Good Start, Good Bird

First full week of this the 10th month of 2011. October is always a month of tectonic demand for our time, patience and sense of humor. Our family has six birthdays to celebrate, our kids make up half of them. Hunting season resumes so we have deer & turkey to harvest. The kids have school events to attend. Hockey season resumes so we have a Hockey game to go to. Tectonic I tell you!

In honest reflection of my mission here, it was this time last year my progress slowed to a point of inconsistent ups and downs beginning a string of months of clumsy maintenance. Was is the increased external demands of the final months of the year which contributed to that result? Certainly it did influence it, but, the result was something I allowed. Had I stayed sharp mentally and kept my mission prioritized properly the result would have been better.

That learned experience is a tool I now have to use my quest to emerge from the final months of this year healthier, happier and handsome. No tool is useful if not used, and proper prioritization of my own mission with all else October brings is the only way this quest will succeed.

Thanks to the challenges I've joined (Go The Distance and Fall 31 Day) I am off to a good start this month. Each of the first two days saw me get in a couple of miles of combined walk/jog activity. Yesterday I also put in an hour in the gym working on upper body pulling exercises.

Exercise is good, very good. But we all know sustained weight loss or maintenance is a combination of exercise & diet. So on the diet front I'm off to a good start too. I won't bore you (or myself) with a list of everything I have eaten. But I will share a dish I had fun with. We need to remind ourselves that when food is fun we use food more successfully. Oh, to be clear, having fun with food does not mean 'food-fight' fun, but rather using fun creatively and outside of the norms that most dull diets prescribe.

Saturday's dinner was Bacon & Apple Roasted Pheasant:

Raw pheasant ready for some loving attention...

Spices, soy sauce & water will become marinade in no time...

Two pheasants marinade the day away...

Each marinaded pheasant gets stuffed w/ apple & hit w/ apple wood seasoning...

Trussed, draped in bacon (I was told I needed to use more bacon), these are ready for bagging...

Oven roaster bags work on pheasants & birds of all kinds...

Ninety minutes later we have Apple/Bacon Roasted Pheasant...

And the final photo is the one way up at the top of the post, my dinner plate; Breast of Pheasant w/ Salsa Dressed Romaine Salad. A mighty tasty and healthy meal it was.

Are you off to a good start this October ?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 305 - Memories Are So Odd

source

Today is day 305 of my mission. Yesterday 304, tomorrow Lord willing will be 306. Now that I have the math out of the way allow me to entertain myself, and you, with why the number 305 is bouncing around my head like my niece bounced around my family room this past weekend.

How often does 305 pop up? OH it does at times when channel-surfing the TV, or when the amount to be paid is $3.05, or when a crash in the race I'm watching occurs on lap 305; the number really does pop up more often that one would expect. Whenever I see the number 305, my mind instantly reminds me that my 3rd grade classroom number was 305. I cannot tell you what my 2nd grade, or fourth grade classroom numbers were, or any other grades room number.

What happened in room 305 that burned that number into my memory so?

Dumplings. Anytime I see Chicken & Dumplings on a menu, on a buffet, or served at a dinner party; where ever it may be I almost always pass up on it. I know there is no way, NONE, they could be better than the dumplings my Great Grandma Bella used to make. When I hear the word dumpling, I think immediately of her. I'm sure she'd appreciate knowing that is how I remember her best.

We're her dumplings really that amazing that passing all other dumpling opportunities is justified?

Pencils, you may recall for Hanukkah I shared this story of my encounter with Sheldon Reese with you. To this day when I see a freshly sharpened pencil, or hear a pencil sharpener doing its thing; I instantly am reminded of Sheldon and look upon anyone armed with a pencil with a cautionary glare.

I have other memory triggers which I find odd. But those are enough to give you sense of how my mind looks backwards as well as forwards. We do need to leverage our past experiences, our memories, to help us forge better results ahead. But for the life of me I cannot figure out how 305, Dumplings & Sheldon popping in my head as they do does much for forging anything more than a smile and occasional chuckle.

Got Odd Memories?

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!!

Day 172 - Experience This Jack

As a kid I didn't receive allot of nutritional guidance. Sure I received some but I didn't shape any life long beliefs or habits. Scratch that, I developed a belief in butter cookies & a habit for eating them a package at a time.

As a teenager, well; let's keep those years out of this.

As a young adult I was the benefactor of a youthful engine and an active lifestyle. Even though I ate horrifically I was fit. For much of my 20's the fat cells awaiting their debut lay dormant.

When I got married (1st time), took a corporate desk flying job, hit my 30's, and gave up my active pursuits for the couch & increased time with my face glued to electronic screens (curse you AOL!); when I chose those changes I traded my health & sex drive for obesity & drive thru. Those fat cells erupted around my belly, under my chin, and filled those chick repellents called moobs.

Why, why did I become obese? Simple. I didn't know what I needed to know when young. I blame nobody but myself; the lessons of healthier ways were all around me. If only I had chose to realized them.

Now in my mid-40's I am wiser thanks to time and it's gift of hind-sight. Upon realization we have experience, or dare I say wisdom, mid-lifer's like me tear this gift open like toddlers on Christmas morning. And we should, for inside is the means to forge healthy lives.

So what wisdom do I have? Well Jack asked me to share just that recently & I obliged. My thoughts on "What I wish I knew at 25 that I know now" and the thoughts of a handful of other 'experienced' soles can be read HERE.

Enjoy those pearls Jack so graciously threaded for us. If by chance you haven't already done so there, let me ask you your thoughts here; What do YOU wish YOU knew at 25 that YOU know now?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!