In February, only three weeks after I adopted Winston, I went to North Carolina for 11 days. Damn, I love North Carolina! It’s beautiful and the people are great in the areas I visit. I’m already there at least once a year for the North Carolina Comedy Arts Festival, but I’d love to go for a visit more often. Maybe when I learn to paraglide, I’ll head down to Kittyhawk for a couple of weeks.

I also just came back from my first trip to the Boston area. I spent most of my time in Cambridge, as I was shooting photos for Geek Week Boston at the ImprovBoston comedy club. One of my best friends, Zach Ward, is the managing director there and it’s great to be able to spend time with him, help him out and enjoy some great comedy. Highlights of that festival were a bunch of amazing stand-up comedians that I saw, the hosts of Those Fucking Teenagers and Overthinking It podcasts doing an amazing show, and a PowerPoint presentation on Lycanosis delivered by an aspiring epidemiologist that was as well researched as it was hilarious.

As far as the 100 Things Challenge goes, so far I have accomplished all of one thing: adopting a dog. If you decide to do a challenge of your own, don’t make “adopt a dog” the first thing you do; save it for the last thing you do, as a reward, because it is as rewarding as it is challenging. I’ve only been on a few dates this year, so I’m really falling behind on that one. This area is looking quite promising at the moment, though, so I’m quite content.

Adopting a dog is hell on your schedule, initially. Now that we’ve got a routine under control, I’d really like to get back to the gym, start getting back in shape, and get back on track with the Body Challenge. Before I adopted Winston, I was at the gym six days a week. Since adopting Winston, I’ve been to the gym about six times total. Because I was working on building muscle, I had started eating carbs again. When I stopped going to the gym, I didn’t stop eating carbs. I’ve started to get a little pudgy again, although my weight is stabilized around the 198-204 lbs. range. There is definitely more fat and less muscle. I need to get back to the gym, since I really loved going.

One of the other major issues has been a lot of change and instability with my company since January. We ran a deal on LivingSocial in March that only just got the cheque for recently and we’ve done a few corporate gigs that still have payments outstanding. Those delays had become a financial burden, but good things are on the horizon and we’re moving forward. I’ve just filed my articles of incorporation tonight and ITC is soon to be a completely separate legal entity from me.

We had to move from our home at Comedy Bar due to an agreement the owners made that caused my company to be in conflict of interest for them. We started doing weekly shows at Clinton’s Tavern that have been very successful and a ton of fun. Oliver Georgiou has been fantastic as the host for those shows.

We’ve just held auditions and two new Harold teams and two great Incubator teams have come out of it. I wish I could put everyone on a Harold team, but the reality is that it just isn’t possible or feasible. I’ll be back on stage with the new team Congress in June, joining my good friends Matt Folliott and Kevin Williams, alongside a couple of great gals. I’m excited to be back onstage and even more excited to be doing Harolds again.

We’ve got a couple of new IMPROV 101 classes starting in a couple of weeks that are filling up quickly. I’m sure they’ll be selling out and things will be moving ahead throughout the rest of the spring and into the summer months. It’s been a tough and turbulent year so far, but I’m definitely coming out of it a much stronger person.

While we haven’t been in a while, due to my hectic schedule lately, Winston really enjoys going to the dog park at Sorauren Avenue Park. There’s one dog, though, that when he shows up, it takes forever to get the two of them settled down and to get him to leave. When we go to the park, we’ve been working on Winston’s entrance to the fenced in area. I’ve been getting him to lay down by the entrance calmly before he’s allowed to go in. This is a practice he is used to as he has to lay calmly by the front door before he’s allowed to come into the house, every single time.

Likewise, Winston’s feeding routine now consists of me putting food and water on the floor, Winston assumes the “down” position, and he is not given permission to eat until his ears are back and he is in a calm state. When I started doing this about a month ago, it took upwards of 10-15 minutes each meal. Now, he’s lying down in an alert position before the bowls even hit the floor. Then it only takes about 10-15 second before his ears are back and he is in a calm state. As soon as I say, “Okay!”, he gets up and promptly eats his meal.

As an added bonus, if I say “stop” while he is eating, he stops right away, lays “down” and waits for the next “Okay!” command. You might wonder why I would train him to stop eating during his meal, but it came about because he eats his food too rapidly and often ends up regurgitating it into his throat and “re-eating” it. It’s not healthy for him for to eat so quickly, not to mention how disgusting it sounds and smells.

Other tidbits: His teeth are great, thanks to his Prescription Diet oral care food and daily “toothbrush” treat. He now sits by the door when he needs to go out for a poop — he learned that one on his own, I’m not sure how. He’s been molting and shedding like crazy; I vacuum up a whole dog every few days. And he’s doing pretty well when left at home on his own. There are more improvements to be made still, but those will all come with time, consistent training, and focus. Soon he’ll be able to fetch me a beer from the fridge.

When I come home from teaching a class or coaching/performing in shows, he’s a little boisterous. I still have a bit of energy myself, so a late night walk has been beneficial. However, the quality of the walks usually disintegrates throughout the day. In the morning, he is calm and relaxed

Last night we had a bit of snow on the ground and Winston kept attacking my boots as they kicked through the snow. He would attack the ground and start digging through the snow, jumping sideways in weird, excited circles. He kept eating the snow and snapping at me whenever he received even the smallest of corrections.

Oddly, as I was writing that last paragraph, my mother sent me a message on Facebook noting that someone told her dogs see in black and white, so they don’t see very well at night. This is actually the opposite of what is true. The following excerpt is from the section on vision on the Wikipedia page about dogs:

As crepuscular hunters, dogs often rely on their vision in low light situations: They have very large pupils, a high density of rods in the fovea, an increased flicker rate, and a tapetum lucidum. The tapetum is a reflective surface behind the retina that reflects light to give the photoreceptors a second chance to catch the photons. There is also a relationship between body size and overall diameter of the eye. A range of 9.5 and 11.6 mm can be found between various breeds of dogs. This 20% variance can be substantial and is associated as an adaptation toward superior night vision.

Tonight, when I got home, we went for a brisk walk. This is the best Winston has behaved on any walk, morning, afternoon or night. We hoofed it around the neighbourhood, up and down the blocks and he just walked, walked without distraction, without pulling, without sniffing the ground or turning to jump on me. Great! Hopefully it’s a sign that he’s really catching on to who’s in charge around here.

I think I mentioned in previous posts that I’ve also been training him to sit when we stop. He did that well tonight, though he needed to be told. Nevertheless, he did it without protest. I’ve also been training him that he has to wait on the mat outside the front door and allow me to go in first. He’s getting the hang of that and, tonight, with a quick prompt, he sat, then almost immediately he laid down with his ears back. Awesome! As soon as he showed me that calm submissive posture he was allowed to come right in.

After we got back, we worked on our basic commends (sit, down, stay, come) with the clicker and he did a fantastic job. We even incorporated the command “crate” into the exercises and he went straight on in. He was rewarded with a few bites of his high-end chicken flavoured treats that need to be kept in the refrigerator. Fancy.

I feel like all the hard work we’re putting in right now is really going to pay dividends in the future. Adopting a dog can really suck in the beginning, but if you invest a lot of time in teaching your dog to be calm and submissive — with a lot of discipline and fun for both of you — you will save yourself a lot of headaches. Oh, and watch every episode of The Dog Whisperer you can. Cesar Millan’s techniques have really helped my guide Winston’s development. In only 10 days, the improvements are dramatic and will help you keep your sanity.

On another good note, my friend Tara came over tonight and made an undercooked Pad Thai dinner for us. She has agreed to stay at my place and dog-sit Winston while I’m in North Carolina for NCCAF. The only downside to this is that she works long days — 10-12 hours, usually 3 or 5 p.m. to 3 a.m. — so I’m going to have to find someone to walk Winston in the afternoons and at night. Otherwise, I’m really glad there will be a stable, dog-loving person in the apartment while I’m away.

We spent a lot of time in training yesterday and he’s getting really great at some basics — sit, stay, come. He’ll do them almost instantly when I have a treat in my hand, and if I don’t, he often needs coercing — one of the reasons I am not a fan of training with food. However, since training with food can work really well, we spent quite a bit of time doing that yesterday.

When I brought him home from Toronto Animal Services, they gave me Hill’s Science Diet food (excellent quality food) and a box of Iams treats (horrible quality food). I had run out of the Old Mother Hubbards peanut butter treats so I was using the Iams. Since the Iams food is low quality, not a lot of it is absorbed into his system. I was also training with his regular food (also a great option), the PetSmart brand Simply Nurish.

Since we spent a lot of time working on crate training yesterday, Winston had eating quite a bit more than usual. When I take him for his nightly walks — we currently walk about three times a day: 11 a.m., 5 p.m. and 11 p.m. — he often takes a poop. Last night he didn’t poop. DANGER!

When I woke up this morning, Winston had left a gift for me in the kitchen. A big poop all over the floor. He has never pooped that much outside and I half-expected this might even happen. I resisted the urges to both vomit and take a photo for this post. The smell was so disgusting and overpowering, Winston vomited in his bed. It was either that or because of the overdose of those horrible Iams treats. Needless to say, his bed got put into the wash today and is air drying in the bathroom.

The crate training was really a struggle as I think the last parents he had would lock him in as punishment. In order to create a positive association with the crate and rehabilitate the negative association, everything I read said the best thing to do was coerce him into his crate with treats. I did a lot of that yesterday.

He has a really hard time staying in the crate with the door closed. If he’s whimpering or whining, I can’t let him out until he calms down. I have to wait until he is in a calm-submissive state before I open the crate door, and when I door, I cannot let him come charging out. He needs to be calm-submissive before I allow him to come out. That took a lot of work yesterday, but he’s a really smart dog and a fast learner.

If I even closed the crate door yesterday, he would start whimpering and pawing at the door. As I’m typing this post, Winston has been in his crate for about 30 minutes; 15 minutes ago I closed the door. He hasn’t complained once and he’s currently chilling out — pretty much what he does most of the time anyway.

I’m hoping I can get him to stay in his crate with the door closed for hours when I have to go out to teach or perform. Eventually I might have him sleep (not sure yet) in the crate with the door closed at night. He has been sleeping on his bed and sneaking onto the couch when I’m in bed. Since I can’t correct that behaviour, not being awake and all, I have been working on only allowing him onto the couch when I say it’s okay. The command for that is “up.” The command for disallowing that, and for disallowing him jumping up onto people is “off.” “Down” would confuse the situation with my desire to have him lay down.

This afternoon, we went to PetSmart, which was really great for him. On walks, he’s always trying to run up to other dogs and will instinctively take a dominant-aggressive stance — head up, ears up, tail up, chest forward, hair on his back standing on end. Going to PetSmart allowed him the opportunity to socialize with the other dogs in the store, and it seems that on Sunday afternoons there are a lot of other dogs in the store. I’m not comfortable taking him to a dog park just yet until he can be more relaxed around other dogs. This seems like a good, controlled way to do it. We also needed to get some new, not-shitty-Iams treats and a clicker.

One final note: on Thursday or Friday, I discovered a PetValu store on the Queensway. I had just come from PetSmart where I had bought a training chain for our walks. I had seen Cesar Millan’s Ilusion Collar on the Cesar’s Way website and thought it was brilliant. PetValu, however, is the only place around that carries them. (I guess many places disapprove of Cesar’s methods — some even claim his techniques were disproven, although he’s made a pretty good case or proving them for the past seven years on NetGeo — so they don’t carry his products. WTF is that?!) I picked one up for Winston and THIS COLLAR HAS CHANGED MY LIFE!!! Every pet store on the planet should carry and recommend this collar. If you have a dog, you have to get this collar.

On our walks today, I’ve been getting him to sit every time I stop walking. That was something I saw a dog do on The Dog Whisperer and I thought it would be great if Winston would sit and relax every time we stopped walking, so I started training on that.

It’s now been 35 minutes that Winston has been in his crate. This is great. Too bad I’m going to have to get him up in a few minutes to go for our 11 p.m. walk. I sure hope he takes a poop.

Yesterday, I got a crate for Winston. It seems he’s familiar with having one, but not very comfortable in it just yet. When I went to bed last night around 2:15 a.m., I didn’t put Winston in his crate because it’s still new and he’s been successfully sleeping in his bed. I passed right out. Fifteen minutes later I woke up the sound of a big crash.

My bad. I ordered pizza last night — I know! But I was hungry and I’m still adjusting my schedule to Winston’s — and left my plate on top of the box on the kitchen table. Winston tried to get to the pizza, knocked both the box and the ceramic plate to the floor. When I came in to see what happened, he ran straight into his crate and laid down. I left him alone and cleaned up the mess, picking and sweeping up shards of ceramic all over the kitchen so he wouldn’t step on any of them.

Fifteen minutes later, around 2:45 a.m., I closed the crate door, since Winston was still in it laying down calmly. At 5:30 a.m. this morning, I awoke to the loud, repetitive sound of Winston pawing at the crate door. Under normal circumstances, I would wait until he is calm-submissive to open the door, but at 5:30 a.m. in a building where the sound travels, I’m sure Winston had also awoken the neighbours who sleep directly above and below my living room and kitchen area. I let him out of the crate; he went straight to his bed and I went back to mine.

After our walk this morning, when I usually feed Winston from a bowl, I grabbed a handful of food and started running him through some basic commands — sit, down, stay, come here, okay (a release command) — rewarding him with a small piece of food every time he responded correctly. If he didn’t, we corrected it and he was rewarded when he got it right. Since it’s feeding time anyway, I don’t need to use treats, his actual food works perfectly. He’s learning while eating. By the end of our brief training session this morning, I got him to come to me, lay down and stay in the same spot for 10 minutes before I released him. He didn’t leave his spot at all. Smart dog.

Expectations

My good friend Jen asked me the following questions in a comment on the previous post:

I’m curious what you expected dog ownership would be like. Were you thinking it would be like how it was when you grew up? What were your expectations based on?

Here was my response:

It’s likely my expectations were based on all the happy images and loving photos of people and their dogs, and my fond memories of the dog I grew up with. You never hear or see about the bad stuff, or how trying, tiring and stressful it can be. My mother took care of training our dog Caesar, so I don’t really have memories of her struggles.

When I said I wanted to adopt a dog, everyone said things like: “You’re going to love it” or “That’ll be so awesome” or “Dogs are the best.” No one said, “Hey, I know it looks and sounds great and can be very rewarding, but it can also lead to some of the most stressful days and nights of your life. Here’s what I experienced…”

It wasn’t until after I started posted about my experiences, that people started saying: “What did you expect?!” and “That’s a dog” — as if I should have known, having never owned one before — and even “You don’t deserve to have a dog” as though being fallible, experiencing stress and expressing doubt were inappropriate responses and that I was inhumane for thinking I couldn’t do it.

What I am getting from all the comments is that everyone’s experience will vary. It really depends on the person and how well matched their energy is with that of their dog’s. I’ve done a lot more research now — research I wish I had been directed to before adopting to help me prepare… and cope — and have learned a lot about being pack leader.

Every dog has the ability to either be pack leader or a more submissive member of the pack. The good thing is that in a pack of 2 or 200, there can only be one pack leader. (Surprisingly, breed has very little to do with energy, as a bull mastiff could be submissive to a chihuahua in pack.) It’s my job to provide that calm, assertive energy of pack leader for Winston. I am also finding that my instincts in training him were mostly correct, from how to hold the leash (keep it short, but not tight, so that he stays beside me) to making sure that I am the first to pass through the threshold of the house at all times.

I’ve got a friend coming over tonight and I have a small dinner party tomorrow night, so that will give me a bit of opportunity to work with him on people coming to the door, currently the only thing that really causes him to bark.

I went to the gym this afternoon, the first time since getting Winston. I had a really great workout and it was nice to feel the burn again. As you can tell from the photo above, I keep detailed records of my workouts to track my progress.

After our shows tonight, I decided to go out for a drink. We went to a bar on Bloor West called Disgraceland, a favourite hang of mine that has great beer and killer late-night eats. I had a grilled peanut butter and banana sandwich and the Beans & Weans, a hot dog with baked beans on it. The food was great, the beer was great, the company was great.

When I got home, my workouts were on the table, but had clearly been chewed up. One of the pages was on the floor with a chunk torn out of it. My favourite sunglasses with yellow lenses were destroyed. It’s frustrating, but I guess this is the price of dog ownership. I’m concerned that I cannot afford to leave anything out if I leave the house. He’ll get into it and tear it apart. People are going to comment about crate training Winston and it seems like that might be something I have to do. Unfortunately, I can’t afford to buy a crate right now.

I’m still having a bit of trouble on the night walk, but I’m doing a lot of research. I can’t yet understand what Winston is trying to communicate to me. Maybe he’s just pissed off that I left him alone for five hours, but it’s something he’s going to have to adapt to since no one’s schedule allows for them to be home all the time.

Status: I love having him around, but I’m still doubtful that I’m the right parent for him.

• Who would read it?
• Who would care?
• How much of my time is it going to take up?

So far, I have found the blog very rewarding and cathartic. What started as a place to track my progress throughout the year, has so far turned into a place where my thoughts and ideas, my trial and tribulations, have been well received and a lot of feedback and advice offered to help with the progress.

In particular, the challenge of adopting a dog has proven extremely stressful and rewarding. What I have learned so far is that no matter how prepared you might think you are, there are many things you don’t expecting, and when you share your frustrations about your experience, a lot of great people will offer their help and support, and some people you don’t even know will get mad and tell you you’re an asshole for adopting a dog in the first place, as though it’s inhumane to have doubts or consider the possibility that you might not be the dog person you thought you were.

As far as the challenge of adopting a dog goes, some people think that it’s just an item I am checking off of a list. However, every single item on the list is designed to provide me with an area of growth and an experience to enhance my quality of life. Some challenges will provide a great experience and greater improvement than others. That goes without saying. The challenges themselves, though, should be considered in their own context and not in comparison to one another.

For example, the challenge of Buy Five New Suits, is designed not to be as simple as walking into Tom’s Place in Kensington Market and picking out five suits. It’s about a couple of different things: 1) working towards having enough disposable income that I can afford five new suits, 2) further developing the corporate and business services of the Impatient Theatre Co and looking like a professional in the process, and 3) becoming the kind of man who looks great in a suit and is comfortable wearing them in a variety of settings. Those three things are not SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely), so Buy Five New Suits is an end goal that forces me to work on developing other areas of my life to improve and enhance the quality of my life.

Now, for the first time in almost a week, I’m going to go to the gym for a workout. I think Winston and I are at a point where I can go out for a while in the afternoon and he can be left to his own devices.

On Monday night, when I got home from teaching an improv class, Winston had taken one of my scarves from the back of a kitchen chair and dragged it to his bed. I didn’t think to take a photo at the time. When I got home last night, because I had made sure not to leave any of my scarves or other clothing out, he snagged a tea towel, that usually hangs from a lower kitchen cabinet and which I use to dry my hands, and took it to his bed. This time, I did think to snap a photo. Adorable, right?!

Anyhow, I’m doing better. His night walks are still a struggle, but his daytime walks are improving a lot. He likes to stand on his back legs and put his arms on my lap and belly when I’m working. He’s too big to sit in my lap when I’m at my desk, and his long Corgi body makes it hard for him to jump up. He’s also getting used to just hanging out in the apartment during the day, instead of having to take my focus. He has a couple of toys that keep him occupied (a small peanut butter scented tennis ball and a small, red fire hose).

As for me, I’m learning to become more patient with him, and adjust my schedule to suit his needs. I expect there are still going to be some anxious times ahead in which I think he’s better off elsewhere, and that may or may not be true, but a number of people have talked me down off the ledge and I’m working on complete integration.

Status: Less doubt about keeping him.

The Toys I Mentioned:

It’s been pointed out to me today that I might be projecting the current stresses of my work life onto my pet life and that last night’s 4 a.m. post about giving him up is maybe a bit premature. I have some very wise and insightful friends. However, I am still wracked with doubt at my ability to properly raise this guy and have our lives integrate with each other’s, so please be patient with me as I go through this experience.

I want to make this whole process as transparent, inclusive and informative as possible, so that anyone reading these posts who is considering adopting a dog, can understand how way-more-than-feeling-prepared you actually think is necessary. The tasks for personal growth I’m taking this year will clearly be much bigger challenges than I expected. Looking ahead to a life with or without Winston, I can see both possibilities. I can also see potential for huge regret in finding him a new home.

What has become obvious is that I make decisions about my personal life in dramatic contrast to my work life. At work, I try to make my decisions with a lot of foresight and consider how they will impact everyone in my company and how those decision may or may not set precedent. In my personal life, it seems I’m much more impulsive. It seems that’s a character trait I’m going to have to work on.

The goal of my list of 100 challenges is all about forcing myself to have new experiences and improve my quality of life. I guess the question is this: Am I being too short-sighted and only looking at the impact on my quality of life as it currently is and not examining how Winston may improve my quality of life in the future?

I’d love to hear your opinions.

Status: Filled with doubt and vacillating between keeping him here or finding him a new home. Please have patience with me on this journey; I am clearly conflicted.

N.B. If you offer your opinions and comments, I would appreciate that you not do so in an angry manner. I’m putting myself out in the open and recognize that comes with scrutiny, but angry voices are more difficult to hear.

I thought about what that must have meant for him, to want to be close to me, to smell my scent, to feel loved. When he was laying on my chest tonight as I watched TV after an exhausting day, It struck me that Winston needs more than I can honestly provide with my schedule.

I love dogs and Winston is great, but neither of those things make up for the amount of time I have had to put into him so far, that I cannot afford (literally, financially) to not be able to focus on work, and the fact that even what time I have given him isn’t even enough. He needs a parent with more patience than I have, with more time than I have, and who can give him the attention he needs and deserves.

The current situation is stressing both of us out, and I’m sure it’s boring him. The perception might be that I haven’t given it enough time, but it’s not like we go for two walks a day and that’s it. Since I got him, almost every waking moment has been about him. It’s not a partnership, it’s a job. It’s a noble and honorable job, and I respect anyone who can do this on their own, but it’s a job, and financially, it’s not allowing me the time to invest myself in the one that actually pays the bills. And the bills need to be paid.

This isn’t a movie, no matter how cute it may seem to personify Winston through his own Twitter feed. It’s a matter I take very seriously. It’s a matter that is very personal for me. While I don’t feel like a success, I don’t feel as though I have completely failed, either. But I severely underestimated what it takes to be a great parent to this dog, to allow him to feel fulfilled in a home that’s right for him. I’m an okay parent, but Winston needs someone who will be amazing for him.

While watching TV tonight, I realized that meeting Winston’s needs is ultimately the most important course of action. If I cannot provide that for him, I need to allow him to find a home that can. I don’t think it’s a failing on my part to recognize that I am not his best option, his best hope, but I’m certainly not chalking it up as a success story.

As you can guess by now, I have decided to find him a new home, no matter how much girls like guys with dogs. I’m going to change this adoption into a foster, and I’m going to make sure he goes to the right home. I’m sad. I’m torn up. But ultimately I have to be realistic. I think this choice is the right one for both of us.

I’m going to be contacting some friends who I think Winston might be great with, but if you are interested or know someone who is, I am looking to find the right home for him sooner rather than later, to reduce the amount and mpact of additional stress it will put on him.

So folks, Winston would do well with a backyard to play in, a pet parent who can walk him for one to two hours a day, and a parent who can be a good pack leader and provide the structure he needs. I guarantee you he will be a great pet and friend to the right person. Unfortunately, that person just isn’t me.

Status: Looking for a new home. Regretfully.

After watching a lot of Cesar Milan (The Dog Whisperer and Mastering Leadership) the past couple of days — despite some people’s objections to his techniques — there is significant improvement from both myself and Winston and a lot of reduced stress on my end. I’m starting to feel better about this decision, but I’m still concerned he might need a better home than I can provide.

Inline with Cesar’s teachings, I am working to constantly establish rules, boundaries and limitations — three things a dog needs in order to know that I am the pack leader.

Rules About Food

New rule: before he gets food and water in the morning, Winston and I go for a walk. This lets him know he has to work for his food, as all dogs in a pack do. He only eats when I give him permission to approach the bowl. He needs to be in a calm-submissive state before he gets his food. I have stopped using the measuring cup and started using my hand to scoop out his food, so that my scent mixes in with the food and Winston can smell me while he’s eating. Apparently this is very effective at helping to establish who the pack leader is.

A few other food-related tidbits: I am working on training him to not eat food that is on the table; while cooking dinner tonight, I dropped some food and trained him not to eat food from the floor; and, in order to get a treat, he comes to me, lays down and waits until I give it to him.

Boundaries of the House

This is Winston’s best area of learning so far. He is becoming great at adhering to the boundaries I’ve set: he doesn’t enter the back hallway without permission, and when we returned from our walk tonight, he successfully sat at the front door for a couple of minutes, with the door open and me inside, until he was given permission to enter. This is great progress.

Limitations on Walks

The biggest trouble spot is the walk. Being a scent hound, Winston loves to pull, and it’s a constant battle for pack leadership when we’re out on our walks. This afternoon we had a nice long walk over to the waterfront. It took us a while to get there as I had to keep stopping, shifting directions and getting him to walk beside me to show that I’m pack leader, but he did a great job. I was able to keep the leash nice and loose as he walked beside me about 50 per cent of the time. Tonight was a different story.

It could be that being home alone for four hours while I taught a class was bothersome for him. There wasn’t much on the kitchen table for him to knock off, but he did snag my scarf off the back of one of the kitchen chairs. It seems he dragged it over his bed and was sleeping with it. How adorable, right?! No other damage to report. No urine or poop anywhere. I got him to settle down quickly and put the leash on.

The walk tonight was very anxious for him and frustrating for me. Trying to keep him beside me was very difficult. There were a few other dogs out tonight and we met one of them. I’m trying to keep him in a calm-submissive state when he first meets other dogs, using his nose first. Winston likes to run up to them and try to establish dominance but jumping up on them.

I had to keep pulling him back, being carefully not to heighten the situation by keeping tension on the leash, but redirection of his attention was next to impossible. I’m also being careful not to grab him or hold him back when he is in this aggressive state. Grabbing him is a sign of affection and only tell him I approve of his behaviour, which is not the case. I caught myself doing this a couple of times but was able to correct my behaviour and reassert my dominance by positioning myself between him and the other dog, establishing limitations in his approach.

A Note on Meeting Winston

I would love for Winston to meet you, and many people reading this will meet him at some point. People have come running up to him in an excited state, showed him affection without earning it, and even taken offence when I ask that they not do that. don’t take it personally; it’s not about you, it’s about Winston.

I’ve learned that there is a proper way to meet a new dog, and I ask that you respect my choice and adhere to this method when you first meet Winston. I am following Cesar Millan’s example at my house and have made a sign for my door outlining the rules of meeting Winston. They are simple and as follows:

1. No Touching
2. No Talking
3. No Eye Contact

Touching is a sign of affection and if you offer Winston without affection, you will establish yourself beneath him in pack order. Do not reach down to let him sniff your hands. Winston can and will sniff around your ankles to familiarize himself with your scent. Do not look at him or talk to him. Most of all, do not offer him affection until he is on his pillow in a calm-submissive state. Only then can you approach him to pet him, but watch out, we are still dealing with a submissive urination problem; he’s a squirter. Yikes!

Status: Adapting to the situation, but still unsure if my home is the right one for Winston.

Many people have responded to my last post How Not to Adopt a Dog with a lot of reassurance, support and optimism. Thanks so much! It means the world to me. I also found out someone started a Twitter account and is posting as Winston. The posts are hilarious. And no, it’s not me.

Last night, I began watching the Dog Whisperer with Cesar Millan. I took Winston’s food and water off the floor by 8 p.m. and we went for a walk and a poop around midnight. Then, I got a great amount of sleep. Thankfully. He has already learned not to come into the back hallway where the bedrooms are. The flooring back there is old-school hardwood and if he pees on them, the ammonia in the urine could ruin the finish and damage the wood. He was well-behaved and stayed in the kitchen and living room area of the apartment, even with the hallway door open and slept well. He woke me at 9 a.m. for a walk and pee. After the walk, we came back home, I fed him, gave him some water and went back to bed. I’m usually up quite late and wake up in the late morning. I slept until 1 p.m.

Today, we had a long, full day. Winston and I went for a walk from about 1:30–4 p.m. I had to go to the bank and took him with me on the errand. On the way back, I ran into my friend Ryan. He and I ordered a pizza, came back to my place, ate and then went to rehearsal for the team that he’s on and I coach, Shiva Star. We left at 6:15 p.m. I got home at 10:30 p.m. The kitchen garbage bin that is currently stocked with urine soaked paper towels was all over the floor. I was picking up the same urine twice. The contents of my kitchen table were on the floor, except for my laptop, which thankfully, was barely clinging to the edge of the table.

It may sound like I’m bickering — it sure reads that way when I look back over what I’ve written — but the long walk was taxing and he is exhausting and exasperating. My body is still adjusting to the weight loss and my back was killing me. This is a lot of work. I don’t think I was being unrealistic when I decided to adopt a dog. I did believe I was ready. However, I do not think the reality of dog adoption is in line with the public perception of dog adoption. I think the perception of adopting a dog is layered with too much optimism.

In the end, I would love to keep Winston and have him around and have everything be sunshine and open meadows to run around in. Realistically, though, this doesn’t feel like the right timing for me. I’m having trouble bonding with Winston because when I look at him, my stress and anxiety levels shoot through the roof. I’m not willing to give up on myself or Winston just yet, so I got a copy of Cesar Millan’s Mastering Leadership series.

The support and reassurance I have received after my last post is amazing — I love you all! — but I do have a few takeaways:

People might have similar experience with your mental state, but they are not you and they do not have your dog. Optimism and hope are wonderful things — and many people think I’m optimistic to a fault — but the reality is this: everyone’s experience is different and if you chose to adopt a dog, yours will be different from everyone else that you know and from mine. A friend told me this afternoon the first dog his family adopted lasted two days in the house before his family had to re-home him. The second dog has been with him for the last 15 years. So, every experience is different. Just be prepared for it to be much more work than you expect.

Yes, Winston and I are super adorable together, but just because we look great in a photo doesn’t mean it’s the right thing for both of us. The important issue is that any pet you adopt — cat, dog, bird, muskrat — has to be right for both of you. As I’m writing this post, I am rapt with guilt. I know I am providing a better environment for Winston than he was in, but I don’t think he’s getting the level of attention that needs or deserves.

Status: Still unsure about whether to keep him or find him a new home.

Additional Resources

As you may have read, I adopted a dog yesterday. His name is Winston. There will undoubtedly be a period of adjustment, it’s only been a little over 24 hours, but I’ve rarely felt more stress. Worst of all, I’m starting to think I’ve made a huge mistake.

Two days ago, on Thursday, Jan. 19, 2012 at 5:55 p.m., I went to Toronto Animal Services to meet a dog named Ralphie. TAS identified him as a Pembroke Welsh Corgi / Jack Russell cross, so I did some research on the breeds. The information I found online suggested that Jack Russell’s are very energetic and driven. “I can deal with that,” I thought, “it would get me out to the park, time to spend with Winston playing and having some fun.” Pembroke Welsh Corgis are described as “very affectionate” — sounds great to me! — and “tend to follow wherever their owners go” — I work from home, so no problem there.

I spent about 15 minutes with him in a 12′ x 14′ room. We took to each other instantly. He laid down beside me, put his head in my lap. This dog is great! It’s too late to do the adoption that evening, to fill out the paperwork and setup the tags, so I have to come back the next afternoon. Yesterday afternoon (Friday, Jan. 20, 2012) I went to the TAS and adopted Ralphie Winston.

Here Are The Problems

He is very energetic and driven. He’s tiny but strong and he pulls me when we walk, something I’m trying to keep under control. Not a big issue, we could work that out with some training. He follows me everywhere! I go to the bathroom, he follows me there. I go to my bedroom to get a sweater, he’s right on my heels. I go to bed, he jumps into bed. I remove him from my bed, he lays on the floor next to me. He literally will not leave me alone.

He is extremely affectionate – a double-edged sword. He likely has abandonment issues and issues with having been stuck in TAS for a month. He also seems to have separation anxiety. Couple these with the neediness of the Corgi and Jack Russell breeds and he is worse than the clingiest ex-whatever you’ve ever had. I work from home and he keep trying to jump into my lap while I’m working. (Note: he’s not a laptop, so he doesn’t fit at all.) “He just needs some love,” you might be thinking. He’s getting love, and he is loved. “You need to get into a routine,” and yes, that’s also true.

He kept me up all night — and that’s saying something. Last night, I barely got any sleep because Winston woke me up at 5 a.m. to go to the bathroom. Since I don’t have a backyard, I can’t just put him out to go. I had to get up, get completely dressed and take him for a walk in the freezing snow. Because it takes me about 5-10 minutes to get out of bed, put on some clothes, put on my winter clothes, get my boots on, get his harness and leash on, he had already taken a pee on the kitchen floor.

We went for a half-hour walk and came back. Then I cleaned up the pee and mopped the floor, got back into bed at 6 a.m., didn’t get back to sleep for two hours because Winston was walking around or trying to jump into bed with me (which I don’t like), slept for about two hours, woke up, got dressed, took him for a walk, came back, sat for 15 minutes trying not to fall asleep before walking to my training centre to teach a class for noon.

Worst news: I might actually be allergic to Winston. I grew up with a Great Dane in the house, but I haven’t had a dog in my life as an adult, so this may be a new allergy development. (Side note: I think I started to develop a hay fever allergy last year, as well.) By noon this afternoon I had a lot of trouble breathing. I was completely congested and had trouble drawing breath, I had to open a window and take in the bitter cold air to open my lungs a bit. Winston had a quick groom this afternoon at PetSmart and is dander free. I’ve been fine most of the evening but am currently finding myself getting congested again. Apparently, there’s been a nasty cold going around Southern Ontario, but since I work from home, my exposure to the outside world has been minimal this week. I’ll know more by the end of the weekend.

Here’s the Real Problem

I was not as prepared for this situation as I thought I was and — for lack of a more apropos term — I fucked up.

While I’m sure a lot of my stress is due to this decision’s impact on me, I think most of my stress is my concern for him. I didn’t just screw up and have to bear the consequences. I screwed up and an innocent life has to bear the consequences. This is something I normally give a great deal of consideration; at work, almost every decision I make affects many people, sometimes many dozens of people.

Is this doubt talking? I’m sure that plays into it. I also don’t want to be the asshole that adopts an abandoned dog only to abandon him a second time. If I do have to give him back, though, the sooner the better, so the impact on him is minimized. People say we look happy together. The truth is he is super happy and I am super stressed and worried about my ability to cope.

Since 2012 is supposed to be the year of my personal development, I am concerned this pup may actually impinge on that. I have already missed two days at the gym and am unsure as to whether or not I’ll be able to go tomorrow. I know he would contribute greatly to my life, but being the health nut I currently am, I monitor my pulse and blood pressure regularly, both are well above their norms, indicating a lot stress on my system. My resting pulse is normally in the low 60s, but has been in the mid- to high-80s all day.

Yes, this is selfish, but that’s kind of the whole point of the 100 Things Challenge. It’s about bettering myself as a person. Adopting a pet won’t necessarily make me a better person, it might have just forced me into a situation of greater responsibility that I am, admittedly, probably not ready for.

Make no mistake: I love this dog. He is great and amazing and right now is keeping to himself in his little bed I picked out for him. If he could be calm like this all the time, that would be amazing.

So whose fault is it? No one’s. And by that I mean no one person. TAS is at fault, and many of the “adopting a dog” articles I read online before going into this are at fault, both for not providing detailed and realistic information about the impact on a person’s life that a pet like this has. Mostly, though, I am at fault.

I am at fault for not realizing and accurately recognizing my own personal limits, abilities and scheduling restraints. I am at fault for not thoroughly acknowledging the temperament of the breeds from which Winston comes and understanding what that might entail.

So Now What?

I just don’t know.

I know I will give him a couple of more days, but if it continues to stress me out, rather than makes us both happy, he would be better off in a home that could care for him more easily, more stress free, than I can. Also, if it turns out I am allergic to Winston, I will have to send him to a new home.

He would be better off in a home with access to a backyard, as he likes to run around and, being a hound, likes to hunt and sniff about investigating everything in sight. If I lived in an apartment with a backyard, I might feel a lot less stressed, but I don’t and I don’t know.

What I do know is that I need to do what’s best for Winston. Maybe that means I need to step up and be more responsible, more mature, more open to taking care of him. Maybe that means giving him to a home that can provide the things for him that he needs that I currently cannot: time, lots of attention, room to run.

An Ounce of Prevention

If you’re reading this article, I hope that you take a bit of extra time and make sure that the time is right for you to adopt. On Thursday evening, I was 100 per cent, absolutely sure. Thirty-six hours later, my heart was beating out of my chest as I sat on the edge of my bed trying not to hyperventilate, taking in the reality of the situation, 100 per cent absolutely sure I had made a mistake.

Adopting a dog is not easy, and frankly, it’s not the instant idyllic partnership that adopt-a-pet literature makes it out to be. Those pamphlets and websites have the life of the animal and its best interest in mind. A few more responsible ones might suggest you don’t adopt unless you meet a certain set of criteria.

The Final Word

If you are thinking of adopting a dog, I whole-heartedly think you should… but only if the circumstances, timing and environment are right for both of you, otherwise it’s the dog that will end up paying the price in the end.

Remember the dog I mentioned that I was going to adopt? You know, the one in the picture above? He’s one year and seven months old, part Welsh Corgi (Pembroke), part Jack Russell Terrier, and completely awesome.

Well, I went to see him at Toronto Animal Services this evening and am going back tomorrow to pick him up. I’ve already picked up the food and water bowls (and food), leash and collar, poop bags, brush and some treats. I’ll have to get him a bed tomorrow but Costco has those on for super cheap.

I haven’t yet decided on a name yet but I think he deserves a right proper Welsh- or British-sounding name. I’ll decide on that tonight so that when I fill out the adoption papers tomorrow his new name will be on those.

This is the kind of body I’m working towards, but without the douche leather wrist straps. In my mind, this is the ideal body, the perfect body. Muscular, lean, fit, healthy.

Is this the perfect body? What is the perfect body? Is it attainable? While physical attraction is subjective and based on personal preference and cultural influence, one thing that most people universally agree on, is that the appearance of the golden ratio in many examples of nature adds an intrinsic beauty.

The Divine Proportion

The golden ratio, also known as the golden section, the golden mean and the divine proportion, can be seen in nature, architecture, art, music and even trading algorithms in financial markets.

The number is represented by the Greek letter φ (phi) and its value is:

φ = 1.618 033 988 …

Let’s take a look at a basic Fibonacci sequence, in which the subsequent number is the sum of the two previous numbers:

1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, 34, 55, 89 …

We can see the Golden Ratio appear as we apply its expression to the sequence:

1/1 = 1

2/1 = 2

3/2 = 1.5

5/3 = 1.666…

8/5 = 1.6

13/8 = 1.625

21/13 = 1.61538…

34/21 = 1.61905…

55/34 = 1.61764…

89/55 = 1.61861…

We see this relationship present itself over and over in nature, such as in nautilus shells, sunflower seeds and the dimensions of the human body (foot-to-navel:navel-to-head).

Leonardo DaVinci’s famous drawing of Vetruvian Man is described as follows:

The drawing is based on the correlations of ideal human proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in Book III of his treatise De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture. Leonardo’s drawing is traditionally named in honor of the architect.

If we subscribe to the notion of the human figure being of ideal proportion, then we can apply the golden mean, this divine proportion, to the figure of man and the representation of the ideal human body shape.

The Perfect Body Formula (The V-Shaped Torso)

Men’s Health published an article called The Perfect Body Formula in 2008 in which the author wrote:

…it’s no surprise to learn that chicks dig a physique that measures up to the golden ratio. An Archives of Sexual Behavior study reveals that women are most attracted to muscular men whose shoulders measure 1.6 times the size of their waists.

There it is: the golden ratio. Do your body proportions measure up? Here’s how to check:

1. Measure Your Shoulders
2. Measure Your Waist
3. Do the Math: divide your shoulder measurement by your waist measurement

If the measure is close to the golden ration, you’re in good shape, at least from an attractiveness-to-women perspective.

The Adonis Effect

Author John Barban has done some work with studies of attractiveness and the proportions of the human body. According to the Adonis Effect website, at 5’9″ my ideal dimensions would be 49.9″ shoulders and 30.84″ waist. Many of you probably think this kind of attention to my body image is ridiculous, I know some of my friends would even suggest I’m being brainwashed and repressed by society’s views and expectations.

Why not pay a little more attention to my body — okay, a lot more attention. I’ve been neglecting it for years and I’d really like to get the same kind of reaction Ryan Gosling’s character gets from Emma Stone’s character near the end of Crazy Stupid Love: “Seriously?! It looks like you’re Photoshop’d!” Who wouldn’t want to hear that?

The bottom line is this: the body in the photo at the top of this article looks great. I want to look that great. I want to be muscular, fit, lean and healthy and I’m going to see if I can get myself aligned with these measurements and see if it makes a difference in my appearance. I’m guessing that I’m going to get a lot more compliments about my body than comments that I’m being repressed by society.

I ran into an old friend on Bloor Street yesterday. She was walking her dog, a beautiful girl she picked up from Toronto Animal Services. I didn’t know that this was something different from the Toronto Human Society. When I got home, I immediately checked out the TAS website and their listed adoptable pets.

There’s a beautiful Welsh Corgi (Pembroke) and Jack Russell Terrier mix (pictured above) that would be perfect for me. I’m going to go down there and meet him.

I love dogs and cats — I grew up with a Great Dane named Caesar and there was always a cat in the house – but my apartment is not great for a cat since there isn’t a good place for a litter box here. Also, I really would love to have a dog; I’m very interested in whippets (see pohto above). I’ve got a saved search setup at Petango and check the Toronto Human Society’s page for adoptable dogs regularly.

However, since I’m heading to North Carolina for 10 days in February (9-19), I won’t be ready to adopt a dog prior to my return from that trip.

Tag: Dog

I’ve been certified in standard first aid and CPR a couple of times in my life for different reasons I can’t recall. I know I was a teenager when I took my last course. I feel this challenge is an important one that everyone should do; you might be able to save the life of a loved one some day.

A description of the course offered through the Canadian Red Cross:

This course provides comprehensive First Aid & CPR techniques for those who want more knowledge to respond to emergencies in the home or workplace. A variety of topics are covered from basic first aid such as cardiovascular and breathing emergencies, CPR, prevention of disease transmission to more severe sudden medical conditions and injuries to the head and spine.

Comprehensive two-day course offering first aid and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) skills for those who need training due to work requirements or who want more knowledge to respond to emergencies at home. Includes the latest first aid and CPR guidelines. Meets federal and a variety of provincial/territorial regulations for Standard First Aid and CPR. Exceeds competitors’ standards by including injury prevention content, CPR and AED.

Tag: First Aid CPR

At Canada’s Wonderland, there is a ride called the Drop Zone — named after the Wesley Snipes movie about skydiving crooks (like Point Break, but in the air) — that I have been on twice. The first time I was super excited to go on it until it started to drop. I froze with fear so much that I couldn’t even move or make a sound. The second time, I went at night and didn’t look at the ground; it was just as bad.

You’ll this challenge is not “go skydiving.” It is to become a solo certified skydiver. This is the biggest challenge for my to get over my fear of heights.

Here are the prerequisites to becoming certified:

• Performed one solo freefall delay greater than 30 seconds
• Performed one 5 second solo freefall delay from 4000 feet
• Completed 3 self-spotted (unassisted) jumps with controlled self-guided canopy landings to within 50 meters of the target
• Demonstrated in freefall, belly to earth, a figure 8 turn (360 degree turns in both directions)
• Performed one “Ride the Slide” exit (sitting exit with back towards propeller) for 5 seconds prior to rotating back to belly to earth
• Under canopy, demonstrate a canopy stall and recovery (above 2000 feet)
• Completed the Solo Checkout Jump Endorsement
• Completed the Reserve Procedures Endorsement
• Completed the Emergency Procedures Review – Solo
• Accumulated 10 jumps and a minimum of 3 minutes of freefall with stable activation at the prescribed altitude on the last five jumps
• Correctly answer all Solo test questions

I think after my first jump I will either: (a) be hooked, (b) have to replace this challenge with something like ride a bull, or (c) be dead. I’m shooting for (a), thank you very much.

Tag: Skydiving

Ever since the sport of bungee jumping gained popularity, I’ve wanted to try it. Since I’m scared of heights, or rather of dying in a big splat, I want to get past this and dive off of a perfectly good platform to certain doom with nothing stopping me except an elastic strap.

At the end of July, I will taking a trip to the Ottawa River to go white water rafting at Wilderness Tours. It just so happens they also have bungee jumping. Two birds, one death-defying stone.

Tag: Bungee Jumping

When I was a teenager, my mother went white water (high adventure) rafting down the Ottawa River and had raved about it for years (she still does). She bought and frame pictures of herself and hung them on the walls of our basement den, among her collectible plates of The Beatles.

I’ve always looked up to my mother (and I still do) and am planning on following in her footsteps in a number of ways. She’s amazing and this challenge is a tribute to her and a high adventure for myself.

I’ve already tentatively scheduled the trip to Wilderness Tours for the last weekend in July and have invited many of my dear friends along for the ride. I’m also planning on going bungee jumping while I’m there, completing two awesome challenges in one amazing weekend.

Tag: White Water Rafting

Right now I can do about 10-15 push-ups in a row. I want to do 100. Working on developing my body and getting fit means proving to myself the body I have is good for more than just looking at — right now it’s not even good for that.

Being able to perform 100 consecutive push-ups (press-ups for you Brits) will show me that not only are my muscles and physique in great shape, but they have strength and endurance. I’ll keep you posted on my progress and the tools I use to help me get there.

Tag: 100 Push-Ups

As large as my circle of friends and associates is, it’s a really tight circle of people who all seem to know each other. I also want to have a balance of three gents and three ladies. The three ladies have been invited. Myself and one other gent will be attending and I am currently trying to find a third who doesn’t know any of the four other guests. It might have to come down to knowing who they are but not really having spoken to them at all.

The ball is rolling. This is going to be a great party and an amazing year.

When I was younger, for a brief period in my teens, I was a competitive gymnast. Part of my whole kick about getting shape is about feeling vibrant and athletic again. I loved gymnastics (and before you ask, my best events were floor, rings and vault) and loved having the ability to do five back handsprings in a row and finish off with a back tuck.

This challenge is a little more tame — hold a handstand for one minute– but will require a lot of practice, muscle and balance.  I expect I won’t even be able to hold a proper handstand for a few seconds until late spring.

Tag: Handstand

Shit. I added the CN Tower Edge Walk to my list. What is that? It’s this:

I used to want to be a pilot. I was in Air Cadets and all that. In fact, I still want to learn how to fly. Now, I seem to be afraid of heights. Maybe less afraid of heights and more afraid of the possibility of dying that comes with a lot of height-based activities. I plan to conquer that fear this year and this is one of the ways I’m doing it.

From the CN Tower Edge Walk website:

Toronto’s newest and tallest attraction had adventure lovers taking a walk OUTSIDE – around the circumference of the roof! So, do you dare to test your limits and experience the thrill of a lifetime?

Cue vomit sound.

Two minutes later: cue sound of vomit hitting the pavement 120 stories below.

Tag: CN Tower Edge Walk

Since I run a comedy company, it’s only fitting that I have some challenges that are comedy related. Since I bought the Canon 60D to shoot comedy videos, it’s only fitting that I use it to shoot comedy videos. Ten is a nice, round number that frees me up from thinking I have to shoot one a month by saying shoot 12 videos. I could shoot all 10 over the course of a week or two in the summer.

These videos will be uploaded to Vimeo, YouTube and/or Funny or Die, depending on how well they turn out and what I think of them.

Here’s a video I co-directed last year, written by my friend Robert Ariss Hills:

Tag: 10 Comedy Videos

Last year, I bought a Canon 60D to start shooting comedy videos for the Impatient Theatre Co. That hasn’t quite panned out like I had intended, but it did allow me to shoot headshots for more than 30 people in my company and start building a photography portfolio. (I love shooting portraits mostly — like Rankin – capturing the essence of someone in a single moment.)

As part of my push to build sources of passive income, I have decided to start uploading some of my work to be licensed and used as stock photography. I’m looking at iStockphoto.com initially. Not the portraits, but the other stuff: the sunset over the Blue Ridge Mountains, close-ups of flowers, beach scenes, city skylines, etc. In order to get 250 approved photos in a stock collection, I’m going to have to take a lot of photos and plan for a lot of specific shoots. (I’m likely going to shoot some stock video footage, as well, but I’m starting with the photography.)

The great thing about stock photography, though, is that once the photo is taken, processed and uploaded, it can generate revenue for years to come. The more photos that are in your collection, the more potential revenue you can earn. Passive income, it’s the key to a happy life.

Tag: Stock Photography

One thing I’ve wanted to do for ages but haven’t really had the space to do, is hold regular dinner parties. Why? I love getting together with friends and I love food. I love getting together with friends in small groups and I love food. Basically, I love food and I love my friends, so combining the two in a monthly ritual is a perfect challenge in which the reward lies in the challenge itself.

Also, since one of my other challenges is to take an introductory cooking class, I hope to eventually hold a dinner party that isn’t pot luck, catered or really shitty, basic food that I’ve made myself. Hopefully, it will be really great food that I’ve made myself.

Tag: Dinner Party Project

Passive income is one of the areas that fascinates me in wealth growth and management. I was first introduced to the concept when I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki. Simply put, passive income is income that you don’t need to constantly be working to earn. There is initial investment, of course, of time or money, usually both, but minimal maintenance after that point.

Rental properties and patent royalties are typical sources of passive income, but in the digital age, websites are a great investment with a potentially large return on investment (ROI). Websites that generate advertising revenue or operate under an SaaS design, are great ways to develop passive income sources. One of my best friends has a number of websites that generate passive income with a minimal investment of his time and he has been encouraging me to do the same.

My current problem is that my ideas are too big. My current ideas are company-building ideas, not website-building ideas. My current ideas would require a team of people to develop and manage and sell. I need to work on smaller ideas, ideas that are manageable and that drive traffic to a website, maybe a blog about transforming your life through a series of 100 challenges. We’ll see.

Challenge accepted!

Tag: Passive Income Websites

So, this challenge is already started, clearly, because you’re reading the blog that is attached to this particular challenge. The real challenge will be in maintaining it. However, one of the things that convinced me to start this blog is that I am hoping to eventually tie it in to another one of the challenges on my list: Create At Least One New Website Each Month That Generates Passive Income.

Eventually, this blog will probably have a few ads on it that will help me monetize it and justify spending this amount of time on it. Also, I will be linking to books and items on Amazon.com/ca/co.uk/etc that could earn me affiliate revenue while providing you with great sources of information and cool items to help enhance your life.

Tag: The Blog

The cool, glass IKEA scale I was using is no longer good enough. It was great for simple weight reduction monitoring, but if I was going to start monitoring my body fat percentage, I was going to need something a little more industrial strength. I needed a scale with biometric impedance analysis.

Since I am an avid iPad, iPhone and Internet user, I went with the Withings WiFi Body Scale. This thing kicks ass! Not only does it have biometric impedance analysis to monitor my lean mass and fat mass, but it connects through my router and reports back to a website that tracks my results, where I can access them via a website, or via free apps on my iPhone and iPad. (Withings also makes a blood pressure monitor that connects to the devices and stores your BP results.)

So, while I haven’t really dropped a pound since the first of the month, my body fat percentage has dropped by about 3% already.

The goal is to ask out enough women that 52 of them say yes and we go out on those dates. These can first dates or second dates from previous first dates, but the idea is to put my self out there. I’m “on the market” as they say, so I need to actually go out on dates if I’m going to meet someone to share my life with.

Current Count = 1/52

The rules of this challenge are as follows:

1. I must be the person asking for the date. I’m horrible and riddled with a huge fear of rejection, so I just have to get used to hearing “no” and ask another wonderful woman out. This will be made further difficult by the fact that I am a very
2. No dates for the sake of meeting the challenge. I must only ask women out who I would actually be interesting in dating. It has to be a real date, not a friend date, and it has to have potential for a second date. Otherwise, it’s just not fair to either of us.

If I do meet someone and decide to remove this item from the list, as per the rules of the challenge, this individual challenge must be replaced by a new challenge. I’m definitely hoping that, at some point this year, I can remove this challenge from my list and replace it with something else.

Tag: 52 Dates

When I started the list, this challenge wasn’t on the list. It seems like a cop-out, but compiling this list is a lot more challenging than I originally thought it would be. I need to come up with a list of 100 challenging tasks to expand my life and transform who I am as a person. This is going to be tough.

Based on my 100 Things Challenge, a couple of my friends have already started making lists of their own. I encourage you to create your own list and keep a record of your changing and improving life.

Tag: The List

Since a bodybuilder with less than nine per cent body fat can have a BMI greater than 25, he might be categorized as overweight, BMI is not reliable as a sole measure. It’s a great start, but depending on what your focus is in your personal body structuring plan, you should pair it with measurements of weight and body fat percentage. I bought a Withings Body Scale to do just that.

Here’s a fancy chart that shows the BMI zones:

Here’s how it’s explained:

The body mass index (BMI), or Quetelet index, is a heuristic proxy for human body fat based on an individual’s weight and height. BMI does not actually measure the percentage of body fat. It was invented between 1830 and 1850 by the BelgianpolymathAdolphe Quetelet during the course of developing “social physics”. Body mass index is defined as the individual’s body weight divided by the square of his or her height. The formulae universally used in medicine produce a unit of measure of kg/m². BMI can also be determined using a BMI chart, which displays BMI as a function of weight (horizontal axis) and height (vertical axis) using contour lines for different values of BMI or colors for different BMI categories.

The different BMI categories are as follows:

• Severely Underweight: BMI < 16
• Underweight: BMI = 16-18.49
• Normal: BMI = 18.5-25
• Overweight: BMI = 25-29.99
• Obese Class I: BMI = 30-34.99
• Obese Class II: BMI = 35-39.99
• Obese Class III: BMI > 40

I don’t know for sure, but when I weighed 250 pounds, my body composition was somewhere around 40-45 per cent fat. INSANE! Almost half of my entire weight was just fat! Ugh. When there’s that much fat on your body, weight reduction is easy. I would say 90 per cent of my first 50 pounds was all dietary, maybe more.

On Aug. 22, 2011, my BMI was 37; I was in the category of “Obese Class II.” While BMI is not exact, it is a fairly accurate starting point. For months leading up to this start date, I did a lot of reading. After reading Why We Get Fat by Gary Taubes and The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss, I started digging into the science a little further.

While both books do a great job of helping you understand the science of your body, I found Taubes to be too academic and Ferriss to be too much of an experimenter. When I teach improv, I tell my students to constantly seek understanding; I wanted understanding, I wanted to arm myself with knowledge, with science.

Metabolic Manipulation

I refer to the process of fat burning as metabolic manipulation, because… well, that’s what you’re doing, manipulating your metabolism. Your metabolism has two functions — catabolism and anabolism:

1. catabolism: the process of breaking down matter to harvest energy (this is the process used in fat reduction)
2. anabolism: the process of using energy to construct cellular components such as proteins (this is the process used in muscle development)

There are two types of fat (adipose) tissue. Brown Adipose Tissue (BAT) fat cells, which are the furnace room of your body and keep your core temperature stable, and White Adipose Tissue (WAT) fat cells (like you see on a steak), which store energy for fuel to keep your furnace running.

The first law of thermodynamics states, in a much more scientific way than I will attempt to, that energy cannot be created or destroyed it can only change forms or flow from one place to another. We typically think of “burning calories” when we think about fat reduction. Since a calorie is the scientific unit by which we measure energy, that is understandable. However, what typical diets or fat loss programs that focus on caloric reduction don’t tell you is that your system actually transforms (changes forms) energy from stored calories to work or heat.

In fat reduction, we need to break down stored energy (the glucose in your WAT cells) in order to transform it to work or heat. No matter what the diet or exercise, the only way to get rid of stored fat is to convert that energy into work or heat. The only way to begin accessing that stored energy in WAT is to deplete your liver glycogen stores and enter ketosis. To get to ketosis, you only need to do one thing: stop eating carbs. Period.

Carbs = Poison

Simply put, carbohydrates (carbs) are sugars (saccharides) and you technically do not need to ingest sugar. Why? Your body is a magic machine that can actually sysnthesize its own sugar, in the form of glucose, from amino acids and glycerol through gluconeogensis.

Carbohydrates are the enemy of weight reduction. When I used to walk into a convenience store, I would want the chocolate bars, chips and other junk food. Now, when I walk into a store and look at the chocolate bars, my brain tells me that everything is poison. Literally. I look at the counters and think, “Poison. Poison. Poison. Poison. Also poison.”

The great thing about metabolic manipulation, though, is that in order for you to be able to lose weight, you have to eat carbs in order to trick your metabolism into thinkinng you’re not starving. What? Didn’t I just say you need to stop eating carbs? Yes. Yes, I did.

In The 4-Hour Body, Tim Ferriss recommends a system of eating slow carbs combined with having one carb day every week. I found that my weight recovery from carb days took two to three days, only leaving me with three or four days of fat reduction. I shifted to having carb days every 10-14 days and that allowed me to stay in ketosis longer, and burn fat for more days.

Every 10-14 days, I would begin to plateau and stop losing weight. What was happening is that my body began to think I was not getting the energy I needed from the food I was eating, so it would start to enter “survival mode,” burning less stored glucose (in the WAT cells) by slowing down my metabolism. In order to trick my body into thinking I was not starving, I needed to reset my metabolism by having carbs, a lot of them.

Some people call this a “cheat day” but since it’s an important component of the metabolic reset process, I call it a “reset day” or, simply, a “carb day.”

On my carb days, I have cinnamon rolls, fruit, pizza, bread, burgers with BBQ sauce and other goodies like ice cream. When I explained my diet to my friend Mike Roy, he said, “It sounds like you eat a Brazilian BBQ all week long and then on Sunday have nothing but desert.” My response: “Yep.”

Technically, it’s not quite that drastic, but it’s pretty close and pretty awesome! As I write this post, I’m cooking a big fat steak in chipotle marinade.

Arm Yourself With Knowledge

Don’t take my word for it. Understand the science of your body. I have explained a bunch of things I’ve learned, but I’ve also linked pretty heavily to articles on all of this information. Arm yourself with knowledge and you make it easier to seek understanding.

Blindly following a fad diet or following someone else’s diet (Adkins, 4-Hour Body, Bernstein, South Beach, etc.) is just bad juju. If you don’t understand the process and the science you won’t be in a position to make the changes and tweaks to your diet that are required for your body. You have to listen to your own body, and you can’t do that unless you know what it’s telling you. You can’t know what your body is telling you unless you understand its chemical processes.

I highly recommend putting together your own meal plans, even if you borrow, adopt and adapt them from one or more diets. Since I love meat, most of my food was meat and protein based. If you’re a vegetarian or vegan, you will need to spend some time researching which veg have the highest levels of carbohydrates — potatoes and corn immediately come to mind.

If you love fruit like I do, save those strawberry and pineapple bowls for your carb days. Fruit and fruit juices are pretty much pure sugar in the form of fructose. This is one of those areas where people who have not studied the science will say things like, “fruit is good for you,” or “fruit gives you vitamins and nutrients,” or the every scientific response, “but it’s fruit!” The only compelling argument is the one about vitamins. The solution is simple: supplementation. Whatever vitamins and nutrients you need that you can’t get from veg, you can get in a handy pill at your local pharmacy.

A Note About Supplements

If you’re cutting out carbs completely, it will do weird things to your brain, and you will experience symptoms similar to hypoglycemia. In order to offset that, you should increase your intake of Omega-3. I took three pills a day. If you are a women, you might want to take something that includes Omega-6 and Omega-9. I have just shifted from straight Omega-3 supplements to one that also includes Coenzyme Q10, for its antioxidant benefits.

Additionally, I take vitamins B6 and B12, but not B2 or a B-complex (B-50 or B-100 are just multi-vitamins that contain many B-vitamins and other vitamins; they are referred to as complexes). I also take: vitamin C; supplements that include EGCG (antioxidant), conjugated linoleic acid (for body composition), and hydroxycitric acid (promotes fat oxidation); a 1:1 calcium and magnesium supplement with Vitamin D3 (since it’s winter); PGX Daily (for weight management and cholesterol); and finally, creatine (the only proven supplement to help with muscle building, during high-intensity anaerobic exercise).

50 Pounds Later

After a 50 pound weight reduction my BMI has dropped two classifications into the “Overweight” category, just barely. I now focus more on building muscle mass and body fat percentage. I am working to ultimately get my BFP down to 9%; currently it’s about 27%.

The knowledge I gained in the research phase leading up to the start of my dietary shift was the ultimate success factor for me. I promised myself that once I hit 200 pounds I would join a gym and become more active. I know that the first 50 pounds was dietary, and if I need/want to reduce weight rapidly again, I know how to do it.