Tracking (aka The Dark Side)

Okay, I caved. The proof is above, the LHT now has - after two years of service - a bike computer. I vowed two years ago that she wouldn't, and she's done great this long without - but - I cave. I want to keep track of miles, I want to know how long it took me to ride those miles, and sometimes I might even pay attention to the speed.

In other words, I'm a geek. And for those of you who I mocked for keeping track of stats and miles, you may now unleash the mockery train upon me.


Second up, I'm religiously tracking calories again via The Daily Plate/Livestrong.com after a bit of a hiatus. Here's what's funny, when I track calories - I lose weight. When I don't track calories - I don't. Amazing how that works isn't it? Shock and Awe. Etc.

Their iPhone app is, really, about the best thing ever. I think I've blogged about that App before, but seriously - above is today, and today's done at about 2100 calories (TDP thinks I should have 2800, I think they crazy). The thing is in my pocket, so I can update what I eat as I'm eating it. None of the "oh crap I forgot to enter it", the thing is in my pocket ready to rock and roll - anywhere. This and other apps are lifesavers when eating out, but I'll have more on that later.

Today has been a day of rest, literally, as I prep stuff for the week ahead. I'm about to drive my week's worth of clothes into work, then call it a night a bit early. Going to be a dark cold morning - great for riding a bike.

An instant cure for the "blehs"

Have a case of the "blehs"? Wanna turn that frown upside down? Then Doc CSB orders qty 1 dose Vitamin G, applied daily to the affected area. More doses = more smiles.

That's just how it is.

Today was some Vitamin G-lite for me (does it qualify for Vitamin G status? I'll wait for the gavel overlords to chime in on that one), about an hour and a half of it. Man, just man oh man what the hell have I been thinking the past month? No gravel goodness? Jeez louise...

You know what though? It's just grand. Just right on, pure and simple, thumbs up goodness. A lunch of steamed rice, flatbread, sauteed mushrooms, bell peppers and hummus are cookin', gotta be my most favorite combo ever.

Have a great weekend - I know I am.

A lot to be thankful for

Today it is not lost on me how much I have to be thankful for. For this year alone, the list could be a thousand miles long (almost literally, depending on font size of course..) so I won't go deep into it. What I will say is that one of the things that I'm most thankful for is you, that is, everyone who reads this blog. Everyone who emails, comments, and otherwise is part of this.

For that support that you give to me, thank you.

Paying Back, or Forward, or just doing some good

I've had a fortunate life, I'll be the first to admit. Sure I've had my struggles, things have been hard but at the same time, things have always just seemed to fall into place. Along the way I've met some people who have done things for me that have just been, you know, awesome.

I have a class right now that requires some community service. So I've always been quietly impressed with Habitat for Humanity, and decided you know what? Why not. What have I found? An amazing group of people. Seriously. SERIOUSLY.

Today I took a vacation day to see how it was during the week. Today's task was pouring a basement, putting that big ole beam in, and some other tasks getting the foundation ready for the floor to be put in, and framing to start this weekend. There's this core group of guys who are retired, and have been doing this forever. One is 80, and he's been doing it for around 20 years - 3 days a week of hard work. Another, a guy from Iraq who's hoping for his own Habitat home, was one of the hardest workers I've ever met (I thought he was going to try to move that beam on his own - seriously). None of em, not a one, are getting a paycheck - they're all there out of the goodness of their hearts. Which is a whole lot of goodness, folks.

We were done by 1:30-ish, and I felt tired but good afterward, and am planning to go back to the same house on Saturday. After that, I'm planning on once a month (at least) volunteering. It's pretty easy to do, you just show up to the jobsite and start working. Good old fashioned hard work, nice people, and enough good karma to fill up memorial stadium.

By sheer accident, really, I came upon Mission Bean Coffee recently. This company is owned and operated by the People's City Mission of Lincoln, which itself is a simply fantastic organization focused on helping those most in need with everything they can. I first met Pastor Tom several weeks ago, then met with a guy named Sasha who's running the Mission Bean part of the mission. Both are just amazing people with the best outlook on life you could imagine.

Mission Bean's brews are right on great, I like good coffee and it's up there on the top of my list. I dig the Dark Roast and my wife digs the Hazlenut Cream. Best part? The profits and revenue go directly to the mission - each bag sold provides two meals (you out-of-Lincolnites can order them online). And these are Charles Dickens'-esque soup lines at the mission, they hire professional chefs to make high-quality meals. Pastor Tom said they aim for "Village Inn quality or better" because, in his words (summarized a bit) people come in there with nothing - no home, no food, and many times little dignity left - why not do everything you can to give them a great meal right off the bat to start some good feelings? Awesome. Just.. awesome. Walking through the mission they had commons areas with nice looking couches, big ole LCD TV's, computers and - really - all the amenities you'd find in a nice hotel. Amazing.

Both of these organizations have left their mark on me. Often we race to see how much we can make off everything, forgetting that sometimes making nothing can feel better than a million bucks.

Priorities

I've been working hard on this subject lately, I won't kid you, right now I'm busy. Work plus school plus family plus exercise = spinning head syndrome. Obviously blogging has fallen to the wayside, and that just stinks because there's been so much good out there. Good weather, good folks, good rides - just downright good.

Exercise has become a priority, which is awesome, I've been at the gym over my lunch hour 4 days out of 5 for the past two weeks during the work week. I've bike commuted every day but one for the past three weeks (I give myself a optional day every week), and man, it's been kinda nice. Weather? Gorgeous. Rides? Perfect. I've been doing this wacky thing - I ride to ride, no other reason. It's awesome.

The gym, however, is where I go to die. I don't have a lot of time so, you know, gotta make it count right? 30 minutes on the elliptical, then jogging on the treadmill at 5mph for 6.. and working up. That wacky treadmill was done on a whim one day and ya know what? It ain't bad. And I'm never going to make fun of joggers again. It's challenging as hell, with that in mind, I set a personal goal to jog a 12 minute mile by the end of November. I know that's snail pace, folks, but man it sure doesn't feel like it!

Yesterday I told my wife that as I was leaving the gym I became obsessed with Chipotle. I was goona do it, I was out of "lunch stuff" at work so I was going to hit Chipotle on the way home. The obsession became almost sick, one track mind focused solely on those ginormous burritos and those oh so crunchy... yeah you get the idea. Pulling into the parking lot for a second I stopped, then fired up the Daily Plate/Livestrong app on the fruitphone. Snapping that obsession out was a simple check of how many calories are in that thing.

Yikes!

So my advice of the day? Get a cal counter or app and look at it. Man oh man. Not to mention financial impact - I got lunch stuff for a week+ for fifteen bones at the store, Chipotle would have probably been 50-75% of that cost - for "one" meal. Dang! Multiply that by 5 days and... uggh.

I might actually weigh myself one of these days, but everything is fitting better and I feel good. That's pretty awesome, let me tell you.

So to wrap everything up, my one piece of advice? Make your weight loss of the highest priority, and it will happen. It's really that easy.