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!!