For the past several weeks our lives have been a blur. 12, 14, 16 and even 18 hour days have been the norm every day for at last 6 weeks straight. Work, train, work at my Dads house, head home at whatever time and sleep. Then repeat....

During this period of craziness I have somehow lost a total of 35 pounds! Yep 35. I currently am weighing at or around 277 pounds and I hate it! I have not weighed under 290 pounds for at least 15+ years or more. I know what you are going to say: good for you, i bet your health is better than ever, your blood pressure is sure to be lower, go and compete in the 275 weight class and so forth. All of those things may be correct or possible but the stress, not eating correctly and long days are not the ways you want to loose that amount of weight in such a short period of time.

Our plan 2 years ago was to move into my dads house August 2018 when my daughter Katelyn leaves for college, but August 2018 became April 2018. Our house that we have been living in for the past 8 years sold allot faster that we thought it would once it was on the market. The first person that came to look at the house bought it immediately and we had 30 days to get out. Even though we had made huge progress the past 2 years at my dads house, it was not livable in the current state that the house was in. We still needed to get the house carpeted, the bathroom plumbing needed to be completed, the kitchen floor had to be completely torn out and redone, new kitchen appliances had to be bought, all the electrical had to be done in the kitchen, walls needed to be fixed and painted, kitchen ceiling needed to be fixed and painted, and new plumbing had to be installed in the kitchen, refurbish 85 year old cabinets and have new counter tops installed as well.

We saved the kitchen for last because we knew it would be a bear to tackle. This is an 85 year old house with no 21st century amenities. So in six weeks we needed to create a miracle. We had to get more work done and spend more money in six weeks than we had in the past six months. Honestly I believe we have bought stock in Lowes. The amount of time and money that we have spent in Lowes the past several weeks has probably been unprecedented. I believe we probably went to Lowes every two to three days to buy new stuff or stuff that we had forgotten or stuff to fix new problems that arose.

We have been very lucky to have some great people to help us along the way and these individuals know who they are and the appreciation we have for them. Without their help guidance and hard work we would have never met the deadline. We literally moved in to my dads house on the 30th day, the last day we had to be out of the other house. Several of out team mates helped us move in last weekend. We did enough cardio in 4 days to last us a whole year. I never want to move another piece of furniture in my life.

Now that we have been settling in this week, we now have Directv, internet, our mail has been coming to our new address and our cat has not been as stressed and crazy, LOL. Even though I grew up in this house as a kid and a teenager, sleeping here in the house this week still feels like I am in a completely new house. We have done so many changes it feels like a completely different home than what I grew up in. I know my father would be proud. Im sure he is looking down from heaven with a big smile that we have transformed the house that he grew up in and that I grew up in and that has been in his family for 85 years to something more modern and up to date.

I will post some before and after pictures sometime this upcoming week. We have also started a new training cycle this week and I am breaking in my new Metal Jack canvas squat suit. I am very excited about starting a new training cycle and possibly competing in a new weight class and what that will be like...we will see.

One more thing before I close, our first powerful lifting meet hosted by Team Nebobarbell will be: May 19, 2018 in Asheville NC. The name of the meet is the North Carolina IPA State Championships - Carolina Carnage. This will also be a qualifier for IPA Worlds in September 2018. If you are looking for a great meet with a great venue and some great lifting be sure to come.