Responsibility 199, what is it?

Responsibility 199 is a belief; I believe that to be healthy and to increase my longevity I need to weigh 199 pounds or less...
Responsibility 199 is a need; I need to reduce my weight, reduce my percentage of body fat, and the elevated threat of disease my present condition presents...
Responsibility 199 is a mission; I recognize that achieving 199 will be a challenge, perhaps the hardest I have ever undertaken...
Responsibility 199 is a commitment; I acknowledge that I must commit to action, commit to change, commit to myself and those I love to achieve this mission, to increase my longevity...
Responsibility 199 is ME.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Day 143 - BBQ'n & Drive'n

Hope all had a fine Labor Day yesterday. A good one was had by our clan. Since I took Sunday off from exercise I chose to exercise Monday holiday or not. My son & I got in a dumbbell routine and did five sets of push ups & sit ups. A good workout, and a needed one considering the food temptations to come.

Monday I was up before sunrise bringing the smoker up to temperature and getting five racks of baby back ribs on. See them in that picture there? Oh, no you can't, the lid is closed, silly me. Trust me they are in there. And in there they stayed for eight hours cooking slow on a low temp. When done they were proclaimed perfect.

BBQ'ing is a passion of mine and I am good at it. Mission to get healthy or not I will always get my BBQ'n on. The difference now is that I don't eat like the pigs I BBQ. Instead I exercise moderation with my passion.

Today I enjoyed just four ribs from the small end of the rack. That was probably two more than I should have eaten if I am honest with myself. The old me would have eaten an entire rack of ribs minimum. The old me was not responsible and could spell moderation even with spell-check. What, you like ribs too? Ok, here is a pic of the result for your eyes to feast upon...
Dry rub BBQ on the left and wet BBQ on the right. Two types of wet...
The bunch in front is sauced with Sweet Baby Rays and the bunch in the back is sauced with an Apple-Bacon blend.

As if the ribs weren't temptation enough I receive a call when driving home in the evening. This call comes with a request to bring home Dairy Queen for a couple of back home. It's Labor Day, sure why not some ice cream to end the holiday. Not for me, I told myself. A mile up the road I tell myself, well, I could have just a small blizzard, right? Two miles later, Nope, not going to do it; the ribs were enough indulgence today. DQ is now just a mile away, screw it, I am having Ice Cream! The DQ driveway in sight, NO! In the DQ drive thru which is six cars deep, Ok, treat yourself to a blizzard already and walk it off later. At the drive thru window I order a Peanut Buster parfait and a Oreo Blizzard, pay a ridiculous $8+ and drive of with ice cream for the sweet teeth at home. None for me; Commitment wins, Temptation loses.

And later that evening my wife and I went out for a brisk walk to end it on a healthy note. Again a fine Labor Day yesterday. How was yours?

Tuesday it is today, back to work. My day today started with a drive into work. It was an oddly congested and I'll say adventurous drive. One which I decided to try & find some fun in by capturing some of it's emotions...

#%$@&!, Cut off by a squishy little car; I hate squishy little cars!


Argh, the squishy little car has NO brake lights and is getting bigger in my windshield extremely fast!


Ha Ha!... Local radio'heads talking about Illinois politics; best comedy on the air.


Soooo, when was the last time I used my moon roof?


PLEASE... why do trains run during peak commute time?!


Um... is that cow doing a heimlich maneuver on that other cow?


Really? I left home with my own barn door wide open...


If I had three wishes, what would I do with them?


Uh Oh!


Oooo, somebody knows how to dress for traffic.


Green, the light is GREEN, Yippee!!

So, how was your commute today?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

25 comments:

  1. You are toooooooooooooooooo funny! Well, traditionally, traffic gets worse again after Labor Day when summer is over, vacations are over, kids go back to school, all at the same time.... dreading my non summer drives for my teeth crap as I know the traffic here is always lighter in summer & even then it is BAD!

    Congrats on your great choices yesterday & a walk to top it off!

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  2. Ribs.. Ribs, pictures of ribs... Thanks... Good morning to you too...

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  3. Patrick, I would live to think that I could leave DQ with ice cream for other & have the resolve to pass myself, someday yes, but I am not there yet, Congrats!

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  4. Those ribs looked great and you exercised masterful control both with them at at the DQ. Great job. Not even having left my house this morning, I definitely noticed the increase in traffic--there's an elementary school on my street and today is the first day back for kids. Your face looks thinner.

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  5. I *LOVE* your commuting pictures! That was great! Classic...ala Jack Sh*t style, ya know? No eating in the car, or drinking coffee, eh?

    We don't have DQ here, but I grew up with them in Illinois. Oh, the blizzard is my favorite! The little ice cream place has basically the same thing here, and it's my favorite. Vanilla soft serve with an EXTRA scoop of Snickers. Oh yeah, that's my downfall. That's reserved for special occasions, for sure!

    I can't grill to save my soul. Well, that's not entirely true. I turn the grill on. I throw food on. I turn it. I bring it inside and cross my fingers that (1) it's not charcoal and (2) it's cooked inside. If 1 + 2 are met, I consider it a success. But as for the fine-BBQ dining experience, nope, I'm just not a good BBQ cook. There's no way I'd be able to cook BBQ ribs for 8 hours and not ruin them utterly.

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  6. Great pics! I needed the laugh this morning.

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  7. Those ribs look incredible--thanks for the food porn!


    I love the photo montage! Too funny!

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  8. ROFLOL ... You are too funny, Patrick! I know commutes are LONG in Chicagoland, but wow ... cows, trains and uh-ohs? Congratulations on busting that DQ temptation! I'm proud of you! Sounds like a wonderful weekend was had by all.

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  9. You're gonna hate me -- I have a 3-block commute.

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  10. Ribs look yummy, Patrick. Glad your Labor Day was great, even without the DQ!

    LMFAO with the commuter pictures! You're a clown.

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  11. Lovin the car pictures, started my day with a laugh. No commute for me today, three days off in a row!!! Yowsa,,

    Karla @myweightin2010@bloodspot.com

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  12. Love your driving emoticons! And I really love me some baby back ribs....those look so good! Way to go on the DQ denial....if I could only find the same resistance to temptations.....

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  13. You do have fun each day, don't you?!

    Have a good day, my friend.

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  14. Better close that barn door with all those happy Heimlich cows around!

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  15. Kudos on the no DQ!! ribs...mmmm...
    Funny photos!

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  16. Cracked me up!!! I'm late but congratulations on the 50 lb milestone! You've done such a fantastic job. The ribs looked delicious as well. You are stronger than I am...I have had a little bit of ice cream each night for the last 3 nights. *sigh* I'll get better...I promise.

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  17. You are a lot tougher than I am, Patrick! I had to leave Chicago and move south to lose weight and get fit :-)

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  18. Congratulations on talking yourself out of icecream.
    Wow-

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  19. Love the pics!! BIG Congrats on resisting the ice cream! :)

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  20. Thanks folks for the cool words regarding my avoiding the DQ magnet that tried to suck me it. And quite glad everyone liked the pics, it was fun putting that together. Yeah looking at it it does look like something Jack Sh*t would do; Jack if you are reading fear not, I am not trying to take tyour thunder. You are the master of the blog humorist style, I wash just having fun with my cell phone camera.

    Hmmm, FGvW has a 3-block commute... I don't hate you but I am jealous. And I guess carpooling is out of the question too huh?

    Final thought, Heimlich cows are bad cows, beware the Heimlich cows :-)

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  21. Alas i worked labour day, however we did have rainbow trout on the bbq!.
    Good for you on the Dairy Queen and thanks for making me smile tonight even though i'm really tired.

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  22. When I was in high school, I had Blizzard before a game and then hit a home run. Having not yet taken statistics, I did not yet know that correlation does not equal causation. So I had a Blizzard before every game. And unfortunately, I played pretty well.

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  23. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Thanks--I soooo needed that!

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  24. Hey, this post reminds me of Anne for some reason.

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