Don W. Hood known by most as “Coach Hood”. 

Born: April 6^th 1933

Died: Feb 9^th 2024

For those who don't know Coach Hood has coached dozens of olympians and national champions in pole vaulting over decades of coaching.  

The first time I met Coach Hood was when he came up north for his world class pole vaulting camps.  I remember him talking about the catered meals = Subway, burgers, and Pizza.  I remember sleeping in a college dorm or motel.  I remember carrying kids to and from locations in the back of pickup trucks.  I remember him telling everyone to buy a T-shirt but only wear it at home if they weren’t going to do things right on the runway.  I remember him calling flip flops thongs and that getting a giggle out of the kids.   I remember working hard to make sure I wasn’t a “rock head”.  He could coach hard and direct and still not crush people.  He made me think higher of myself as far as pole vault goals but also for the kind of person I’d want to be.  I remember wearing...

Sometimes I don’t even know what I like to do anymore.  I get caught up in the busyness of the day and my “to do” list that I don’t even once think about myself.   I am a doer.  I like to be busy and have projects going.  Somewhere along the line my worth got caught up in being measured by how much I can get done.  This gets out of hand often and I forget to give myself permission to rest and just be me.  

For a long time (and still sometimes) I was very uncomfortable with not being busy.  When I was just plain exhausted and wanted to stop “doing” the only thing I would give myself permission to do was eat.  Somehow this didn’t make me feel guilty about not producing something or doing something because eating was a necessity.  But I wasn’t eating healthful things, I was eating foods to numb my unsettled feelings.

Turns out I am not alone in this.  We asked our clients to give lists of what they like to do besides eat.  Eating is so much a part of our culture that we forget there ...

I’m 21 now.

Ok, not really.  I’m 43.  😜

It dawned on me the other day that I have maintained around a 60ish-pound weight loss for over 21 years. 

“Looking at the statistics -from a Harvard  meta-analysis of 29 long-term weight loss studies, more than half of the lost weight was regained within two years, and by five years more than 80% of lost weight was regained. This means that based on our best estimates, only one in five individuals who is overweight is successful in long-term weight loss”.

Super quick backstory, at 14 I was diagnosed with anorexia which then merged into bulimia and about every other eating disorder in the book.  I went from 89 pounds to 189 pounds in a short period of time in my initial “recovery”. 

189-pound Sarah had a lot of crap to sort out to not turn to extremely harming behaviors to lose weight. 

This process was NOT smooth.  It took lots of exploring to figure out how to incorporate a healthy lifestyle.  In the first 9 years of w...

I’m known for being positive and smiley every day.  So, what wipes the smile off my face?

Notes like this:

“Unfortunately, due to his body fighting him in several locations and his love of food, it was a downward spiral of losing the mobility to do the exercises he really loved, skiing and mountain biking, plus the comfort his love of food brought him that sadly ended in losing him to a heart attack in September.” 

I asked her if I could share this message with others and she said please, if her husband’s story could reach one person and help them it would "be awesome." 

Because stories like these become more real when you see the people here is Heather and Bobby…just a couple kids. 

It’s not right.  Bobby was about 55 years old and should have had 20 - 30 more “good” years.  I am not blaming him.  He was a good man.  Actually, probably a great man from the rest of the note I got.  He was by his wife’s side through brain surgery and 2 cancers encouraging her to g...

Thank you, Anorexia.

Well, does that sound weird to read?  This was a challenge given by my counselor years ago, to thank myself for my anorexia.  I am sure my face scrunched up quite interestingly. Anorexia almost killed me and was a total living hell! Thank myself- that makes NO SENSE. 

At that point of truly getting help I had stopped most of my destructive behaviors. But, my mind was in constant stress. I had been living with such shame, guilt and embarrassment for all of my unhealthy coping methods (anorexia wasn't the only one -I had to thank myself for a lot of harmful behaviors).  It led me to a small life of fear, anxiety, hiding from the world and hiding from my true self. 

I had developed trust with my counselor so I played along with this weird challenge.  Guess what I found in it.  FREEDOM.  There was SO much power in flipping the script that I had told myself for all my “sins”.

Here’s the deal.  Life had handed me stuff that I didn’t know how to handle.  M...

The less dramatic title would be:

Become happier by spreading gratitude – The Gratitude Visit

I am going to share with you a story that I almost don’t believe really happened even though it happened to me.  But first I’m going to recommend you try this… 

 (listen to podcast instead of read)

Martin Seligman the father of positive psychology (www.positivepsychology.org) has developed a list of things you can do to be happier.  One of the most powerful is the gratitude visit. 

The way a Gratitude Visit works is:

1. Write a letter of gratitude thanking someone for the impact they have had on your life and how important they are to you.
2. DON’T MAIL IT!
3. Go visit them (or video call) the more intimate the setting the better.
4. Read the letter to them
5. (bring tissues and a REAL hug)
6. Make someone else feel awesome, while you feel awesome for being the kind of person who would do that!
7. The feelings and memory persist long after that time has gone.
8. Don’t thank me for this idea just
...

This picture is Gwen.  She is holding up her 3 grandkids a total combined weight of about 138 pounds!!  Gwen is a great example of what is possible when you are doing the work of regular exercise and healthy eating.  She is strong, energetic, and healthy.  This is not true of all grandma's or even moms!  But, it is possible for most of us to do this and feel this good in our 50s, 60s, and even 70s (and maybe not all the grandkids in our 80s!)

I know we are supposed to be in the present trying to experience the moment we are in.  Not too lost in the “what if’s” of the future or be stuck in the past. 

But, we all know we need to be thinking of this future thing.   We don’t get to enter our “golden years” without some prior planning if we want it to go smooth-ish.

FAR TO OFTEN we are seeing people reach those years and really stop living life.  They aren’t able to partake in adventures or able be active with their grandchildren.  Travel has to be carefully picked by what ...

Most people don't set goals right and therefore come no where near achieving them.  Goal Achievement Coach Zig Ziglar has 7 steps to setting a goal that will help massively!

This whole video below is gold but you can get the point and watch just 4 minutes and hear the goal setting formula a couple times.  I typed it out in a PDF for those who want to work on it.  DOWNLOAD PDF HERE.  

Here are the 7 steps:

1. Write the Objective:
2. Date to be completed: _____/______/_______
3. Obstacles I will have to overcome:
4. People or groups I’ll need to connect and work with:
5. What do I need to know/learn?
6. Plan of Action:
7. List of Benefits for Objective being completed:

When you have time you should really consider watching this full Zig presentation.  What an amazing world we live in that Zig Ziglar is available to us day and night!

(video will start at the goal setting spot and you'll get the idea in 4 minutes of watching)

God Bless,

Jeremy "tall trainer" Biernat

P.S. if we happen to...

This has been popping in my mind over the last 2-weeks so I’m going to get it out of my head and see what you think of it.  Everytime it has the Bob Dylan songs seems to come with it!

“You’re gonna have to serve somebody.  It may be the devil or it may be the Lord but you’re gonna have to serve somebody.”  - Bob Dylan

I try to read my Bible every morning.  Just a few minutes.  Sometimes it’s helpful, sometimes I’m glad I wasn’t alive then, sometimes it’s tricky, sometimes I wish I could have been there.  I need to add, I’m no biblical scholar and my faith is strong but complicated.  I am rarely if ever on a religious or spiritual high.  I get jealous of those who are. 

But, I learn when I read it and I’m trying to use more if what’s in there to effect what I do “out here!”

In Romans 6:16-19 it says this…

^“16 Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death...

Kara Lawson: Handle Hard Better

I don't want to discourage someone in a tough spot right now.  Tough spots do change but life is tough!  You can grow and handle it better.  Sometimes people ask when squats get easier.  If you are trying to make progress hopefully it doesn't.  As soon as you notice it is easier we are supposed to make it heavier or harder.  

We make progress in life BECAUSE of the challenges.  You can overcome the spot you are currently in.  

What do you think?