11/23/2023
Arnold on his first Thanksgiving and positive thoughts - notice this guy started with nothing and now lok
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From Arnold: Happy Thanksgiving |
This is a special version of the newsletter. We won’t have the normal three items, but I do want to share an important story. |
It’s Thanksgiving for all of our American subscribers today, so I wanted to let you off the hook before you start eating everything in sight and let you know it’s perfectly OK to go wild. And I wanted to tell you about my first Thanksgiving, and why it is so important to me. |
I moved to America in 1968, just before the holidays. I had no idea what Thanksgiving was. I learned quickly. |
One of the guys I trained with, Bill Drake, found out I had no plans. He told me I had to come to his parent’s house, and I had my first-ever Thanksgiving dinner. They treated me like I was part of their family, even though I barely spoke English and had a few language screwups at the meal that were very funny. |
Around that same time, the guys at the gym found out I lived in an apartment with basically nothing. Then, like a strange group of really buff, shirtless elves, they showed up one after the other. Pillows, sheets, utensils, plates, a black and white TV, and a wooden clock radio I keep by my bed today as a reminder of the kindness I found here. They brought me everything I needed. |
That’s why I give back every year around this time and donate turkeys and toys and hand them out at the Hollenbeck Center in East LA, and why I still have some of the gym crew over for Thanksgiving if they don’t have anywhere to go. I know what it meant to me. You never know what it means to someone to offer them a meal or really anything that shows you care. |
Today is about more than eating delicious food and lying on the couch. |
So, I also want you to know that I’m thankful for all of you. There are almost 600,000 of us in this village. Every day, we are filling the world with more positive people who know that there are plenty of problems in the world, but we won’t solve them by being angry and complaining about them. |
I can’t believe the positivity I see every day in the replies to this email, and I am still in shock when I look at The Pump app’s community even after we opened it to all of you in the newsletter village and see that there still hasn’t been a single negative comment. We have never had to use our power to delete anything — what other app could say that? We are proving that positivity can work online. That’s because of the positivity of all of you lifting yourselves and each other. So thank you, thank you, thank you. |
Now, I am giving you a free pass. Not just today but for the celebrations to come. Don’t hold yourself back. Eat that pie. The reason we are healthy almost every day is so that we can let go on days like this. Remember that. We aren’t living lives of subtraction. We’ve added health and fitness to our lives so that we can also add some ice cream or mashed potatoes without guilt. |
Let go a little bit. Your healthy diet will be waiting for you. Just remember it is there, and don’t let a day or a weekend turn into a month of saying, “Arnold gave me a free pass.” |