Let's begin with the night... I go to bed between 11 and 12 pm each evening and then sleep until 7 or 8 am. I get up, usually without an alarm clock and if it is closer to 7 am, I will ride my stationary bike on the patio until my eyes are completely open. If it is 8 am, I will do some calisthenics, Bodylastics exercises and isometrics. That is all I need to feel alive... After exercise, which is probably 5 days a week, I spend the next 4 hours working on whatever is there left on my "To Do" list from the day before. This is perfect for me, working early, despite it being 3 to 6 hours of a time difference between Hawaii and L.A. or NYC. That is because Asia doesn't go to bed until 4 am. She is a total night owl who sleeps until noon. So, that means I can take advantage of this and work uninterrupted until she wakes, eats, and shakes off her own morning grogginess... Another thing, I do not rush my day to start because I already know that unless I am up at 3 am, I can't beat early bird in New York, like it or not. It is mid-morning shift or lunch time for those in California as well... "Hang Loose!"

Sometime around 2 PM after I get my work done, we go to the pool, snorkeling at the lagoon or hiking somewhere around the island. Around 4 PM, we come back home, wash up, and then I nap or we run some other errands. Around 6 PM I make dinner for us and at 8 PM or shortly after sunset I begin work again for a couple hours while the Queen reads one of her books on pregnancy, European history (her current fascination is with Captain Cook) or some tabloid magazine I cannot for the life of me understand. Finally, around 10:00 we walk to the ocean and feed stray cats that we have befriended and sometimes their weasel neighbors. Afterwards we either sit in the Jacuzzi or watch a DVD before I pass out but that ends the day. Certainly this time frame varies but it is after I hit the hay Asia answers her own fan mail, conducts interviews, manages her investments, websites or whatever else domestic goddesses do....

I think the obvious difference in living here is that I get in 6 to 7 meals a day, I exercise, I work 6 to 8 hours on something or other and yet I still have time for relaxing with my wife, going for walks, seeing movies, dinner, a day or two off here and there to do nothing per week... And that is the key to our happiness. Having some sort of a set life schedule and yet time for one another and finishing my new book. That and avoiding movies like TWO BROTHERS! What a day that was! Die Jean-Jacques Annaud's film career, DIE!

June 22, 2004

I was at GNC to see if they had anything new that I could keep abreast of, like current fads, sales trends, etc. So I went in, Mr. Mystery Shopper and immediately overheard some skinny kid talking to a fat, fat, fat ((did I say) fat sales clerk about his goals for the month. He asked, "What is the best thing for weight gain?" Without hesitation, she showed him what she called, "Our best selling bar." Not convinced, he asked what ingredients were in it that helped a person gain weight. Of course, not knowing what she was talking about, she froze in her place, thought long and hard, then said, "Why don't we try a powder I saw in the back. It has 'weight gainer' written on it. It is high in protein, and powder, and carbs, and if you mix it with milk and ice cream, it tastes like a real shake. One of the other guys here uses it." In walks that other guy... 50 inch waist, 14 inch arms, "Can I help you make a selection today?" Say what? Look, if the sales person doesn't look the part, they do not know what works. Certainly I do not trust people who do look the part but I would never trust a couple of obese clerks when it comes to a healthy form of weight gain!

Ok, let me go a little further... If someone is earning minimum wage, do not turn to them for nutritional or exercise advice...

June 14, 2004

Someone named Ken Griffey Jr got their 500th career Major League home run recently without the use of steroids sometime this week and I think that's awesome! Laughs, sorry, I had to say it! Congrats to Ken Griffey Jr... I was also recently asked to speak at a Hawaiian conference this upcoming November. If you want info to come on out, let me know. It is being held sometime during the first week of the month. On top of that I am supposed to be talking to the Discovery Channel about one of my books this week. Oh, and I think you will like this... MY NEW LABELS This upcoming weekend, we officially begin working on baby making over here and I think we have figured out how it's done finally. Give us a month or so to get it right for sure, but we are going away to another resort for test runs. Certainly, besides my close friends, you will be the first to know once we attain gold! For now, it's just a lot of hard work, stressful hours and dedication to the task at hand! And... Lemmon's Oil user Michael McDonald (not the former Doobie Brother) just won the K-1 hardcore martial arts tournament! Congrats!

Folks, I love my customers and I welcome all emails but sometimes, yes, the people writing are a little off their rockers. I can try to help or as they say, lead the horse to water, but that is about all I can do at times. I try, and it's cool, people can't always come to a proper conclusion without having gathered all the information needed to be rationale. But that's nothing to be upset with me or them over. That's why I remain cool when most of you say you wouldn't have been after someone else has lost it when their beliefs are challenged. Truth is, it takes quite a bit to upset me. When a customer is right, they are right, when I am right, I am right... Sometimes people are so NOT 'right' that they are plain 'wrong' whether they see it or not... What can you do? We live in a generation that believes etiquette is learned from Jerry Springer and makeup tips are found on Oprah... Here are comments from clients on something posted on a message board that I recently replied to rather diplomatically. The person in question critiqued me for saying that if my program was so great, all the IFBB Pro Bodybuilders would be endorsing it. I simply stated, I am a nutritionist, not a multi-million dollar company paying steroid users to pretend they use something they do not, like Weider does...

"Ok so here we find someone that loves to spend his time and money supporting the lies of the Weider organization.... This person knocks your routines and eating plan.... This person probably shows up early for Gold Card day at his local GNC and buys some sweet tasting protein powder which have ingredients matching a Three Musketeer bar... He then goes to the gym only to tell his friends what he benched last week or talk about what he used to lift in High School and no one cares. Look, if this person did any research and learned anything while being ripped off by marketing scams he would realize there are only a select few products and routines that work. The best physiques that I personally recall that were drug free and outstanding came from the 60's and 70's and possibly early eighties when people actually watched what they ate, worked hard in the gym... Anybody that knows or talks to anyone with a half ass of a brain knows as little time in the gym with as much effort and rest afterwards as possible is what works! Don your programs work and kick ass! This dude has serious issues!" ~ Darin

Of course this merely angered them more. They said all sorts of silly things I didn't need to replied to, this person did:

"Wow! That person just sounds angry. I think the KNOW HOW program is great. I think people around me are tired of hearing me talk about it too. If taste is any indicator of a products effectiveness then Don's protein powder is the best. It tastes absolutely like nothing. But it is quick, easy and clean. I was on the program for two months and the only thing holding me back from ultimate goals is that I hurt my shoulder at work. I kept eating good (with a few screw-ups) and ordered the Bodylastics to get me through. Now I am back to fully healthy and will be continuing for more results. I just wanted to tell people here that I love the program and the common sense info there is to back it up. Thanks!" ~ Pete

Not even remotely calmed, the dude next said, "As a Christian... God feels... And so-and-so will go to hell if that is true (Weider)..." Or something like that. I had to step in and make the attempt at cooling our frisky friend down by explaining that God probably doesn't want men posing in panties for other men to argue about so please, relax a little, we are all friends here... After that, I gave up, laughs...

"Don, how do you handle silly people so easily without stooping to their level? And what does that guy think God has in mind that he is using His name in vain to discuss his obsession over vanity? Oh, I think I answered that one..." ~ Kristine

And here are some tid bits from years gone by...

June 1986: Meet the Ferris Bueller of Newton Falls, Ohio. The people throwing our graduation ceremonies said we had to wear only black slacks, ties and white shirts... Who did they think they were kidding? High School Graduation Day comes only once... CLICK HERE

June 1993: Just before I began bodybuilding for a contracted magazine project, I had gone back to Ohio to get away from the big city for a while. The Power Connection in Lake Milton talked me into working with their members to increase sales. Being a businessman (or at least thinking I was) I agreed but for a for a cut of the profits. Eventually I was talked into part ownership of the gym itself but that failed after I saw I was to be the only one putting my elbows into it. To see their intro letter to the clients... CLICK HERE

June 1997: We tinkered with the idea of a line of bottled water that was surgically pure, filtered 5 times by 5 different methods and then had colloidal minerals added to it. I also offered a coffee replacement around the same time that was more or less, brain fuel. During that same month we placed local ads and as you can see, you are getting quite a deal being charged only a portion of what we used to for the products. The same ads, technically, were placed in several muscle magazines too. For my Y-town Ohio ad Part 1 CLICK HERE and for Part 2 CLICK HERE

June, 1999: For the KNOW HOW website logo designed in June of 1999... CLICK HERE Pretty funny, eh? Also in June I became part of a company that was the first to sell pure creatine and whey proteins without additives or artificial sweeteners. I told them I would only hop on board if we maintained integrity from the start. Unfortunately, we went belly up. We were known as Acclaim labs and did a couple conventions. One was at the Jan Tana bodybuilding show where those crooks took our money and never gave us the ad space promised in the program. To top that off, the competitor we sponsored, Amy Pazzo, decided to trash us because we wouldn't support her steroid use on top of flying her to the show. Sad but true story folks. Our competitor for the Mr USA, however, Mr. Tony Dobbs, he was much more gracious and a joy to work with. That is him in the photo...

Let me make something clear, I am NOT a fan of creatine. I agreed to promoting it ONLY if we were selling PURE 100% creatine and that we certainly were. It was such a hot item back then and I wanted attention for my nutrition program that would also get people to look into the new protein. Either way, that is why I sold it... For all of $9.95 a tub too. 75% cheaper than the competitors who had maybe 33% of their mixes weighing in as actual creatine. For the flyer's front CLICK HERE and for the back CLICK HERE

June 2002: Wow, has it been this long? We posted the version of the site with the plain jane logos and military green look... Look how far we have come. Here however is my 2002 book cover featuring long time friend and former client Dina Marie: CLICK HERE

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