Dominators, Hoarders and Losers...

There's nothing like a good night sleep to heal all. I was so tired last night and viola, one good nights sleep, and I felt like a new man. I even kind of felt like swimming today.

My number one attitude and burn-out test is swimming. If I don't look forward to swimming, all is well. If I dread wanting to swim, I'm burnt out. Other than Reid, I don't know anyone that likes swimming. I'm not even convinced Michael Phelps truly enjoys swimming.

Today was only my second swim since IMSG. I needed to get back in the pool, my speed depends on it. I was good for the first 100 meters of my drills and then I would slow down, considerably. Hopefully, it won't take more than a couple of weeks to get my speed back.

After swimming, I did weights. The people that train at the YMCA tend to be fairly regular people. Today, there was a foreigner among us and he stuck out like a sore thumb. The guy looked like a heavyweight UFC fighter or convicted felon. He was muscular, wore a wife beater shirt and roamed the floor with a scowl and stubble on his face.

He was one of those people that EXUDES negative energy. This guy had no respect for anyone else in the gym. He was doing leg curls and put his towel over the back of the chair. He would do a set and then walk away and not return for 10 minutes.

In that time, the towel was on the back of the chair and no one dared use it. This went on for close to 40 minutes. In that time, he probably only did 5 sets, but tied the machine up for the entire time.

I was getting close to finishing all my exercises and still had to do leg curls. I was getting to the point where I was just going to move his towel and start doing a set. I knew if I did it, all hell could possibly break loose. Which wasn't going to stop me.

In a way, I wanted to see what would happen. Could I diffuse it or would it get ugly. I resisted to do it until I finished all my other exercises. If I finished them and the leg machine was still tied up, I was committed to confront the guy.

Just as I was finishing my other exercises, he came back to the leg curl machine and a 30 something year old guy, nicely asked him how many sets he had left. "Mr. Muscle head" freaked. Total "roid rage" and barked out "how should I know?"

He was completely disgusted with being asked the question. He looked like he was going to explode. Then shortly afterwards, he hastily moved his towel and left to another part of the gym. The 30 something had a "whoa, what was that all about, what a psycho" look on his face.

I started thinking "Mr. Leg Curl" is dangerous and very unbalanced. He seemed like a guy you wouldn't want to look at sideways, especially at a bar. I could only imagine his personal relationships, I'm sure they'd be ugly. He looked like he could easily be a wife beater, or at least had the experience to teach a "wife beating" class.

Aside from this guy, the only other problem I've had at the YMCA is with the "ball hoarders". These are women that take one of the big exercise balls and won't let it go. I've seen them use other machines and keep the balls by their sides so no one else can use them. It's like they think it's THEIR ball.

I could only imagine the "ball hoarder" getting married to the "leg curl machine dominator". The best gift to get them for their wedding would be a self labelling gun so they could mark their personal items. Frankly, I couldn't even see them sharing air. It would be ugly.

Around dinner time I got a call from an old industry buddy, Dave Kew. Dave heard I sold the business and called to touch base. He then told me not to let this go to my head, but "I motivated him to lose weight". He saw my blog and the before and after pictures. Dave lost close to 50 lbs. He went from 268 lbs to 217 lbs and feels great. Another PFG convert.

We reminisced about old times. He now lives in Florida and I said the next time he comes to Toronto he has to come to my place. The last time he was here was when it was being built and only the floor was done. He reminded me of that and I said, "I think I have a picture of you from that night and I'm going to post it along with your weight loss story".

The one thing I told him was that I too was motivated by a friend. I remember seeing skinny pictures of my fat buddy Doug Martin. The minute I saw those photo's I knew it was possible and was motivated. Dave experienced the same thing seeing my pictures.

After I lost the weight, I told Doug he was my inspiration. He had no idea, just like I had no idea I was Dave's inspiration. It's amazing how something so subtle motivates someone. I could have yelled at Dave for 30 days straight to lose weight and it wouldn't have worked, yet one look at a picture did it.

He probably thought, "if that A-hole can lose weight, why can't I?!" I know that's exactly what I thought when I saw Doug's skinny guy picture. It reminds me of the wise old saying, "when a friend succeeds, a little part of me dies".

Important note, I've decided to call my 2010 summer bash "PAYNE-ABLULSA", It's by special invitation and only for the first 50 people who donate to my blog. I only have 43 spots left after Brent Kendall from "Bean Town" bought me a beer today.

I also put a list of my "top 10 contributors" on the sidebar. (Am I taking this too far yet?). This weekend is a long weekend, I hope I have enough beers to drink (wink, wink, nudge, nudge).

Long Swim - 1:03:21 / 3000 meters

Weights - 45 minutes

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