Riding a high from an awesome performance on Friday night....

So I was part of a theatre show last Thursday, Friday, and Saturday nights at Rex Mathes auditorium in West Des Moines. It was a night of short plays all written by Greg Freier.

The play I was in is called 'I Love You Mrs. Claus' where I played an elf named Murray. Murray is lusting after Mrs. Claus, and right away you find out that he's gotten charged with sexual harassment previously for it. Well, I came up with a creepy character and elf voice to go along with it. Thursday night we had a small crowd. Friday was bigger, but not a big enough crowd. Friday, though, I was on fire. Unstoppable. I improvised some of the performance (not the lines, just some of my movements and whatnot). The moment I came out and spoke with my voice, the audience died. It was a nasally, elf-like voice. Think the elf from that classic Christmas TV show from the 60's or whatever...the one where the elf wanted to be a dentist...Herme was his name, I think. I kinda borrowed the inspiration for the voice from that. The second I started reading the script, that voice came out of me. Anyway, the audience died when they heard that voice paired with the awesome costume Karen made for me!
Anyway, I killed. Every little thing I did and said got a laugh. One laugh bigger than the last. The credit goes to Greg Freier for a hilarious script. He gives me the credit saying that what I did was better than what he wrote, but that's not possible. I just said the words he put on the paper. I put a little of my stank on it.
It felt really good. Our play was the last, which was nice because people came out of the theatre laughing and telling me how good I did. The girl I'm seeing was there. People from my old sketch group were there. It was awesome. A couple of the guys from my sketch group were saying how it was the best any of us ever did in any sketch we did. I think it's giving me too much credit, but then again I was on stage and they were in the audience, so I'll take some of the praise. :-) Greg Freier, the playwright, told me that my character was a creepy elf genius or something such.
God it felt great. I haven't had laughs like that in a long time. It made me long for the days of The Patsies when we were doing our stuff.
Greg has now written another short play with me in mind. He's already asked me to be on his team for the 711 Theatre Project for next summer! It's nice to be wanted and for people to have faith in you and to give you praise.
Sorry to toot my own horn, but beep beep! Sometimes it just feels good to ride the wave. I just wish more people had been there to see it.
We may do the show again, so stay tuned!

New shift at work....

So I'm 'temporarily' working a new shift at work. 3p-12a with Tuesdays/Wednesdays off. I put it in quotes because the boss that kept reiterating to me that it was only temporary has now been fired. I hope to God it's temporary because I need my evenings and weekends for theatre.
Today is the 2nd day of the shift. Instead of going to the gym in the morning, I woke up and ate 'breakfast' and watched Cops then went to the gym just before work with enough time to come home and shower.

Put an offer down on a condo....

So my great friend, Mary, let me know of a condo that she found online recently that matched what I'd been looking for. It's right in my price range and is around the square footage I'd been looking for. All in all, it's just what I'm looking for.
I made an offer on it the other day. Today we had the inspection, and it went off without a hitch! The furnace is 20 years newer than we thought. it's still old, but better than being 40 years old! The place has an AHS home warranty for a year, so that'll cover the furnace for a year.
The only things the inspector found were a leaky sink drain pipe that likely needs tightened and the kitchen has 2 outlets that need replaced with GFI outlets.
The sellers reduced the price by $15,000 recently as they're paying the mortgage on this place and the new place they bought. It has new windows as of 2007 and new paint and carpet as well.
Wish me luck!

Results from my body composition....

I had my body comp done yesterday and have the results.
My body comp back in October 2007 was somewhere in the high 40's. Yesterday it was down to 18.5%! WOW!
I should have the bloodwork back later this week! I don't expect to see a huge difference in those numbers because they did my first bloodwork after I had already lost quite a bit of weight and made big changes to my diet. There wasn't a lot of room for improvement already, but maybe there will be some.

Getting a body composition and blood work done Monday....

Mercy Hospital has been awesome enough to do a body composition and blood work for me on Monday morning! I have to fast for 12 hours which won't be a problem. I eat dinner around 6pm anyway and have a snack of almonds at 8:30 each night. Skipping the snack won't do me any harm.
I can't wait to see my numbers! Thanks Mercy!

Check out the video from the story Channel 13 did on me last night....

Here's the video of me from last night on channel 13 news! If it doesn't work, you may have a pop-up blocker blocking the windows from opening. Hold down the control key on your keyboard while clicking the link!

http://www.whotv.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?clipId1=3131186&at1=News&vt1=v&h1=Dave+Williams+Move+It+Follow+Up&d1=165533&redirUrl=www.whotv.com&activePane=info&LaunchPageAdTag=homepage&clipFormat=

Channel 13 update on me will air tonight (Wednesday 11/12/08)

The update on my weight loss progress will air tonight on the channel 13 news at 10pm.
Everyone keeps telling me that they're seeing the teasers all over channel 13. I haven't seen any yet. Can't wait to see it.
The girl that I'm seeing now will be watching. She'll have to endure the scary before pic.....eek.

Channel 13's update on me will be airing tomorrow night....

I received word yesterday that channel 13 will be airing their update on my weight loss story tomorrow night on the 10pm news!
Stay tuned!
My mom said she saw a promo commercial for it during the 6-6:30pm time slot yesterday.
I hope they mention me working at Anytime Fitness in Urbandale now! Sonya made sure to have me mention it on camera.

I got PAID for speaking....

I got a check in the mail the other day for speaking at Take Control
of Your Diabetes a couple of weeks ago!
I wasn't expecting any money, so it was a nice surprise. It was a
decent chunk of change, too!
Thanks TCOYD!

Sent from my iPhone

An update on my mood as of late....

I was going thru a rough patch for a while where I was questioning my identity in light of all the weight I lost. I didn't know who I was anymore, etc. My identity had been wrapped up in my weight for sooo long because I had always been overweight. Losing my weight would be like someone losing a limb: it changes who you are to a degree.

I was also in a sad, depressed mood for quite a while. I took a promotion at work that just wasn't right for me. I couldn't handle the stress. I'm high strung as it is, and that just sent me over the top. I had a sort of break down. I went to the doctor as well as a psychiatrist and a psychologist. I was diagnosed with OCD (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) as well as a general anxiety disorder and depression.
Years ago, I had been on Zoloft for depression. The psychiatrist put me on Zoloft again recently for depression and OCD as well as Clonazepam for my anxiety. It's been a world of difference. That and I'm back to my old position at work at my old desk. That helped tremendously with the anxiety.

I saw the psychologist a couple of times. We talked about some of the stuff. Mostly I talked and he was an impartial party to just listen to me. I think we all could use someone to just listen to us. I talked through the things and am working through them. I've come to realize that when it comes to fight or flight, I'm a flight person. When the going gets tough, I get going. There's not necessarily anything wrong with that. It's who I am. I need to work on that through small steps, to not always do that.

I think I'm learning who I am just by being me. This weight loss thing has become so much a part of my life that I'm making it a part of my personality, I think. By answering the ad for the job at Anytime Fitness, I opened myself up to something new. I didn't think that they'd want me training people with not being a certified trainer, but they saw in me what I know is in me: someone who can motivate other people to lose weight the way I did: through hard work.
Just like when I took that improv class a few years ago. I was shy, but funny. That improv class led to me auditioning for an improv troupe which led to me being cast in an improv troupe. That led to me being asked to join a sketch troupe. I also started doing plays. Then I started doing short films. It just snowballed. Door after door kept opening for me.
Maybe the same will happen with this fitness thing. Who knows? I've been doing speaking engagements. I got a job as a personal fitness consultant. What next? Who knows?

When we shot our film for the National Film Challenge a couple of weeks ago, my spirits couldn't have been higher throughout the whole weekend. In recent films, I was a drag. I was hard to be around. I was grumpy. I was difficult. I was whiny. Why? I have no idea. Maybe I was depressed. This film was completely different. I was happy. I wasn't complaining or whining or sulking. I was back to being me. I was happy and goofy and having a good time. That's me. That's who I am. Kimberly, my friend Andrew's girlfriend (and my friend) came to me when we were shooting the film and said that she was proud of me for going to the doctor and getting help. She noticed how much better of a mood I was in. Thank god for good friends who stick by your side and see you through those bad times until you come out on the other side. Thanks guys! :-)

I have a couple of 'dates' this weekend. Both people saw me when I was being myself and having a good time. Happy go lucky. In a good mood being me. People see that and want to be around people like that. I want to be around people like that and I want to be around me. I like me.
Thank god for those friends who stuck around me when I was in those bad moods. It was hard to do, I'm sure!

Oh yeah....check out our latest film 'Tempted' at www.arizonainkstudios.com!

Body image....

It's funny how we see ourselves.

Just last night I was training someone and mentioned my weight loss over the last year (120 pounds) and how my next goal is to lose another 15. The lady looked at me like I was nuts and said, "Are you sure? Can you lose another 15 pounds??" as though I didn't have that much weight on my body.

Don't get me wrong, I'm happy with where I am, but I could stand to lose a bit more eventually. I'm in no hurry, mind you, but I want to lose a bit more yet.

My family always makes comments like that, too. I'll mention that I wear a size medium dress shirt now and they say, "Do you really want to lose more weight? You'd be down to a small!" While I don't think losing another 15 pounds would put me in a small at 180 pounds, I do think that I could stand to lose 15 pounds. I do have a lot of muscle on me now. More than I've ever had even when I was in high school lifting pretty often.

I guess it's all in our body image....

My workouts continue at Anytime Fitness....

I keep working out at Anytime Fitness every morning Monday-Friday for an hour. I usually do 30 minutes of cardio and 30 minutes or so of weights. I love working out there. They have great machines and plenty of them!
I keep training others there as well. Every weeknight but Wednesday due to rehearsals. It's a lot of fun!

Side to side photo comparison of me from exactly a year ago....

So a friend of mine sent me a pic of she and I from last year at my Halloween birthday party side-by-side with a pic from this year of us. By that time last year I had already lost maybe 45 pounds or so. Look at the huge difference!

By the way, like my Amish costume this year? I won the costume contest! I was apparently making an Amish face in the photo....