Josh Young

Yesterday marked the fourth anniversary of a great day for me. September 24, 2005 was the day that Marie walked down the aisle and I fooled her into spending the rest of her life with me. Score!

Seriously. Behind the day I accepted Jesus as my Savior, this was the greatest day of my life.

Last night, however, did not echo that same excitement. Okay, maybe it echoed excitement, but not in the same way.

I spent the night with my bride in the Emergency Room. Marie was having some pain in her side, and we went to get it checked out. Everything turned out fine, and it’s likely that she had pleurisy, and she’s okay now. But it was an evening full of surprises, to say the least. I’m just glad she’s okay now.

Interesting how things can turn out, even when you have something else planned. Not exactly how we figured we would spend our anniversary evening, but hey, at least we got to spend it together!

Now to shift gears completely.

Last weekend we finally got to go fishing at my parents’ new place. I hadn’t been in ages, so I was looking forward to it for quite a while.

I wasn’t expecting a whole lot since it’s a fairly small pond, but it was actually pretty good. I caught five fish of four species, and the last one I pulled out was a decent size catfish.

Not a big fish by any means, but it was definitely the biggest fish I’ve ever caught. Oh, and it’s filthy because after I got it out of the water, it broke my line when it went insane and was flopping around in the dirt.

Overall, it was great to just get out there with all three of my brothers and our family and spend some time away from the business of everything else in the world. I need more of that. I think most of us do.

Josh Young Marriage, Personal

I can’t believe that I only have two weeks left after this one until I’m finished with round 1 of P90X! Seems like it’s been going forever, and yet it seems like I just started.

The one thing that really surprises me is my weight. Going through Power 90 (and counting a few weeks prior to starting), I lost about 25 pounds. Since I’ve started P90X, I have lost zero pounds (and have gained zero pounds). I can tell that my body fat percentage has definitely dropped, which means I’m also gaining muscle since I’m staying the same weight. It’s pretty cool to see how the nutrition plan really does work. That is exactly how it was designed.

P90X wasn’t designed to give you a calorie deficit so that you’ll lose weight. That is what Power 90 was for. P90X is about strength training and defining your body. And that’s precisely what it does if you follow the plan.

I haven’t been 100% perfect on the nutrition plan like some of the test group people were (especially these last couple of weeks), but I’ve stayed pretty close to it (and Power 90’s) since I started both these programs, and it definitely works.

I think I may even be brave enough to post some before and after pictures in two and a half more weeks when I’m completely finished with round 1.

Oh, and as a side note, I can’t believe I’m saying this, but I think Yoga X has become my favorite workout. Tony recently posted some thoughts about the effects of “Vulcan Robot Yoga”, and I can fully understand where he’s coming from with those thoughts.

Josh Young Josh is a Big Loser, P90X, Personal, Power 90

Oh, dear jump training, let me count the ways I hate thee.

Is it normal when you feel like your legs are literally going to fall off your body? Because it’s been normal for me for about 65 days now. Just when my body starts to adjust to the pain, Mr. Tony Horton throws a whole other kind of hurt on me.

However, I will say that I have already seen results that have amazed me during P90X. I’m not some huge ripped guy or anything, but considering where I started before I did Power 90, I’m officially astounded. And I still have 25 days left. I’m absolutely kicking butt during my workouts (and they’re kicking my butt in the process), and I know that if I keep this up, the final 25 days will amaze me even more.

But there is something that’s been sort of funny to me during all of this. The results I’ve gotten have surprised me, and more so, they have surprised other people around me. Especially when I see people who haven’t been around me constantly but know that I’ve been doing this program.

They know (and I know) that I’ve been exercising 6 or 7 days a week, eating an extremely clean diet (except for a few marginal days the past couple of weeks), and working my butt off. Hmm…who could have expected that by eating right and exercising, I would lose weight and get in better shape? Why is this so surprising?

Seriously…I’m asking. Why is this so surprising? Because it even surprises me, and I’m the one doing it. I don’t understand it.

Just like when we started going through Dave Ramsey’s baby steps and started to pay off debt and have a plan for our money. Why was it so surprising that things started to work for us financially?

Are we so jaded that even when we do common sense things, we’re surprised when we see the proven results actually happen?

Just some thoughts. I know I kind of rambled today, but that is what was on my mind.

And hey, it’s my blog after all.

Josh Young Josh is a Big Loser, P90X, Personal

Staycation seems to be the new word for the year. Everyone’s staying where they’re at for their “time away.”

Last weekend, Marie and I decided to give it a shot. So I booked us a hotel on priceline.com (where you can name your own price), and I ended up with a room at the Westin downtown on Fountain Square for about 20% of their suggested rate. Sweet! I even got them to upgrade us once we got there to a room on the 15th floor overlooking the Square, even though they said they weren’t supposed to upgrade anyone who booked through a “third-party.”

Downtown has improved significantly since the time when I was working down there a couple of years ago (I spent about 8 years working downtown – yuck). Even on the weekend, there were several things to do, and we were able to park our car on Friday afternoon and not move it until Sunday when we left. That was pretty nice.

Here are some of the things we did/ate while we were there:

• Jimmy John’s (my old favorite)
• Boi Na Braza (holy cow, that’s a lot of meat!)
• PNC Midpoint’s Indie Summer Concert Series
• Bruegger’s Bagels
• Starbucks (of course)
• Potbelly
• National Underground Railroad Freedom Center
• Rock Bottom Brewery
• P&G Movie Night on the Square (with fireworks)
• Graeter’s Ice Cream (Black Raspberry Chip rules!)
• Arnie’s on the Levee
• Cincinnati Museum Center
• District 9 (don’t waste your money…)
• Defiance (this one was worth it)

Overall, it was a great trip. Very relaxing. And the best part? Our drive home was only 20 minutes!

Josh Young Personal

“We are all faced with a series of great opportunities brilliantly disguised as impossible situations”

Charles R. Swindoll

HT: bethlehemcc.com (The Bethlehem Star)

Josh Young Quotes

I finally caved. I have a twitter account.

I realized how bad it was that Mike was on Twitter before me, so I at least had to beat him to the tweet.

You can follow me here (although I’m not sure why you would want to at this point): http://twitter.com/joshyoungmusic

Come on, Mike…tweet something!

Josh Young Communication, Culture, Web

Today marks the official beginning of Phase 2 in P90X, which means I’m just about a third of the way through it. I didn’t expect to see a lot of changes in my first four weeks, but after taking my pictures yesterday, I was pleasantly surprised.

It has been an interesting transition from Power 90 to P90X. I was talking to some friends yesterday about some people saying that I’m “obsessed” with this whole thing, and I realized something. I am indeed obsessed with this. And you know what? I have to be. If I wasn’t obsessed with this for 90 days, then there is no way that I could complete it the way it was intended. This program is so intense that you literally have to be obsessed with it during the process, or you’ll never finish it properly.

During Power 90, my number one goal was to drop some pounds and start getting my body used to exercise. Mission accomplished. It went stellar. I could have done better, but I finished it, and I was pleased. As was my doctor (which was my ultimate goal for that). And I was able to completely go off my blood pressure medication (which I had been on for several years).

During P90X, my number one goal is to get in the best shape of my life. I want to be faster, stronger and ultimately feel better than ever. I have zero doubts that I’ll be able to get to that point. Honestly, in some respects, I’m already there. It has already surpassed what I expected. When I get to day 90, I know that I will be able to look at my progress, compare it to Day 1 of Power 90, and laugh myself silly. I already do that on a regular basis, actually.

So am I obsessed? Heck yes, I am! Maybe you should be too. I think it’s the best way to reach a goal you’re working towards. Not just a fitness goal, but anything. You push yourself beyond what you’ve done before. You see how far you can go. You see what you’re made of. You see who/where your real support and encouragement comes from. You see yourself in a completely different light – and so does everyone else. And when you’re all done, you can sit back, remember where you came from and laugh at your old self. :)

Josh Young Josh is a Big Loser, P90X, Personal, Power 90

I have been in the habit lately of always downloading the free songs each week from iTunes and mp3.walmart.com. A couple of weeks ago, iTunes had the song Fireflies by Owl City. I can’t seem to get it out of my head.

I recently saw the video, and it made me like it even more. It doesn’t get much better than a catchy song and vintage toys.

Josh Young Uncategorized

Coldplay’s new video for Strawberry Swing is absolutely incredible.

It just makes you want to do something creative.

• Watch Strawberry Swing

Josh Young Creativity, Culture, Music

Carlos Whittaker posted about this story a couple of days ago, and I thought I’d share it with you all.

Rolling Hills Baptist Church in Fayetteville, GA was sitting on an almost paid for, million dollar church building, but the people in their congregation needed help. Instead of sitting there and doing nothing, the church decided to sell their building and use the million dollars worth of equity to reach out to the people and help. They’re going to try and find a movie theater to meet in after their building sells.

This takes a lot of faith and guts to do. Thank you, Rolling Hills, for striving to be what we have been called to be, and for inspiring us and teaching us what the Church is really about.

• Read more about this in the Christian Index

Josh Young Church Issues, Culture, Leadership