Day 386 - 387: Sister, Mothers & Gas

Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend and especially their Mothers Day celebrations. My wife & I got away on Saturday to continue the celebration of her birthday and start the Mothers Day festivities. We took off to our backyard play ground, Wisconsin. The Wollersheim Winery was the destination (pictured above). There we picked up a case of wine as we do each trip. We also picked up the gifts for our mothers there, ceramic wine chillers. Of course we couldn't give the moms just wine chillers without a bottle of wine in each.

On the way up there we gassed up in Milwaukee, here is the price of gas (cheap stuff) there...

 Cheapest we've seen around home it in well over a month, so we gassed up there on the way up & back.

We stayed in Pweaukee (a burb of Milwaukee) Saturday night. There we dined at Thunder Bay Grille which has been a favorite of ours for a decade. All of us who are serious about making a better life for ourselves embrace change. Change is good, change is needed if we want to see a better result from our efforts. And a different result from the recent changes in menu and style is what I believe Thunder Bay Grille will see. And not for the better. Seriously, we were disappointed. This rustic northwoods centric restaurant went modern in a bad way. It used to stand apart from its competition, now it reflects at least a dozen other places in the Milwaukee area. Oh well, we had a good decade, best of luck to them.

After dinner we went out to Champps to watch the Nascar race and NBA playoff games while knocking back a couple of beers and just hanging out. Along the way we felt the need to fill in the corners left from our dinner experience. To do that we ordered a hot pretzel from the apps menu. I was expecting a pretzel like you'd get at the ball game, but to my surprise and horror this is what we got...

 Not healthy, not one bit. But it was good I must admit. And so was our time together eating this, drinking Leinenkugel's and Spotted Cow, excellent day with my wife!

Back home on Sunday we took in a soccer game for our sophomore, they lost 0-6; way to go winning one for Mom guys. And then off to meet our Mom's for dinner at Bonefish Grill which never disappoints; lets hope they don't embrace too much change.

Dinner was in Schaumburg, IL which is a Chicago suburb. On the way there I snapped this picture of the typical gas price there...

Ugly ugly ugly that gas marquee is. Way too ugly to just end this post on such a downer note. So let me move to a final bit of positive news to share.

This past Saturday my sister walked the stage at Olivet Nazarene University with her Masters of Arts in Teaching. How cool is that!

Congrats Kim & best of luck in that your search to secure a full time teaching position will be a short one.

OK, that is how I spent my weekend, how did you spend yours?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 295 - Fit For Me & Familiy

Yesterday was a day of rest where my exercise is concerned. And much needed too. The soreness from the weeks workouts and snow removal needed the day to ease some.

Today is a new day and exercise was on the schedule. And that we did first thing today. Yes, I said we... My wife, two of my sons & I headed off to the YMCA first thing to get busy. My wife joined the Y last year so that she could swim. She was a swimmer in high-school & college so swimming is her exercise of choice.

Recently we expanded her membership to a family membership so that I can go with her and use some of the equipment there I do not have in my basement and never will. That and she suggested we do so as she'd be more apt to go and swim if I went to the Y too. So how could I say No to that?

Here are a few pictures of the boys & I getting busy. Nope, no pictures of my wife in the pool. But up top there I do have one of her pitching in to remove the snow the snow plows pushed back in our driveway over night...

Cameron getting to know the fun that is SQUATS

Andrew working through a set of LAT PULLDOWNS

I've had core on the mind allot lately and so making use of this INCLINE SITUP bench was a must.

Don't be too impressed, it is inclined just one notch above horizontal to the floor.

Cameron found the CROSS CABLE FLYS a challenge

We finished with some BACK-TO-BACK MEDICINE BALL TWISTS w/ a 12 pound ball.

Since there were three of us we rotated someone in/out on each 12 count.

In the end we each had participated in three sets of 24.

 

We had a BLAST.

 

What are you going to do this weekend to have a BLAST of your own!

 

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 67 - Peeved & Doomed

Not long ago I had lunch with a friend who was in a good mood when we sat down but quickly became irritated and foul. I took notice at how such a little thing got under his skin so quick, and in such a way that it ruined his meal if not for the balance of his day.

What set him off? The restaurant menu. He had a taste for a specific dish that wasn't on their menu. It was a simple if not common dish, grilled chicken with a sweet mango style salsa. There were other chicken dishes on the menu, some good ones too in my eyes. But he wasn't in the mood for substitution. Even when the waitress suggested another salsa they had on hand to go with a grilled chicken breast he would not budge on his dissatisfaction to their not having what he wanted. Yikes!

He ended up ordering a double bacon cheese burger. I've known him for a while so I had no reservations in asking him what on earth he was doing. He had just given the waitress a hard time over a menu whose content she had nothing to do with, and rebuffed her attempts to accommodate callously. So why the burger which couldn't be further away from his desire than Winnipeg is to Miami? His reply... "If I can't have what I want then I may as well just have what I shouldn't have!"

With great reservation I chose not to engage the debate that really should have taken place. This was my lunch time too and I didn't want to spend it in any more stress than he had already served up . So I let it go and we proceeded to get through lunch chit chatting about hockey, politics and other topics we usually enjoy. Oh, well I must say I did get one minor jab in. He ordered first, and after all he put this dear waitress through to then order a burger, well I took her up on her modified chicken with alternative salsa recommendation.

So where am I going with this? Peeves, do we use them as reasons to do damage?

We all have Pet Peeves, and I am sure at times we all have let them ruin our day. We are human, it happens, it will happen again. But, we ought to take stock here about what our reactions to them impact. If I had been in his shoes and had chosen as he did I would have ruined a day or two of healthy eating and exercise. When we the obese who are working hard to get healthy find ourselves in frustrated situations we must be conscious that the old obese mindset inside of us usually did react to frustration with such spiteful indulgence. This behavior of bad choice only fed our addictions and added to our size.

Hey, I am no psych major, what I say here seems to be common sense born from observation and experience. While knowledge and common sense are great, they are only beneficial if applied to good sense and action. So my friends, get frustrated, get angry if you must, it is Ok. But what is not Ok is choosing to act in a manner that will do harm, set you back, or awaken the old obese mindset within. We're better than that, we deserve to be better to ourselves, and we should never pass up on good salsa when offered it.


Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 52 - You Are What You Portion

What is in a portion size? Everything quite simply. Every calorie you choose is in that portion, whether it be a little or a lot. Portion little, you will be littler than the person who portions larger. Generally speaking that is without due comparison to activity levels, etc.

Being large, I've been there and still am to be honest. Just not as large as 52 days ago. Going large at every opportunity, that was me. Large steaks, large ice cream sundaes, large tubs or movie pop corn. Portioning large was my way of life. Go large I did, all the way to a 320 pound body.

Finally I seem to have this portioning thing figured out. Engaging in a bit of simple 'than & now' comparison really drives this learning in for me.

A 20 ounce steak, or 2 thick cut pork chops, or 3 bratwursts; that was how I used to portion meat. A healthy serving of meat is 2 - 3 ounces or some say visualize a deck of cards.

A 4 egg omelet or 4 fried eggs; that was how I used to portion eggs. A healthy serving of eggs is half that, two. You can visualize two eggs I hope :-)

Italian restaurants, so much to gobble up there while waiting for the entree to arrive. Especially Bread! Easily 4 - 6 bread sticks, or half of the loaf in that basket is what I would draw through a saucer of oil & parm; that was how I used to portion bread. A healthy serving of bread is a single slice of the typical white, or better yet a whole grain bread. Look at one slice, and move on.

Chinese or Japanese restaurants, they are so much fun especially in buffet form. Rice used to land on my plate in 2 - 3 cup servings and I'd have 2 - 3 servings in a sitting; that was how I used to portion rice. A healthy serving of rice one-half of one cup or some say visualize a golf ball. Fore!

Oh I shouldn't ignore fruit & veggies in my reflection here should I? Fill up my 20 ounce glass to the rim with orange juice please, or give me any amount of veggies as long as it is covered in a cup of cheese sauce; that was how I used to portion fruit & veggies. A healthy serving of fruit or vegetables is one piece of whatever you are having, without the cheese sauce tsunami. Ok, eating a whole pumpkin (considered one piece) is way more than 1 serving. A healthy serving of juice is 6 ounces, that is six shots of OJ for my fellow whisky drinkers.

Folks, I got large because I ate large. Me, I did it, nobody else, sad as it is to confess. But the good news is that today, from now on I potion to be healthy and I do feel this is making a difference. I so look forward to experiencing the difference of being truly healthy.

Make sense? Do you see portion discipline as an important factor in the state of your health?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!

Day 21 - Hello Weekend

So who has plans for an awesome weekend? Certainly Mother's Day will see most have plans of some sort with family. Myself, Sunday is just a day at home as there are kids sports activities planned. Beyond lavishing my wife with some gifts Sunday will be fairly routine. Recall we celebrated our Mother's Day with a brunch last weekend for all the moms and grandmas; so glad no buffets this weekend.

Today I get my wife all to myself so we're going on a date. Dinner will be included, Cooper's Hawk, so there will be a bit of temptation to survive. But I am trying a technique I read somewhere he on blogger; go online and preview the menu before you go and decide on a healthy option to order. The idea is doing so lessens chances you will give into temptation's best shot at beating you, when you are at the table looking over the menu on a hungry gut surveying all of the many non-healthy options seducing you. Having look at the menu this morning I am going to order the Pistachio Crusted Grouper. Now I must admit, these technique does seem a bit rigid and may take a hint of fun out of dining out. While I have decided to try this I will listen to the specials the wait staff has to offer and compare them against my choice and then make the final decision. We'll see how it goes tonight.

What about exercise, who has exercise planned this weekend? Myself, I'll be working through a home-gym weight-workout today; actually soon after posting this. The past couple of days I have got in my cardio so not planning any today. Thursday I did a 2.2 mile / 41.5 minute walk and Friday I did 45 minutes on the elliptical. Sunday I might get some cardio in; I only say might as it is supposed to be a windy, cold, wet weekend here and I'd like to get outside for that cardio if I can. Where I'd really like to go for a walk is back to the forest preserve I walked in this past Thursday evening. This is a place nearby which I had never been to before. It was far larger than I expected and excellent for walks and runs of distances of a mile or two to five plus if you wish to make it one lap around this place. Weather permitting we will do so. Hmmm, I think you can call that a Non-Scale Victory; perhaps it's more of a discovery. However had I not decided to go on this mission I would likely have never gone to that preserve and discovered how cool it is. Yeah, I think I chalk it up as a NSV. No?

Sunday is weigh in day for me. Not expecting to have a let down today so I am hopeful to report a nice loss tomorrow. I'll be happy with anything at least 1.5 pounds less than last Sunday. That's my goal, 1.5 pounds a week minimum.

Have fun with your plans, your exercise, your day today!

Responsibility 199... Gotta Do It!!