Author: Dale Sackrider

Ok – I mentioned in a previous post that I am looking to make money blogging and I’ve had a few people ask me how that’s even possible. I’m not the expert on professional blogging, however I have a basic understanding of at least one channel for making money blogging. While this isn’t a get rich quick work-from-home and make thousands a week part time kind of thing, there are professional bloggers that do make a living by writing about matters that they are passionate about. If you are like me, the first thing you think about when I say that, are the online columnist that write for News outlets, like CNN or FoxNews. There are also bloggers that are paid a salary to write for technical outlets like Microsoft and Google. But there is another way that doesn’t involve a degree in journalism or a career change. The internet is an information and entertainment outlet just like radio, television, magazines, newspapers, etc. For a television or radio station to make money, they sell advertisement time and a magazine sells ad space, right? You don’t watch TV to get advertisements, you

watch because the program is educational, informational, or entertaining (or in some cases because you can’t find the remote, or there is nothing on in real time or on the DVR – but I digress). For a blogger to make money, they have to write something that people will find educational, informational, or entertaining… then build and maintain an audience of visitors for their blog… and make space available for advertisers. Its not rocket science and its not a new idea, just a technology twist on an old one. I don’t know if I will ever make a full time living as a blogger, but I already write about things I love… so I’m half way there… now if I could just build and maintain an audience of visitors… :o)

WAAAAHHOOOOOO! Ok – maybe I’m celebrating too soon, but today I weighed 299lb.  Under 300!

No workout because I worked until after midnight at my job.  Oh… and Dinner was baaaaaaaad…

Food:

Breakfast: Bagel with Egg and Ham: 135 cals / 8g fat / 20g protein / 19g carbs

Lunch: Chicken Italiano: 345 cals / 5g fat / 42g protein / 37g carbs

Early Snack: Fruity Drink: 70 cals / 0g fat / 15g protein / 1g carbs

Evening Snack: BBQ Puffs: 130 cals / 3.5g fat / 12g protein / 13g carbs

Dinner:
Rubio’s Big Burrito Especial Steak: 870 cals / 36g fat / 32g protein / 103g carbs
Chips and Beans: 350 cals / 13g fat / 7g protein / 53g  carbs

Water and Diet Soda to drink…

I’m still at work – and have been working late everyday for a little over a week now.  I do enjoy my job, but working late every night…  I’m glad to have a job in these economic times, but I don’t want to always have to count on a job to pay my bills – I want to create multiple sources of income.  Stephanie created A Baby Connection, which has slowed down to a crawl since Thanksgiving – but its still a growing business.  I also own sannsack.com – a website hosting company.  And I recently partnered with a co-worker to create Kinetic Market – an IT Consulting company.  But is it possible to make money doing something I love?

I love to talk about the Bible, Politics, Economics, Faith, Relationships, etc.  I love to write about those things, which is why I blog… Could I make money blogging?  A friend of mine has been looking into it for himself and has me convinced that I can.  I’m not looking to get rich, but getting paid to talk about stuff that I already love to talk about… AWESOME!

I’ll let you know if the money starts pouring in…

I’ll keep it short, I did not get to the gym – I did do well on the diet.

Weight: 300.7 (no change from yesterday)

Workout: Nope, sorry

Food:

Breakfast: Omelet: 175cal / 4g fat / 19g protein / 16g carb
Morning Snack: BBQ Soy Puffs: Unknown but likely 100 cal’s
Lunch: Chicken Sandwich with veggies: less than 500cal
Evening Snack: Protein bar: Unknown but likely 100 cal’s
Dinner: Thai Chicken: 285cal / 5g fat / 34g protein / 31g carb

Drink diet soda and water.

I just installed a new plugin on my website that allows me to block right click and text selection called wp-copyprotect.  I didn’t enable the text selection block, but right click has been terminated… don’t believe me?  Go ahead, right click…

Yes, I know, very geeky…

Its 5:45am, I went to bed at about 12:45 – that’s 5 hours sleep.  Still not the full 6 I want, but hey I’m getting there.

Weight: 300.7 lbs

Workout: 125 cal on stantionary bike / 130 cal on Eliptical / 195 cal on trademill / 50 cal on Eliptical2

Total Cal burned at gym: 500!

Food:

Breakfast: Honey Oat Waffles w/ Suger Free Syrup: 185 cal / 3g fat / 8g protien / 37g carb

Early Snack: Missed

Lunch: Vendor provided lunch at work – salad with a 6oz breaded chicken: ??

Evening Snack: Crisp ‘n Crunch Peanut Bar: ??

Dinner: Sirloin Steak in a Green Peppercorn Sauce: 510 cal / 13g fat / 52g protien / 45g carb

I’m not yet in bed and its Midnight already…

The Big Three automakers (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler) are back in Washington today to show congress how they plan to cut costs so they are worth of a loan in the billions of dollars.  Why do they need the money you ask?  Because they aren’t profitable anymore.  I wonder what my bank would say if I called them and said I spend more than I make or have the ability to make, so much so that I will be completely unable to pay my bills and that’s why they should loan me some money!  Wait, the governments not a bank… they don’t have to use logic when spending our money…

But if we don’t bail out the automakers, what will they do?  File bankruptcy!  Restructure their debt and de-unionize.  GM could stop making product lines like Buick which dropped almost 24% in sales this year.  Why don’t they you ask?  Oh, thats because they have contracts with dealers that they have to pay out if they stop making the line – they paid out one billion to STOP MAKING Oldsmobile… how could they possibly get out of making that mistake again… oh yeah, my government is giving my money away like candy on holloween.  Is there any doubt that Washington is going to continue the insanity???

Airlines, Banks, Automakers, who’s next?  Take a number… Get in Line… everyone will be served – oh, except us tax payers (which by the way, isn’t the poor – they don’t pay taxes, they are in line with the rest of the handout crowd).

I knew it would be tough getting up on time to be at the gym by 6 or 6:30… I got up at 7:15am.  Needless to say, I missed the morning workout. My official starting weight is 302lbs.  I’ve been weighing myself over the last two weeks and my heaviest has been 306.4lbs.  Regardless, I need to lose 30lbs from today by Christmas.  So – 272 lbs is my goal.

I did not work out after work either – in fact, I only just got home at about 11:30pm.  It was a long work day.  But, I have been great in my eating habits today.

Here is my food journal breakdown:

Breakfast: English Muffin and a diet Dr Pepper:  170 calories / 3.5g fat / 14g protein / 25g carb

Morning Snack: Chili Nacho Cheese Protien Chips and a diet Mt Dew: 110 calories / 3.5g fat / 10g protein / 14g carb

Lunch: BBQ Port with green beans, corn, vegetables: 450 calories / 10g fat / 44g protein / 42g carb

Afternoon Snack: Kiwi Strawberry Twist Shake and a diet Mt Dew: 70 calories / 0g fat / 15g protein / 1g carb

Dinner: I worked late and missed it.

Ok – normally I won’t have a late night snack… but I missed dinner, so…

Late Snack: Sea Salt & Vinegar Puffs and two diet Dr Peppers – about 100 calories / ?? fat / ?? protein / ?? carb

Total Calorie count for the day – about 900… with no workout, I’m thinking thats ok.

PS – I know, I know… replace the diet sodas with water…

You’ve heard this tune before… I’m going to lose weight.  Stop it – I need real encouragement – not doubt and disbelief.  I created a new page called Weightloss.  Any posts I put up in the “Weight loss Journal” category will be included on that page but not on the homepage (I’m not sure if the RSS feed will but my guess is yes).  It will be my journal with daily eating and exercise entries.

My December goal is an extremely aggressive 30lbs.  My current plan is to cut my intake to no more than 2000 calories a day and burn 500 to 1000 calories each day in the gym.  In order to stay on top of it, I plan to post everyday my food intake, my exercise, my sleep pattern, and my daily weight.  I will adjust as needed.

I want to get no less than 6 hours a day in sleep, so I have to be in bed each day no later than 11:30 or I will be late to my 6 am workout.  Its almost 2am now… No excusses, I’m up too late and I know this is a habit I will have to break.  I look forward to your encouragement, your prayers, and your support.

For God so loved the world, he gave sold His only begotten son Nintendo Wii… What??? I’m not a Walmart hater, but their latest commercial sums up the season in a single phrase:

Christmas costs less at Walmart

Only this year it cost one 34 year old man his life (read more about that here).  Every year I rail against the commercialization of Christmas, this year is no different.  Do we really need to “Buy Christmas”???  How much money have you spent on Christmas?  How much of that did you put on a credit card?  How much of your current credit card balances are from last Christmas?  Don’t tell me the economy is bad – Black Friday sales were up over 3% over last year, that’s over 10.5 BILLION in sales! (click here for source)

People say that Christmas is the season of giving, but that’s not what their actions declare – its the season of getting.  We get things for our family, we get things for our friends, we get things for ourselves, but we don’t give.  I’ve said this before and gotten many comments from people who disagree with me, mostly in the defense of their ‘gift giving’ habits – but I still believe we treat Christmas the same way we treat Halloween – no religious purpose, no religious intent, just another vacation day with a theme.

The funny thing is, people who refuse to celebrate Halloween are treated as religious zealots, and people that don’t celebrate Santa as part of their Christmas tradition, as bad parents.  My pastor talked about living in a Kingdom Culture this morning – a culture that fosters the Gospel.  As I look at the American culture, I see that we have so completely bought into the idea of a secular public life and a private religious life – a kind of separation of Church and State, with state being any area of our life outside of the four walls of our church.

I don’t really mind how we celebrate Independence Day, Memorial Day, Labor Day, or Thanksgiving.  I couldn’t care less how you celebrate President’s Day or New Year’s Eve.  But we seem for forget that as Christians, in the mix of historic dates and important celebrations, we have two truly Holy Day’s, Resurrection Sunday and Christmas.  When Easter is about bunnies and chocolate, Christmas about Santa and electronics – we’ve all but abandoned our faith.

A good friend of mine once preached a sermon titled “When Worlds Colloid”.  The point as I remember it was to tear down the walls of seperation keeping our faith from the rest of our life; a message that I think belongs in our pulpits this time of year more than any.  How many of those stampeding Walmart shoppers were Christians?  How many of them were living in the American Culture instead of the Kindom Culture?  Lets just hope they all got the door buster deals they were praying for – we all know that Christmas costs less at Walmart.

Happy Hanukkah!