The time has come

Seven months ago I wrote about my most recent physical (Bad News Delivered)and the poor results of my blood tests at that time. I was put onto a different diet, told to work out more and lose more weight to try and stem the tide that seemed headed toward diabetes.

Well tomorrow I will go in for the follow up set of tests. I've lost 10-15 pounds since that last visit. I've worked out hard and am in pretty good shape. I've learned to eat better.

And a part of me is scared out of my tiny little mind. My next physical check up comes about 10 days later and we'll review the results. The tests will be bad enough (I'm a total weenie when it comes to drawing blood. The blood sugar test of course only requires drinking super sweet liquids and then peeing into jars but it's the one that holds the greatest dread) but the waiting till I hear the results will be even worse.

And if the news is bad...?

Trying not to think about that. I should have worked out more. I should have lost more weight. I feel like I screwed up again.

Keep me in your prayers.

Peace

Something of a drought

I realized that I haven't posted a great deal recently other than routine things - resource reviews make up the majority of my posts over the last couple months. Take of the CREDO related ones and there's not much there. If you're still checking this blog you have my heart felt thanks.

So what's up? Not my mood at the moment. I'm feeling dis-spirited at the moment. It's mostly a convergence of little things. Post camp let down after Senior High. Always get that. The sadness that comes with the growing certainty that I'm going to cancel a camp this year. Junior High just has a handful of applications at the moment. We continue to struggle with the "why" question. Lower demographic numbers, bad economy, poor "marketing", combination of all of the above? Don't know. Add in having to do the financial report for senior high camp. Looks like we're close but OK there but it makes me crazy every year. I hate having to scrape and stint to make the budget work. I want to focus on the program and doing it right. SIGH. We're still hassling with a small problem with the mortgage on the house where I live (I don't hold the mortgage but I'm the executor to the estate that does). I wish I were getting clearer simpler answers than I am. And I wish this problem would go the hell away. I'm assured that the house will not be foreclosed upon (which is good since I'm living in it) but it wears on me.

Adding in is something that should be elevating my mood, our upcoming mission trip to New Orleans. I've never done a mission trip, ever. I'm always nervous before the first time I do something so that doesn't help. As a strong Myers-Briggs introvert these "everybody-all-together" events just wear on me. Add in the high heat and humidity down in NOLA this time of year and I have the potential for being miserable. I know, way to keep a good thought in my head, right? :)

In other news my bicycling is going well. A 20+ mile ride on Tuesday in less than 90 minutes was very encouraging. I rode into work without any trouble. Then I did another hour long ride of almost 13 miles two days later. One hill defeated me but otherwise it went well too. Between the weather and the mission trip I'm going to lose two weeks of cycling however.

My weight remains good. Steady at 175, then down to 173 this week with the riding. I'm hoping the work on the mission trip will make up for the lack of workouts. The next doctor's appointment is in 6 weeks. That's nagging at the back of my brain too.

I'm doing a little more creative stuff. Actually practicing my guitar every day for a least a little while. Need to do more of that stuff to balance the financial stuff.

The kid is doing her last weekend at her second summer job. It's a restaurant that is run strangely. They never seem to get around to posting a schedule for kitchen and wait staff (at another restaurant owned and operated by the same folks the staff simply started doing their own schedule and posting it. Management/ownership doesn't seem to care.) Plus strange attitudes on how things get done, decor, food etc. The whole situation was just making her crazy so she decided on her own to drop it. Tonight and tomorrow and she's free. And will be much happier.

I have lots of things to get done. At the moment I can't seem to put my hands on things however. I know I got an e-mail about something left at camp. I have the item, can't find the e-mail. Weird but typical for what's going on.

So hopefully I'll find the on switch again and get moving a little faster. I AM getting things done but slower than usual. I'm thinking about some things to write here but I'm not sure about them. I'll probably post about that process soon.

Pray for the youth of the diocese and the future of their programs.

Pray for me.

Peace

So How did you do it?

Thoughts on Losing Weight

The most common comments made to me these days are linked. It goes something like this:

"You look great/ You've lost weight! How did you do it?"

First, to everyone who has noticed, thank you. I've lost 40 pounds in 15 months. I'm trying to whittle away 10 more. I feel great and yes, I appreciate all the compliments.

As to the second part I thought maybe I should offer my simple thoughts on how I got to where I am since I know so many other people are struggling with weight issues. For me it came down to three simple concepts:

Eat Less - The first thing you need to accept is that you eat too much. You probably don't think you do but if you're the average American you're eating way more than you need. I always maintained that my food consumption was OK, it was always something else. I was wrong and it's extremely likely you're wrong too. Don't believe me? Do a food journal for a week. If you bite it, write it. Two M&Ms? Write it down and figure the calories. There are great websites to help you do this. Be prepared to be appalled at how much you eat. The average restaurant meal is at least twice as large as you need. Just ask for the to go box as soon as the meal arrives and put half of your meal in it. It really is that simple.

Eat Smart - Now you need to pay attention to what goes in your mouth. A lot of what we eat falls into these categories - simple carbohydrates, sugar, salt and saturated fats. Basically none of these are very good for us. You need some of them but not much. Move to complex carbs, reduce sugar, use unsaturated/mono saturated fats. Eat veggies instead of sugar, eat lean meats instead of fatty ones. It sounded complicated and boring to me when I started. In fact the shift can be done quickly and easily. I'm not a big fan of "diets". A diet is just what you eat. You need to re-learn how to eat and you never need to go on another "diet". I did find some very useful help in re-learning how to eat from the South Beach Diet, which was recommended to me by my doctor. Ignore diets that eliminate some category of food or over-emphasize a category. You want a balanced diet of good foods.

Exercise - I HATE to exercise. Always have. I'll admit that I now enjoy the RESULTS of exercise enough to get me into a gym on a regular basis. The thing about exercise is that you have to be willing to push yourself past the comfort zone. That's past the point that says "I'm tired, this is no fun, I'm starting to hurt". Don't go overboard right at the start and hurt yourself but you must, must, MUST commit to pushing yourself. Hot, sweaty, boring exercise. As soon as it starts to get easier (which happens with startlingly quickly) you have to push yourself back into a hot, sweaty hard zone again. And again. And again. Until you reach your goal you can't get comfortable with your exercise level. But the rewards! To suddenly drop clothing sizes, to start getting the compliments, to take a look at yourself in the mirror(have you stopped doing that? I did because I didn't want to acknowledge what it showed me.) and say "Wow. When did that happen?" You'll feel good, and beautiful and sexy. And that's really wonderful.

I've dropped just about two sizes in shirts and pants. Someone mistook me for a teenager walking across a parking lot recently. Folks I've known for years don't recognize me at first. I haven't done anything extreme or strange. I've followed the three steps above.

And I accepted that it was going to take time to do it. Programs, diets, pills, whatever that promises you that you can lose weight "fast" are lying to you. Yes, you may lose weight quickly but because you haven't re-learned how to eat you're going to gain it all back. The quick weight loss idea is a mirage, a lie. Be prepared for this to take months at the very least. I could have, maybe even should have lost this weight faster than I did. But it took me a while to figure out the "Eat Smart" piece completely. Turns out there was a lot of extra sugar sneaking into my diet that I didn't notice. There were a few other problems too.

But you know what? I've kept this weight off. It's fluctuated a little but never more than 4 pounds over 18 months. It works if you're ready to make the change.

Trust me, it's worth it.

Peace

A milestone and other news

I haven't reported recently on the weight loss because, to be perfectly honest, there hasn't been much to report. I was stuck, fluctuating up or down by less than a pound. It gets discouraging. So I've tightened down a little (and really only a little) on my diet while making sure that I'm eating enough calories and drinking a lot more water. Before the latest wrinkle on this journey (that being South Beach) I drank a fair bit of water every day. For reasons I can't explain I've really tailed off on that with the new eating discipline. There's no reason for it other than my focus has been elsewhere.

Then a couple nights ago I had the very strange experience of virtually full leg cramps in both legs. There was no reason for it, I hadn't done anything strenuous that day or even recently. The worst part was getting cramps in the muscles on both sides of my shin (the calf muscles in the back and the whatever-they're-called muscles in the front). Normally for a calf cramp I just flex my foot upward to stretch it out and slowly it goes away. Problem is that flexing the foot UP plays into the cramp on the front of my shin. Trying to find the balance point between those two began to make the muscles in my foot cramp. Not fun.

I know that one of the causes of cramps can be dehydration. So I'm back to knocking back water regularly. Wonder of wonders there's been no recurrence of the cramps AND I dropped over two pounds in the last week. Hmmmmmm, maybe we're on to something here.

I've now passed the 40 pound lost milestone. Which is an almost unbelievable number to me. Someone asked me this morning what was different this time compared to trying to lose weight before? This time was I really serious about it. In part because of words like pre-diabetes that I'm hearing from my MD. Add in passing 50 years of age, plus the very real value of the accountability of the weight loss contests I've been doing. Each week I have to weigh in and "call it in". I have to say that a TV show has been part of my success. I find the folks on Biggest Loser real inspirations. Compared to their health problems mine are nothing. If they can turn their lives around there's no excuse for me. I would never want Jillian as my trainer (sorry I don't take that crap from anybody for any reason. Give me Bob) but I have to admit there are days when I want to quit when I hear her voice in my head and I work a little harder just to shut her up! LOL! Plus having some real success breeds more success. I wasn't sure I could really lose 50+ pounds at my age. Now I KNOW I can and I'm going to.

Of course at the moment I look like I'm wearing my big brother's clothes!

Other news - Volleyball team won two out of three last night. I think that's a first for us this season. Strange first game though. Several folks either on or family of a team that played before us hung around court side and had a big family dispute. Never rose to yelling but since it was all of 8 feet off the court it was really distracting. And it went on for about 20 minutes! I have become one of the go to guys on the team for serving. Given that I'd NEVER played competitive volleyball prior to last fall I find that pretty funny. But I am very consistent with a quick overhand serve. The rest of my play is coming along as well.

Both cars will be in the shop this week. One for a pair of new tires, the other to get yet another hub replaced. This is at least 3 of the 4 possible, could be the 4th I have to check. All within a year. About $200 a pop now that I'm buying the part from an online retailer rather than ordering it through the dealership. Saves about $150 per. Then a couple of repairs I can handle at home once the weather gets a tiny bit warmer.

Well the sun is shining even though it's still quite cold at the moment. Have to remind myself could be out west where there's a blizzard at the moment.

Peace

Bad news delivered

I mentioned a week or so back that I had to take a more extensive blood test because my doctor was concerned that I might be diabetic. Took the test and waited. Last night the call came.

I am not diabetic. But I only missed by a tiny amount. My body is doing a piss poor job of dealing with sugars. And I need to make some serious changes in my diet. My doctor knows this was the news I desperately didn't want to hear. She's been great about it all. But the news came as a great black weight on me.

My reactions to this have been many.

Angry. My body has betrayed me. All the changes I've made in the last year, diet changes, exercise, losing almost 30 pounds don't seem to have helped.

Scared. I know it's irrational but the word diabetes means death sentence to me. I know that's wrong but it's a leftover from childhood. Plus it's connected to the thought of insulin injections. You want to talk irrational? Let's talk about my needle phobia. I can't watch actors on TV get shots that I know aren't even real.

Depressed. See above about exercise and weight loss. Add in that in the last two years I've developed a great love of cooking. I'm wondering how many of these new recipes are just off the list now. The first person who says "You'll get used to eating it" is going to get hit. Seriously. I have no interest in getting used to food that lacks flavor and texture. A life eating second rate food doesn't sound like one that's worth living.

Don't take that last sentence too seriously. I'm just in the down cycle of my poor-poor-pitiful-me routine. It never lasts too long.

So what's the solution? Apparently the South Beach Diet. If I can survive the first two weeks the rest looks like it might be OK. We've actually begun the move in that direction anyway (whole grain instead of refined, more veggies, lower carbs) anyway. My beautiful, wonderful, amazing lady wife has agreed that she will travel along with me on this path. She has let me express all those emotions above and lets me cry without penalty. I am completely unworthy of this woman. Pray to God that neither of us kill each other going through carb withdrawal.

So a few more days to just feel sorry for myself. A few days of research on what I need to do to prepare and the changes I need to make. We're thinking we may start all this with Lent. We'll see.

So I'm OK. No immediate danger of death. I'm going to be a bit down for a while yet (I'm a firm believer in the positive benefits of taking a brief wallow in your self pity)and then I'm going to be really grumpy for those two weeks.

With any luck at all I'll come out the other side thinner, healthier and destined to stick around annoying those I love for many years to come.

There, I've said it out loud. Now it's real.

It sucks but it's real. And I'm going to beat it. Somehow.

Pray for me.

The Biggest Loser!

YES!!!!!!
Michelle won and with an amazing percentage of weight loss.


I must admit that I desperately wanted someone other than Vicki to win. When we saw that her total loss (which to be fair was VERY impressive) wasn't enough to put her in first place a cheer went up in our house. I don't like the way Vicki played the game. Period. She was nasty and manipulative and it offended me. So I reserved the right to root for other people. I hope she and her hubby are very happy and that their family turns their life around.

But I'm glad she lost.

As always the change in some of the contestants was astounding. Shellay and Amy C looked fabulous as did ALL the women. Stacey, Renee, Heba (holy cow girl!), Colleen, Amy P, all of them revealed the healthier beauty within. The guys did very well as well (except for Tom and LT, better but not great) with the standouts being Jerry (the show literally, and I mean LITERALLY, saved his life) and Phil. Phil was just amazing to me out of all the guys.

This show continues to inspire me to push on with the changes I'm making in my life. In my most recent weight loss contest I dropped 11 more pounds in 13 weeks. Compared to the TV show that's pretty puny. But it's a reasonable and sustainable weight loss. I started just before my birthday this year and I hope to be over the 30 pounds lost mark by the anniversary of that date. That would lead me just 15-20 pounds more to lose to be at what my doctor agrees is a healthy weight for me.

I want to take a moment for special thanks to Matthew McNutt, youth minister and contestant on season three of Biggest Loser. He's been a cheerleader all year for youth ministers trying to change our lives. And he's led by example! Matt lost 176 pounds and he did it at home! That's his before and after here on the right. Thank you Matt for what you've done to support us and inspire us. Slowly but surely I'm getting skinny and strong.


Next season on the Biggest Loser looks interesting. They have a 63 year old couple and a 19 year old who is the heaviest person ever (?) on the show. His doctors worry that at his weight he may not live to see 30. Makes me and my 20 pounds to go seem pretty simply in comparison.

Congrats again to Michelle.

I'm grumpy, you may not want to talk to me

My volleyball was swept out of the playoffs.

I had the worst week of anyone in the top 10 in the football pool and have fallen to #13.

Just got back from my doctor and while most of my blood tests came back with improvement (some quite improved) she's still on about heart attack risk, more drugs and oh yes my personal favorite, the possibility that I might be diabetic or at least headed that way. I find that news extremely unsettling (to say the least). All this despite the fact that I continue to lose weight, exercise and watch my diet. Apparently I need to lose MORE weight, exercise MORE, and watch my diet MORE. All in response to possibilities. She's a good doc which why I continue to listen but I wonder if perhaps she isn't a bit TOO proactive in her style.

I am not a happy camper.

My weigh in this morning did show another pound lost, down to 187.

Mid week update

Well it's cold.
And there's still a lot of snow on the ground.

But then that pretty much describes the next 4-5 months. That's what I think the folks who leave comments about how much they miss the snow miss. Every now and then would be fun. We can literally have as much as 6 months of this nonsense here (Mid - October to mid-April is absolutely NOT unheard of in these parts)and 5 months is a virtual guarantee. Oh and I live in a snowbelt that normally gets 100-150 inches of snow (with 200+ on a bad winter). So expect no heart felt paeans on the glory of the white stuff.

My weight loss program took a small backward step. I gained a pound. Bleah. I just got into a snacking mode. Can't do that.

Volleyball - we played really well and lost two of three games. Sigh. I served really well (took the final 7 points of the game we won on my serve), the rest of my game was OK. Managed to tweak a muscle in my left thigh going too hard for a ball. But the best part was being told by the best player on my team that she figured I was a life long jock! (Those of you who have known me for a long time are rolling on the floor in laughter. Better let everyone else in on the joke) I was a nerd. Awkward and a little clumsy. So for someone to think I'd been a jock may be the high point of my very mediocre athletic "career". (For the record I played a year or two of Little League, four or five years of slow pitch softball, about 10 years of recreational league indoor soccer and now about 5 weeks of rec league volleyball. That's spread over 50 years. I was not a star in any of those leagues. I was below league average in the first two, league average in the second and probably still below average right now). So pretty cool.

Car news - time to buy new tires for the rear of the SUV. Except it's got an oddball tire size (it's like owning an original VW bug again, sigh!) so the tires are expensive and hard to get. We had to try three different brands before we found one in stock. All told a little under $300 for two tires, mounted balanced and installed. Yeesh. If this weren't such a great car...

Well I've had a fairly productive day so far. Got the Contemporary Folk channel up and running from Pandora which is something of a breakthrough for me. Since my first career was in radio I used to work with music playing all the time. When I took this job I didn't play much because: 1) I didn't want to disturb the folks here at the parish house (I am a guest), and 2) I wasn't sure about the whole "Bishop's staff" "working for the church" thing. I don't much like praise/contemporary Christian music. I do play some classical music but when I need to just crank out the work I need "my music". Well, finally this past year I thought "Heck with it, this is who I am. I need my tunes". I'm feeling much better. Plus with the office move a year or so ago the sound doesn't travel to the other offices very well - I'm at the end of a hallway all by myself next to the bathroom. So while I don't exactly rock out unless I know I'm the only one in the building.

So back to bumping off some of these little projects.

Peace

A mid week update

Interesting week so far. Not necessarily my most productive (so far, there's still time!) but interesting.

On the weight loss front I pushed through 190 pounds last week for the first time in years. And I stayed below it for this week's weigh in. I only lost a fraction of a pound more but I didn't bounce back up again. Which feels very good.

My volleyball team won their first match of the season. A 3-0 sweep! Very satisfying. Particularly because we played well and because we finally saw a team look at us with that "We can't beat these guys" look in their eyes. I served very well and wasn't awful otherwise.

Football pool! I continue to hang out in the 60-70% of points range. Unfortunately folks keep doing just a little better than that so I'm usually only top 20 for any given week. But I've been very consistent being right around the top 10 overall. In fact the weekly update e-mail from our pool leader said the following:

Jay . . . you've been in 9th, then 11th for 2 week, then 6th, 7th, then 12th, and then 9th, 11th, and now 10th. Dude, consistency is the name of the game!!! Way to go!!

Consistency was my goal for this year. Oh, and being in the top 10 too.

Got our first snow of the season. First "real" snow that is. Flurries, snow that doesn't stick, or can be swept with a broom are not "real" snow. We got about 8 inches Sunday night into Monday morning. Took the snowblower out but it was a mess. The ground is still warm underneath the snow (and will be for a while yet) so the bottom inch turns to heavy slush. Which clogs the snowblower. No fun. Rain tomorrow and temps in the 60s so it will all go away.

Found what I think is a great new service for communicating with the current generation of youth. I'll blog about that tomorrow or Friday.

Peace

Weekend Update - November 3

The Weekend That Was - This was one of those "Wait, did a weekend just slip by me?" weekends. Halloween on Friday. Didn't see a lot of kids but a decent number. Had one kid totally reject our offerings (bags of chips) and one who acted as if it were his favorite treat of the evening. I had a meeting in Buffalo Saturday (it was a good meeting but it chewed up a chunk of the day), then church on Sunday, a Lutheran youth event (bowling! I rolled a 147, 127 and 112) then volley ball practice. Came home to watch the Brazilian Grand Prix on tape (congrats to Lewis Hamilton for his championship and Felipe Massa for a great year)

So it it didn't feel like much of a weekend but it was OK!

The To Do List - Got some tasks for Youth Commission to follow up on, notes to my Lutheran friends, some early camp details and I'm sure a bunch of other stuff too.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Still haven't gotten to that paperwork yet. Sigh. I hate paperwork.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? I'm reading "The Irregulars - Roald Dahl and the British Spy Ring in Wartime Washington" by Jennet Conant. I've always loved real life spy stories and the story of the British Security Coordination group has always been fascinating. That's the whole "Man Called Intrepid" thing plus where Ian Fleming (of 007 fame) got his start in spying too. Dahl is the well known children's author but was quite the playboy during the war as part of his spying. A lot of it is familiar ground for me but it's a good read.

Took the opportunity on Halloween to watch "Frankenstein
" the 1931 Boris Karloff classic version. I realized I've never seen the whole movie beginning to end! Also never realized how much business in "Young Frankestein" was just ripped directly out of the original! It really still plays quite well. Some of the acting style of the day is a bit dated but it was great. And I saw the original uneditted version too. Very nice. Not much time to see anything else.

Don't know much about her but heard a couple tunes from Maria Dunn, a Scottish folk singer. Really liked the sound.


Next Up Lots of little projects at the moment. I don't think I have any bigguns.

How Am I Doing Football pool doing well. Looks like it'll be a breakthrough week for the weight loss program with a chance to put another milestone behind me. Food journalling is my new thing and it's just depressing. Job is OK, I'm still in post-major-project-let-down mode. Gotta shake that. The car just sucked another $300+ out my wallet but it's running pretty well at the moment. So I guess I'm doing pretty well.

Peace

I'm Feeling Better!

The title is to be read with Monty Python and the Holy Grail in mind.

With the big weekend out of the way (and it went pretty well), that's lifted my spirits some. Plus today I went and saw my "financial advisor". Now I put that in parentheses because it still feels weird to say that. Like I have a lot of money hanging around. I have a small investment portfolio that I inherited from my folks and that includes the advisor. My dad picked them out and they've done wonderful things for us over the years. Once a year I go down and talk with them.

This year I was in a bit of a panic. That small investment portfolio is a LOT smaller than it was just two months ago. But I came away feeling pretty good. One fund actually MADE money in the last year even with the last two months included. Overall we actually out performed the market. I have very little understanding of what he says to me even though he talks very slowly and uses short words. We talked about our plans for our personal finances and he said we were on the right track. Oh and he believes the worst of the market fluctuations are behind us.

I'm just telling you what he said. Made me feel better.

What doesn't make me feel better is my whole weight thing. I'm stuck at 193 pounds. Have been for months. So today I added a food journal. I hate doing stuff like this cause it's boring. Then I saw today's totals! I was more than a third over my goal. With no exercise to speak of since I was on the road for 7 hours. Hmmmm, I may have stumbled onto something here.

Also interesting to note that after getting used to eating healthy the fast food burger I grabbed today (I know, I know, bad decision!) sat in my stomach like a lead weight.

Football pool was pretty good. 79% on picks good for 13th on the week and up to 9th for the year. I never broke Top 15 last year and spent most of the season in the 30s as I remember. The Miami loss killed me but I did (gulp)choose the Giants to win.

But in the end I'm feeling better. And that's nice for a change.

Peace

Update plus 12 seconds

Quick update:

I lost another pound. I can see the next milestone! With a good week I can be below 190 pounds by this time next week.

I had an excellent week on the football pool. I missed only 3 picks this week and still finished tied for 5th place. I move up to 6th overall just 19 points behind the leader! Yeah baby!

Volleyball was good and bad last night. Played fairly uninspiredly but we won our first game. Still haven't won a match yet but at least we didn't get shut out.

Something new! Call it 12 seconds a day with Jay (yes I'm going to try and scratch out 12 seconds every week day at least to do this). It should be an interesting challenge. Let's see how this works embeded on the page. This is a flash program.

And so it begins on 12seconds.tv

Let me know if this works for you. It's being squirelly.

Just some random stuff

I studiously avoid airing my political views here. But this is a candidate I could absolutely get behind:


I approached the football pool results for this past week with fear and trembling. Out of a total of 91 possible points I got 56. Figured my standing would take a hammering. Turns out the weeks champ had a total of 66 points! Stupid Broncos. So I remain in 11th place. Not sure I like this coming week any better.

Weight loss contest - down 1 pound. But hey it's DOWN a pound. Any weight I lose from here on out is territory I haven't seen in over 20 years. Kinda cool when I realize that I will have no choice soon but to buy new clothes. My current wardrobe is starting to hang on me like I'd just gotten over a long illness.

Added a new recipe to my repertoire! Homemade spaghetti sauce. It's very close to the classic "Godfather" sauce (which legend says is actually the Coppola family recipe) and it was delicious! I was little worried because spaghetti is one of my lady wife's favorites and she can be a little picky (just a little). She's happy to make the homemade sauce our regular. Very cool.

And I pulled off a little car repair spiffiness too. I swapped out the door jamb switch on the driver's door. Now I not only have the interior light come on when I get in but the "lights on" warning chime now works too! Took all of five minutes. But oh so satisfying.

Later today I'll launch the first youth ministry video (actually this would be youth ministry videos v.2. We tried last year and had some technical problems) It's just a quick collection of memories from EYE but it's nice to have one up and running.

Bits o news

Been a strange week so far:

A very dear friend at church passed away yesterday. It was not unexpected in any way but it's still sad. She was a special lady and will be missed. Funeral tomorrow.

Had to take our older cat to the vet yesterday because she had pretty much lost all interest in anything. She barely flinched when the kitten would jump on her and gnaw on her head rather than growling and hissing per usual. And she wouldn't even budge when my lady wife came into the house. This cat has always treated her as the "goddess" and needs her undivided attention for at least 20 minutes at the end of every day. The last three days? Didn't even turn her head. The early word is not good -liver damage, kidney damage. She's a very sick kitty with a very poor prognosis. She's in the animal hospital for the time being.

In news of lighter note and less importance -

My first weigh in on my new contest put me in the top 5. I doubt I'll stay there. Lost just over 2% of my initial weight. I would really love to drop below that next 10 pound milestone. Just four pounds away.

Dropped out of the top 10 in the football pool. It was a wretched week. Come on the Dolphins beating the Patriots? And a serious case of tail whoopin' at that. A couple other teams let me down as well. So I fell to 11th place. Still picked something like 10 out 16 games last week but got several high point games that I missed. Need a better week this week. Only 13 games to pick.

I've spent most of the day waiting on a software download that I need for the big project I'm sitting on. So everything has been on hold. Doing lots of little things.

Peace

Monday Update - September 21

The Weekend That Was - Fairly quiet weekend. My lady wife was away on Saturday (she's on Happening team for the next weekend) so I cleaned. Don't know why but when she's gone I have an uncontrollable desire to clean. She finds that odd but a perfectly acceptable odd. Sunday was our first Youth Commission meeting of the new program year. The big news was the beginning of our camp re-examination process and the first of a set of recommendations for change. All of which was met very positively. Which was cool. Then the Steelers game. We shall not speak of that.

The To Do List - The video stuff goes to the top of the list (you mean it stays at the top of the list you slacker!) plus a few other smaller chores.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Nothing at the moment.

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? I'm reading two books right now - The Ice Diaries - written by Capt. Wm. Anderson, the second commander of the nuclear submarine Nautilus. Nautilus was the first ever nuke sub, went under the artic ice cap and a bunch of other cool stuff. I will admit that what grabbed my attention first was that the dust cover on this book only covers the bottom half of the book itself. Never seen one like it before.


The other book is "Free For All" by Don Borchert. This is about one of my favorite places in the world, the public library. Written by a Los Angeles area librarian (be warned, librarians know a lot of "naughty" words!) Borchert pulls no punches about some of the folks who use the library and how they are run. As I checked it out the librarian told me she had read it and loved it so I'm guessing it's not far from the mark even in my little corner of the world.

The movies for this week were:

Midway - caught this on AMC. An all-star cast in a really creaky WWII film about one of the great naval battles of that war. The dialogue was truly wooden. But it's a fun movie to play spot the stars on. It was OK.

Garden State - This was a much better movie! Funny, kinda quirky, fun cast (Zach Braff, Natalie Portman and Ian Holm) about a New Jersey boy who comes home for his mother's funeral, faces some of his personal demons, re-discovers the ability to feel and, oh yeah, falls in love with Natalie Portman. Some guys have all the luck. Another great little indie film.


Next Up The videos! Must make progress on the videos! Plus get the camp stuff rolling. Oh and the first weigh in on the new weight loss contest is tomorrow.

How Am I Doing Better. The meeting went well, I have an excellent weight to report, the sky is blue and the sun is shining. Which means I've forgotten something.

Monday Update - September 15 2008

The Weekend That Was - Well my adventure in self injury is detailed elsewhere. Went to the ordination and installation of a new priest just down the road. Got a great turnout from all over the diocese which was cool. Over 150 packed into a pretty small church in Randolph. Quiet otherwise. Steelers, Bills and astoundingly Pirates all came up winners. Watched some TV and relaxed. Nice weekend actually.

The To Do List - Still have video work to do, I have a very important fax to send, some calls to make, and prepare for Youth Commission on Sunday.


What Am I Procrastinating About? - Pretty much all of the above. I'm pathetic, lol!

What Am I Watching/Reading/Listening To? Still working on the Sci-Fi collection, watched an episode of Foyle's War a British mystery set during WW II. I love the characters and the acting and oh yes, there's Miss Honeysuckle Weeks (that's her REAL name NOT the character!) who I much enjoy watching as well.

Do not expect me to be ashamed of enjoying God's good work. She is easy on the eyes AND can act. Even my lady wife agrees.


Next Up The next big thing is Youth Commission. But there's also a car appointment too. Oh yes and as of tomorrow I begin the next weight loss contest. As of today I've gained back 5 of the 25 pounds I lost in the spring. Yes, it feels good to be this light. How much better will it feel after the next 20? Oh and I've decided to play on the church volleyball team at the YMCA for exercise too.

How Am I Doing I'm grumpy about those returning pounds.

An attempt to get back in the groove

I have an interesting problem during the summer.

Too many days off.

Yeah, I know. I can just hear the sympathy dripping off you all.

Because I'm still at 80% of full time and I'm very busy during camp weeks and EYE I end up with a fair amount of comp time. My bishop is pretty directive about me taking it. When I'm at camp or EYE I actually end up working between 2 and 3 weeks worth of hours in a single week. And let's face it by the time I'm done I'm pretty well wiped out. Not only are the hours long (camp is 7 AM to 11 PM) but as a Myers-Briggs INTP all that "people time" just wears me out.

The problem is that if I'm taking comp time I can't get any work done! It's a conundrum. So I cut back to just 2 days a week for the last couple weeks. That keeps me from falling too far behind. Unfortunately it means some things don't get done right away. Like blogging.

What's that you say? Couldn't I blog from home? Sure. Heck that's where I am right now! But I try to get as much rest as I can (which I need since I'm OLD) plus I can get caught up on chores around the house. Things like mowing the grass, cleaning the garage and weeding the several quite large plant beds around the house. Which doesn't create a lot of bloggable adventure.

But I'm caught up on comp time and headed back into a more normal routine starting tomorrow. So I thought I'd get caught up a bit on blogging.

First, a momentous event! I met another of my online friends today! I've met folks from Tennessee, Maine, and North Caroline but I'd never managed to meet my friend Pseudopiskie who lives all of about 2 hours from here. We just missed meeting a couple weeks ago. So she drove up today and we spent the afternoon together. I'll link to our photo as soon as she posts it. She got the only picture. It was great to meet her, we chatted like we've known each other for years. Which we have, virtually. I'm now up to five online friends that I've met in real life. I'd love to keep adding to that list.

And a new movie!

Pay It Forward - I'm aware that there's a tendency to sneer at this movie by some. It offends our culture's well fed sense of cynicism. Tough. This is a wonderful simple story told very well. It's got a great cast (Kevin Spacey (who I'll watch in anything), Helen Hunt (who I'll watch in anything, although for different reasons in part), Haley Joel Osment, Jon Bon Jovi (who's not a bad actor at all), Jay Mohr, James Caviezel, even Angie Dickinson!). Yes, there are some sniffle moments in the movie and a surprise ending but what a wonderful concept. We could do a lot worse than take the idea of Paying It Forward to heart. Oh and it's also a great theological message that's perfectly in accord with the Gospel. Do something for someone else with no expectation of being "paid back" and ask them to "pay it forward". Even a nice trinitarian touch! This is a truly good movie in just about every possible definition of the concept.

Quick notes: On my weight loss front I'm stalled but that's OK. I wanted to prove to myself that this was a real loss. That it could be maintained during my "real life". And I have, steady in the low 190s with only a couple pounds fluctuation from day to day which is perfectly normal. And all done during a time when I have completely stopped working out! So I'm expecting that I can take the next jump once I kick the workouts back into my schedule. Good stuff.

Haven't ridden the bike much nor played much golf. I've written a few new things and I have an idea for something totally new for me. It's either going to be really cool or I'm going to a complete idiot. We'll see.

Peace

So tired

Well the Happening weekend went very well. If you're not familiar that's a major spirituality retreat program in the Episcopal church. It's a time when our youth can dig a little deeper into their relationship with God and what that means. The weekend is also a lot of fun.

For the folks on the team that run the weekend it's also exhausting. I was the "Head Pop" (lead adult male) for our Prayer team which is much less stressful than doing the Visible team portion. But as a very strong Myers-Briggs introvert all that face time with the team just wears me out. Good team and a great weekend.

Oh yes, and our video rocked!

This is going to be a busy week as I prepare for some vacation time next week. Lots of ducks that need to be ordered into rows and the like.

Then we're off to Las Vegas. What happens in Vegas is none of your business! We'll check out the Star Trek exhibit at the Hilton, maybe catch a show, hang out by the pool at the hotel. I don't advise trying to reach me. At all. Just go away and leave me along, thank you very much. This will be my second trip there, the first for my lady wife. We're both looking forward to it.



The Happening weekend put a hole in my weight loss program. I've got to figure out how to survive at youth events when I will be surrounded by junk food. And inevitably the kids will congregate there, so if I want to talk with them I end up standing next to the chips, and the queso dip and the pizza....

Four pounds this weekend! I put on FOUR pounds!!!
Not much else to say at the moment, just trying to get squared away on a Monday.

Loserocity

Why I love these guys...



I did complete the competition, looking forward to tomorrow's announcement.

End of the contest!

Just some stuff:

Ok, I'm an old person. But if you're an old person (particularly one who kinda likes new tech toys)this is just hysterically funny. Assuming you speak Spanish. And ever made a mix tape. And have a twisted sense of humor like mine:
Neat little Star Wars touch too.

Well the Bigger Loser than Marko contest is now over. We've submitted our final weights and it appears that in fact no one is a bigger loser than Marko! (His staff warned us of his immense loser-ness, lol) Marko is the head honcho over at Youth Specialties and lost 60 pounds in just 12 weeks. Truly amazing. Here's his before and after photos:

Props to him for an amazing effort. For myself in 12 weeks I lost 21 pounds. That's 10% of starting body weight. I still need to lose another 15-20 pounds but now I believe I can. The formula was one I outlined at the beginning:
Eat good food
Eat less
Exercise more.

Rule #1 was I wasn't going to eat nasty tasting food that was "good for me". Food should be enjoyed. If the only way to be slimmer was eating horrible things I'll die fat thank you. Well it isn't. I gave up NOTHING. I ate chocolate and ice cream and pasta and bread and drank wine and everything. I chose better quality foods (brown rice instead of white, whole grains instead of refined) and ate less than usual. Add in several days a week at the gym doing cardio, weight lifting and swimming and the weight came off.

Slowly, sometimes very slowly but surely. And I feel great. Other than my socks and shoes none of my clothes fit any more. I have more energy, my brain works better (keep your comments to yourself) and my outlook is brighter. It's been great. And I'm not sure I would have done it without Marko's challenge. So thank you Marko. From the bottom of my heart.