Day 258-259 Last Day & Birthday



Link to Hunting Blog post


Today is the last day of the year and that means it is Cameron's birthday. There he is proudly displaying the antlers from his first deer which he harvested in October. This week we finally mounted those antlers for him.

We'll celebrate his birthday later today with buffalo wings I am sure; he is a connoisseur of buffalo wings if there ever was one. As well we will celebrate New Years eve and ring in the new year from the safety and comfort of our home.

I'll hold off on any year-end wrap up and year-new posting material until tomorrow. Have some fun stiff to get on to with the family this morning but I wanted to put up a quick post for Cam's birthday. Also, answer the riddle from the other day.

This riddle was way too way as most everyone got it right; the defrost vent from my truck...

Nothing wrong with ending the year on an 'easy' note. The challenge to continue getting healthy in the new year will certainly be just that, a challenge, and a welcome one at that.

Enjoy your New Year's celebration! Be safe & Have FUN!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 257 - Riddle Some Dunham

What do you say we end the year with a picture riddle... I don't think this one is too hard, but then again I know what it is. Take a look, take a guess, have some fun.

Yesterdays exercise was cardio, another 4 mile walk outdoors. I timed myself for the final mile to see if I had a PR in me, been quite a while since I've timed myself. Finished mile number four in 14:51 minutes, just walking; no jogging this day... put that PR up on the board, shaved over 1/2 minute over the last time I just walked a mile.

How are you folks out east doing with the recent snow storms? We have nothing to really complain about weather wise in the midwest. Sure some snow, sure some cold air; but nothing like what you folks are dealing with. It was a brisk 20F morning for yesterday's walk. Took the below shot with 1/2 block to go on this walk. My house is the one there with the American flag; sadly it is the only house within eye-shot that flys the flag every day this planet spins around the sun...

Looking to hit the weights today and get in some more cardio too. Trying to finish the year strong while also sweating past any damage I may have done over the long weekend. Also taking advantage of being home this week.

Last night was family fun night; as part of our Christmas gift to our kids, their grand parents & my sister in laws family we took them to see Jeff Dunham. If you don't know this comedian, check out some of his website or his act on youtube. If you do know Jeff, then you won't be surprised that we had a blast. My throat & sides are sore from laughing so much.

Are you finishing 2010 strong & having fun doing it?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 254-256 Post Holiday Awakening

So how was your Christmas weekend? Festive & Fun I hope. Was Santa good to you? Or did you get on Santa's bad side in 2010 and found yourself looking at an appropriately awful pile of something in your stocking instead? Hopefully it was not the latter and you were quite pleased with your Christmas all around.

Christmas Eve is when we celebrate in our house and I touched on our celebration in my last post; great time. Christmas Day my wife and I chilled out together as we do every year. The kids leave Christmas Eve night about 10 p.m.'ish to go spend the night and Christmas Day with their Mom/Dad from our respective 1st marriages. We've had this arrangement for a dozen years now and it has worked out quite nice. One day for Christmas that is dedicated to the kids and family, and then another just to each other.

So on Christmas Day my wife & I usually take out time getting out of bed, then play with our new toys or the kids new toys depending on if they got something good. Eventually we get out and go to a movie and then to dinner. Many of the finer dining joints are open on Christmas Day and have special menus for the day. No way we'd cook for ourselves on Christmas Day after the large production we put together each Christmas Eve. This year we went and saw Little Fockers; not a bad show for a sequel of a sequel. Sure, overly predictable for the most part, but a decent comedy played out by some great talent.

Up there you see a picture of me and another of my gifts received; it is Burt the farting Hippo who has been made famous on the t.v. show NCIS. Yep, as expected, squeeze his ass and he farts; hilarious!

Ok, off I go to get in some miles. My wife just jumped on the treadmill, I can hear it whinning as she gets her 'move' on upstairs. The holidays are largely over for me and I've moved on from all the bad foods and lazy days. I took in too much temptation on Christmas Eve & Day to be honest. Nothing as bad as in years past, but still too much. The past two days I have gone out and put in 4 miles each; and as soon as I publish this I am going out for 4 more. Another new toy of mine is this new Blackhawks skull cap...

Perfect for walking in 20F morning air.

You getting in any exercise today?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 253 - Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas

We had a blast hosting our Christmas gathering yesterday. The kids had a "blast' wearing these shirts their Mom bought for them in Florida last summer and saved for Christmas. As soon as the photo was over Thing 3 & 4 ditched the shirts quickly. Thing 1 & 2 were fine wearing them for the day.

Everyone scored nicely in the gift department. A couple of things I received; above a cool pair of weight lifting gloves and an Olympic curl bar (thought I took a picture of the bar but guess not)... and below a page-a-day desk calendar about bacon (perfect for the guy looking to lose weight)...

Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 250-252 Christine's Oh Yeah

Merry Christmas Eve everyone. A good time is in store for us today, family party at our house. Making home-made chinese for our feast. I am very non-traditional whenever I can be and holidays I go out of my way to buck traditions to amp up the fun. This year that means serving chinese food to those coming over expecting turkey or ham. Ho ho ho!

But enough about me and what I am doing today, or what I have done the past few days. For the short time you will be here today I've got nothing to share more worthy of your valuable time than the good news of another. Many of you likely saw her post last weekend, but for those that did not; take a look at this Oh Yeah! post, and celebrate with Christine...

Be sure and turn up your volume before you play her Celebration V-Log

Christine, once again I must say Way to go Christine; Way To Go!





Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 243-249 Enjoying These Holidays

Hello Bloggers, Hope all have been doing well this December & Holiday season.

Myself I am having a blast thanks in very large part to being fitter and friskier than I have been in years. I've been having so much fun wrapping up things at work for the year, connecting with family & friends as the holidays near, and continuing to exercise and eat well. While I have gained a bunch of energy it seems I have struggled a bit with time management. But not in a bad way, simply I'm enjoying being active having fun so much that I've struggled to make time to sit down and do things like get my blogg'n on.

Twitter has seen allot more of my time the past few weeks that the blogs; so much easier to connect with folks when time is tight from the cell browser than blogs. For those of you that don't tweet I'm sorry to have been absent from you for a while. So what do I have to say today? Who knows, making this up as I go which is my norm. Let me share a few thoughts via photos...

As I have said I continue to get in the exercise and am eating well. Let me not mislead you though, while my eating has been well, but not phenonemal. Thus my weight loss has slowed to a crawl, but the scale still leans a bit more downward each time I step on which has only been about once every 10 days since the holiday season has started.

Exercise, still loving it even though the winter is here and messing around with my outdoor cardio. We have to find fun even in the cold and here is a bit of fun I saw along my walk the other day...

This snowman came complete with mini-guitar and it seems he had a band mate at one time who didn't cut it and was knocked over so this guy could go solo.

In recent years I have felt older than my actual age at times, these days I feel younger than my years...

And I choose to not get old anymore.

Last week my truck hit a milestone turning 140,000 miles...

Averaging about 20,000 a year and I'd like to get another 140,000 out of it if I can. Wishful thinking I am sure but with one kid entering college each of the next 4 years, I will do all I can to get as much life out of my truck as I can my own body.

This is just a reminder to myself to stretch more than I do...

Why I still don't respect the need to stretch as much as I should I do not know. If these ladies can do it, so can I!

While I have not always been healthy in my approach to my weight I have always been on my game in my approach to my dental health...

Here are my x-rays from yesterday's semi-annual exam & cleaning. Yep, those are fillings you see there. I think I have had 6 or 7 in my life. I didn't have any until I was 20 and that year I had 4!

And just because I like to have fun, you get to look at this...

Are you really surprised?

Have fun everyone; Have FUN!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 238-242 Read, See, Watch & Be Inspired

Hello one and all! Been a few days since I dabbled into the blogs including my own. This past weekend was a working weekend for me. Every so often we release new or changed technology into our business. When we do part of the zillion things I do is oversee such releases. The good news, we kicked @$$!! The bad news, it killed my weekend time with family, friends and our pets too.

The ugly news, I have felt semi-ill and off-game Monday & Tuesday. I wasn't sick to the point where I stayed home sick. Rather my gut was churning and burning and with it my attitude and mood has been sedate and quiet. I started coming around yesterday afternoon and just in time too. My wife wanted to go out to dinner and the hit some stores to all but finish our Christmas shopping. By the time the work day was done I my mood was well on the rebound and we had a great date night.

A few of you posted/wrote emails asking if all was well; very kind of you to check in on me and make sure I hadn't slipped face first off the health wagon and into a vat of bacon wrapped sausage ice cream. I can assure you I remain committed to getting healthier each day and the scale has been smiling back at me. But more inspiring than the scale are NSV's. It has been a while since I've had one that I felt worthy to share but today, well I have an excellent one...

Take a look at the picture up there, do you see the NSV in that photo? No, not the V-8, Protein shake and fruit I brought to work today. That stuff is all good and minus the shake it is a part of my daily feedbag; these shakes I drink 2-3x a month when so moved and today is one of those days. Back to the NSV, it is my watch! Or more accurately my wrist. My weight loss has made it to the point where my wrists have shed enough girth that my watchband is not only no longer snug on me but it is so loose my watch spins around on my wrist. While this is a very cool NSV, it is also a bit irritating. So I shall soon celebrate by having a link removed from this watchband. Can I get an Oh Yeah!


Now, if that wasn't inspiring for you this fine morning, well then all I can say is watch this...

 

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 237 - Virtually Just Playful Thoughts

We all know that cold days are here and will remain here for a few months, it happens and hopefully will continue to happen every year at this time. If it doesn't then likely our planet may have been ingested by a giant space monster with a taste for sea salt. Seems everyone is on the sea salt fad of a band wagon, why not space monsters too? It could happen...

Anyhow in effort to keep warm, I lit a fire at work, sort of; a virtual fire really. A real fire would have been bad. So I found a cool pic of a fireplace log on fire and displayed it on my upper monitor here. I only use that monitor a couple hours a day as it is so it seemed appropriate to put it to use the other 8-10 hours I am here as well. Ah, feel the warmth?

Yesterday, excellent with food and drink. But another unexcellent non-exercise day. Excuse for that is no different than what I posted on day 236. Today however I got the exercise in first thing, 3 miles on the treadmill; problem solved!

Folks I'll be honest, I have little in mind to chat up here today. My mind is fine, my mood is awesome and a bit playful; hence why I am struggling to put wisdom forward here. So I shall forgo trying to do so and leave you with a few more playful thoughts before I go...

Shouldn't the wrapper be put on the inside of a straw seeing that is the part you want to stay clean?

Seems like so many wanna-be authors are writing books these days, I admit I have thought about writing an unauthorized autobiography.

Time travel is possible... just put instant coffee in the microwave oven and it will be done before you press 'start'; try it.

Happy Friday Folks!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 236 - Potluck Calls Them Out

I can hear myself sloshing about from all the extra hydration I've been taking in as part of DecGTD. Trying to drink more in the morning and less in the evenings, but some days that doesn't work out. Yesterday was one such day. After 8:30 p.m. I chugged about 60 ounces of my 118 consumed. Really I am not sure if it matters when the water gets guzzled, does it? But I prefer not having to hit the out-house so often that late.

Moving on to food, doesn't that picture up there look tasty? Our division had a holiday potluck and there was food everywhere. Every over-indulgent concoction ever created found its way to tables through out the building. One easily could have consumed a 1,000 of calories with each sampling. What did I bring to the potluck, lean and lovely venison sausage of course...

Luckily for me, I had a busy schedule so opportunities to visit these treats were few. Plus I know better where as a year ago I would have lead the charge to conquer the feast. During a lull my final meeting of the day our conversation turned to all this food at work. Shout outs for the amazing chocolate-dream cake, whoots for those phenomenal rum balls, and even a fist-bump was had over the high fructose corn syrup laden fruit tart. Yes, it was a buffet of dieters excuses just waiting to be had by anyone needing justification to jump ship.

However what struck me and set me to pondering was how nearly everyone at this conference table was making fun of their weight, and most were heavy if not obese technically; and more so the complete lack of self respect they projected as they stuffed their faces. Now I know this was a holiday shindig, and I sound a bit bah-humbug'ish here, but my sense was these thoughts they let loose were more their norm than just momentary holiday deviations. This event just gave them comfort to share their norm publicly. Seriously, I was left in deep thought of; WTF!

After thinking about it for a while I realized what was really bothering me was this; did I sound this sad when I used to do the same? Oh I know I used to do the same, and I bet I was just as sad. Most obese folks do this I believe; push off the pain of our reality by making light of it in effort to validate it if only for the moment. You know, I am getting frustrated just writing this post and reliving that experience yesterday. So I hope you get what I mean here because I need to change topics. Please do share your thoughts but I must move on...

Another great day of eating yesterday which included all that water. No exercise however, so not so great there. I was out from 6:15 a.m. until 8:30 p.m. with work and family, yeah; just an excuse. I need to get up earlier to get in more exercise especially during these times of year when our evenings are as busy as they have been.

Final thought but most important thought of the day; HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

Have a great day one and all!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 235 - Momma Said, Wait No She Didn't

Had an excellent day yesterday even though it was extremely busy. So busy all I could do blog wise was post that brief excuse for a post from my cell phone. Momma said there'd be days like that. Well, she never expanded upon that warning to the point there will be days where you take your truck in for 'routine' maintenance and it costs you $1,600 in the end... no she didn't. But, that was part of my day yesterday.

I did catch a break yesterday in that my evening plans softened up enough to allow me to get in a great work out on my new weight bench. There you see a pic of me in action, my spotter felt I was doing fine enough to take the time to get that shot. After the weights were worn out I wanted some more so I went upstairs to the treadmill and got in three miles on that. I really dislike treadmills, thus why this weekend I went outside for my failed attempt at 13.1 vs. hitting the treadmill. But, falling back into the cold and coughing that was much of my weekend was less appealing than the treadmill so we got together & tolerated each other. Eating and drinking was spot on too so all smiles yesterday sans the truck news.

Wanted to get to a shout out since last week, been scatter brained lately it seems, better late than never applies here I believe. Dawn of Fixing Myself Thinner said something in fine fashion in a brilliant post after returning from her Thanksgiving trip. Her trip challenged her ability to keep it healthy and provided a lesson on environment and the key role the environment we are in plays in our ability to succeed in our daily mission to be healthy.

In attempts past I have wavered in and out with the advice that it is wise to clean house, get rid of all the no-good-tempting foods and keep them from coming back. In general, this advice is hard to argue; if a temptation is not there then it is harder to give into it. Myself, my mind is cautious of anything labeled, 'general' as I see them as lazy attempts to over-simplify how something applies to all of us as a whole. Good sense for one person is nonsense for another. Strong will in the face of temptation comes easy to one but is a panic laden experience for another. Thus we are all different in how we deal with situations and issues regarding weight loss, general or otherwise. 

Dawn's post wasn't as much about our immediate environment however, I wandered a bit in tangent there. Instead she reminds us we are going to find ourselves out there, in environments we do not have full control over, but that fact need not be reason to pack in the healthy behaviors for a moment or a weekend. For those times where we know ahead of time that we will be in less than diet-friendly environments a little planning ahead can allow us to arm ourselves with healthy options. I won't bother with a list or tricks or tips as so many bloggers are posting here around the holidays with how to survive them. Most of them apply year round. Of course planning ahead is ideal, but take a further lesson from Dawn; don't forget to take the protein bars you made with you when you venture out :-)

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 234 - Bussssyyyy

How goes your Tuesday? All is well I hope.

Super busy one here at work today & it will continue to be so with kids sports this evening. First time I've had more than 39 consecutive seconds to play today. At the moment my daughter (pictured) is driving me home from work; my truck is spending the night in the shop. Been a healthy day food wise and hopeful I will squeeze in some exercise this evening.

Be Good!

Responsibility199, Gotta Do It!!

Day 232-233 Hack Hack, Sneeze

First order of business is the riddle from Friday, there it is; a medical waste bin. At least I think that is the right name for the can where the staff disposes of the used rubber gloves, IV lines, etc... more accurately the riddle picture was of the access on the lid; yeah this one was a tough one.

Figured a tough one would be appropriate for December as this month usually is a tough one on those trying to lose weight. Your guesses proved that it was indeed tough too. Excellent & creative guesses as always ranging from a swimming pool drain to the inside of my colon (if only it were that clean) to a plastic thing from a box of pizza (Papa John's comes to mind). There were a couple that reference a bucket also, perhaps we can say those were closest. But lets just call it a tie between all that participated for this one shall we.

Ok, second order of business, the 13.1 mile walk, jog or crawl from Sunday. Christine put this event together and she completed hers in impressive fashion. Be sure and stop by her blog and give her a high-five!

As for myself, nothing high-five worthy here... On Friday I came down with a cold, Saturday I tried to medicate and kick it to the curb. Sunday I awoke and told myself I was feeling better and went out and set off to click off some miles... 

Getting psyched for the a.m. attempt, lets hope everyone shoveled...

Didn't take long to understand that as much as I wanted to feel better I was void of energy. The 20 degree air actually was refreshing for a bit but it was a burden too which was a definite signal for me to cut this short, I got in just 2 miles. Normally I am not bothered by the cold and have no issue getting out and enjoying it. But when ill, the cold is not as a welcomed. Back inside I took it easy most of the day and then headed back out in the evening to get in some more miles... 

Blurry shot of my evening walk in the neighborhood, aint the lights pretty!

Oh I had delusions of grandeur to try and get in the rest of the 13.1 miles but another 2 miles was all I had in my tank. Frustrating... So I'll have to get out there and get in the rest of those miles this week.

Feeling better today, at work, and looking forward to a great week.

Hope all had a great weekend and that you have a healthy week planned; do you?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 231 - Snow For Sale

Yeah, snowed last night & it is still snowing. Pic there is just the 2 inches that greeted me when I opened the garage at 7a.m. this morning. Up early to drop one son to take the SAT and another for a wrestling tourney.

My wife & I are at the tourney now and we'll be here all day. So putting together a quick post from my blackscarry... Water bottles are for sale here & the bathrooms are clean.

Enjoy your Saturday, keep it healthy!

Responsibility199, Gotta Do It!!

Day 230 - Riddle, Tuna, Snow, Fitness Warrior & Meow

December is off and running and we need a picture riddle to keep it going properly, don't you agree? What oh what could that picture above be? Have an idea; then tell us what you think it is. Have no idea; then take a guess anyhow. Have fun and I'll get you the answer tomorrow.

Let us see here, I think I will keep things on the lighter side today just because I can.

Speaking of lite, here is a picture of my lunch from yesterday; tuna steak over sauteed veg & brown rice. Oh and a huge dollop of cucumber sauce which I punted. Amazing how the cafeteria can put out some really great dishes on some days and them some horrific messes on others...

This was taken earlier this week from one of our office building cat-walks. Snow flurries teasing and taunting us. This Saturday the weather folks are calling for 2-4 inches; I've procrastinated long enough in cranking over the snow blower and be sure it is ready for the season...

 

THANK YOU Bobbie!

Recently I was one of the lucky ones whose name came up as winners of a give-away Bobbie was having. And here it it, my very own Fitness Warrior towel from her recently launched line of Fitness Warrior gear. If you are not familiar with Bobbie of her line of goods, check out those links!

And we will wrap up the post with a gratuitous cat picture. Zinger & Nacho here, can you tell that they want the cat nip I have in hand...

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 229 - Happy Hanukkah to 13.1



source

Happy Hanukkah to all of my friends of the Jewish faith. This year the Festival of Lights runs from sunset December 1 to sunset December 9. I am not Jewish, but as a young boy I grew up in a Jewish neighborhood in Chicago. I have many vivid memories of that time, one of which I will share here...

Sheldon Reese was king of the play ground. He would threaten kids with sharpened pencils to force their submission to his crown as the play ground bully. I was the new kid in school and I didn't care much for pencils, they were needed for school work and I didn't like school work. Thus one second-grade morning when Sheldon pointed one in my face in effort to kick me out of 'his' end of the play ground, well my Irish came out and I brought his reign to an end. The next day he returned to recess with his older brothers from the Hebrew high school 1/2 block away. Long story short they thumped me and Sheldon was reinstated king. That was my first experience with my Jewish neighbors and it imprinted my seven year old mind with prejudice. Soon enough the 4th grade rolled around where I met a cute Jewish girl. Sheldon also took a liking to her, Anna P-something-or-other, but his brothers could not help him win this battle; she simply was not impressed with his pencils I guess. Her father probably would have liked Sheldon, to Mr. P~ I was pure evil and he banished her from talking with me. Good for me that she didn't mind her father well. She as much as my time in that neighborhood reformed me, by the time I moved again after 6th grade I had matured enough to leave such prejudices where they belong, in my wake.

I believe I commented on this a month or so ago, shame on me if I did not, but this Sunday is the day that Christine over at Phoenix Revolution is going to walk, jog or crawl her way to 13.1 miles...


click for her original post announcing this opportunity

A few of her faithful followers have committed to doing the same, myself being one of them. I have a busy day planned Sunday, so I may end up getting in a mess of those miles early a.m. and then the rest later in the evening. Christine is good with that, so if needed that is what I will do. One way or another I am getting her those miles!

How about you, interested in joining us?

Off to a great start with December Go The Distance. Ate fantastic and drank enough water to swim. Put down a half dozen servings of veg & fruit combined as well. Wednesday was planned off day for me exercise wise, and I succeeded and executing that plan and not exercising. I do have exercise planned for Thursday - do you?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 228 - MORE Go The Distance PLEASE

December is here and that means that challenge known as November Go The Distance is over and December Go The Distance is here. Use that link there to get involved with December's challenge if you have it in you to do so. These are the creation of and are hosted by the super-cool Fat Girl vs World. December's challenge has been expanded/improved to include personal pages for a variety of goal setting options which each individual participant can personalize. Best to check it out to see what I mean.

In wrapping up November Phil from Couch Potato to 10K has been honored with guest posting a summary of that months challenge; that good read awaits you HERE. For myself, I came up short on hitting my November goal; I walked/jogged 32 of the 35 mile goal I set so I completed 91% of my goal. No excuse for missing 100% other than I waned in planning my exercise as well as I had been. Oh I suppose I could say that I allowed other factors like hunting and holidays to occupy my mind and hinder my attention to exercise. They certainly did, but that is just an excuse, and not one I can accept.

Still, In October I did 25 miles. Thus November was an improvement month to month. December is here and my goal is 40 miles. I have no excuse not to hit it. I am off work the last two weeks of the year and if I don't hit it, well then I deserve to have my blogging license revoked.

These changes I am making are not as difficult as they are painful at times to adopt. They are for a lifetime and I need act like I understand that. One such way is planning my exercise into my days/weeks no matter what else is going on within my environment at the moment. Remember that word; environment. I'll be touching on it more this coming weekend when I weigh-in next.

So I wrap up November for myself with this lesson / reminder...

• Plan to succeed not matter what my/your environment may be
• Accept nothing less of myself/ourselves than giving my/our all to this plan
• Improve one battle at a time, one day at a time, with unwavering faith in myself/ourselves
• Necessary, recognize that this mission is necessary and embrace that it will never end even when I/we become great at that which I/we aspire to be

 

My mission here is to become great at being healthy. In 2010 I became better at it than I was in 2009. That fact is awesome, but it is not enough for me to be better at it; I feel I need to be great at it because it is, because I am, that important.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 227 - F-18 Flyover Accomplished

Monday was owned. Food near perfect, Exercise nailed!

Queue the anthem and the F-18 flyover... Ok, maybe the fly-over would be a bit much. But that feeling of accomplishment where your are brimming with pride for a job well done, that is how my Monday came off for me. Of course you really can't get the full effect of that feeling until you wake up the next day when there is no longer any opportunity to ruin yesterday.

One key to yesterday's feel-good, how I balanced the days food. The picture there is of my lunch for Monday. Where Monday was spot-on for me is that the calories on my lunch plate exceeded those of my dinner plate. Why is that a big deal?

For so very very long (yes 2 very's) that has not been the case. Even while on this mission which has been largely successful I have struggled to avoid eating 40-50% of my days calories at dinner.

What you see there is garden salad with egg splashed with a bit of sesame oil & ranch accompanied with a bowl of veggie chili; this meal rang in at about 625 calories. My dinner (not pictured) of turkey breast (yes leftovers from Thursday) & fruit salad rang in at about 350 calories.

Over the past several months I have come to know my body fairly well. And I know it feels better, performs better, and maybe even looks better (underscore maybe) when I eat in better balance and when my mid-day meal is larger of the three meals. This I need to remember and strive for daily for what I hope are obvious reasons.

Now I am writing this post read as if such feelings of accomplishment are rare for me. Not the case, they are far more a regular part of my days these past 7+ months than ever. Such feelings of accomplishment can motivate greatly and ought to be recognized and sought after; my opinion.

Hit me with what gave you your last F-18 flyover feeling of accomplishment.

Oh, and for those who may not know what I mean by F-18 flyover, then for crying out loud get yourself to a big time football game, or better yet to a Nascar race; stand, salute, cheer & hang on... Until then just watch THIS.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 224-226 Unplugged & Recharged

Good Morning Everyone! Hope all had a great weekend, and great holiday weekend at that. Did you?

Mine was quite good. For the most part I unplugged after Friday morning's post. A combination of allot planned with the family and just a need to mentally take a break from all of the structures that are my daily norm. Call it a mental vacation without going anywhere, just putting my mind at ease on other things.

A good decision too as I am ready for the new week re: work, home and health.  My brief stint away was not an unhealthy deviation from good sense. Had it been I wouldn't call it unplugging but rather unproductive.

Friday was largely spent at a wrestling tourney with Ryan which I spoke of with Friday's post. Ryan is a sophomore who wrestles on the J-V team. He was called up to the varsity team for the tourney to fill a void at his weight class; 189 pounds. His coach was upfront with him that this would be tough facing juniors & seniors many of whom have gone to state before. Just do the best you can for as long as you can and don't worry if you get your butt kicked. He lost both of his matches but he held his own. Mommadesure he knew that while he was beaten but his butt was far from kicked...

Before all of that wrestling excitement Friday morning started with my dropping Ryan off at the high school and then racing off (I almost typed 'scurrying', but I don't scurry!) to the sporting goods store for my foray into Black-Friday early bird madness. I do not hit the stores in the dark-hours on Black-Friday or any day no matter what the savings. But this store had a dang good combo deal on a 300-pound set of olympic weights and bar (pictured above) so I ventured into the madness. It wasn't too bad as the looney-tunes that camp out and lose sleep over sales had come and gone by the time I got there. Picked up a bench with leg attachment to use the new weights with. Oh these are not gifts, well I guess you can say they are for me and anyone else who wants to use them. But no wrapping paper needed. Came right home and set it all up in the brief window of time I had before it was off to watch wrestling.

Saturday was all about holiday prep. My wife and I took got in some shopping in the morning after breakfast allowing all of that day's early a.m. shopping-crazies to get in and out before us. Back home for a bit I got in the first workout on the new weights before rallying the boys to bring up the bins of holiday decorations and get that stuff out on the lawn. Well, we got started on it but soon came to remember that at the end of last year I threw away many items which were either broken down, tattered or just no longer wanted. This left us with way too little for the job. So off my wife & I went for another round in the stores to replenish the holiday decorations and as well we picked up the Christmas tree. Got a good one too, this thing just sucks up water like a sham-wow sucks money from the pockets of the easily entertained. Came home, got all of that set up and done which wore me out more so than the weights. Topped the day off by escorting my son and his girl friend to the movies. They made sure to sit on the opposite side of the theatre from my wife & I while we took in Due Date. ZZZzzz, I was ready for bed before bed was ready for me.

Sunday, a mix of fun. Up early and out the door with Andrew for a few hours of hunting on the last day of the regular gun season. We saw nothing, except other hunters; no deer for me...

We got in a good dose of cardio walking all over the public wildlife area we opted for this day. After coming home, a hot shower and a bowl of cereal; my wife & I were back out hitting various stores to try and knock out more Christmas shopping. If I had to guess we're about 60% done which means we'll go back out for the rest next weekend.

When we got home Andrew & I played darts on last time for the weekend. He has finally improved enough where he wins 1/2 the time. Over the course of the weekend he has amassed two more wins than I had so he was on the verge of winning a weekend series for just the second time. Bang, bang, I won two games quick and the weekend series was tied at 12-12... one more had to be played and nothing should ever, never-ever, end in a tie; right? Perhaps I should have settled for the tie as he rocked me in the deciding game. Man, next weekend he is so mine!

Ok, that is it; my weekend wrap up. Good fun, good time unplugging, good to ready to go for a new week.

Are you ready for the new week? 

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 223 - Post Turkey Ugh

Hope all had a great Thanksgiving. Our Thanksgiving was filled with good food and time with the family. I ate well, and didn't over do it. Oh I wanted to. That turkey was calling me to come and get some more of that succulent breast meat. Those mashed sweet potatoes were singing a seductive song which was so lovely. And the pumpkin pie, it just had to sit there and use ESPN to keep it's presence on my mind. Yeah, I so wanted to go and load up a second plate, but I abstained. What a difference a year makes. In years past I would have loaded up two and three plates before surrendering to my recliner for an afternoon nap.

Hope all that are out shopping in the early dark hours of the morning survive the madness. You wont ever catch me out there shopping when the body should be sleeping. This morning I am headed out early though; need to drop my son off at school by 6:30 a.m. so he and his wrestling team can make the not-quite-an-hour'ish trip to Barrington for a tournament. He'll spend all day today there and if he is not eliminated all day Saturday too. Thankfully his practice yesterday was in the morning so it didn't interfere with family plans. The tourney starts at 10 a.m. so I will have time to get in some exercise before heading down myself to spend the day watching the action.

Is the exercise in your plans for today?

Some exercise can help shake free the ugh feeling you may be feeling from over doing it yesterday.

And if you didn't over do it, just get some exercise in just because.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 222 - Happy Thanksgiving

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Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 221 - Holiday: Bring It

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Who doesn't enjoy a holiday? Well, there are plenty of people that do not look forward to holidays for a variety of reasons. So the question instead should be who doesn't enjoy the holiday food? In less time than it takes to dredge a forkful of turkey through gravy I can answer that question myself with a I DO.  

Tomorrow is a holiday, Happy Thanksgiving in advance. We will be entertaining family and serving a very traditional Thanksgiving spread. I will say without reservation I am looking forward to the time with family and also the food that will surround us like a coyote would surround a helpless rabbit. Bring it on I say!

Getting healthy, I say bring that on too. And I've been bringing it since April. Is getting healthy hard work? Absolutely! Is it difficult? To a degree it is especially when getting started and sifting through the mazes of how to do it.

We are humans, so it is natural that we make most everything we do more difficult than it really is. On holidays, we can really make a twist out of enjoying the day while staying healthy. I have done it as recently as this past Independence Day and Easter. Fretting over the menu or the buffet that would be there that day; spending the day doing a careful tip toe through the maze of food before me.

I am not, NOT, doing that tomorrow or ever again. I am not making holiday's difficult anymore because they shouldn't be. Simply, what we do everyday is what we should do holidays. Sure, the food on a holiday is different in that it is more tempting. But our approach to the food that day should be no different than any other day. Practice the same good sense where portion size and nutrient balance is concerned. Don't make it any harder than that.

Enjoy whatever food it is that is part of your holiday within the same guidelines you'll apply to your food today, and the day after the holiday.

By the way, what is going to be on your holiday table?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 220 - Flexing It Together

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This month I have been incorporating flexibility exercises into my exercise routine. I hesitate to use the word routine as I am not a big fan of routines in general. But as I am exercising regularly and trying to do a certain amount of specific exercises each week, well, perhaps I am on my way to warming up to routines.

What I am looking for is a set of flexibility or stretching exercises, call it a program,  which I can do once a week as my primary workout for that day. Then I'd like to be able to use some from that same set as warm up/cool down exercises before/after hitting the cardio or strength training on other days. Realistic? I would have thought so but thus far I have not come across good program for flexibility training. There are a zillion sites out there with such exercises but I've yet to find a flex program I am comfortable with. And it well could be that I am just not where I need to be physically yet to feel comfortable doing the exercises. Yeah, I sound so confused I am sure with this post.

The best I have come up with thus far are the charts you see in this post. The chart at the top is very basic and I see it as decent for the warm up/cool down want that I have.

Below is a chart that focuses on stretching the back, a good thing. They look simple but looks can be deceiving...

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Between those two charts I think I have the basics and the back well accounted for. For whatever reason the program I am trying to find seemed to need more so a hundred or so more mouse clicks and I found this comprehensive chart below. The problem with it is I cannot view the text since it is an image associated with a product for sale. I can see the images well enough to get a handle on the moves themselves which is good, but I'd really like to read that text. But for $285, regardless the currency, that text will remain a mystery forever...

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 So I am getting on with what I have come up with so far. Reality is I just may need to crack open the wallet and go buy a good book on the topic. But if finding a 'good book' is as challenging as finding good references on the net, then I may be in for a long day at the book store.

How about you; do you do any flexibility exercises as a matter of routine? Or do you just do a few basic stretches and get on with it?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 219 - Stairway to Heaven

Good morning, hope all had a great weekend. Welcome to a new week. A short work week for most of us. Perhaps some even are off of work entirely this week.

Our hunt this weekend was productive. As soon as I hit the publish button on this post I am off to take our deer to the processor. But the hunt was productive not just from a harvesting sense. Oh no, it had some serious exercise benefits too. Oh, and an NSV.

The land we own is basically farm land cut out of a forested hillside and hilltop. So each day we hunt I get in easily 3 miles of walking and generally 1/2 of that is uphill. Do the math, the other half is downhill. The deer stand I typically use is a crudely built tower stand out of scrap lumber. It sits 30 feet off the ground and access to it is via climbing straight up one side of it it over a ladder of 2x4's nailed into one side. Hey, we inherited it with the land, nobody I know would ever come up with such a crazy and dangerous design. But this stand is in a prime harvesting spot so I use it often.

My point, for a big boy like me, it is a serious workout to get up into this thing. And down from it. Saturday evening after getting up and down from it four times I was sore. The next morning I was sore sore sore. So sore that on Sunday I actually opted out of going up there. I know, lame on my part.

Because of this fact, I have renamed it the "Stairway to Heaven". Actually for two reasons. The first is I meant it when I said it is dangerous. One slip, wrong hand placement, and down you will go and off to heaven you will certainly go. The second is it reminds me of a USMC boot camp obstacle on a course called the confidence course which is named the Stairway to Heaven. Here is a picture of the obstacle for perspective...

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As for the NSV I mentioned, I discovered I can sit Indian-style with my legs crossed. I don't think I have done that since when I was back in boot camp. I was shocked when I realized what I was doing. While walking the property to check in on the kids I stopped in on Andrew who was sitting on the hillside on a leveled out spot of dirt and rock that overlooks a fairly open field. We just discovered this location in October and have not had time to improve it and put a ground blind in, agenda item for next spring. So while sitting there and whispering I did so legs crossed. Huh, look at me Mom!

Ok, I need to get scootin and get off to the processor and then to work. If you are interested in more about our weekend of hunting you can go to my hunting blog. Warning, do not go there if you are bothered by photos of harvested wild game. Otherwise, stop on by and enjoy via this link HERE.

Have a great day, what did you do this past weekend!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 218 - Joke Smile Repeat

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Sunday wouldn't be Sunday without at least one shout out. This week I want to share from Kerri of katdoesdiets her current youtube giveaway.

Cool giveaway for anyone looking for some ab help.

Our hunt continues today. Look forward to getting back home Monday and sharing a few thoughts of our weekend. Until then, let the fun of a few simple jokes to give you cause to smile before you move on. The picture up above did it for me recently...

>>> + <<<

A hunter was serving venison to his family.

Knowing that they would not knowingly eat deer meat he refused to tell them what they were eating.

He only said, "We're eating what your mother sometimes calls me."

The kids spit the meat out and started screaming "Yuck! We're eating asshole!"

>>> + <<<

Classic bumper sticker found on a hunter's pick up truck:

If a man is alone in the forest,

and there are no women around,

is he still wrong?

>>> + <<<

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 217 - Saturday Food Funnies

Hello hello hello... The boys and I are out hunting this weekend. Keeping it short and fun today. Doing that by sharing some fun food pics my daughters boy friend shared with us recently. No idea who is the author, whoever it is has some mad knife skills.


Um, have any Bread handy?



Melon having a nightmare?



What do you know; Tomatoes wear classes while herding?


Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 216 - Attitude Change Charge

When I was a young adult I didn't have an appreciation for attitude and it's role in success. After a trio of decades I began to acknowledge how a positive and aggressive attitude could make the difference in the results in teams at work. Applying the right attitude injects ability into that which is worth doing.

For me, experience was needed for that realization to emerge. In my fourth decade I discovered the application of attitude also works at home. An attitude of respect and appreciation applied at home launches our contribution to each other and emboldens our courage to overcome the trials of marriage and family.

In my fifth decade I now understand, finally, that it is attitude more than anything which I can leverage to become better as a person. Finally, I get it. Attitude has been the key to every professional and relationship success I have enjoyed. Attitude is what will see me succeed in my personal mission. Attitude more so than the technique I apply my mission; more so than action plan I adopt, more so than the knowledge I summon to my cause; Attitude when embraced changes impossible into inevitable.

Embrace your Attitude.

Enable desired Change.

Enjoy being in Charge.

.

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!