny jeans too if you could just put that Mountain Dew down and grab the gallon of water. It’s hard to be honest with others when you have a hard time being his honest with yourself. I try and show you all the positive in my life. Shit happens to me all the time that would shut many people down but I don’t let them.  A few days ago I heard someone new at the gym mumble something like “wow, he’s huge.” – Part of me wanted to tell him to go fuck himself sideways, part of me wanted to say, “yeah man I know but you should have seen me 3 years ago” and the biggest part of me just went about my business.

But that’s just it…  we never know what people are going through on the other side of the keyboard.  Someone dies of an over dose.  The first response is, I didn’t know he/she had a problem.  Well.  Of course you didn’t.  No one is parading around a drug addiction.  But it’s okay to sit at the bar and feed your alcoholism and chances are at that same bar you can buy plenty of wings to fuel some others.  Look I am not trying to preach.  What I am really trying to say and I went all the way around the world to say it is don’t believe everything you see on IG and to listen…  learn to read between the lines…

Wow Franco what the hell did you drink this morning? Well nothing yet.

I just realized that I have changed over the last year and that I let myself get lazy and then I ran into a friend in the Supermarket and he just talked to me for a few minutes and I was ready to get back at it. MUST BE THE MAGICAL power of a weightlifting bar tender. But with some coaching and fine tuning of my older programs I felt the eye of the tiger seep back into me….. call it what you want….. but I started believing in myself and in the past 11 days, I’ve worked out harder…. I’ve worked out more, and hit my macros for 10 of the 11 days and just believed in myself.

In fact I and so committed to get myself under the 100 pound loss mark again and then crush it by another 25 pounds by summer that I booked a trip to see family a few days before Xmas and without the usual fear. I can and will get to where I was a year ago before I get on that plane on December 18th. Then we will go from there.

In 11 days, I am down 10 pounds. I have worked hard to get here. And trust me, I’ve had a few moments where it really is not easy.  It they usually come late at night and I’ve been convincing myself to just go to bed. Guess what? Ive had some of my favorites but I just either made them a little more healthy or I just plain out made them fit my program. I had some carbs and fat to play with lasting so I had a cup of milk and 5 Oreos. And yes, I had 5 Oreos. Yes, this is me we are talking about. I could house a sleeve in seconds with milk and a spoon. But I took my time, enjoyed them and moved on.

Exercise wise I have my Apple Watch and a pretty awesome Under Armour app working for me. I decided that my body needed the sweat I would get from Orange Theory fitness so I rejoined and will be going there twice a week. My new fitness program specially tailored for me,  by me is called “Don’t stop moving fantasy!” So OTF  2x a week, boxing 2x a week me the at least a handful of bootcamp and whatever else I can shove in there.

Well we are back on track! Need a little push yourself? Team Franco is back on track and we are hear for each other. Don’t let the holidays be an excuse to stuff you elf like a pig. Eat the slice of pumpkin pie….  by all means…. don’t eat the whole damn pie. I have a strict goal so I’ll be making my holiday foods fit my macros. But it’s turkey…. we can work with it….. give me the carbs 🙂 it will be one biscuit instead of three….  if you best believe I am having that biscuit.

Believe in yourself. It’s the most important thing you can do for yourself in so many aspects of your life.

Countdown to Disney 30 days. Operation 15 down before Santa starts now.

“Wanting can be done sitting on the couch with a bong in your hand and a travel magazine in your lap.

Deciding means jumping in all the way, doing whatever it takes, and going after your dreams with the tenacity of a dateless cheerleader a week before prom night.”

Yup. I’m back.

I’ll be back to say hello before the holidays, love you guys.

Franco