Last Monday I did something I have not done in over three years. I was able to wear my smaller sized pants.

One of my goals this year was to get back down to my weight when Tracy and I were first married. I had been so focused on growing our businesses the past few years that my weight slowly crept up. Like the majority of society, when something did not fit I bought a larger size. I wanted to stay focused on business growth.

Well in February I decided it was time to make a few changes in my life, weight being the priority. It was not a health reason. My annual meetings with our family doctor ends up the same way, I am healthy but he wanted me to lose weight. I knew in the back of my mind he was right, but I blew him off every time.

I really enjoy cooking and eating. For me it is like a celebration. It is about the preparation, the smells, and the anticipation of the meal. It is also about the taste, texture and the presentation of the meal. My big problem was really mid day. My normal routine never has me in the same place every day. I am traveling almost every day so most times I ate fast food. Trust me, I have never been a fan of fast food, but it was the convenience factor.

So how am I to lose weight without making myself starve and still enjoy the entertainment of preparing and eating food?

Obviously fast food is no longer the equation of my daily habit, so I had to come up with a plan to eat while traveling. I investigated the nutrition a person needs every day and found that it is nearly impossible to get it all from food. I found a multi vitamin and a few other supplements that would help keep me healthy naturally. While doing this I also found a supplement to help with my aching knees and hands.

My eating habits changed from three meals a day to eating five times a day. I replaced my fast food lunch with a nutrition shake. Actually I am drinking a double serving of the shake because I am so active throughout the day.

The first two weeks were a challenge switching over. Now it is my normal routine. I have never felt hungry. I have had food cravings. When I decided it was time, I ate my popcorn (favorite snack!) and ice cream (2nd favorite snack).

The past month I have been asked if I was losing weight by many people. I knew I was because of the scale, but did not see a change in my appearance. Over the weekend I finished clearing the last acre of our property wearing some old jeans. They felt loose all day, enough to bug me being as baggy as they were. When I came home Sunday night I was able to remove the jeans without unbuttoning them. Curiosity got to me that Monday morning and I grabbed a pair of jeans I had not worn for years. I put them on and they fit! Today I put on a brand new pair of the smaller size and they fit perfectly.

So Monday I reached the halfway point of my goal. I was able to wear clothes that have been hanging in my closet for three years because they were too small. Next goal is to wear jeans that have been hidden in my closet for over 20 years.




At JAT Consulting Services, we evaluate, educate and motivate

Last weekend I was a bum and decided to watch some TV. I went through the hundreds of channels hoping to watch something entertaining. I finally went to the Food Channel and found a program called Restaurant Impossible. So I decided to watch it, hoping it would be interesting.

This is an interesting concept of reality TV. It is about this chef who tries to help failing restaurants around the country. With a small budget, he transforms these restaurants into hopefully thriving establishments in 48 hours. It is pretty amazing what he runs up against and the transformation he creates.

I saw three shows that night. Two of the restaurants were absolute dumps. Dirty, peeling wallpaper, kitchens a horrible mess, lousy staff, and produced absolutely lousy food. One episode, he told the customers that food was not being served today because of the condition of the kitchen. One was a nice establishment, but it was failing horribly.

When he is talking to the restaurant owners and managers, he asked the same questions. What are your food costs? What does it cost to operate in a day? What does it cost to run your establishment for the month? Every response was the same, a blank stare and shrugs of the shoulders. In my opinion, that is why businesses are failing, not really knowing what it costs to run a business.

90% of our business is by web or actual customer referral. During our initial meeting, I tend to ask the same questions. What are your daily operating costs? What dollar value is needed every day to stay afloat for a month? Do you have a written budget? 99% of the time I get a blank stare and silence.

I then respond by saying, “You are operating a business and at the end of the year you are trying to figure out where the money went.” Immediate response is “EXACTLY”

I was asked the other day to explain what we do. What you just read is our primary function. Every company we have worked with has a great reputation, and by appearance a thriving business. But at the end of the year they have no money. We help companies figure out what it takes to be profitable. We help them identify problems within their company and correct them. And at the end of the year, there is money in the bank.


The problem, most business owners have no idea they are failing.



At JAT Consulting Services, we evaluate, educate and motivate

As many of you know I have been involved in the window film industry for over 25 years. I have created and sold two very successful installation companies. Throughout those years I have promoted window film to be a great tool to reduce energy demand in homes and commercial establishments.

Recently the International Window Film Association announced a study that proves that window film can reduce energy costs. This report was generated by a California consulting company and has been reviewed by the California Energy Commission and all of the major utilities in California. They used a method called TDV (time dependent valuation) which puts a greater value on energy saved during peak demand periods than energy used at different times. What is really neat about this report is that it involves four climate zones.

What I really hope happens with this report is the public’s understanding that you do not have to replace your windows to reduce energy demand. I read somewhere that of all the windows replaced in homes every year, about 30% of the windows really needed replacing. The majority of the window frames in homes work perfectly well, the glass is the issue. That is where window film comes in.

Window film is not just for making your windows darker in cars. It is also an aftermarket product designed to allow glass to perform better in homes and commercial buildings. All window films block at least 95% of the UV, major cause of fading. Window films are available from the very light to extremely dark, non reflective to the silver reflective. Also there are window films designed to hold the glass together in the event of glass breakage.




At JAT Consulting Services, we evaluate, educate and motivate