Turkey Dinners, Thanks, and Black Thursday

Not one.

Not two.

But Three.  

Three Thanksgiving meals that I took part in and the question I had for myself was, "how was I going to recover from them?".  

The answer:  All at the same time.

I didn't stuff myself.  I ate comfortably and felt comfortable afterwards but it so happened that all three meals took place within a day and a half.  

Wednesday Lunch. Wednesday Dinner. Thursday Lunch.  That leaves only one opportunity to recover and regroup from the delicious food instead of three different days and recovery times.  ha.

You would think that after three Turkey Dinners in 24 hours that I'd be rolling around everywhere but that wasn't the case.  To be honest, my favorite part of Thanksgiving is the leftovers.  

I love sandwiches and cold turkey leftovers as a sandwich is awesome.  

I believe that I handled myself during the holiday eating pretty well.  

I even had enough energy to go out and brave all of the crazies at Walmart.  

I was almost trampled when they gave the go ahead for shoppers to start grabbing things.  People were nuts.  In all seriousness though, who advertises something at a great price and then only gets less then 20 items for the whole store.  

Sedalia is not huge, but come on man!  

I know many are doing the 30 days of Thankfulness, but I will do just one publicly.

I am thankful for my wife, my son, and the opportunities that I have had in my life to be where I am at.  I am thankful for my work.  I am thankful for those that I work with and those that I have in my life.  Life is not perfect but I am thankful for the blessings that I have and hope that I am always aware of those blessings!

Healthy U update:  Anticipation is killing me.  Jan. 8th can't get here soon enough.  I understand it might not mean much for those just reading about the program from here but it'd definitely be a blessing.  I think the reason why so many people choose not to get healthy is that they don't know where to start or have the resources readily available.  

I am 1 of 25 for Healthy U 2015

Recently, I posted about the Healthy U program where I live.

After filling out a very in depth application, I submitted it.  That was that and the rest was out of my hands, at least for the initial selection process.

On Tuesday night, I was out finishing up my deer stand for the upcoming season [way late in making that happen], and I received a phone call.  My service was sketchy but I made out the voice-mail that  I was one of the 25 selected for personal interviews.  I quickly called them back and between bad reception in the middle of the field and a constant beep from a failing phone battery - we made an appointment for the personal interview.

(picture from Healthy U Facebook)

For me, being in front of people isn't anything out of the norm.  It is common for a minister when he has job interviews to have formal and informal meetings and interviews with multiple people.  This was three women though.  It's not as easy as you'd think.  It reminded me of the time that I first got my driver's license.  I took my driving test with the 'driving grader/instructor' [not sure of official title] in the passenger seat and then a rookie on the job learning sitting in the back seat.

Overall, I believe the interview went well from my perspective.  I do believe that I have a few things that are up against me.  These are by my own thinking and were not said in the interview.

One, I'm not overly overweight.  I am over weight and could lose 40-50 lbs and by all BMI and body figuring formulas, I am obese.  Two, I've been successful on my own and so I can see how that may interfere with the thinking, 'he doesn't need this as much'.

This may all be in my head too.

I'm super pumped though and hope I am selected as one of the twelve!  

Very public weight loss Accountability may be in my future

Healthy U is a program in Sedalia, Missouri created to help others get off their butts and start to get healthy.  They have a very small, hand selected, class each year that they invest into in order to jump start and educate the participants on how to live healthy each and every day...consistently.

I applied for this program.  They take all of the applications and blindly select 25 of them for personal interviews.  They then select 12 participants for the year to invest in and help make lifestyle changes.

This is a 'Biggest Loser' type of competition without the big money.  What I find most attractive about this program is that they hook you up with a nutritionist/dietitian AND a personal trainer for the year.

If you have been a part of my weight-loss journey for a while, you know that those are two things that I've never had.  Those are two things that I really want and believe can contribute to further success.

I won't lie, I've been successful on my own in losing weight and keeping it off - but I need next level type of stuff.  I recently went in to the doctor for a general check-up as my insurance pays for it.  I got a good bill of health and I want to make it a great bill of health.  I want to be healthier.  I want to be faster, stronger and a healthier me.

I do hope that I get selected.  I don't know how many applicants that there are but it'd be pretty awesome to be selected.

(Picture from Healthy U Facebook)

Sugar Happy

I love sweet food. 

I do.  It's so tasty.  It's so comforting.  My taste buds dance with joy when the sweet rush of sugar floods their sensors.  It's almost as if they command - no, they control the way that I eat.  It's a love hate relationship that me and my tongue have.  I so want to please the craving but at the same time I know that it is not my tongue that is dictating my eating habits...it's in my head.  It's my decisions. 

It's not like my tongue is picking up the food with it's arms.  To be honest, if my tongue grew arms and starting picking up food - I'd be a little freaked out.  I would then have to join the freak show circus and I don't think my wife and son would follow me down that route so here's to my tongue staying a normal tongue. 

I've cut out soda.  I can cut out the other crap too, but sugar is my Achilles heal.  It is my weakness.

In fact, I have Flipz White Fudge Pretzels sitting on my desk at work.  I justify the fact that I have already had an apple and yogurt for breakfast and will be running later...so twenty one or two pretzels will be cool to eat right? They'll cancel themselves out.  In fact, their motto on the bag says this:

"So completely irresistible you'll make up excuses to eat'em"

 

It's true. 

 

They are irresistible.

 

I must resist.

 

Self control is lacking.

 

Just one more?

 

I must resist!

 

Okay, while I fight my urges - here's some music that I've been listening to while running.  Enjoy!

 

 

 

Going Off...

Thought I'd share a song from my workout/running playlist.

Texas Stew and lots of laps

I was wearing shorts in the afternoon and had to be in some heavy clothes this evening.  Temperature was near 50 and then snowing tonight.  Crazy!

Today was a good day though for some stew.  I made a recipe called Texas Stew.  It was delicious!  It has been one of my favorite meals so far this year that we've eaten.  Actually, it was awesome.

 

I really can't wait until I get to have some leftovers. 

 

..........

 

Last night I got to play some basketball over at the church.  We had been having a lot of guys just show up that we had never met and causing some fights.  No fist fights but I do believe that it was heading there.  We had taken a break for a while from playing and that break helped weed out the guys that were the hotheads.

 

I noticed though that I was out of breath a lot faster than I used to be.  So...

 

that means that I need to get in better shape.

 

...so I ran laps at the gym.

 

 

 

Fillings. Beards. and Wife

I got that filling fixed yesterday morning.  I'm so thankful for that!  When I got back into my office I checked out my facebook and saw this story...

(googled "clear facial piercing" for this pic)

 

I don't mind piercings and plugs and stuff as I've had multiple piercings. This just seems creepy to me.  Granted, I might have grown a bit of a phobia of dentists through my latest dentist experiences but I can just see the lens, or the metal from the loop, constantly knocking against my teeth. 

Anyhow, I'm DOWN to 208.8 lbs.  That's less than 9 lbs from ONEderland again.  It'd be nice to get down there.  Also, I've shaved my beard.

The beard reached just over 3 inches during that 3 month period (I grow a beard like a man...and some women).

 

Now it's trimmed 1/2 inch long beard.

 

And this is how my wife has been waking up next to me each morning...just to keep all of you in the loop.

 

 

1 Month Strong and down 10 lbs

Since posting the last time - I've been working at losing some of this weight.

I'm down to 210 lbs and have been soda free for 1 month now.

What has helped with the soda free deal is the dentist.  yeah, the dentist always tells you to not drink soda because of all of the acidic stuff in the soda or to at least drink through a straw.  Well, I do drink through a straw most of the time but this was much different than just a cleaning the last trip to the dentist.

I had to have a tooth extracted and it was a difficult extraction (and broke a recent new filling and you can't have all of the carbonation and such when the healing is taking place.  It's been pretty easy to give up the soda.  I believe the hardest part was the no drinking of soda during the Christmas dinners and New Year's party.  It worked out though for the best.  I go to have a temporary filling removed on Tuesday and the permanent one put in.

It was a crazy ordeal and one that I'll be glad to be done with.