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 410 - Have I Bored U Yet?

Welcome to Wednesday, Welcome to June; yes it is June already!

I'll resume the 14 part series on Leadership Traits soon. I never intended to present it 14 days in a row but to break it up over several weeks. Remember I have BADD, Bloggers Attention Deficit Disorder ADD, so I tend to jump topics from day to day without much rhyme or reason at times.

Actually I am way short on time this morning. We are moving within the office here. We do this every 12-18 months, shift everyone around to a different location within the corporate campus. Today is that day, today I am moving 14 columns to the north and 7 rows to the east. Our buildings are laid out like spreadsheets and cubical locations addressed similar to how a cell in a spreadsheet is addressed. Have I bored you yet? Have I scared you away from wanting to work here?

Anyhow, as I am short on time, let me share some recent photos of my days...
Up to there, my son's t-shirt he wore to the YMCA last week; hilarious.

And here Andrew is at the gym getting his curl on...

Ashley waiting for her cheesecake to arrive; we were at the Cheesecake Factory, what else would one wait for there?...

Cameron cleaning his rifle, notice the cat on the chair next to him? No animals,or cats, were hurt in publishing this post...

The family photo for Ashley's graduation; nice to see the boys dressed up for the occasion...

Me at the YMCA last week, taking a breather between sets I think...

My wife and Squishy after graduation; she has not let her go since...

Ribs going into the smoker on Memorial Day; they were my best yet!

Enjoy Your Wednesday!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 404 - Leadership 199 / Trait 8 of 14: Integrity

Lived the words I've been sharing yesterday. Took initiative to make yesterday a great day and accomplished that. Early in the day I informed my son to be dressed to go to the YMCA after school, I picked him up and there we went. We decided to kick up the intensity a notch, something I could tell he wasn't sure of. Heck I was apprehensive too, but I knew I could leverage the power of my courage to get it done. In the end we endured a 60 minute session in the free weight room and then polished off the workout with 2 miles of walk/jog combo on the treadmill. Yesterday was an Oh Yeah day!

Onward we carry ourselves into a new day. With us we carry the lessons we've learned which we can revisit at will via these links...
Leadership 199 / Trait 7 of 14: Initiative
Leadership 199 / Trait 6 of 14: Enthusiasm
Leadership 199 / Trait 5 of 14: Endurance
Leadership 199 / Trait 4 of 14: Decisiveness
Leadership 199 / Trait 3 of 14: Courage
Leadership 199 / Trait 2 of 14: Bearing
Leadership 199 / Trait 1 of 14: Dependability

We're halfway through this series, which means we have lots of learning to do yet. Therefore, let us plunge into the power of our eighth trait…

Leadership 199 / Trait 8 of 14: Integrity

Defined: Uprightness of character and soundness of moral principles; includes the qualities of truthfulness and honesty.

Discovered: Let us start in on understanding this trait by visiting this definition backwards. Honesty, is something I will go out on a limb and proclaim that everyone acknowledges that honesty is a trait any leader must possess. No? I agree with my proclamation, I have to else I've been dishonest here; yet while I agree I will tell you now that honesty is not one of the 14 leadership traits.

What? How can that be you say? Look back up at the list above of the traits we've discussed thus far. Take a moment, I'll be right here when you scroll back down... I know, if only scrolling burned measurable calories. OK, having revisited those traits let us ask ourselves this question; Can any of those traits be successfully put into practice if we are not first honest with ourselves in choosing to lead with them?

Leadership is not something we can take on half-hearted. "Do or do not... there is no try", as Master Yoda would say. In short, if we are not honest in our endeavors, either with ourselves or with others, we will not succeed at them in the end.

Living with integrity is certainly dependent upon be honest. But integrity is not just about being honest.

Character, you don't have to know a person for very long to know whether there character is righteous or otherwise. Righteous meaning to be committed to doing what they believe to be right, right by themselves and others.  It is one thing to want what is right, another to do what is right. If our character is to do what is right, we are leading with integrity.

Morals, ah discussion/debate on morality sure can be a sticky-wicket. So lets limit our thought here to what it is about our morals that is essential to leading ourselves to success. To decide what we want to succeed at we first have to know what we want or who we want to be. Or more specifically, how do we want to live? If we can answer that question and come away with an answer gives us a clear picture of how we want to look and why, how we want to conduct yourself and why; we then know where our morals should be set to lead with integrity and succeed.

Da-Point: If we are honest, if we believe our mission to be right and are willing stand up for it's purpose; then we are leading with integrity.

When did you last take time to truly know your character, your moral code?

 
Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 400-401: Hock-A-Post



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 Time is so short this morning that I am going to have to hock up a quick post and put it out there. Hope it sticks and is worth your time today...

Great workout on Saturday. Hit the YMCA, mangled the weight room, tortured the elliptical. And I hit the assisted-chin/dip machine. Man that machine wore me out. Which is just why I am going back for more tonight.

School, this the final week of high school for 3 of our 4 high school'ers. This coming Saturday the Senior graduates; just less than three months and she is off to college. A year'ish from now our Junior graduates..., two from now the Sophomore..., three from now the Freshman. Five from now were are flat broke and selling plasma so we can eat off of the dollar menu.

Nachos, I can safely report that I ate no nachos this weekend. Although we do have a cat named Nacho, and I did pet him, so call me guilty!

Saw a snipet of a tv show this weekend where the menu included chocolate covered bacon, If ever I was to get married again it would be to a piece of chocolate covered bacon.

If I could read your mind, what would I be reading right now?

My wife got herself a heck of a sunburn yesterday while we were watching our son play soccer. And he lost 6-1, doesn't seem right mom goes out there, gets burned while watching his team get burned. Should be a sunburn back guarantee with the price of admission.

My stomach just growled, I am ignoring it. Probably just my heart moving stuff around for the additional fortitude I'll be moving in. Ah, growled again; better hurry up and get that fortitude!

I followed many tweets about FitBloggin'11 which took place this past weekend. Sounds like a great time, need to give that consideration for next year. That link there goes to the sites page of links to posts from those who attended and reviewed their experience. Some great reading there.

Ok, that is what I have to share today.

What about you, what can you hock-up and share with me from your weekend?

I'll resume the leadership traits tomorrow...

Have a Great Monday!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 378-380: Reveille Weekend Success

Great News, I received the OK to return to full activity from all surgeons, doctors and even my guardian Eeyore gave his OK. Excellent, no time to waste!...

With the weekend here I got busy getting the heart rate and sweat pumping once again. So Saturday morning my wife, one son & I headed off to the YMCA. My wife got her workout on in the swimming pool as usual; a fish she is. Andrew & I hit the weights, above you see him working the lat-pulldowns which seemed like a fine machine to get started on.

Below is the rest of our routine that day...

Rowing

 Iso-Pulldowns

 Assisted Pull Ups

 Calf Press

 Tricep Presses

 Leg Press

 Horizontal Chest Press

 Incline Sit Ups

It felt great to get back in the gym. There were a few other exercises we did which I forgot to take photos of, e.g.squats, flys; we got in good variety in the hour we were there.

Sore, sore was the word of the day for the rest of my weekend. Amazing how muscle-memory works, it was like I hadn't skipped much of a beat. I felt a bit awkward on some of the exercises, felt a tad weak on triceps; but otherwise I was owning the steel.

Sore or not on Sunday, it was time to get in some more. I was determine to make this my Reveille Weekend and awaken from the stagnant slumber that I had been in for too long. Sunday, cardio! My wife was not feeling good so she didn't join as as she wanted to. Andrew & I got after it at the Rollins Savannah...

Last year I put in some great efforts here and put up a streak of personal records here as well. My best time last year on this 3.6 mile loop was 54:49 minutes. We set out with the idea of getting as close to it as possible. No way was achieving that time going to happen this day; No Way! I hadn't put in any consistent cardio in April, I still haven't shed that 10 pound regain from the winter, and my sore muscles weren't feeling extraordinary effort within them.

Never Say Never!

We smashed that PR in a big way.

I came in at 52:04 minutes...

Andrew at 51:35 minutes.

I feel an Oh Yeah!

Did you feel any Oh Yeah's this weekend/recently?

Final thought: We have Never Forgot 9/11 and those murdered, maimed and devastated. The news of OBL's termination is reason for pride swell and affirmation in our determination for justice; but it is not reason to now forget. The cause continues, sadly in the throws of war. Never Forget means just that; NEVER FORGET!

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 353 - Bring On The Needles!

Some good news on the cancer battlefield... The MRI on my knee showed NO metastatic cancer there; whew! Above is one of the 180+ images of my knee, I have no idea of know what I'm looking at there is good or not, and don't care as long as I'm told it is sans cancer.

We engage the enemy next on Thursday for a blood test to determine if there are any indicators that the melanoma has spread beyond skin or lymph nodes. Bring on the needles!

Exercise, lets talk exercise... I took two of the boys to the YMCA Sunday to get some sweat'n on...
Needed a warm up since I pulled them out of bed to join me, so we started with a mile on the elliptical:

I think they were hoping this was all we were going to do.

I dig the rowing station so it was our next stop:

Andrew working as fast as he can, like he has somewhere else to be.

Then it trying to get the boys more involved in the workout I let them pick what we did next...

Andrew picked incline sit ups:

Yep, there I am gett'n my 2d set in. I am enjoying myself; can't you tell?

Cameron then picked cross over flys:

Here he demonstrates, "Form" is his middle name.

Next I chose this 'thing' since it was available & I had never done it, need to try new stuff:

Andrew is seen here doing what I called Tri-Shoul-Back Press Downs, as it ravaged those three areas so.

Andrew took us next to the Overhead ISO Pull Down station:

and then he snapped this pic of me; this is a cool exercise.

Cameron got last choose and chose Squats, yes, Squats:

I was taught to squat early in a routine - Rebel!

That was enough, I was wiped, they were anything but wanting more. Not a routine you'd find a trainer advise perhaps, but on this day it was our routine.

Have you pulled the family out of bed lately to join you get some sweat'n on?

 

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 303 - Mixed Bag Day

Mixed Bag Day Today...

Got up early, headed off to the YMCA and got the exercise in. About an hour on the weights, and then 2 miles on the elliptical.

Some chill time now back at home. Currently watching The Day: Remembering Dale Earnhardt, while scratching out this post. NASCAR is a favorite of mine and so happy to see the new season about to kick off with the Daytona 500 next weekend. 

Going to get some lunch in a few minutes, then head out for some boring errands. I hate errands. Waste of quality life time. But they gotta get done. Or do I?

This evening my wife & I will go out for dinner for Valentines day. We've been meaning to try out Tramonto Steak and Seafood for years and tonight will be the night. We'll wait until tomorrow to exchange Valentine's Day gifts. Wife is going to love what I got her, will try and remember to blog a note about it later this week.


So there you have it, my Sunday laid out. Simple, Productive, Fun, Sunday!

What does Sunday hold for you?

 

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 298 - Breathe, Breathe I Say

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Excellent excellent excellent responses to yesterdays fill in the blank post.
Some serious, e.g. M/W/F 40 MINUTE ELLIPTICAL WORKOUTS...
Some hilarious, e.g. challenge myself to try trapping cupids until leprechauns become available...
Some odd, e.g. when I stumble from plan I will immediately poke myself with one of those toothpicks...
Some creative, e.g. take the odd sock & make show booties for my dog out of it...
All just excellent!

Myself, I never did fill in the blanks myself. Let me do that now...
This week my eating plan contains a F/C/P nutrient mix of 25% / 25% / 50% with no more than 2000 calories a day.
This week I will take a box of toothpicks and dump them in the desk drawer of my cubical neighbor; he has been getting on my nerves.
This week my exercise will consist of 3x Cardio, 3x Weights & Stretching with each of those six.
This week when I stumble from plan I will go to Lose It and figure out why, and if I can't  I will borrow one of Julie's toothpicks and poke myself.
This week I will take that odd-sock from the laundry and send it to MandaPanda so she can make a whole family of sock puppets (all of you should send her your odd socks too).
This week I will challenge myself to balance my ME time with my FAMILY time & BLOG time; not always so easy.
This week I imagine myself punching the snot out of that dude that farted in front of me while climbing the stairs. Seriously man, back off the broccoli bean casserole and tighten that sphincter! 

If you didn't get in on the fun that was yesterdays fill in the blanks post by all means do so now, good fun and also meant to be a nudge to plan your weeks success out.

So, the title of this post is breathe something or other, why, because I thought you might want to hear me breathe heavy. Focus, don't let your minds stray towards unsavory thoughts, just listen...



So why did I share this? An acceptable answer is 'because I have a screw loose'. But as well I have been told I breathe too heavy when I work out. Really, can you breathe too heavy? Those wight lifting veterans out there please do let me know if I need to dial down the force of the hurricane that is my breathing.

Have fun today & remember to Breathe!  

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 285 - Oops, I Did It Again...

So sorry for any of you that came here looking for some Britney Spears love. If you want that go HERE.

Recall last week I brought you this peek into my workout.

So, I was on a roll this past Monday and had another such moment and shot this for you...


Now was that not the best 79 minutes of entertainment no money could buy or what?

Hit me up with any chuckles, comments on form, the music in the background that I didn't realize would come over so loud, or referrals to a basement remodeler.

Yesterday was cardio day, me and the elliptical got busy!

Today is a day of rest, whew.

Food this week has been good

A few have asked, my next weigh-in is this coming Sunday; first in 3-weeks hopeful for great numbers.

How is your week going?

Responsibility 199 - Gotta Do It!!

Day 277 - Who Knows Why I Did...

First, many know Dawn, some may not. Dawn has just underwent surgery to lift / re-do herself after losing 200 pounds in recent years. Her long anticipated journey to this day has arrived and last word received is she is back in her room and presumably fine. Hit her up with a kind word in your travels through the blogs today.

In search for an old photo of me I randomly went to a year in out digital library, chose 2004. I found this beauty of me receiving an early Christmas gift. Wow, that is one big dude there. Somewhere in the 320's I am guessing. Ugh, Double Ugh!

Yesterday I came home a tad early to beat winter traffic during a sleet & snow downfall. Not a storm, just a steady all day drone of the stuff; enough to double my usual 40 minute commute.

So being home early what do I do? Well I workout of course. Did cardio the past two days, thus today is weight training day. So I changed from my business casual garb & jumped into a mix-match of sweat pants & a tshirt and head into the basement.

A good 15 minutes of stretching and then a round of core specific exercises I do from time to time; meaning I am not as consistent with core exercises as I ought to be. From there on to the upper body workout. Not 10 minutes goes by and I get bored. Oh the workout was going fine, I just had a wandering mind. Probably because I was alone in the basement minus a cat chasing who knows what over yonder.

My anti-boredom solution? Who knows why I did this but I grabbed my iTouch & made a video...

Ok if you watched that perhaps you have validation as to my boredom. When the idea to do this hit me I had ideas of making a few more. But after viewing this take I figured not a good idea; how exciting is watching someone bench press? Instead of deleting it as my intuition suggested, I am not one to keep a chuckle to myself, hope you enjoyed.

Couple of clarifications from the video...

• In it I said I had 45 plates on to get started, I did have 45s on but it wasn't my first set; this was my 3rd. I meant get 'started' on the video.
• The bright light, it is what it is; a light bulb. Hope it wasn't too annoying.
• This was actually the 2nd take of this video, the first was about 11 seconds long. That's when I remembered the shirt I was wearing. I turned it inside out for take-two; it is a very politically-sharp shirt and I really don't like to mix my politics in with this blog.
• I pointed out the "Fitness Warrior" towel I have hastily hung on the background for motivation; if you aren't familiar with Bobbie's goods check her out.
• Finally, I really chose not to make another video because messing around with setting if up was interrupting my workout too much. Oh I'll fiddle with it again someday just for fun, maybe you can watch me do sit ups soon!

 What do you do when in the middle of a workout and boredom hits?

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 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!!