Weight loss update

Last weigh in for the month of September came and went yesterday. I was glad to have lost 1.2 lbs from last week but upset at myself for being up .4 from the beginning of the month. Definately not the way I was hoping the month would end. I had hoped to be somewere around 182-183 lbs by this time. As it stands im sitting at 187.0. There is a positive side though. At one point this month I was back up to 189.2 so it could always be worse.

I did manage to finish off the month with the trips to the Y at least 3-4 times a week the last two weeks of the month. Im starting to see some results as I have a bit of definition in my arms and my legs. Plus I dont have DOMS after every visit to the gym thankfully.

I have to put some thought into my goals for October and ill be posting those tomorrow

RandomCam

Been a few weeks since we had a RandomCam entry. Took this Saturday morning up at Shadow Rim camp.

Shiver

Our beloved Siberian Husky Shiver, who we adoted at the age of 2, had to be put to sleep tonight. We came home from Tyler's t-ball practice Wednesday night and I immediatley noticed SHiver was noticeably draggin her right rear foot. I no sooner noticed that, and the next thing I know she's crashing into furniture and the walls. Something was definatley wrong. Then she started falling over and when she was donw, couldnt get back up off the ground. She has had slightly similar episodes like this befroe but not quite this bad. We decided to see how she was today before we made a decision. Debbie got home before I did and saw no improvement with her. So she called Shiver's normal vet, they werent able to see her, Shiver's prior vet's office was closed. So once I got home I wound up taking her the Emergency Animal Clinic. There upon carrying her into the waiting room, she was taken back into the exam room. I was watching a bit of Survivor on the tv when I was brought into a separate exam room. Huh? Shortly thereafter Dr Landry came in an gave me the news. Shiver had developed neurological deficits and was having heart issues. There really werent many options. I was told there were no gaurantees and even if Shiver got over the neurological deficits, her suddenly developed heart condition could possibly be the death of her. After calling and talking to Debbie we decided to have Shiver euthanized.



I was with her when she was put to sleep. It was a very peaceful for her but still very very sad. Once again that overly sensitive side came out in me and I cried my eyes out. I know in my heart I made the right decision. Shiver was almost 13 years old, lived a full life and I didnt want to have her suffeirng and/or pass away at home. Been there done that with Nanook, our original husky.



When it rains it pours around this place. While I was at the animal hospital with SHiver, Debbie found one of our parakeets dead in the bottom of the birdcage. Pretty amazing how in the span of a few hours, we lost half of our family pets.



We havent discussed getting another dog. As little as we our home, it doesnt really seem fair to have a dog at this point. But then again Debbie and I have always had dogs in our life so who knows, maybe down the road, we might get another.

Here's a picture of our beloved Shiver from a couple of years ago

Somethings I just dont get

Debbie and I were watching a program on tv last night ( think it was on Discovery Health or something ) about a paralyzed lady who gave birth to a little boy. Now the lady wasnt a quadraplegic but she did have limited ues of her upper extremities. My question is, why would somebody in that position want to have a child? If you are dependent on others ( her husband, caretakers ) to take care of you a good part of the time, why have a child? Now I grant you this woman can love her son with all of her heart, but she cant feed him, change diapers, hold him etc. I just dont get it.

Maybe its just me and maybe I need to expand my horizons or think outside of the box, feel free to chime in on this.

Thanks for reading!

Score!!

After many weeks of trying, I finally scored a Wii Fit. Went over to Best Buy at break, and waited for the store to open. I was the third customer in. I asked the girl at the front if they had an Fits left, she had another girl go and check, sure enough at least one in stock. Ill take it.

This is the first Wii game I got excited about. Something Debbie and I can do to improve our fitness as its hard at times to get to the gym ( for Deb anyways ) Heck between that bitchin' new Reebok treadmill, the Wii Fit and the new stability ball I bought yesterday, we should be set.

Cant wait to try it out when we get home.

The Start

Well Its been almost 48 hours since Ive had a Coke or Pepsi. I had thought about getting a Coke yesterday morning as I didnt want the last soda I drank to be the Pepsi I had at dinner Thursday night. But I didnt give in to temptation. Ive had a headache this afternoon but not sure if its from the lack of caffeine, my disc or a migraine. I took two 500mg of Tylenol and it seems to be helping. Im hoping I can finally kick the Coke habit. It sure would help on the wight loss.

T Minus 3 Months And Counting

As the calendar to my right tells me, today is September 18th, three months till my 37th birthday and my goal of losing 30 lbs this year.

I hopped on the scale this a.m to see exactly were I am at weight wise thus determining how far I have to go. First I want to say Kris was right. My weigh in Monday was just one moment in time. I got on the scale today and had dropped 1 lb from Monday, so maybe it was just hig sodium foods and good beer last week. Im currently at 188 lbs, down 16 lbs from January 1st. 14 more lbs to go, so slightly over 4 lbs a month for the next 3 months. Ive lost more than that in the past.

This week was the first week were I met my September goal of hitting the Y at least 3-4 times a week. I feel pretty good though about it. Im even begining to notice some definition in places that I didnt before. Maybe I should take some pics now and then maybe 6 months from now to see how much ( if any ) difference there is.

Oh, today I am quitting soda ( again ). Like many folks have told me, the weight will drop off even faster once I quit drinking Coke and Pepsi.

Wish me luck and thanks for reading!

That was teh suck

I didnt want to write this entry. Then I thought with the good comes the bad. I got on the scale this a.m. and about shit when I saw the readout. I let it run it's course and then tried it again. Same thing. In one week's time I managed to gain 2.5 lbs! How in the hell did I manage that. Its not like I sat down and ate a quart of Ben and Jerrys, chugged a keg of beer and and downed 15 cheeseburgers, wtf? I guess I just made enough poor eating and drinking decisions last week that I gained a bunch of weight back. Damn it! Although I must say the 6 pack of beer over the week tasted good =)

I guess I just needed a reality check and that I need to refocus on the goal at hand and that is to lose 3-4 lbs in the remaining days of this month. It can be done, I just nned to get it done.

Wish me luck!

Random Observation

As I was driving today to get my hair cut, I couldnt help but notice the signs in the ( ever present ) road construction areas. The warned the operator of tractors of the danger of overhead power lines. They listed the voltage of each of the power lines. I thought to myself, why does it matter if its 7500 volts or 10,000, either way you are going to get smoked if you make contact with those lines or at the least get seriously hurt and or burnt. Not sure what to think about that.

I had some others but between fatigue and this good beer, they seemed to have slipped my mind =)

Patriot Day

Its hard to believe its been 7 years since the 9/11 attacks. Time flies wether you are having fun or not. Sarah was just 6 months old at the time of the attacks and she's now a month into 2nd grade. Wow!

While I dont recall any of the prior day's activities I do remember very clearly how I found out about the attacks.

My mother is a flight attendant for Southwest Airlines and was one at the time of the attacks. I was working 4 to midnight at the time and caring for Sarah during the day. Due to the time difference between the east coast and AZ the attacks were very early in the morning for us. The phone woke me up at around 630 that morning. My mother informed me that she was safe and on the ground. I said to her "that's nice, did you have to call me, wake me up, and tell me that?" She had never once called me in the prior 3 years to tell me she was on the ground. She asked me if I had any idea what had happened that morning. I told her no. that I was sleeping. It was then that she told me that we had been bombed. She was lucky, she was halfway between Oklahoma City and Phoenix when all aircraft were grounded. The FAA allowed her plane to continue on to Phoenix as there wasnt anywere nearby the plane couldve landed safely.

So I like so many millions of people jumped out of bed and stayed glued to the tv for minutes, hours, days it seemed like. I can remember looking at Sarah bouncing in her little bouncer oblivious to everything, tears welling up in my eyes wondering what kind of world I brought her into.

Obviously many things have changed since that Tuesday morning. Some good, some bad. It was so strange going to NYC after the attacks and not seeing the towers in the Manhattan skyline anymore. Im just thankful that there havent been anymore attacks on US soil and that we have the brave men and women of our armed forces protecting our way of life. God bless the soliders, law enforcement and firefighters!

Ok, the next entry will be more upbeat. Its not like im down in the dumps, just seemed like the thign to write about.

Kids Say the Darndest Things

Obviously we were all kids once ( actualy most days I refuse to grow up ) and we said things in that were humdingers im sure. I have 6 nieces and nephews by marriage and blood and Ive heard some good ones out of them. My two kids are no exception.

Ill be the first to admit for a guy Im pretty sensitive. Sarah said something that hurt. Most guys wouldve blown it off and I shouldve too. But I didnt. She was mad at me about something this mornign while she as the dining room table. She turned to me and said "I didnt choose you to be my daddy" I repsonded to her " she didnt have a choice" Ive heard out of her before "your mean", "your dumb" and even an "I hate you" every once in a while. Kinda harsh out of a 7 year old but shes says what she feels at the time.

This time though her comment hurt. I dont know what it was but it stuck. It bothered me the rest of the time at home and while we were driving this morning. Obviously here it is 3 hours later and its still on my mind. It doesnt sting like it did before thankfully. Ill get over it. Im sure there will be another time or two ( or lots ) down the road and they might hurt to. Im just not looking foward to it.

Sorry for downer post Ill have something more cheerful next time

Weight Loss update

Yet another Monday weigh in has come and gone. In all reality I probalby wouldve either maintained or gained a bit had I not got sick Sunday. The scale showed a loss of .2

I REALLY need to work on quitting Coke. I think I am at a plateau with my weight loss and without dropping the soda and getting more exercise in, I might be stuck at were im at. Which isnt completley a bad thing, its just not were I want to be.

So what are the things I need to focus on the remainder of the week. Less soda first off. Getting back to 6-8 servings of water a day. More fruits and veggies.

We shall see what happens...

Spider-Man, Spider-Man does whatever a spider can

Fort hose that didnt know, Marvel Comics's Spider-Man is my all time favorite superhero. This weekend at Girl Scout Camp Shadow Rim Ranch, I got to pretend I was Spider-Man for a short time.

Whats the reason you might ask?

Debbie is the Girl Scout Leader for Sarah's Girl Scout Troop. Severl weeks ago Debbie was asked if she would be interested in becoming certified to oversee and instruct girls at Shadow Rim Ranch on their rock climibing wall. She said sure and then proceeded to ask me if Id be interested in signing up to be a volunteer, I said sure what the heck.

So this past Saturday morning we made the 2 hour trip up to Payson and the camp. The morning started off with severl hours of hands on training, over view of safety and climibng techniques. We were shown how to set up the equipment, get fitted with the helmet and harness and then actualy got to climb the wall several times. Then it was time to take a group of Girl Scouts and run them through the hour long session.

That was an experience, let me tell you. Going from never climing a rock wall just a few short hours ago to leading and instructing a bunch of girls was an eye opening experience. I think what stands out to me the most were these young girls getting over their fears, meeting or exceeding the self expectations and watching the girls help and encourage one another. What was really amazing was the comraderie that formed between two entirely different groups of girls.

After the session, we then had a debriefing to discuss what went on, what went right, what could be improved, etc. Then it was on to the exam. Kinda odd taking a test, I havent had to take a quiz or test since my days at Glendale Community 14 years ago.

Overall I had a good time. As past of the certification process, I have to go back up to the camp within the next month and lead another group ( or 6 ) of girls. Deb and I are looking at going up the last weekend of them month.


Heres a shot of me climbin' the wall for the first time



I cant wait

Thanks for reading!

A Camping We Will Go...

After getting an open inivitation from some friends of ours, we opted to go camping over the Labor Day Holiday weekend. We left town on Friday evening after some slight detours. We made the two hour drive up to Ashurst Lake just outside of Flagstaff, arriving around 1030 or so. After sitting by the fire for a couple of hours chatting with our friends ( they got up to camp earlier in the day ) we hit the sleeping backs.

Saturday morning we were up somewhat early ( or at least I was, Deb slept in ) We just kinda hung out most of the morning, ate breakfast and BSed some. The two dads and two boys decided it was time to do some fishing. We said we'd go for an hour or so just to check things out. This was Tylers first time ever fishing. He did ok but after about the first 45 minutes of fishing and not catching anything, he got discouraged, did some complaining and then proceeded to lean over on my shoulder and fall asleep. Not a very easy thing to try to hold up my son and try to fish. so we wound up laying him in the bottom of the boat. We not too long after Tyler fell aslpee, Jacob ( our firends son ) caught a trout. He suggestd to Jake that they put it on Tylers line and wake him up. Boy was Tyler ever surprised to wake up to a fish on his line. A little while later he caught his own fish. It turned out to be the biggest of the four we caught over the two days.

Here's Tyler with the catch of the day

By the time we got back to shore and back to camp it was too late for the girls to go fishing so we told them they could go Sunday. We finished off the evneing with chilli and hot dogs and Jake and I making a trip to the Wal Mart in Flagstaff.

Sunday morning I was woken up to the sound of the Polaris starting up and drving away. Apparently Jake and Jacob went off to try to get the morning bite. Nice of them to ask me if I wanted to go along. Jacob managed to catch two trout on that trip. Not too long after they got back it started to rain. It proceeded to rain off and on most of the day. The girls got jipped out of fishing once again. Dinner that night wasnt well attended as Jennifer had a migraine and Jacob passed out hard. We had some additions to camp that night. We had salamanders, a bunch of them. I wound up with one of the cold, slimy suckers in my sleeping bag when I got up to take a leak. Ewww.

Monday morning was packing up and heading home day. It took us the better part of three hours to pack up everyting and then we headed home. All in all it wasnt a bad trip. The kids enjoyed themselves. The only disappointment out of Sarah was not being able to go fishing. I told her in a month or so once the weather cooled off I would take her fishing.

Camping will be something we conitnue to do as a family. It was something both Debbie and I grew up doing ( moreso Debbie than me ) We both enjoyed camping as kids and want to share the enjoyment with our kids.

A shot of the lake and shoreline

The cloud covered San Francisco peaks and pines of Northern Arizona

Kris's blog reminded me of this pic I took Saturday afternoon as the storm rolled out of the area

Thanks for reading

September Goals

I kinda touched on this in the weight loss goals for September thread on Kick

1. Make better food and drink choices
2. Quit or reduce my Coke intake
3. Get to the gym 3-4 times a week
4. Start gradual transition to the Pre Dawn Patrol
5. Lose 3-4 lbs

While on the subject of weight loss I was surprised with the what the scale showed on Tuesday morning. I did pretty well last week but with going camping over the holiday weekend and not being in control of the menu I was a bit worried. But I didnt eat a whole lot and I was fairly active so things turned out ok. I would up losing .4. Its a baby step back in the right direction.

My next entry Ill talk about our camping trip and tell how Tyler did on his first fishing trip, stay tuned