She was like most others, a little sexy, a little crazy and a whole lot of unpredictable. Irene could have been a real big mess for us. We were lucky, no trees fell on our house, no massive floods (though we live on high ground) and only the inconvenience of a power outage. And let me tell you it is an inconvenience at worst.
Three and a half weeks ago, I took inventory of my goals for 2011 and realized that I was falling short on the most important one of the three. I’d set out to lose 30 pounds in January and hadn’t changed a thing about my lifestyle that would get me on track.
I’ve been “on weight watchers” now for three and a half weeks. I’ve had some ups and downs, but overall I’m down by 5.5 pounds. That’s 18% of my goal, in just three weeks.
I expected being “on weight watchers” to be difficult. I’d done the program before about 10 years ago and it was frustrating. I felt like I couldn’t eat any of the things that I wanted to eat. As many people know, I love food. I’m not just talking about a casual love affair with food, I’m talking about a full-bore passion for food. Nothing makes me happier than to spend an afternoon cooking a huge meal for friends and then sharing it with them over a few beers and some wine. I was worried that making changes to my lifestyle would put a damper on my cooking.
But it really hasn’t.
For one thing, the program has changed and there is less emphasis on fiber as the solution to all woes, less emphasis on processed sugar alternatives and more of an emphasis on eating the right amounts of all kinds of foods. I can use olive oil, sugar, even butter. I don’t have to deprive myself of the good things in life. I can have a real beer (not a watery light beer) with my meals and not feel guilty.
I even cooked chicken parmesan twice in these three weeks. And that would have been out of the question on the old program.
Of course, I’m also way more active than I was ten years ago. Not as active as I’d like to be, but I logged about 120 miles on the bike in March. I’m keeping track with a great little app on my iPhone now called cyclemeter so next month I won’t be estimating my miles.
MapMyRide – B&A and BWI in Severna Park, MD.
I have wanted to ride the entire length of the B&A and the BWI trails in one trip for about a year and a half. Earlier this week, my friend Ken emailed me suggesting that we ride the two trails and so we made a plan to get out on the bikes on Saturday around 7:00 AM. Ken and I had never ridden together, but that turned out to be of little consequence. From my perspective at least, we seemed to be equally matched in terms of skills and pace so riding together turned out to be a lot of fun. Sometimes when you ride with someone you quickly learn that they are either faster or slower than you, or that they really don’t want to ride with you as much as meet up with you at rest stops. That’s a drag. That was not the experience with Ken.
I live about a mile from marker 5 on the B&A trail, so we left from my house at about 7:30 or so and headed north on the B&A. The B&A is relatively flat and straight. I’ve been riding it for two and a half years and know it well. In the past I’d never really carved out the time it would take to add the BWI trail to the ride and have usually turned around in Glen Burnie for a trip back down the trail. Once or twice, I’ve started on a little connector trail toward the BWI trail but I never had the guts to go for the rest of the ride. Having someone with you on a ride sure makes a difference. More »
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On a regular basis, I stop at the local Starbucks (which happens to be in the Safeway) for an Americano on the way to the office. Usually this is because I’ve failed to get up early enough to make coffee before leaving the house. There are two people who work the morning shift on alternating days at this Starbucks. One is kind of grumpy most of the time, but the other is a very cheerful woman named Karin who appears to be older than me by about 15 years or so. She has recognized me for quite some time but recently she’s started chatting with me.
At 6:00 AM, with no coffee and an hour ahead of me in the car, I probably look pretty grim. I have been told before that I look like I’ve got a frown on most of the time. That’s the French blood in my make up, I believe. At any rate, Karin always tries and is usually successful at getting me to smile. This morning she said, “I’ve got the perfect New Years resolution for you,” and before I could respond, “you should smile more often. You’ve got a great smile.”
Well, that did it, I was grinning from ear to ear and noticed that smiling actually lifted my mood. So, I’m going to attempt to take Karin’s advice and smile more often. It just might actually be good for my health.
Is this what a mid-life crisis feels like?
I’ve been obsessed with things that I’d like to do, but haven’t lately. Yesterday at lunch all I could talk about was all the four wheel drive vehicles that I’d like to own. In no particular order they are:
None of these would be practical for the daily car, but they sure would be fun to drive – particularly on the beach for a day of surf fishing.
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