Massterful Thinking: The Week In Thanks

What better place to assess this week's many sources of thankfulness than during Mass at Epiphany Catholic Church?

So first off, the Life Teen band had all its members present, which is a toss-up for an 8 person troupe. The sound was full and rocking and the energy was high. Plus, the husband-wife band leaders are terrific and the magnetism of the young priest often draws a crowd of 1,000. I should also note that my musical experiences through the years have taught me how to appreciate a situation like this much more so then when I was younger, trading on my perfectionism and leadership cravings for simple happiness to be there in a more minor role as part of a terrific sound. The congregants are more vocally appreciative, and surprisingly so to me, than anywhere else I've performed too. Plus I like the dress code compared with my Catholic schooling days... shorts!

I already blogged about the national anthem performance, but here it's worthy to share thankfulness for the Cornbelters' organization's willingness to give us amateurs a chance, for pristine weather, for Dena's support, and for good health that day.

Good health was another theme for the week. Besides anthem day, the usual aches and pains of a fortysomething were mostly in remission this week: arch sprain, back & knee pain. Plus Dena's celebrating nearly a 30-pound weight loss due to Weight Watchers.

I'm grateful for Dena's tradeswoman instincts - this weekend she decided to caulk the bathtub.

The little gifts that give me opportunity to bring a smile to others' faces, like my voice and even my own smile.

On a holiday weekend in celebration of American rights, I'm especially glad for women's rights. At least two women friends of mine are in divorce proceedings, and the fact that they are not dogmatically shunned or abused in American society but given many freedoms, inside and outside of the divorce, is a blessing.

Always glad to have the old car and computer chugging along. The car just reached its 14th birthday last month. The computer about 5. So both are fairly ancient, resilient and fortunate for me.

I'm lucky that Avanti's is in this town. It's a moderate American legend, at least for those who've grown up near the area. It's cheap and delicious (to me), my favorite.

Thankful as ever for State Farm. Not only for bettter-than-Allstate rates on my property, but also for the funds they've pumped into this town and my financial accounts. The freedom of these last two months has been invigorating and the pursuit of my teacher's calling has been a dream.

For clean, endless supply of water in my own home. It would be a Third World extravagance.

Finally, for the Founding Fathers of our nation as well as for my and Dena's fathers. The patriots' daring sacrifice put their lives on the line in very uncertain environment, their Constitution was designed in brilliant and remarkably enduring fashion. And our own birth fathers paid their own price not only with contributions in armed service, but in raising and defending us in countless other ways to make us into the happily married couple that we are.

Until next week's Massward musings, may your face find the sun and the breeze in the right direction for you!

Faith And Fate

"It's really just a matter of faith. You'll either survive it, if the Lord is willing, or not. So there's nothing that you can do, and you just take it." - WWII American soldier

It's interesting how close the words "fate" and "faith" are in sound (they are derived from different Latin roots though: fatum meaning "to have spoken" vs. fides meaning "to trust"). Our faith in God is to trust our fate in God's hands. Whether that's on the beaches of Guadacanal in 1942, or in far lesser conflicts in our own circumstance.

American Attitude, American Victory

"Attitudes are more important than facts." - Anonymous

I can only imagine the overwhelming facts that faced the soldiers that defended our country during World War II and other foreign wars.

Their attitude of resolve has benefited all Americans today immeasurably.

It's a great, patriotic weekend to give thanks to God and these men and women.

What Kobe Posted When Howard Left

By Kelly Dwyer:

Minutes after it became official that Dwight Howard had agreed to sign with the Houston Rockets on Friday evening, Los Angeles Lakers All-Star Kobe Bryant reacted by posting this photo on his Instagram account:

The hashtags? "#vamos #juntos #lakercorazon #vino"

In light of a pretty rough year, I think we can all agree that Bryant and Pau Gasol's championship-winning relationship is pretty darn special. Sound, and classy move, Kobe.

(Of course, this is before Kobe downs a 12-pack and really starts firing stuff off on Twitter.)

Your Cardio Routine Is Making You Fat

By Jim Karas, Yahoo! Health:

Are you interested in gaining weight? If you are, perform cardiovascular exercise, and a lot of it.

Are you interested in losing weight? Then you should cut back on classic cardiovascular exercise.

Shun it, even. Abolish it. Throw out your treadmill or better yet, give it to someone you don’t like as cardio doesn’t work if your goal is long-term weight loss.

There truly is only one reason to exercise: To increase your metabolism in order to burn more calories 24 hours a day, seven days a week. What is the only style of exercise that accomplishes that goal?

Strength training. Increasing your metabolism through strength training is the key to successful, permanent weight loss.

Why? Because a classic diet coupled with cardiovascular exercise will result in weight loss, but it will come at a cost as 60% of the weight loss will be fat (that's good!) while the remaining 40% will come from muscle (that's really, really bad!).

Natural Muscle Loss After Age 20

You never want to lose lean muscle tissue. It's simple mathematics.

• One pound of muscle burns six calories per pound per day.
• One pound of fat burns two calories per pound per day.

That four calorie difference may not sound like much, but for most people, that’s the difference between living lean and living obese and even morbidly obese (defined by those who are 100 or more pounds overweight).

To further complicate things, after the age of 20, the average person loses one-half to seven-tenths of a pound of muscle a year. That’s 5 to 7 pounds a decade.

As women approach menopause, the rate at which they lose muscle doubles, which is why so many women begin to gain weight right around that time of life.

After the age of 70, the average person loses 3 pounds of muscle—per year! And you wonder why some of our formerly lean celebrities blow up before our eyes. Did I hear William Shatner? Come on, did young Captain Kirk look like he had a weight problem?

Why is this weight gain happening? It's simple—muscle loss. When you lose muscle, your metabolism is destroyed.

You are also decimating your metabolism by dieting without exercise or dieting with cardio. Your successful weight loss formula is dieting plus strength training. Period.

How Cardio (Negatively) Effects Your Body

In 2007, my book The Cardio-Free Diet was published and went on to become a New York Times best-seller. The original title of the book was CARDIO KILLS, and to this day I believe that was a far more effective representations of my opinion. That book represented a revolutionary, highly controversial approach to exercise, which continues to gain a huge following. I firmly believe that classic cardiovascular exercise is a total waste of your time because it has adverse effects on your body in the following ways:

• Your Joints: An article about "boomeritis" in The New York Times reveals that the number two reason baby boomers visit their doctor is because of an exercise-related injury, most of which are attributable to the punishing nature of classic cardio.
• Your Posture: Do you really want the rounded shoulder, chin jutting alignment of a runner, stair stepper or spin fanatic?
• Your Immunity: Want to get sick and tired? Blast the life out of your immunity, which is what happens after 20 to 30 minutes of classic cardio. Why do you think so many marathon runners get sick post event or during training?
• Your Lungs: A brilliant article by Men's Health called “Dying Breaths” proved that while exercising in a heavily polluted area, such as Central Park or along Lake Shore Drive in Chicago (my hometown), you are gulping down gallons of toxic air. You might as well put your mouth over the exhaust of your car as that is the quality of what you are breathing. Just think of what those toxins are doing to your insides? How about the wrinkled, gray pallor of most runners’ faces. Ever wonder why?
• Your Shape: If you are shaped like a pear and do manage to lose a few pounds with cardio, what do you end up looking like? A smaller pear. This won’t get me out of bed and into the gym with gusto as cardio does nothing to change your body’s composition and often results in a big old muffin top from all the stress.
• Your Muscle: After 20 to 30 minutes, most classic, steady state cardiovascular exercise begins to chew up your precious, calorie-burning muscle. Shocking to realize that something you believed was the ultimate weight-loss tool ends up being the ultimate weight-gain tool because the moment you chew up that muscle, you are in a metabolic free fall.

But wait, there is one thing cardio doesn’t kill—your appetite. Go out for a run, burn a few calories, and then come back and eat up twice as many calories. Translation: Weight (and fat) gain. Doesn’t sound like a solution to me.

Star-Spangled Fun

Last night I checked another item off the bucket list - sang solo the national anthem before a ball game, namely before a Normal Cornbelters semi-pro baseball game. I've sung the song in the shower and around the house a thousand times and always thought that it was a good fit for my voice.

I geared my day toward having a well-prepared voice for the 7:00 performance.

Drank a glass of water every hour. Scaled back on the usual dosage of starchy or salty foods, consumed no sugar, but did eat regular-sized meals throughout the day.

Ditched sunbathing even though it was a gorgeous day for it.

After my tutoring appointment ended at 2:00, knowing that I'd be largely idle of physical activity and risking a body cool-down over the next five hours, I hopped into a sweatsuit to stay regulated. Then a half hour prior to leaving for the stadium, I strolled outside in the sweatsuit to see if it would be too hot (which it was, I went with short-sleeves).

And of course, I rehearsed the song. Mindful not to overdo it and tire my voice, but I did walk around outdoors to simulate the environment during a couple of the practice runs. Played around with different break points to breathe, with different pitches, different ways of squeezing my diaphragm to get the most relaxed yet steady sound.

Earlier this week I had come across a "worry stone" - something that Mom gave me to help me sleep as a child, by rubbing my thumb over the smooth-worn surface of the quarter-sized flat rock. This one had the word "Courage" inscribed on it as well. And it actually did add some confidence to me, so that I was holding it in one hand while performing.

God gave me plenty of support too. The weather was ideal. A friend of mine happened to be standing near the field entrance to give me something to occupy my mind leading up to the kick-off moment.

Finally, I found myself behind home plate facing center field with a video camera in my face and a stadium of fans, ballplayers and umpires silently waiting for me to lead them, as my name was announced over the loudspeaker.

In short, it went great.

Dena recorded the moment on my phone, and the applause sounds surprisingly loud to me. It was cool to be able to do it as part of the 4th of July weekend for a little added emotional significance. The umpires thanked me, the Cornbelters manager shook my hand, a few fans complimented me on the walk back.

I have a feeling I'll be crossing this one off my bucket list a few more times in my life!

The Power Of Appreciation

By Jon Gordon: The Power of Appreciation

For years I searched for my 9th grade lacrosse coach, Tony Caiazza. Little did I know I was simply spelling his name wrong and that’s why I couldn’t find him. When Coach John Brubaker, a fellow writer and speaker, found his information for me, I sent Tony this email. Are you the Tony Caiazza who coached at Smithtown East? If you are, you changed my life and I just want to say thank you! His response: Yes I am. I coached some Great teams & athletes at Smithtown East! Please share more with me!!!! I responded with this email. Tony, you encouraged me to go out for the freshman lacrosse team. I played basketball and you told me I would be good at lacrosse. I never played before and couldn’t catch the ball and tried to quit. You wouldn’t let me. You told me I was going to play lacrosse in college one day. You even said I would play in the Ivy League because I was a good student. I graduated in 1989 and played lacrosse at Cornell University for Richie Moran. Playing lacrosse at Cornell changed my life and if it weren’t for you I would have quit. If it weren’t for you I would venture to say that I wouldn’t be the person I am today. Now, I speak to professional sports teams, college teams, businesses and school districts around the country. I often talk about YOU and how you believed in me, wouldn’t let me quit and changed the course of my life. I’d love to send you my books if you would like. You’re in the acknowledgement section of Training Camp. If there is anything I can do to give back to you and your school or team please let me know. It’s the least I can do. Tony responded with an email that taught me the power of appreciation. He wrote: Jon, you don't know how much your email means to me! It's just as exciting as winning the Lottery! Ironically, as I turn 55 this October, I am at the phase of my life where you spend a lot of time in reflection ie; "The Road Not Taken". Recently, I have been faced with many challenges both professionally & personally. Your communication could not have been better timed!!!! It provided instant verification of who I am & what I am all about and why I went into the field of education & coaching. I always talk of the book the "Giving Tree" and that has always been the fabric of my humble existence. I have been a Dean of Students at Oceanside for the past 28 years. I have coached both football & lacrosse here and have also been the Head Lacrosse coach at Dowling College from 1993-2000. My assistant, Tim Boyle took over the program in 2001 & last year won the National Championship! The impossible dream? I think so! I was invited back for the ring ceremony, it was a proud moment! I would love to read your books! Keep in touch.... YOU MADE MY DAY!... MONTH!...YEAR!!!! I shared your communication with those close to me & with those who question me... for both it was well served!! THANKS FOR PROVIDING THE "GUSTO" IN A TIME MUCH NEEDED! After reading Tony’s email, I realized how important it is to reach out to those who made a difference in our lives and let them know. They need to hear it more than we think and so do their families. This was an email I received the other day from Tony’s wife. My name is Patti and I am Tony’s wife. I wanted to send you a message to let you know how grateful to you my children and I for taking the time to reach out to Tony. Your email reminded Tony and all of us how his compassion and dedication to teaching and coaching makes a difference. Your words also enlighten my children to understand how powerful taking the time to stop and thank the people along your journey can be. My daughter will be a sophomore at Molloy College this coming fall. She recently attended a week long leadership conference for the school. One of her workshops required her to deliver a speech on inspiration. She knew exactly what her subject should be. She spoke about your email, your dedication to Tony, who you were and was proud to tell about her Dad’s devotion to teaching and coaching and the difference he has made to so many. She looks forward to following in her father’s footsteps. She coaches lacrosse with Tony on the weekends and is majoring in Math Secondary Education. Her goal is to be a Guidance Counselor one day. She received many accolades regarding her presentation from her peers and professors. They are considering adding a workshop discussing the power of acknowledgement and gratitude for those who inspire and encourage for next year’s conference. In closing, I would just like you to know the impact you have had to my family. Tony was so touched by your email. When each of my kids were born, Tony bought them the book The Giving Tree. This summer all of us will be reading Training Camp. With Much Gratitude, Patti Caiazza I asked Tony and Patti if I could share our story and correspondence with you. They said yes because they, like me, realized that something very special happened between us. The power of appreciation caused a ripple effect that not only impacted Tony, me and our families but also those who heard Tony’s daughter’s presentation. Our hope is that this ripple effect will continue by inspiring you to thank someone who made a difference in your life. By sharing the power of appreciation you will create your own positive ripples in the lives, hearts and families of those who need to hear your encouraging words.