“Every morning in Africa, a zebra wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest zebra, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or zebra - when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.”

- Unknown

Well, Dec 19th was my birthday and a celebration of 32 happy years on good ol planet earth.  I decided it was time to give myself a  birthday gift so I went on a mile run.  This was the first time I have ran a mile since I was a freshman in high school.I say that I “ran” a mile but actually I speed walked one lap, ran one lap, speed walked one lap and ran the last lap.  Four laps equals one mile so actually I only ran half a mile but I felt good about this accomplishment as small as it may seem.  I did that mile in 14 minutes and 40 seconds, the next day I did it in 13:58.  My goal is to try and beat my time everyday but mainly just finish a mile 6 days a week, Also my first goal is to just run one without walking any of it.  When I run one mile my new goal will be 1.5 then 2 and so on until I am ready to run the Crazy 8’s 8K (about 5 miles) in mid July in Kingsport TN with my cousins Josh and Maggie (You can read all about their accomplishments, family and ministries here http://everforward-maggie.blogspot.com/ )  I have been encouraged by 3 sources to start consistent daily exercise 1. Josh and Maggie who started last year and have made very noticeable improvements and seem to enjoy it immensely (plus, if Josh can do it ANYBODY can do it. . . just kidding Josh. lol) 2. My friend Barry Mitchell who has had some great weight loss success recently and became a self proclaimed exercise junky www.barrymitchell.com .  3. Mike Huckabee, former Arkansas governor that lost 110 lbs before running for president in the last republican nomination.  He made a goal to walk for 12 minutes every morning, no more and no less and the next thing you know he was running marathons.

I have come to the conclusion that successful weight loss requires a lifestyle change and exercise produces endorphins and makes you feel GREAT.  I feel great about myself after these short runs and It effects my mental attitude towards food for the entire day.  I also find myself looking forward to it and a great way to relieve stress.

I will keep you posted about my results and I look forward to a new year filled with lots of sweat-filled headbands and several new and smaller belts.

Keep Running,

Jon Dee (The Shrinking Hypnotist)