About Me

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Atlanta, GA, United States
When I suffered a lip injury that ended my career as a classical trombonist, I thought my life as a musician was finished, but I fell in love with music all over again when Santa gave me a guitar for Christmas in 2003. Even as I was struggling with my first chords, I was planning a new performance career. As a trombonist, I performed with the Heritage of America Band at Langley Air Force Base, the Ohio Light Opera, and in pick-up bands for touring acts that included Rosemary Clooney, George Burns, and the Manhattan Transfer. Reborn as a jazz guitarist, I sing and play my own solo arrangements of jazz classics, am half of the Godfrey and Guy duo, and hold the guitar chair in the Sentimental Journey Orchestra. I have been a freelance music copyist since 1995, served as Director of Music at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation from 2011 to 2017, and currently serve as Contemporary Band Director at the same congregation.

Friday, January 13, 2012

The Saga Continues

Around this time last year, I was nearing my weight loss goal. I was running and following a strict but sensible diet. Around March of last year, I finally met my goal and weighed under 200 pounds. Not longer after that, I developed an overuse injury from running.

Over the past several months, I've gained a lot weight again. It happened in increments.

Long distance running is a big calorie burner, and I was able to eat quite a bit and still lose weight. Once I stopped running, I began to lose my focus, but not my appetite. Despite walking and pedaling quite a bit, I gained some weight. Late last summer, I was hired as the music director at Northwest Unitarian Universalist Congregation. It suddenly seemed like I didn't have time to exercise. The job was only a 10 hour per week commitment, but that's almost the exact amount of time I had been spending exercising. In what was an already busy schedule, my exercise time was directly replaced with the music director job.

Over Thanksgiving, I decided to straighten out my priorities, start exercising again, and tighten up my diet. After some false starts, I began hitting my stride around Christmas time. I didn't have the nerve to step on the scale until last Sunday. I thought that I had maybe gained 30 pounds, so I was bracing myself for somewhere around 230. Imagine my shock when the scale read 258. Shit!

That was the jolt I needed. You can fool yourself into thinking you don't look too bad, but there's no fooling the scale. It will never lie.

I'm motivated first and foremost by the bathroom scale. Also, several people have told me that I helped motivate them to lose weight, and I don't want to disappoint them. Finally, I bought a lot of new clothes when I hit 200 pounds, and I refuse to spend money on a "big boy" wardrobe when that money could be better spent on guitars and gear!


So, the weight loss saga continues. I'm down 9 pounds since my last weigh-in and back on track.

3 comments:

  1. Yeah... You better not let me down :-) Seriously, you are a huge inspiration to me, and just so you know, it makes it more real to me that you have gained some weight back and are now back to losing it again. It makes me hopeful that you are a normal person and so am I thus logically, I can lose weight too.
    Sonya

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  2. Your honesty is so refreshing. I am rooting for you. Most of all, be good to your body, mind, and your soul.

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  3. My motivation to lose weight this past year was to help me get back to running. I figured less weight on my injured foot would help me. I've been watching what I eat to lessen inflammation in my aging body. I'm back to running and hope that we can run together sometime in the future. Good job on getting back on track.

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