5/26/13: Sunday is blogging day?

Whether it is good or bad, I don't know, but the fact is that I have been incredibly busy lately.  I am trying to meet some deadlines at work, deadlines that to the outside world would seem perfectly reasonable, but with all of the other things that come up every day at work, the deadlines keep slipping from my grasp.  Now, in an effort to get this weight off my back I have started working late every night (until about 8:00) and will work some weekends until I get it done.

The big deadline that is hovering over my head is getting year-end 2012 financials done.  I know, I know.  Year-end?  Shouldn't that have been done months ago.  And, yes, preliminary year-end financial statements were done months ago.  But you have to remember that I am new to this position and getting all of the asset and liability accounts reconciled has been an absolute nightmare.

The company I work for was started 15 years ago in the founder's basement.  We make an incredible product and by the sheer force of the product alone, the company now has about $20 million in revenues a year.  Along the way the company has hired some incredible engineers, which is why the product still stands out among the competition.  We've also developed some decent manufacturing practices.  Unfortunately, the books were never a top concern.  They were kept by someone that did not have any accounting background or expertise.  I was hired in August and I have been determined to clean up the books and make sure they are accurately telling the story.  This would be a big enough project without the myriad of other issues that keep getting in the way, projects like the factory in China.  I had no idea that China would take up so much of my time.  In fact, I am probably going back to China for a few days this week.  The relationship between the company I work for and the company in China is incredibly complex and somewhat of an enigma, even though we own 50% of it.  The biggest challenge is the difference in business cultures.  In the US we build business relationships on the basis of trust.  At the end of the day, we believe we can trust our business partners to try to do the right thing.  Yeah, everyone makes mistakes, we know that.  We also know that there are the occasional untrustworthy people out there that will try to steal from their partners, but for the most part business is built on trust.  The same cannot be said for China.  Listen closely to all of the stories coming out of China lately.  You will hear the same theme over and over and over again.  Corruption is rampant and pervasive, throughout the government as well as private industry.  In the attempt to get ahead in a country where the government "controls" everything, bribery and thievery are the ways an individual or a company can get a bigger piece of the pie.  It comes as a shock to the American business person when they realize that their business partner is not a partner at all, but an individual that is bent on getting the biggest piece of your company's pie as he can get.  It's disheartening and terrifying, all at the same time.  If you listen closely to the news you will also hear that many American businesses are pulling their manufacturing out of China.  Why?  I don't think it is because China is more corrupt than it used to be, but perhaps it is.  I think it is because it is no longer worth it to deal with the corruption.  China is no longer the ridiculous bargain it once was.  There was a day, not too long ago, when it was so cheap to manufacture in China that it was worth the risk and the hassle to deal with the corruption and dishonesty.  Not anymore.  With China's wages increasing, it is becoming more expensive to manufacture in China and solutions closer to home are getting more and more attractive.  Less corruption, lower shipping costs, easier logistics, less complex language barriers, fewer cultural barriers, the ability to automate so many more processes; all of these factors are starting to make manufacturing in the US or our close neighbors more attractive.  There are still some things to work out, like supply chain logistics, but keep listening to the news and you will begin to understand what we are up against as we try to keep the company in China running smoothly.  It certainly has been a crash course in international business.

There are also other parts of the business that I am getting involved in, that have nothing to do with finance and accounting, just because they are so in need of intervention that I can't help getting involved.  One of them is improving our employee benefit package.  I was disturbed when I learned that our cheapest health insurance plan was too expensive for some of our employees.  I was also not impressed with the package when I was hired.  I knew it needed to improve and I knew I had the expertise to make it happen.  I started talking about it practically on the first day that I was there.  Of course, talk is cheap and nothing was moving and it became pretty obvious to me that the only way it was going to get better is if I did something about it.  Human resources is often the department that is neglected by small companies, it is often a secondary function of someone that has other, more immediately pressing, responsibilities.  That is certainly the case at the company I work for.  The director that is responsible for human resources, and therefore the benefit package, wears many hats and has no previous experience in human resources.  With my 20+ years of experience working for small companies, I have way more experience working with insurance brokers and designing benefit packages than she does.  Therefore, about three weeks ago, I got the ball rolling on this.  I talked to my CPA who recommended three brokerage firms, we set up initial meetings that were attended by the manager in charge of HR, her assistant, and me.  After the initial meetings we narrowed it down to two brokerage firms, invited the president (who is running a company for the first time and also knows nothing about health insurance, benefit packages, or what you should expect from an insurance broker), and had second meetings with the two finalists.  One was a massive disappointment, the other blew us away.  That made the choice easy.  During our shareholder meeting on Friday we described the process to date and they approved our plan to switch brokerage firms and agreed with the direction we are going in regarding benefits.  Our plan is to offer a high deductible plan of which we will pay 100% of the employee's premium.  That way we will know that all of our employees have health insurance.  We will use that premium amount as the basis for what we will pay for the employee for the richer plans, so the employee will bear the cost of buying up.  We will also offer FSA's at a minimum, and may offer a qualified high deductible combined with an HSA plan, if feasible for a company our size.  I am very, very excited about these changes.  They need to happen.  Yet I am driving this change through someone else's department and it does slow down my progress in getting year-end financials done.  But sometimes I have to weigh the benefits:  Make sure everyone has health insurance vs. making adjusting journal entries to last year so I can tell the bank that the year-end numbers won't change again.  It's hard to choose reconciling a liability account over getting health insurance coverage for our employees.  The good news is we are going in the right direction on both fronts.  It's just that progress in one slows down progress in the other.

What impact has all of this had on my "Get Fit Initiative," you may ask.  None, really.  I get up very early every day and exercise hard, just like I have since February 2012.  I am trying to get to work a little earlier each day and I am working way later every night, so blogging is tough.  It's hard to sit down and put up a blog post when I think about everything I need to do at work.

Also, all of the hours I am putting in at work make maintaining my share of the chores at home just a little more difficult; therefore, I am using my time in the mornings to clean a little and make sure I am picking up at least a little bit of the burden of maintaining a household.  This is not at Jack's request, mind you.  This is something that is important to me.  It makes it easier for me, when I've worked a 12 hour day, to come home to a lack of clutter and to know that Jack has healthy food in the fridge to eat and doesn't have to wash my dishes.  The clutter is mine, by the way, not Jack's.  He is neater than me and puts stuff away as he uses it.  I tend to let stuff pile up on the kitchen and dining room table, or in the corners of the rooms.  He also does many of the chores around the house.  We've done a pretty good job dividing up our responsibilities.  So when I work 12 hours a day, the only time I have to do my part tends to be in the mornings, when I used to blog, and the weekends.  So, being very busy at work has sucked my blogging time away.

But my blog is important to me and it is important to others, as well.  I received a lovely email from a woman I used to work with at YBCA who told me that she has been reading my blog and that my blog has inspired her to start working with a trainer.  She said she has committed to exercising every day, for the rest of her life, and my blog helped her make that decision because my conversation helped her understand how important it is to her health.  Wow!!  Reading that email helped me understand that this blog helps more than just me, it helps others, too.  So I have committed to keep blogging, even if it is just once a week until my schedule allows me to blog more often.

So here's a quick update on my "Get Fit Initiative:"

• My exercise continues to go well with few changes to my routine.  I am strength training three times a week, meeting twice a week with my trainer and doing it once a week on my own.  I added the second meeting with my trainer for two reasons.  First, I was having a little trouble getting up on Friday mornings and driving to the gym, so I was starting to do makeshift workouts at home.  I was OK with the makeshift workouts, they were hard enough and in some ways the variety was good, but it was really laziness that was causing me to stay in bed for an extra half-hour.  Second, I had sessions that I had paid for and didn't use because of the transition period with Jeremy.  For a couple of months after he was promoted to manager he was still training me, but it was kind of "off the books" so we weren't scheduling the sessions on the system and using up the sessions I already paid for.  Therefore, since I was having trouble making the drive to the gym on Thursdays and I had paid-for sessions to use up, I decided to sign up to meet my trainer two mornings a week.  It has helped a lot.
  
  I do cardio three times a week.  On Mondays I swim, on Wednesdays I run, and on Saturdays I bike and run.  Some Saturdays I split them up, on other Saturdays (like today) I do them as a brick, and on yet other Saturdays (like next week) I add a swim and do a brick with all three.  Today, technically, is a Sunday.  Depending on what Jack and I have going on sometimes I flip my Sunday workout (strength training) with my Saturday workout.
• I am still eating more protein, which has caused me to gain a couple of pounds.  I am struggling to stay under 154 pounds, with my weight bumping up to 155 pounds at least a couple days a week.  On the one hand, I feel a whole lot better now that I am eating more protein; I am getting stronger and faster; and I look healthier.  On the other hand, I am eating some stuff I don't need to be eating (ice cream a couple days a week, candy now and then) and I could do better.  I am not eating any wheat, so that helps a lot.  I drink very little alcohol.  The last time I drank any alcohol was my birthday weekend (May 3rd) and then I didn't drink much.  But even the little I did drink caused me to feel kind of depressed for a few days afterwards.  It is just not worth it.  So the eating, for the most part, is fine.  I feel good about my decision to eat more protein, at least 100 grams a day, and not eat wheat.  Jack and I eat plenty of fruits and veggies.  Practically everything is homemade.  We eat no fried foods.  The only "dead foods" are clearly treats.  I suppose I need to eliminate those.  For some reason, that is hard to do.
• I have done a complete triathlon in training which is a 1500 meter swim, a 24 mile bike ride, and a 5 mile run.  I have run 5 miles in 50 minutes.  Those were two of my big three goals for the year.  The third is to be able to do a pull-up.  I am still a ways from that.  Now Ruth and I are starting to talk about a marathon (or a half-marathon) next year.  Maybe our niece, Elizabeth, will do one with us.  Setting new goals when I have accomplished my established goal is an important aspect of my plan.  Goals keep me motivated.  I'm not sure I could keep doing this every day if I didn't have goals more solid that "be healthy" to work towards.
• It is starting to dawn on me how serious all of the exercise is and how I have to take other aspects of training, like nutrition, seriously, too.  I bought some books on training for tri's to help me.  I find them difficult to read.  It just doesn't sound like they are talking to me.  On the other hand, I am loving the book I bought about total immersion swimming.  I am looking forward to becoming a more efficient swimmer.
• Jack is officially on the program.  He has lost several pounds, looks great, is eating better, and is exercising regularly.  It makes me so happy that he is doing these things.  I know exercise and good nutrition does not guarantee a long and illness free life, but it sure helps.  I want him around for a long, long time and it eases my mind that he is doing the things he can to make that happen.

I guess that's it for now.  It's getting late, I got to get out there before traffic gets ridiculous.

Have a wonderful day!!

Rain Delay, Catching Up, Getting "Serious," Pick your own title to this blog post...

I haven't been blogging much.  At first it was because there was not much new going on regarding my "Get Fit Initiative," not on the field or in my head.  I was getting up every morning, exercising, eating balanced meals without worrying too much about calories, going to work, getting plenty of sleep, blah, blah, blah, boring (you have to say boring in that sing-song sort of way to get the real feel for how I felt about blogging this information on a daily basis), so why blog?  There just was not much to say.

That changed about a week and a half ago.  I learned something substantial that I could have and maybe should have blogged about, but by then I was out of the habit of getting up every morning and blogging before work.  I was no longer relying on my blog to help me make good decisions day-in and day-out.  I had managed to fill that time with other things, like watering my garden (which is not doing well, by the way.  Aphids?  Perhaps.  I am not happy about that.), cleaning the kitchen, going to work a little earlier.  Nothing earth shattering, but all pleasant little things to do in the morning to get my day started on a good note.  In the back of my head I felt like I needed to write a blog post, but for some reason, I wasn't finding the time in the mornings.

This morning I got up early to go for a hard-push 24 mile bike ride.  I wanted to hit the road early so there would be very little traffic and I could get a feel for how long it takes me to ride 24 miles without obstacles.  Half way through breakfast it started pouring down rain.  I was going to ride my 24 miles in the country yesterday.  I picked my route, loaded the car, drove the 45 minutes to the starting point of my route, got my bike out of the car, loaded my snacks, etc... into my bike, locked the car, set the time on my watch, and mounted my bike just to realize that I was wearing my sneakers and I had forgotten to bring my bike shoes.  I have clip-less pedals on my bike, I need my bike shoes, I cannot ride my bike without them.  It was already late enough in the day that going home, getting my shoes, and coming back out was not an option.  I thought about riding close to home but the traffic here is heavy late in the day, so I decided to flip my Saturday and Sunday exercise and lift weights on Saturday and get up early Sunday morning and ride out from home; just to be met with heavy thundershowers this morning.  I checked the weather forecast and it was predicting rain all day.  So I changed plans again and decided to put up a long overdue blog post, clean the bathrooms and kitchen (yes, they need it), and go to the gym with Jack this afternoon.  Now I sit down to blog and guess what?  Blue sky.  *Sigh*  I'm going to finish this blog post and see what the weather looks like.  Perhaps I'll go for a bike ride after all.  The kitchen floor can wait one more week, can't it?

What happened a week and a half ago that was so important that it warranted a blog post, you ask?  I was working out with Joshua and he asked me, again, how much protein I eat.  I answered like I usually do and I said, "Enough."  In my mind, I was eating enough protein.  Through my years and years of reading about healthy diets and through my few years of being a vegan and learning how to get protein from non-meat sources I had come to the conclusion that as long as I eat a wide variety of foods, eat a balanced diet, and have protein with every meal, I am getting enough protein.  In fact, I was being pretty stubborn about that, and not really paying attention to the messages coming at me that were saying that I might want to rethink my theory on the issue.  I am no longer vegan, but one of the things I love about having been vegan for a while is that it completely changed the way I cook and eat.  I cook a much wider variety of food and I get protein from  a lot of different sources.  I eat chicken and fish now.  I also eat eggs and dairy.  I don't eat beef or pork.  I don't eat beef because of the tremendous amount of resources (water, land, grain, etc...) it takes to raise cows for beef and the destruction we are causing our planet (draining US aquifers and cutting down South American rain forests) so that humans can eat their daily hamburgers.  I don't eat pork...I don't know why...I just sort of lump pigs in with cows, I guess.  I try to buy poultry that is raised without antibiotics and other bad stuff that they do to chickens these days.  One of these days I will take it to the next step and find a local, truly free-range poultry farm to buy my chicken from.  Anyway...at this point my protein sources include poultry, eggs, Greek yogurt, aged cheddar, nuts (almonds, walnuts and macadamia nuts), tofu, tempeh, beans of all types, humus (OK - that's a bean), mushrooms, quinoa, etc...  I stopped eating wheat, so I am no longer using wheat gluten as a protein source.

I was confident that when I added poultry, eggs, Greek yogurt, and fish back into my diet I was getting plenty of protein.  I wasn't worried about it even a little bit.  I was just going on about my merry way.  In fact, it did seem pretty merry.  I am exercising so much that I was able to get kind of lazy about my diet and not gain weight, particularly since I stopped eating wheat.  So many of the high-calorie empty foods have wheat in them, that once I stopped eating wheat I could pretty much eat whatever I wanted and maintain my weight.

So when Joshua said, "How much protein do you eat?" and I said, "Enough," I thought that would be the end of that.  You see, in my mind Joshua and I have competing goals, in a way.  He is my personal trainer and with him my goal is to increase my muscle mass/lower my % of body fat.  I am also training for the triathlon in August, which is requiring a lot of endurance training.  Joshua has been concerned that all of the endurance training is sapping the nutrients that I need for the strength training to be effective.  I was ignoring his concerns.  Last Tuesday he wasn't satisfied with, "Enough."  He asked me how much I weighed and I told him 153 pounds and he thought for a second and told me I ought to be eating at least 150 grams of protein a day.  Now, I've never counted grams of protein before and I did not have any idea how many grams I was eating, but I knew that 150 grams was a lot and was way more than I was eating.  I was incredulous.  150 grams a day?  That's a lot!!  How am I going to eat 150 grams of protein a day and not get fat?  Joshua basically said that with the amount of exercising I was doing, my body required that much protein to stay healthy and strong.  No way, I said.

So I left the gym last Tuesday morning on a mission to learn more about protein and how much protein is enough.  I asked people I know that are serious about exercise.  I researched it on the Internet.  I talked it through with my husband.  I have more research to do and I will do it, what I'd like is a  really good book on nutrition, but what I have learned already had floored me.  By George, I think Joshua may be right.  Website after website after website said that people that exercise as much as I do, let's call those people athletes, should eat 1 gram of protein per day for every pound of body weight.  Other website calculate how much protein you should eat per pound of lean body mass.  Even the most conservative of those calculations puts me at 115 grams a day.  I did find websites that supported my actual average daily consumption of protein of about 60 grams a day, for a 150 pound average female that did not exercise at all, that is.  From my research I learned that my balanced diet was perfect for someone living an average life that did not include any vigorous exercise.  I exercise vigorously for an hour 5 days a week and for at least a couple of hours on the 6th day, if not more.  That requires more protein.

I haven't read all I need to read about protein yet, but I read enough to get a better understanding of the roles that all of the amino acids play in repairing muscle tissue, tendons, ligaments, skin cells, etc...  Crap.  I realized that I really am hurting myself by not eating enough protein.

So on day one (it will be two weeks on this coming Tuesday) I added up my projected (and normal) protein intake for the day.  55 - 60 grams was the answer.  I did a quick inventory of the food in the house and changed what I packed for my work day and got it up to 100 grams pretty easily.  Beyond 100 grams required some planning and more cooking.  More cooking of chicken to be specific.  For almost two weeks, now, I have been eating at least 120 - 130 grams of protein a day.  A typical day of protein looks like this:

• 2 whole eggs and 2 egg whites:  18 grams of protein
• 1 ounce cheddar cheese on eggs:  6 grams of protein
• 8 ounces Greek yogurt:  23 grams of protein
• 1/4 cup walnuts: 4 grams of protein
• 1/4 cup almonds:  8 grams of protein
• 1/4 cup macadamia nuts:  3 grams of protein
• 8 ounces of chicken breast:  50 grams of protein
• 2 ounces aged cheddar for snack:  12 grams of protein

For about 123 grams of "intentional protein."  There is also what I'll call "incidental protein" in the grains, mushrooms, veggies, and other foods I eat.  As I learned during my vegan days, there is protein in everything we eat, with the exception of most fruit.

Gone are my lazy, glorious days of eating whatever I want and maintaining my weight.  All of those protein sources have calories in them.  All of a sudden, if I am going to eat that much protein and still get the other essential macro-nutrients my body requires (namely carbs, the fats have themselves covered in the above list, between the nuts, avocados, olive oil, and occasional fish that I eat, I think I am OK on oil), I need to watch what I eat again.  Obviously, I'm not hungry, I'm not starving myself, I'm not trying to lose weight, but I have to make sure I eat the right foods so that I get the protein I need and don't gain weight.

This led me down a brand new path, a brand new thought process.  I realized that I needed to get serious about this.  Some people may find this thought somewhat amusing.  I know my trainer did.  When I came back the following Tuesday and told him that I realized I needed to get serious about this, that I needed to transition from being an "accidental athlete" to a "serious athlete" his response was, "You swam 1500 meters, rode your bike 24 miles, and ran 5 miles last weekend.  I couldn't do that.  Most people would call that serious."  Hmmm...yeah....I guess he has a point.

My point was this, I was taking exercise seriously, but I wasn't taking the ramifications of that much exercise seriously.  The fact of the matter is that that much exercise has an impact on every aspect of my life.

This is difficult for me.  For some reason I have a hard time "getting serious" about this.  I have a hard time researching exercise physiology.  I have a hard time treating my body as if it is the body of a serious athlete.  I have a hard time converting my whole way of thinking to how to optimize my body's ability to perform, recover, heal, etc...  I enjoy the anecdotal stories about how people's lives have been transformed by exercise.  I enjoy reading books like "Younger Next Year" that are written for lay-people (non-athletes) and are designed to motivate you to get off your butt and move.  I liked the slightly technical writing in "Younger Next Year," "Thinner This Year," and "Wheat Belly."  I learned a lot from those books.  They helped me make big, basic changes to my lifestyle.  But when I take the next step and start reading books written by and for athletes, I balk.  My head spins.  I dig my heals in.  I get frustrated and bored.  I feel like I am in way over my head.  I think, "This is not me.  They are not talking to me."  Yet, they are...  Oh my...  What a transition.  This is a hard one.

I am now convinced that I was not eating enough protein and my goal, now, is to eat at least 120 grams of protein a day while I am in training, which may just be for the rest of my life.  Since I have started to eat more protein I have noticed some significant improvements. 

• My run time has improved.  I ran 5 miles in 50 minutes last Wednesday.  I was pumped about that!!  That was one of my long-term goals and I reached it on Wednesday.  In fact, I didn't just run it, I ran it and had energy left at the end.  When I passed the four mile mark I had 9 minutes left.  I knew I could do it, so I turned it up and ran the last mile full out.  I was able to run the last mile of a 5 mile run in 9 minutes.  Wow!!  That's huge.  A year ago it took me an hour to jog-walk four miles.  That's improvement.
• I look younger.  Really, I do.  Even Jack has noticed it.  I would say I look about 5 years younger.  I looked in the mirror the other day as I was getting ready for work and was shocked by the face that was looking back at me.  The gaunt, kind of haggard look was gone and my face seemed fuller, my skin seemed tauter, and the dark circles under my eyes were much less pronounced.  I looked much healthier, all of a sudden.
• My elbows, which have been bothering me for a couple of months, are starting to heal.  I knew it was a tendon problem, because it wasn't the joints that were hurting, but the area on the inside of my arms right above and below my elbows.  I've been stretching those areas, avoiding exercises that hurt, etc..., but they weren't getting better.  All of a sudden, things that used to hurt (and they are odd little motions) don't hurt as much anymore.  After reading the role amino acids play in tendon and ligament health, I am not surprised.
• I'm in a better mood. In fact, I have way more energy.  I feel great.

I now realize that I can't concentrate on just part of an equation and get the answer right.  This being an athlete thing is serious business.  I can't be an accidental athlete and maintain it for long.  If I am going to do this thing, I have to do this thing all the way.  I need to get serious about nutrition.  I'm sure there are other things I need to get serious about, too.  But hey, one step at a time.  This seems like a very important step.

Perhaps you noticed in the preceding paragraphs about protein that I sort of mentioned the fact that I have achieved two significant milestones.  I did my first big brick last weekend.  I swam 1500 meters, I rode my bike 24 miles, and I ran 5 miles, back-to-back-to-back.  I did it!!!  I also ran my first 50 minute 5 miles!!  Those were two of my four fitness goals for this year.  My first one was to be able to do 12 push-ups from my toes, with good form.  I knocked that out months ago.  My final one is to be able to do a pull up.   I hope to get there by the end of the year.  But with three of my four goals attained, I feel like I need to set new goals.  The first thing that comes to mind is improving my times on my swim/bike/run legs prior to the August 17th tri.  What comes after that?  I don't really know.

There is a 200 mile bike ride through the Flint Hills of Kansas over the Memorial Day weekend that sounds like a lot of fun.  I think I want to do that next year.  Ruth and I are starting to talk about doing a half marathon next spring and a full marathon next fall.  That does not sound like fun...but it is starting feel doable and like something I may just try to do.  There is a lot to think about. 

The mental transitions from being a non-active person to being a serious athlete is every bit as difficult as the physical transition.  Perhaps it is more difficult, because it is a lot more subtle.  I can do this.  I will do this.  I am doing this!  But sometimes it is not easy.

 

5/7/2013: Challenges of "Maintenance"

I don't really think of what I am doing as maintenance, except for the fact that I am maintaining my weight.  With the exception of my not trying to lose more weight, though, I am still focused on improvement.  It's just hard to articulate that improvement.

Each week I try to run, bike and swim a little faster, I strength train 3 times a week to get a little stronger, I examine my body in the mirror every now and then looking for a more defined muscle; these are the types of improvements I am hoping to see.  It's all so subtle, though.  It's not like getting on the scale and seeing the numbers get smaller each week, it's not like watching that red line on my graph go down, down, down, each week, it's not like taking my photo every Sunday and seeing how much better I look each week as I lose weight.  It's all much more subtle.  The changes are happening on the inside.  I find that I have to remind myself of all the good things that exercise does for me physiologically.  Sooner or later this will be about maintenance.  I won't be getting stronger, faster, or leaner.  Any changes in my fitness levels will be so minute as to not be noticeable.

It's a lot easier to keep up the motivation levels when the changes are visible on a weekly basis, when I have something real and tangible to measure and to gauge my success against.  Now I have to replace those "easy" goals with far less tangible things.  I can do this, I am doing this, but I do struggle with it sometimes.

It was brilliant to give away all of my bigger clothes.  I don't own any pants that don't fit well.  They are not stretch pants, they are just pants, mostly in a size 6.  If I gain 5 pounds, they won't fit.  If I don't gain any weight but just stop exercising and get flabbier, they won't look good.  Today, they fit great, they are comfortable, and they look good.  But I can't gain any weight or I won't have anything to wear.  That is motivation!!  Every time I slip on a size six pair of pants and they fit like they were made for me I get a little boost in my spirit. 

The triathlon is in August, I know I'll be prepared for that.  It keeps me motivated to run, bike and swim every week.  Working out with my trainer keeps me motivated on the strength training.  Jack is serious about losing weight, so that is keeping me motivated to cook healthy food and keep good meals in the house. 

I'm a little worried about Julie, she hasn't blogged since Saturday.  When I mentioned that to Jack he said, "Well you haven't either."  I responded with, "But I've reached my goal." Still, blogging helps.  I'll reach out to Julie today.  She was concerned about all of the opportunities to eat and drink too much in May, starting with helping her daughter move to Dallas, followed by Cinqo de Mayo celebrations.  I better check in with her and see how her weekend went.

I also haven't seen anything on Elizabeth's blog lately, either.  I'm thinking about her and hoping all is well.  I'll put a comment up on her blog this morning to make she is doing OK.

I've been in a little bit of a funk lately.  I got too tired when we went to Utah last week and perhaps I haven't snapped out of it yet.  Maybe I miss blogging.  Perhaps I miss the goals.  I drank a little over the weekend as part of my birthday celebration, that could very well be it, too.  I'm maintaining my weight very consistently between 150 and 153.  Yeah, I wish I was maintaining between 147 and 150, but I can't seem to bring myself to restrict calories enough to get below 150.  151 - 152ish seems fine, I think.  Maybe I'm not playing enough.  I have to give this some thought.  I told Jack yesterday that I need an attitude adjustment.  I do believe that is true.  I'm going to work on that.
 

5/4/2013: It's Been Awhile

At least you can't accuse me of not giving fair warning.  I know it's been awhile, but as I said in one of my most recent posts, there is just not a lot to write about anymore.  It's all become routine.  My exercise, what I eat, my goal to complete the triathlon in August, it's all just taking care of everyday business.  And as my dad said the other day, "Routine doesn't make very good press, does it?"  So, there hasn't seemed to be much reason to blog and bore you with the day to day of my work-a-day life.  On the other hand, Dad did call the other day, just to make sure I was doing OK, and it made me realize others may be wondering the same thing.  Therefore, I thought I'd write this brief note to let everyone know that all is well.  Well, as well as it can be when it snows on May 2nd and I have to cover my garden and pray that the peppers and tomatoes survive the cold snap.  Snow in May?  No, that part is not OK.  Also, I was going to do my practice tri today; a 1500 meter swim, 24 mile bike ride, and 5 mile run.  It's raining and 36 degrees out right now...yeah...that's not going to happen.  So I will spend an hour on the treadmill at the gym today and postpone the brick until next weekend.  I really thought I was done running on the treadmill, so that sort of bums me out, but aside from the weather, all really is well.

I love being thin, by the way.  Sometimes I will get a pair of pants out of the closet to wear and they will seem so small and I will think there is no way they are going to fit, then I slip them on and they fit perfectly.  I'm still surprised by that.  Yes, it feels good.  Running and swimming is getting easier all the time.  I much prefer running and cycling outside to the treadmill and stationary bike, so now that it is warming up exercise is less of a chore.  My last brick was doable enough that I believe I can add the swim portion and still get it done.  I've shaved a minute of my swim time, by the way.  Last Monday I did my 1500 meters in 34 minutes rather than 35.  I am going to keep working on that.  I am hoping to get to 1500 meters in 30 minutes before August.  I don't know if I can improve that much, but I am going to try.

We went to Utah for five days to celebrate Brianna's graduation.  It was a jam packed 5 days, with a lot going on at work and with all of the kids.  I was waking up early every morning and working remotely, then rushing to get a shower before Jack and I started our day of planned activities with the kids.  The result was NO exercise for several days and I felt very stressed and worn down.  By Monday of this week I started to develop a cold and by Tuesday I felt pretty crappy.  In spite of the cold, I exercised on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, because I didn't get to exercise enough the previous week.  By Thursday I was feeling way too worn down and I knew I needed a break, so I took the day off.  It's amazing how much that helped.  I started to feel like I was on the mend by Thursday evening and I actually felt pretty decent yesterday, which was my birthday!!

It was great to be able to watch Brianna and Kyle graduate.  We are so proud of them and all of our kids.  I kept thinking (and saying), "Wow, six out of six kids have graduated from college, and none of them have any student debt!"  Brianna and Kyle plan to stay in Provo for a year while Kyle applies for PA schools.  Both of their current employers said they can work full time and they have a comfortable place to live, so that makes a lot of sense.  We have our fingers crossed for Kyle that he will be able to get into a good school for the fall of 2014.  It's a competitive field!

My birthday was pretty low key, which was totally fine.  Turning 51 seems a little anticlimactic, after all.  Jack got my car detailed for my birthday, which is awesome!!!  I love getting into my brand-new looking car, now.  No more stains on the upholstery, the windows are spotless, no dust or dirt anywhere...I love it!  We also went to dinner and the movies last night.  We saw 42, a movie worth seeing.  We both agreed that the movie presented a softened and sanitized version of events, but it was a heart warming and inspiring story about a couple of strong and determined men at a pivotal point in US history.  It was a good choice.  Turning 51 hasn't brought about the same epiphanies that 50 brought, but having a birthday does make me reflect a little and helps me stop to celebrate how absolutely wonderful life is.  Yes, it keeps getting better.  I love the 50s!!!  It all seems to be coming together nicely.

Work is going well.  I love my job and the people I am working with.  We seem to have made it through the worst of the crises and now we are plugging away at wrapping up year-end 2012 and planning for the future.  We still have some lean times ahead of us and need to carefully manage everything, but slowly but surely we seem to be working through the critical issues.  I am very happy at Castle Creations.

So, there you go.  Life's life.  Work, marriage and home life, exercise, travel, family...what's there to talk about?

Here's to a great 51!!