Day 29

Weight- 274lbs

I woke up this morning and headed to Lifetime to do a little swimming cardio. I bought some ear plugs the other day because I kept getting water in my ears and people were wondering why I was leaning my head all day. It's funny I was thinking back to my days in 4-H washing my show pigs, they always taught us not to get water in their ears or they would lean their heads during the show.

I had a good work out in the pool but just couldn't go 20 minutes so I went outside and ran some sprints on the turf. There were a couple of guys walking around outside and I almost bit it slowing down one time. I wasn't wearing any shoes and the turf was a little damp, just about had my feet fly out from underneath me. Those guys would have had a pretty good laugh. After my workout I got ready and went to work.

Around 9am my personal line rang it was an odd area code I think 614 but I get calls from customers all over so I didn't think any thing of it. I answered "Phone Sales this Craig" the voice on the other end said "Craig Staley?" I said, "yeah how can I help you?" He said, "Craig this is Shane Thomas from EAS and Body for Life." Then my ears really perked up. I thought hmmm Shane Thomas that's the guy who signed the certificate of achievement, (along with Porter Freeman) I received in the mail for finishing the challenge. I was pretty dumbfounded at this point to say the least.

First he congratulated me for being one of the featured challengers. I told him that I said seen that and thought it was pretty cool. He said something to the effect of well we think what you have done so far is pretty cool. He asked me if I was still going strong, of course I said yes. He also asked if I planned on sending another packet in, in September like I said in my essay. I told him of course. Then he asked me how the six pack was coming along. I laughed and said well I am not quite there but working on it. He asked me what my buddy Jon thought about my improvements. I told him that he was pretty proud of what I had accomplished and that I had worked hard for it. He told me he really liked the first couple lines of my essay. He read it off "I remember early February I was out drinking with my friends and realized this is not at all what I wanted my life to be. Don’t get me wrong I love my friends but I was on a dead end road." It gets a little hazy from there but we talked about other people around me that had started BFL, like my family and my room mate.

Just seeing my photo and essay on the BFL page was a huge boost and just validated all of the work that I put into my transformation thus far. But this was really special to have a judge of the competition call me up interested to hear about my transformation, and checking up on me to make sure I was going strong. It finally hit me after that call what I have actually accomplished so far. Before I guess I kind of visualized the judges reading my essay looking at the pictures and saying this guy did pretty darn good and going on to the next one, but for them to stop and say hey check this out, and then posting it on the bfl page that's just really cool.

As you might imagine I spent the rest of the work day with a big smile on my face and couldn't wait to tell someone. After work I hurried home and grabbed some stuff and went off to my Brother and Sister in laws to give my brother his birthday present and of course Ace needed another present for making it through his first week. I spent a few hours with them, Jessica made me a special grilled chicken salad so I could eat with them which was very nice of her. That is one thing I don't like about BFL I don't want to be a burden when someone asks me to stay for dinner, even though I know she didn't mind.

It was great to see Ace he has gained a pound already up to 10lbs 6oz. I left their apartment around 9 and headed home. On the way home I called my buddy Jon to let him know the news. We talked about some stuff and that leads me to my computer here. Now I have to pack my lunch and head to bed I have to kill the legs tomorrow, a lot of extra motivation if you know what I mean. :)