I tried an experiment last night.

I just sat down in front of the keyboard, closed my eyes, and began writing. It was an exciting experienced. I believe I produced about four solid pages of prose without stopping or pausing or even finding a typo. Now, the grammar might need some room for improvement, but the writing was there, and solid.

I love to write. I always have aspired being a writer. It is ironic how life takes many turns. When I was young, my favorite writing was poetry and fiction. I even wrote a huge compendium of poetry. I took the steps to get it copyrighted, but never had it published. That dream just came true ... to a certain, small extent. I put the book up at Lulu.com so I could get a copy for myself. Who knows? If it looks okay, I may even publish the link. I am very happy with the poetry I wrote, just not as excited about the book itself - I'm not cover artist (I designed the cover myself) nor a professional typesetter (although I did set the type).

My upcoming Lose Fat, Not Faith is a different story. I previewed the professionally designed cover, and love it. They are working on the final revisions. I already submitted the book to the Bowker books in print and registered it at Amazon.com - the official release date is July 4, 2005. Not that the book is patriotic, but it works.

Today was the longest run of my life. I know I said that last week, but this week I ran further!

My wife and daughter once gain dropped me off at Englewood. This used to be a bustling town because it was a major junction of the railroad. Now, it is simply a small wooden building that marks the spot, a large water pump, and a sign that says, "Livestock at Large." they dropped me off, I grabbed my Gatorade bottle and began running.

The run starts out with an incline, so I was hugging and puffing fairly quickly. This wasn't an effort to run myself into the ground, however, so I gave myself permission to slow my pace and just keep a steady focus. The ground was wet, but well graveled, so it wasn't a huge concern. The views once you reach the top of the ridge are phenomenal.

This time, instead of continuing the climb up the ridge, I whad a different route. I decended via a connector and ran down an old, grass covered road back to the main line, and continued my journey in the valley rather than on top of the ridge. It really was a blessing, beacuse this made most of the run downhill.

The run is really beautiful. It starts by meandering through ponderosa pines, the kind that whistle loudly when the wind blows through. Then, I ended up on the path and passing between two towering walls of stone where the hillside was blasted to make way for the old train route (the trail is a refurbished railroad line). There were a few large, wood bridges than spanned huge valleys filled with loud streams gushing water, and then you suddenly come out in the Kirk area where there is a lot of activity. One section actually appears like a wasteland, completely cleared of trees and grass. It was melancholy and depressing. Soon, I was at a major highway. I paused for a moment, crossed, and was heading into the historic town of Deadwood.

I passed a couple and asked the time. They said, "1:30pm." This was awesome. My wife had dropped me off at 12:20pm, so I expected to arrive at the trailhead, 10 miles down the way, at around 2:00pm. Instead, I was making fantastic time. I crossed another intersection, passed behind several buildings and homes, then hit the short section of the trail that is actually paved. This was just a small jump until I reached the wooden "X" that declared, "George Mickelson Trailhead."

I was done!

I found another group of people to solicit the time from. Quarter until 2:00pm! I had done it in 1 hour and 25 minutes. Not bad at all! It wasn't the full 10 miles I had predicted, however. Maintenance on the trail rerouted me and in fact I calculated it to be a 9 mile, rather than a 10 mile, run.

Another big surprise ... my wife and daughter were early to pick me up. No long waits! So I came home, showered, had a bite to eat (flaxseed waffle and organic apple whole wheat streussel) then we headed out to go to a movie. After that, we had dinner and then came home.

Now, I feel like I was pushed from the third story of a building and landed in a pile of bricks. Definitely time to catch some rest. It has been a very exciting weekend watching the launch and rapid growth of my new coaching site. So far, positive feedback. Only one glitch that I am aware of, and that will be fixed soon.

I really like doing major software launches as the customer, NOT the IT person in charge of making it all run! LOL.

Have a wonderful weekend. In just about an hour, it will be my 7-year anniversary with Doreen. Every year only gets better.

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness

Wow!

It's finally here.

MUCH faster than I expected.

The revolutionary online personal training technology that I partnered with a team of elite athletes to build/brand for my site.

They rolled it out far more quickly than I expected. Very exciting! They wanted to have it available for the long weekend.

I'm getting ready to go shopping and have dinner with the family. Wanted to share the good news!

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness

Today was an unusual day for me.

You see, my wife and daughter drove me to a remote location, dropped me off, and left me. My daughter was still in her pajamas. They gave me a kiss, waved goodbye, and drove off into the sunrise.

Okay, so I'm exaggerating a bit. I didn't get up THAT early. I actually slept in. My breakfast was some granola with raspberries in soy milk and a yogurt. I wanted lots of carves. I even shaved half a banana onto the granola. Then, it was coffee, lots of water, and waiting.

Waiting for what?

Today was a special day for the entire family.

First, as I mentioned, my wife and daughter dropped me off. The place they "dumped" me was the Englewood Trailhead for the George Mickelson trail. It is about 7 miles from our house. Today was my 8.5 mile run. After putting on my facial lotion which seems to hold my enczema at bay while providing an SPF of 15, I also slapped some on my forehead and put sunscreen on my arms and legs. I've always grown up believing I was one of those people that had to use SPF 1,593 to keep from burning, but the 15 seems to do the trick in this case.

They left me at the trailhead and I began my jog. The initial portion was tough ... it was almost all ascent. I didn't realize the extent to which I was gaining altitude until I rounded the corner on a ridge and received a breathtaking view of Lead from afar.

I didn't have much time to stop, however, because I was focused on keeping a decent pace. I want to finish my half marathon in under 2 hours, so that means keeping close to a 10 minute pace for my long run and then doing the race at a 9 minute pace.

Two elements fought against me ... I hadn't trained on steep inclines, and I hadn't trained in full-on sun. The sun was brutal - there was literally no shade. However, I did have a nice breeze and the stunning views, babbling brooks, white-tailed deer and everything else conspired to make it a pleasant run.

There was one section where I had to run it twice to add the necessary mileage to make it an 8.5 mile run. It was a little psychologically disturbing to have to go over the same ground twice, but then it was straight on to the house. I'll be honest. The last stretch is a hill, and I did not run it ... I walked at a brisk pace.

When I burst through the door, I felt certain I had been running for over 2 hours. I knew that the combination of hills, having to walk, and hot sun slowed me down. So I was astonished to see that I had done this in under 1:30 hours! It was very exciting. This is the longest I've run. I collapsed with tears of joy and then downed some Gatorade and went straight to the shower so that I could be dressed in time for our second event ... my daughter's dress rehearsal!

She has been practicing all year for this, and finally had the show. It was awesome. Any mother or father knows that feeling of joy when you see your own child get on stage and perform and share their talents. It was beautiful and I was one proud Poppa, let me tell you.

We celebrated afterwards at a local restaurant. I had buffalo sirloin with broccoli and garlic mashed potatoes. We did indulge in a little Pinot. It was great.

Afterwards, we soaked in the hot tub, watched some of a show, and then I decided it was time to write this journal and check out. I'm tired ... it's definitely time for sleep.

I'm in the process of adding my 5-CD set to Amazon ... it's not available yet, but there are already a few reviews. If you've listened to the set, I encourage you to share your own honest review at the site.

There is also a rumour that you can pick up brand new sets at a substantial discount over at eBay.com — who is this naturalphysiques character, anyway? (LOL). I don't have much experience there, but decided I'd try it to see if it's a viable model to market the product.

Finally, my editors are doing their final pass on my book. I announced it to those who had already purchased the e-Book, because it was those customers who expressed an interest in it coming out in print (as well as a few who didn't buy the e-Book, and told me they'd wait until it was print). So ... I now am making available ..

Pre-release signed copies at a $5 discount

The book will retail for $24.99 (through my site, Amazon.com, and a few other places) but for a limited time (until July 4th) you can pre-order your copy for $19.99. On July 4th, I will ship out the copies signed to your name. If you order multiple from me, additional shipping is free and I'll sign every copy to whomever you desire - just put their names in the special instructions.

It's been a long time coming, and I'm excited about it.

That's about it for this evening. I have my first client for a new package I put together - one for special clients who really are looking to receive value. I will fly out and spend two days with the client to show them hands on how to train, tips for their kitchen, meals out, etc. There is no page on the site and I doubt I'll create one ... this is more a package based on relationship building than mass-marketing. It is very exciting to me to be able to connect with clients in this way, similar to my phone calls. I must admit, I am behind in calls, so if you signed up for the e-Zine and haven't heard from me ... it will happen. I want to personally make these calls, so while I'm several days behind, I'm committed to speaking or leaving a voice message with every guest kind enough to provide a phone number so that we can take this "Internet thing" and make it a bit more personal.

Have a lovely night ... I know I'll be about 10 seconds away from passing out.

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness

Okay, after months of preparation, coordination with dozens of website owners in the health and fitness and personal development industries - it's here!

I'm writing to share my gratitude for the people who have generously donated over $600 in audio MP3 files, eCourses, and eBook downloads to support the launch of my Lose Fat, Not Faith Audio CD. It's been quite an adventure. No matter if one or one hundred or one thousand sell, I am humbled by the outpouring of support and the awesome feedback I've received.

Today, I had the opportunity to speak on the radio about the launch at Healthy Life on Mike's show (Choose to be Fit), and participated in an energized, action-packed call with John DiLemme that was literally "sold out" (All of the lines were down ... in fact, I had to sit on redial for about 15 minutes before I even made it onto his call).

I'm most excited about this work because it embodies my passion, my energy, and my spirit. I feel the Lose Fat, Not Faith eBook shared my story and the triggers that created change (that is discounted for the promotion, too, by the way) but the CD really captures my voice and therefore my passion and the feeling behind this. It is the closest thing to me actually being there or coaching someone over the phone that I can get to (until I go to video, of course, that will be one step closer ... but I must learn to crawl before I learn to walk, no?)

I have some great partners participating with sharing the word and literally hours of audio and hundreds of pages of bonus download material that goes out to anyone who purchases the set.

Exciting!

I'll run this through May 18th at midnight. Then it's time to focus on the few weeks before my half marathon ... then it's time to focus on the seminar and beyond!

I'm also very close to having the program officially up that will be a deluxe coaching package - much like the existing 12-week package, but this one will include two full days of me onsite (at my own expense) to coach the client.

I'll keep you posted as I develop that one!

Okay, it's been weeks of preparation and lots of waiting, lots of talks, lots of writing, lots of web design and uploading and coding products and you name it. Now, it's time to place this in the Lord's hands and go to sleep.

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness

Today I did my 7.5 mile run. Because it snowed for a few days, then thawed, I figured our trail would be mud, so it was the treadmill again. Not the most exciting way to do it, but with some good tunes and the right mindset, it was done. I did the 7.5 miles in 68 minutes.

The run itself was interesting. There was a point midway where my ankles and knees began to ache. I could have given into the suggestion, but instead, I decided to focus on them not hurting. I focused on being more fluid and smooth with my pace and my motions, and imagined myself being a bit lighter and drifting through the run. The pain went away and I was even able to kick up from a 9-minute mile to an 8-minute mile for the last half mile. What a rush - to run that long and finish out with some energy in reserves!

Afterwards, I did some thorough stretching and took a hot bath. I usually get ravenous with longer runs, so I'm managing my calories through DietPower and so far completely on track.

The work on our retaining wall is drawing to a close ... they are very efficient, and had to wait for a bit while it snowed and rained. They came out today and really knocked out a large portion.

My mother has flown in from St. Petersburg because my grandmother had surgery on her knee, so mom is helping out. We look forward to seeing her after church tomorrow down in Rapid City.

Tuesday is a very special day for me - it is the official promotion for my 5-CD set. I now have $600 in bonus gifts generously donated by various individuals, ranging from MP3 audios and eBooks to e-mail courses. It is quite exciting. I also got a UPC barcode made and scanned and applied on Amazon.com to have the CD released there.

My wife assisted me with editing our book and we have it to our editors for the last pass. I have received quotes from several sources to create a cover and typeset the interior, and to do various print runs. I am targeting the beginning of July to go live with the print version of the book. Another exciting chapter.

I decided to look into Elance.com to contract out my writing and programming services ... it is something new for me to explore, so we'll see how it works out. I don't see many projects on the programming side, but the writing side looks exciting. It's something I already do and enjoy, so if I can build another stream of income doing that, the better. I also need to get off of my duff and actually submit some proposals to print magazines - this is something I have procrastinated on simply because it is new and I guess there is a fear of doing the proposal correctly, etc. Strange, because I wrote a column for a local magazine in Atlanta and also wrote some technical columns when I was in the IT industry, and I didn't hesitate then ... so why now? Interesting.

Now it's time to rest and recover from the run and focus on another productive week.

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness

Moms of the world ... we appreciate you!

This evening, we'll be going to a Mother's Day dinner at the Masonic lodge in our town. It is a great group of people and we're really looking forward to it. Tomorrow, we'll make our weekly trek down to Rapid City to attend church services with my grandparents and see where our day of rest and relaxation may take us.

Speaking of rest, I could use a bit right now. This morning, I tackled the longest distance yet - perhaps the longest I've run in the past year: 6.5 miles. It was quite the experience! I combine my longer runs with my meditations — I use a product called HoloSynch and it is powerful. I did the 6.5 miles in 59 1/2 minutes. I am training to beat a 9 minute mile on an incline, because the actual race is downhill and my intention is to finish it (a half marathon) in under 2 hours.

This has been quite a busy week. I was honored to participate in a very powerful roundtable discussion. It included Jon Benson (author of Fit Over 40), Jan Hausser of Free 2 Be Fit, Mike Shimon of Choose to be Fit, and yours truly. It lasted well over an hour. All of us were at one point obese and were able to cut to low body fat and see our abs ... so there was a LOT of power-packed information on that call about releasing fat and living a healthy lifestyle. It is currently one of the bonuses being offered for Clark Bartram's new release, Chisel Your Abs. There is quite a bit of information offered with that program, and I was so excited to be able to participate.

I also did an interview with Kyle Battis of Home Gym Secrets that will be released soon ... I will actually post the audios to next week's e-Zine.

Aside from interviews, building the businesses and working with my coaching clients. My coaching practice has grown more than I could dream possible, and because I receive value from every one of my clients, it has been a tremendous and rewarding experience for me. One of my most recent clients, Joe Vitale, is down over 70 pounds now ... you can see his before and after on the coaching page.

I am now up to over $300 in bonus gifts that I will be giving away during a very special promotion for my 5-CD set. That will happen on May 17th, so mark your calendars. For 48 hours, we'll offer the set with all of the bonuses (these are awesome bonuses - for example, 4 free hypnosis sessions on MP3 from the Hypnosis Network, who have the Enjoying Weight Loss CD that one of my clients is currently using in conjunction with her program with me). After that, the set is going to be marked up to $69.99 (I'm told it should be closer to $99 but I'd rather save that price point for an 8-CD set when I come out with it).

I received my ISBN codes for my e-Book, CD set, and the soon-to-be-in-print book. That's right ... my wife has been helping me with editing the book, and once that is finalized, we will be taking it to print. We've had a LOT of requests for this, and are therefore making it happen. It will either be offered on demand through places like Amazon.com, or I might do a larger run and ship/fulfill them myself depending on the demand (or a hybrid of both). Our editors have a lot of experience in the industry and have been working closely with us on this, and I appreciate that immensely. If you are interested in pre-ordering a print copy, mail me so that I have an idea of how popular the idea will be ... if enough people express interested in pre-ordering at a discounted rate, then I'll put that into motion. We are targetting July for having it to the market. Because pre-orders give us an idea of demand, it enables us to purcahse in bulk and reduce the rate, so we can offer more discounts up front.

That's about it for now. I continue to train for the marathon, write articles, edit my e-Zine, build my network marketing business, connect with great people and move closer to my goal of transforming thousands of lives. Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness

These are the words that I remember.

Let's see ... snow. We've had plenty of it. In fact, the other day, the roads were nice and iced. Covered with snow. Usually, the trucks some to salt and plow bright and early. This day, however, they did not. My wife was bringing the kids to school and the truck decided it did not want to stop. Fortunately, no one was hurt. Our truck now looks like it is grimacing.

My daughter had a dance over the weekend. There was a local health fair. Her and three other girls dressed in these adorable black and yellow outfits and danced to "Under the Boardwalk." These are moments that define a dad's life ... pride and excitement and tears all rolled into one. And this was just a single dance - it wasn't even the entire dance recital!

Today was a nice day because I got to take a break and visit her at her little private tutoring "school" (home schooling in a group setting) and enjoy part of their medieval party. It was a lot of fun. She was wearing a tall, pointed hat with a ribbon on top.

This weekend, I eked my way up to 5 miles. It was a lot of fun. I've been listening to the track from the Holosynch CD that triggers certain brain waves ... in essence, for me, it was like meditating while running. I did the 5 miles in 47 minutes. I'm still on track to run the half marathon in under 2 hours. There — I said it! You know my goal.

Tomorrow morning is a lovely 4 mile run.

My wife has been closing on several properties and is in flow. What do I mean when I say flow? I mean she says, "I would like to work with a commercial property" and the phone rings and it's someone interested in a commercial property. She gets listings for properties in Rochford ... right before the marathon, that begins in Rochford. Go figure!

I found a scary site the other day. I would list it here, but then I would just be adding fuel to the fire. You can enter someone's name, and it gives you all of their addresses and even birth dates and then you can request background checks with jobs and salary information. When you click on the address, you get a satellite photo. Scary.

I had a neighbor in Georgia who always liked to step out on his deck in his boxers while eating cereal. I could have sworn I saw him in the satellite photo - a little dot on the screen.

I've been in flow in different ways. I have a coaching client who is connected to virtually everything I learn ... I get a new book, tell her about it, she already got it. A new CD, she is already listening to it. It is actually exciting because I learn from my coaching clients and she is giving back a lot.

I've received quite a few inquiries about the nutrition products for the company that I partner with. People are finding out that the shakes not only taste great, but deliver more fiber than the Metameucil they've been taking. Then they realize the multivitamins alone contain more than what they're used to buying 6 bottles for. I revamped the main page, so take a peek by clicking here - I now have some pictures of product. I must say, the 5-day samples of the skin care and the bath and body wash products are VERY popular for Mother's Day. It's less than $50 to buy both and it spoils your mom for a full week and most of the time Mom wants to go ahead and grab it all. This is the 5-day skin care sampler and this is the 5-day bath and body wash sampler. These are what we use and I love the smell. If you really want to go the distance, you get the entire paraben-free skin care line along with the entire bath and body wash line.

Now, seriously, this blows me away. I know a lot of people who are very curious but still don't try it out. That confuses me. There is a 100% guarantee. I think that phrase might be thrown around too often, to the point where people just don't believe it. Could that be the case? Either there is a fear that if you buy something, you might actually like it, or you are afraid that the guarantee is somehow "sneaky" and won't be honored. I honestly don't know which is the case, but I've bought plenty of products and e-Books based on the guarantee. I see the value, but don't know if they are simply putting up a pretty picture that hides the real product, or being real. So? Instead of debating and analyzing, I just buy. If it's not what it was meant to be ... I'd request my refund, and that is that.

Thing is, most of the stuff that has a guarantee is high-quality or they wouldn't be offering it. I sure wouldn't align myself with any company that would disappoint my customers. It is always a risk having your own loyal guests/subscribers/readers/clients going to someone else, because you want to make sure that person takes care of them. Otherwise, they will associate the negative experience with YOU and that is not good. Who needs negative experiences? So go for it ... I've heard nothing but good things about this, and it is guaranteed. What do you have to lose? Your Mother will LOVE it.

Have you heard this crazy song - for some reason, I can't shake it out of my head. It's called Take Your Momma Out and is funky. I just linked to the lyrics.

What else is new? I continue to receive registrations and commitments for our seminar. I think my graphic team did a great job with the header, don't you? I also added some audio. Spaces are going quickly, but we still have them left, and I'm waiting for a few more adventurous people to jump on and commit. Here's a hint ... I'll be hosting a few of these hear until I find out who is receiving value, then we'll take it to the road and work with some "locals" to coordinate events. It should be fun. Speaking of audio, let me know what you think of my official announcer for the Lose Fat, Not Faith 5-CD Set.

I'm starting a new coaching package. I've found quite a few people really would like to have that in person training, but are always traveling or have very busy schedules. So, I'll be designing a package where I will fly out and train the coaching client. Obviously, airfare, lodging, etc are going to make this a higher priced package than what we offer, but it addresses a niche of people I feel deserve to have service. So what if you have to go on a business trip out to some little town in the middle of nowhere on a contract that lasts 6 months? Give me a call, we'll train hard and toss back a few tall cold ones (just kidding, you don't really think I'd coach you about health and wellness and then drink beer with you, did you? Now red wine is a different story ...)

Oh, that reminds me. We were in Rapid City and we stopped by a store that I heard a rumor actually had a wine selection. I stepped inside and two things caught my eye. First were the Riedels and the fact that Mother's Day is around the corner (I can't get Doreen skin care products because our bathroom is already loaded with them!) so I grabbed a pair of those. The second? They have a wine I LOVE and have been searching for awhile ... Rioja! So I got a bottle of Rioja to share with my wife.

I was browsing online looking a fancy cars and came across this beauty. Now, I didn't know a thing about the car, but she sure is a looker, ain't she? Whew! What a beauty. So I found out what it was, and scratched my head because I hadn't seen it before. The next day, I get a magazine called Fortune Small Business. I haven't flipped through two pages when this big red picture stares back at me. WOW! So I cut it out and pasted it to my dream board.

I'm not sure if I'd even want to drive it ... I'd just like to park it and admire the design.

Anyway, I've rambled on long enough. Thanks for staying tuned and I'll keep you posted ... just 5 weeks until the half marathon and about, what, 7 or 8 weeks until the seminar? Exciting!

Blessed be,

Jeremy Likness