Pushing Double Nickels: Fifty Things I’Ve Learned in Fifty Years

By Bradley Stewart Fischl

Obesity is an epidemic in America and worldwide. This former IT industry veteran shares his cautionary tale (and success!) with his personal fight against obesity and smoking cigarettes. Including tips on living with Type II Diabetes, chronic pain, and a host of other things that he has learned in his 55 years on this planet so far, Pushing Double Nickels has something for everyone.

Here are a few of the "50 Things" covered in this book:

A simple long-term way to lose weight permanently. How to quit cigarettes forever on the first try. The advantages of being an optimist. Advice and tips on Public Speaking. Advice for Business Professionals. Why Mystery Shopping is no mystery. You can improve yourself at any age! Why you are connected with everyone on Earth. 80 total life lessons, interesting facts, and much food for thought. Includes hundreds of web links you can use for further information!

Pushing Double Nickels is meant to educate, illuminate, and motivate you into doing something positive for yourself, a loved one, your community, and your planet. Positive change is something that everyone can do beginning at any age. All it takes is the desire to improve and the self-motivation to make the long-term lifestyle changes necessary to accomplish your goals.

Short-term fixes such as surgery, diet plans or programs, diet pills or shakes, etc. will only work for a short time. More often than not if the weight returns because the person did not make the long-term, lifestyle changes required for lasting results. What is needed is a way to live that you can continue to do for decades and for the rest of your life. Diet control is the key factor. All the diet plans and exercise in the world can't undo taking in more calories than you burn off.

Self-improvement is much more than just losing weight or quitting smoking, it includes moral and ethical improvement as well. But getting your health in order is the first step. If you are overweight or obese then you are also more than likely dealing with other "bad" numbers like high blood sugar (Diabetes or Prediabetes), high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and now face a much shorter life-span as a result. And quitting cigarettes can be done on the first try. So, it's time to take control. Time to finally do something to make sure that you're going to be around a while longer. In Pushing Double Nickels I share how this old IT guy and former couch potato who was clinically obese and had a 30+ year smoking habit, took control, quit on the first try, and walked off over 100 lbs.

We are all in this together but, making positive changes to humanity require making those changes individually first.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Aug 29, 2014
• ISBN: 9781499047158

Bradley Stewart Fischl

Brad also has extensive experience with non-profit organizations at both the local and national level, he is an accomplished public speaker, environmentalist, activist, retired Cub Master, a former Marine, and a father of both two-legged and four-legged children. Among his peers and within the business world Brad is lauded for his leadership skills above all else. Linked in profile - https://www.linkedin.com/pub/brad-fischl/0/1b2/226 Brad lives in Southern California with his three dogs, two cats, and extended family. Volunteer Leadership History: President/Founder – No More Butts Foundation – 2010 - present Director of Education - Southern California IT Professional Association - 2001-2009 President - Southern California IT Pro Association - 2004-2005 Events Coordinator - Southern California IT Pro Association - 2001 – 2004 Cub Master/Asst. Cub Master - Pack 640 Orange County Council Boy Scouts of America – 1996-1999 President - Novell Users International, North America - 1993-1995 Director - Region III - NetWare Users Int’l, 1990-1992 Co-Founder/CEO - Southern California NetWare Association (SCNUA) - 1989-1992 VP/President - Orange County NetWare Association – 1988-1990

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 by Bradley Stewart Fischl.

Library of Congress Control Number:   2014912231

ISBN:      Hardcover            978-1-4990-4713-4

                Softcover              978-1-4990-4714-1

                eBook                   978-1-4990-4715-8

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

Rev. date: 09/30/2014

Xlibris LLC

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction Breaking Brad

1 Quitting A 31 Year Cigarette Habit

2 How I Walked Off Over 100 Lbs./ Building Muscle At Any Age

3 Controlling Type II Diabetes

4 Living With Chronic Pain.

5 Sitting Is Not Good For The Human Body.

6 We Are The Caretakers.

7 Life Is Tenacious.

8 Don’t Try To Be Perfect Or Please Everyone.

9 Everything Is Connected.

10 Don’t Skimp On The Important Stuff.

11 Everyone Needs To Be Their Own Bff.

12 First Impressions Are Important.

13 Age Is Just A Number.

14 Learning Is A Lifelong Event.

15 Our Brains Are Malleable.

16 Happiness Starts Internally.

17 The Various Ways That We Communicate.

18 Be Here Now!

19 Karma, Kismet, Fate.

20 The Devil Is In The Details!

21 We Live In The Information Age

22 Our Universe Is A Hologram.

23 Male Personal Grooming Tips.

24 You Will Never Be In The Same Place Twice.

25 You Can Improve At Any Age.

26 Words Can Be As Powerful As Weapons.

27 You Can Be Sexy At Any Age.

28 The Advantages Of Being An Optimist.

29 We Are All Fighting Entropy.

30 We Are All 99 Percent The Same

31 Relationships And Identities

32 Animals Have Feelings And Emotions Just Like Humans.

33 You Can Fall In Love At Any Age.

34 You Can Have Your Heart Broken At Any Age.

35 Wear Sunscreen Every Day!

36 Parenting—Being A Mom Or Dad (Or Both)

37 Dealing With The Terrible Twos

38 Convey Your Feelings Often

39 Adopting A Pet Is A Lifetime Commitment.

40 You Can Never Go Back.

41 Life In The Universe.

42 Decisions! Decisions—Life Is A Series Of Choices.

43 Be Polite!

44 The Truth About Commercial Advertising.

45 Read The Fine Print!

46 Action Versus Procrastination.

47 Stand Up For Yourself!

48 The Squeaky Wheel Gets The Oil.

49 Inspect Your Largest Organ Regularly!

50 Patience Is More Than Just A Virtue.

51 We Live For Our Five Senses.

52 Listen To Your Gut

53 Laughter Really Is The Best Medicine.

54 Music—A Key To Happiness

55 The Advantages Of Being Well Read.

56 You Will Be Judged By The Words That You Use.

57 Possibilities Versus Probabilities.

58 Apathy Can Be Fatal.

59 Do It Right The First Time!

60 Know When To Keep Your Mouth Shut.

61 Everyone Talks To Themselves.

62 Everything Is Based On Cause And Effect.

63 Learning To Let Go

64 The Basics Of Customer Service.

65 Mystery Shopping Is No Mystery.

66 Friendship

67 Rejection Required!

68 Career Advice For Professionals.

69 Sex Is A Necessary Part Of Living A Healthy Life.

70 The World’s Oldest Profession.

71 Public Speaking.

72 Being There.

73 Tastes Change.

74 Fears And Phobias.

75 Everything Is A Number

76 Intelligence And Common Sense.

77 Life Is A Balancing Act.

78 Change Is Inevitable.

79 Hindsight Is 20/20

80 We Are Made Of Star Stuff

At Least 50 More Interesting, Unique, & Helpful Websites:

Indelible Impressions:

Closing Thoughts/Takeaways/To Do’s

To-Do List/Action Items

Acknowledgments

I would like to dedicate this book first and foremost to everyone and everything (I include all of the nonhuman interactions as well) that has had any kind of influence in my life. It is my opinion that we learn lessons (both positive and negative) from everyone and everything who touches our lives in some manner however brief. Thank you to each and every one of you (the good, the bad, and the ugly) for I would not be who I am without you.

And I would like to thank my awesome team of professionals who helped me put the pieces of my pain puzzle together including my primary care physician Dr. Karen Lau (of Pulmonary Consultants, Inc. - http://www.pulmconsultants.com/Providers/LauMD_KarenK.html), Dr. Jeffrey Deckey, and Dr. Michael Danto (both with the Orthopaedic Specialty Institute - http://www.orangeorthopaedics.com/, and my outstanding physical therapist Mike Hairston (of Hairston and Daley - http://www.hdpt.net/), whose outstanding leadership by example (which in my opinion is really the only way to lead) and positive mental attitude I try to emulate. I originally met my physical therapist from a referral by my primary care physician who had sent me to him because of pain that had become constant in my lower back. And even though it took another couple of years, a couple of bone scans, a couple more MRIs, and a couple of very talented orthopedic doctors who finally put the pieces of my pain puzzle together, my physical therapist made sure that I was doing what I could to strengthen what I could and gave me invaluable advice and encouragement. With his help I have been able to achieve more than I expected. And beyond being a good physical therapist he also has debilitating physical pain himself which puts him in the perfect position to understand better than anyone what constant pain can do to one physically, emotionally, and mentally. He literally walks in the shoes of his patients every day. His positive attitude and the way I see him face life’s challenges is a source of strength to me, especially when I have my worst days. It also reminds me that there are many people who are facing pain and challenges much greater than mine. I am certain that the thousands of people he has helped over his long career (Hairston & Daley started in 1974!) would all say the same things that I do. So thank you Mike, you are one of a kind.

I want to give kudos and thanks to Jeannie Hersh and her team from Bear Flag Photography - http://bearflagphoto.com/ who somehow got some great pictures in spite of the mug she had to shoot. This is why you hire professionals!

And finally I would like to thank each and every one of you for investing your money and your time in reading this book. It is my opinion that every person on this planet is equal and deserves equal respect. After all, we all put our pants on one leg at a time. No matter how rich, no matter how poor, no matter the color of our skin, nor the religion we choose, not the languages we speak, nor the foods we eat, not the clothes we wear, nor the style of our hair, will change the fact that human beings all share 99.5% of our genetic code and are therefore pretty much the same from one end of this globe to the other. I look at us as one group that I call Team Earth. I am a firm believer in the greater good and I know that as a race and as a species human potential is almost limitless as long as we don’t annihilate ourselves or be annihilated by a natural phenomenon beforehand.

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Introduction

BREAKING BRAD

First a quick word about the title of this book. Pushing Double Nickels is the obvious reference to the fact that I was born in 1959, and it being 2014, my chronological age will reach fifty-five years, and since I didn’t conceive writing a book like this before I turned fifty, I wasn’t able to use Pushing Double Quarters (TIC). And the subtitle Fifty Things I’ve Learned in Fifty Years is because I’m not counting the first five. And let’s look at the first five anyway. This is when we are all learning to do the basic things that you should be learning to do as a human being anyway. Things like walking and talking and letting the connections build so you can start thinking and stop drooling on yourself once your teeth come in (you can get back to that on the back end . . .) and your basic brain connections form.

To me, a human being reaches the age of reason, and therefore has a self–identity, self-awareness, and self-consciousness, somewhere between three and four years old. It seems to be at that point that we get a sense of our own identity and become aware that we are a conscious beings living in a social society where everyone is watching. And it wasn’t until I was about five years old that I really learned my first lesson anyway.

So after spending most of this last year taking inventory and preparing this book for publication, I decided to start at year five for as I mentioned it wasn’t until my fifth year that I really learned my first lesson (in this book it’s number 47 as I have not put them in any particular chronological order). But then of course once you have read the table of contents you will notice that actually have 80 things listed (I have another 80 and more that I could have added and depending upon how well you like this one, 50 More Things could be soon to follow). So why 80 instead of 50? First, when it comes to providing the best possible product or service or customer interaction, I have always believed in giving more than I promise. I cannot claim that I have learned everything in this book, but I can claim that I have learned at least fifty out of the eighty listed so I think that I’m covered. And just to make sure you read the whole thing, I have not put any of the topics in any particular order except the first six which I felt should be there.

First a little self-history, I was born at Plattsburgh Air Force Base in upstate New York in April 1959. My mother was from London and was born into her Christian Protestant family just before the second world-war began in Europe and she was still an infant when Hitler began his blitz of London wiping out more than 60% of the city’s infrastructure. I can remember my mother telling me about how her mother insisted that the entire family sleep together in one bed (or it may have been in one room) because she wanted to be certain that if a bomb fell they all went together. This period of time early in World War II Hitler’s reign of terror over London kept every citizen on edge. I can only imagine how terrified everyone must have been when they heard the sound of those engine powered buzz bombs of destruction. And how they must’ve held their breath because they knew once the sound of the engine stopped the bomb was then going to drop wherever it had run out of gas. The destruction and loss of life during this period were devastating to the city of London and its residents. Had it not been for the courageous leadership of Sir Winston Churchill (among one of the finest prime ministers England has ever had along with Benjamin Disraeli, and Margaret Thatcher) and the amazing aerial combat performed by the RAF, World War II may have been lost before the United States ever got involved.

My mother met my father (who was stationed with the Air Force in Germany at the time) in Trafalgar Square in London in the late 1950s. My father was born and raised in New York City in an Orthodox Jewish family of Russian, German, Polish, and Czechoslovakian descent.

I am truly a combination of two very different worlds, both culturally and religiously. The English Protestant side of the family always remained in England and never met any of the Russian-German Jewish New York members of my family. I’ve always wondered what it would’ve been like had both sets of my grandparents met face-to-face. I’ll bet that it would have been very interesting. After all, we are talking about some major culture differences (especially for that time) even though they all spoke English. My paternal grandparents were Orthodox Jewish and very active in the temple, while my English maternal grandparents were Church of England Protestant as far back as you can throw a stick. So being of English-Protestant and Russian-German-Jewish extraction from both sides of the pond, I feel I truly do represent the American melting pot.

Having grown up a military brat and then serving a brief time in the military gave me a very unique opportunity to live in many different places during my childhood and early adulthood. I have lived all over the United States, three years in Germany, traveled around Europe spent some vacations with my mother’s family in England. I was stationed in Japan (Okinawa) and traveled around Southeast Asia when I was in the military myself. As a result, I have had the privilege and the unique opportunity to meet many different kinds of people from many different nations, many different ethnicities, many different cultures, and many different religions. Being able to compare all of the personalities of all of the people that I have met over my lifetime so far has given me a very solid understanding of humans based on what I’ve learned from my interactions with them over the last 50+ years. I can easily mingle in any crowd and feel comfortable. I rejoice at our differences. There are so many ways that we are the same that if we were any more identical to me at least it would be boring. I relish finding someone who is unique, someone who stands out, someone who stands up for what they believe it, and someone who wants to make a difference either in their own life or in the lives of others.

It is this foundation that gives me the confidence to be able to draw comparisons from my life and my experiences and share them with you, believing that on the most basic human level and in most ways we are all pretty much the same.

And it is this foundation and the fact that 10 years ago I was more than 100 pounds heavier than I am now, still smoking cigarettes, leading a mostly sedentary lifestyle. I was spending most of my work time sitting, and even though I did not know it, I was Prediabetic (like the 86 million Americans who are Prediabetic today and are not aware) and not aware what all of this was doing to my long-term health because I felt okay. Had it not been for the weird symptoms I was having in early 2005 that eventually led to my diagnosis with type II Diabetes, I would probably still be very overweight, out of shape, still smoking, or worse no longer among the living. We have lost too many good people to smoking, obesity, Diabetes, and the ravages of chronic pain, for me not to lead a call for changes.

In America today, obesity is an epidemic. http://www.cdc.gov/obesity/.

According to the Centers for Disease Control, more than one- third of Americans are clinically obese (34.9 percent to be exact).

And the global numbers are not pretty either. The World Health Organization states that each year 2.8 million people die from obesity. Here are the staggering numbers: 1.4 billion adults age 20 and over are overweight, 500 million are obese with 200 million men and 300 million women - http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs311/en/.

In 2005, when I was first diagnosed with type II diabetes and still smoking a pack of cigarettes per day, I weighed 250 pounds, and my BMI was 36% (I was obese). My pants and belts at the time were for waist size 44–46 (loved those pants with the stretch sides!). Since taking control of my life with regard to my health and implementing some lifestyle changes that included diet modification and an exercise program, over the last nine years I have taken my body weight down to 145-150 pounds, my waist size is around 32, and my BMI is 18-19%.

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Since taking up working with weights (low weights high reps) on top of my cardio, I have also gotten a fairly impressive set of muscles and I am physically in the best shape that I have been in since I was a baby-faced Marine fresh out of boot camp in October 1976. When I was 250 pounds and just getting started, I bought a body fat scale, and at that time, my body fat was 36 percent and my muscle mass was around 30 percent.

For those of you who aren’t keeping track, that means at fifty-five years old, having started with my exercise program at 46 and routine weight training within the last few years, I have trimmed my body fat down to below 20 percent while increasing my muscle mass to nearly 41 percent and lowering my weight to under 150 pounds. I still eat junk food but now it is more as a treat than a staple (diet control is the real key to weight loss); I still enjoy my beer (love good beer!) but again in moderation (and know your beers! One 12 oz. beer can have anywhere from just below 100 to