Big daddy

Well I missed my posting deadline. Sorry.

Buisness first:

Starting weight: 230 lbs
Current weight: 218 lbs
Total loss: 12 lbs

So Todd, congrats, you gained a pound on me. Hope you enjoy the brats and nachos this weekend!

I have been continuing my running. I had a long run of about 4 miles and other runs of 3.5, 3 miles, and 2 miles. I have had a couple of days with multiple runs. I have also been trying to add some push-ups and crunches.

I have been particularly busy at work and this has provided me with an excuse not to keep up with 'My Jesus Book.' I hope that I can get back on that and keep with it. I have found that the more I read, the easier it is for me to pick up on things going on around me that shout GOD at me (other than my patients, followed by explitives). I'm going to his some Ephesians next.

I am considering setting another goal following my competition with Todd. I think that my weight loss goal will be to get down to my marriage weight by the time I become a daddy. This would mean getting below 210 (208 to be exact). I don't think I've seen that since I got back from my honeymoon.

Praise God.

OUR GOD IS GREAT AND POWERFUL AND AWESOME!

I wanted to share with you something that happened yesterday.

Now, if you've been reading this blog since it began, you know that I don't believe in coincidence. If you know me personally, you know I'm not delusional (most of the time). So that's the disclaimer for the following. I was talking to one of my patients yesterday, on the unit, near the nurse's station where a few employees were talking. I overheard them talking about mystical / wican practices. I began to pray to God that he come into the hospital and fill it with His Spirit. Immediately (and I'm talking within 2 seconds) the nurse manager was called away to a meeting and she asked another employee to go off the unit and the other employees went off to do other things. Their conversation just stopped. I have been trying to be a good example to them and I am encouraged tremendously that God would answer my prayer so immediately. Now some may write that off to coincidence but I MUST BELIEVE that God answers the prayers of His children. My spirit was lifted by this event and I write it here so that other's might be uplifted.

Be encouraged and HAVE FAITH, God is with us and He answers prayers.

It's Tuesday! Time for the fantasy football report! I can feel the anticipation building inside you already. Your insides are screaming "JUST GET ON WITH IT. I CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!" So, before you explode, here it is: I won 4 of 5 games this week. That is good. I'm undefeated in one league and completely defeated in another.

Now, it may seem slightly wrong that I reported my fantasy football information before I gave the report on Angela's doctor's visit yesterday. However, fantasy football is exciting. Our (her) doctor was not available due to the insensitivity of another woman (actually 3 other women) who decided they'd just go ahead an give birth when their doctor was obviously busy. So we saw a nurse, did the heartbeat and measurement thing and left. Nothing too exciting. Braden is the exact size he should be at this time (boring). Seriously though, I praise God that Bra-dizzle is in good health (Angela too).

Got to keep it short today, I have a lot to do at work. For those of you who read 'My Jesus Book' I will have both yesterday's and today's post up tonight. I think I'm going to do some new testament stuff for a little change of pace.

Praise God.

I never in my wildest dreams thought that the following words would ever seep through my lips (assume I'm talking while I type this): I enjoy running. I don't get it. There is no fun in running, no game to play, I'm not good at it, I really don't understand what is going on. But nevertheless, I have found myself enjoying my nearly-daily runs. I ran 2.5 miles Friday night. I ran 3.2 miles Saturday night, and I got up at 6 am this morning and ran farther than 3.2 miles (I haven't had an opportunity to measure that one yet). I did not walk to work this morning, but I feel that the running made up for it. Oh, yeah, I should clarify that my walk to work is 4.6 miles, not the 6-7 I thought it was. Oh well. Anyways, this phenomenon of running is odd and I actually feel good about it when I'm done. Another note, thanks to Shaun (and almost Andy) for the advice on water and breathing, I have had far less trouble on my last two runs.

I had a pretty good food weekend, despite the fact that Angela made home-made pizza (which is probably my favorite food ever). I weighed in this morning (after my run) and the following resulted:

Starting weight: 230 lbs
Current weight: 218 lbs
Total loss: 12 lbs

This is the first time I have been under 220 in probably 2 years, maybe 3.

I hope every one had a lovely weekend. I've missed reading blogs for the last three days. I'm telling you, it's like CRACK! So please, please, please, write in your blogs if you have one, post comments if you don't, and have a nice day!

Well, it's Thursday. That means it's time for another weigh-in. But first I want to discuss this exercise phenomenon. I have been reading up on running... on Andy's blog (see link in the left column for more information) and I thought I'd give it a go. So last night I ran. I ran from my driveway to a given destination of unknown distance from my house. The good news is, I did it! And I didn't die. The bad news is, I thought I was going to die. I don't know what causes this but I was running and I got a sharp pain in my ribs area. Inspired by Andy's story of perseverance (it's a good story, you can read about it at andyschmickle.blogspot.com) I pressed through the pain until I reached my destination. Once there, I stopped and tried to regain my breath (which I figured out later, I had left at home). Once I gained my composure, I began walking back home. I walked a ways and then decided that I should man up and try to run back home. So I ran. Apparently I'm overweight and out of shape. I ran about 1/4 of the way back and had to stop for fear that I may have to amputate my torso to alleviate my discomfort. So I walked the rest of the way home. So that's the story. Anyways, on to business.

Starting weight: 230 lbs
Current weight; 220 lbs
Total loss: 10 lbs

It seems that I've entered some kind of holding pattern.

Praise God.

An odd thing happened last night.

I came home from losing a nail-biter softball game and sat down in my favorite chair to watch a little TV before I went to bed. Nothing I normally watch was on and my DVR was empty so I ended up watching a new show called 'Smith.' I didn't get to see the whole show so I really had no idea what was going on but that's not important anyhow. What struck me as odd was that during the final scene of the show, the main character (who is a professional thief) came home early in the morning and went to wake up his son. He sat there in a chair by his son's bed and stared at him for a while. He then brushed the kid's hair back with his hand in that loving, paternal, TV kind of way and what happened.... a little tear came to my eye. What the..? I started conjuring up these images in my head of me and my son and (this might sound creepy) watching him sleep. It was a new experience for me. They say a man's hormones change when his wife is pregnant. This could explain both why I was getting choked up during a TV show I didn't even watch and why I can't hit a softball to save my life. I'm pretty sure I'm going through MAN-o-pause. I'm pretty sure this goes away with time because I know lots of guys with kids that can hit a softball.

Praise God.

In case you haven't noticed, the left column of this blog has all sorts of interesting notes, links, etc. The most interesting one is the note and link to My Jesus Book. Take a look.

So, it's Tuesday. That means all of my scores are in for fantasy football. I did a little better this week. I won in 4 of 5 leagues including the two I won in last week. So that is nice.

I walked from Angela's office to my own today. It's getting cold. I'm trying not to be a wuss but I really don't like the cold. As stated in an earlier post (see Turning over an old leaf) my plan is to continue my walking regiment until I wuss out. I am hoping that this will not be untill after my weight-loss competition is over, but if it get's much colder in the mornings... [smacked me in the face]

Myself: Snap out of it you pansy!!
Me: Owwww!
Myself: You've got a da' gum contest to win. You can't go on letting a little thing like the weather get you down (condecending voice, not an encouraging one).
Me: Fine! But you don't have to take that kind of tone.

Anyways, I'm pretty sure I'll find the motivation to keep going.

Praise God.

Have you ever heard that saying "When you borrow your mom's boat, something will go terribly wrong."? No? Well you have now.

So, I wrote about the awesome weekend that Angela and I had with some friends this past weekend, however, I did leave out one small incident that caused some mild stress and discomfort. That story goes as follows: A couple of weeks ago Angela and I went down to Shell Knob to familiarize ourselves with my mother's new 24' pontoon boat. She warned us about some slight difficulties she had been having getting it started out of the boat slip but Don (her new husband) showed me a neat trick to make the big boat work. I was instructed to report back to her any problems that I had with the boat this weekend. Here's how that conversation went:

Mom: Hi, so you had some problems with the boat? (I had been talking to Don earlier and she had overheard his end of the conversation)
Me: Well, yeah, you could say that.
Mom: What happened?
Me: Well, Shaun, Andy and I went down to the boat and got it all ready to head out and pick up the rest of the group. We had a little difficulty getting her (the boat) started but I didn't think much about that because you had warned my about it earlier. So we went on our way, the boat ran well. We filled up on Gas at Campbell Point marina and had a little difficulty again getting started. But it worked out. We picked up the rest of the group at the lake house and headed out to find a place to fish and swim. We drove around a few min and found an area that looked good and decided to stop. We cut the engine and were ready for some fun in the sun. However, there was a stiff breeze blowing and it just happened to be blowing us in the direction of a large rock bar. As we got within about 15 yards of the rock bar, I jumped behind the wheel and tried to get her started....No luck....I tried again....no luck....We were just getting over the gravel bar (my attention at this point was wholly on the ignition) and I tried again.... Lucky me! It started up and as the propeller started it hit a rock and broke a blade off the propeller. I got out and pushed the boat off the rock bar (creating some chuckles on board when I couldn't get back in the boat) and got back in. I then decided that the water was not so bad and I jumped back in for a swim. When I came around the back of the boat to get back in, I checked out the propeller and found the blade problem. This caused some concern. I alerted the passengers and we decided to head back toward the lake house. As you could probably imagine, we had some trouble getting the engine started. To make a long (45 min or so) story short, we made a lot of attempts to get the engine started again and we failed a lot. We ended up docked to the Kanakuk camps dock (empty at this time) as our mechanics (thank God for Mike and Cory) worked on getting us under way. They did and we decided that we would not cut the engine until we got back to the boat slip. And it was so.

Mom: Well, that happens when you have a boat.

Seriously? That's what happens....I'm never buying a boat.

So, that's my story. It will be a good one to tell for years to come. I'll probably have a follow up story about how I tried to replace the propeller blade by myself and how hilarious that was (I haven't tried this yet but I could probably go ahead and write the story).

Moving on to another topic. It is Monday and it's time for a weigh-in. I would like to mention that I successfully completed another trek from home to work this morning. I completed the walk in 10 min less time than last week. It seems that my weekend did not impact my goals as negatively as I had imagined. My stated goal was to break 220 by this weigh-in. I did not break 220 but here is the result.

Starting weight: 230 lbs
Current weight: 220 lbs
Total loss: 10 lbs

I'm pretty happy with this and will set my goal at a reasonable 3 lbs by next Monday's weigh-in.

Praise God.

I go away for a weekend and I come back and find two more bloggers to add to my blog links. This is exciting.

I just had a great weekend with my wife and some good friends of ours. We went to an AMAZING lake house (7 bedrooms, 9baths, great view). It was wonderful. In a previous post I referenced that it was going to be a difficult weekend to maintain my healthy eating. It was. I did very well until Saturday night (resisting an amazing breakfast and having a sensible lunch). It does make me feel better that Todd had his "free day" on Saturday, so I may not have fallen too much. Saturday night I consumed a few more nachos than I should have and I could have resisted the adult beverages. Today I ate a decent breakfast and we ate Chinese for lunch (but I didn't eat it all) so I don't feel too bad about that. After reading Andy's blog (for more information see "blog links" in the left column) I feel that I am wholly inadequate to even consider considering calling myself a healthy person. So Andy, thanks for smashing that small glimmer of self-confidence that I had in myself. Just kidding.

Tommorow I will be sharing an incredible story about a different side of this getaway weekend, look for that.

I hope you all are having a wonderful day, night, or morning (whenever you're reading this).

Praise God.

Just yesterday I was thinking:

Me: "What is the point of writing in a blog that no one reads?"
Myself: "Well there's the weight loss tracking thing and it's kinda fun to do.
Me: "But no one ever leaves any comments for me to read and that is really discouraging."
Myself: "Suck it up, whiner."

And then something amazing happened! People left comments on my blog! I was so excited to see that this morning. I was just telling Angela last night that she needed to post comments (to make me feel better) and I was half expecting both of the comments I found to be from her (you can still post comments honey). So anyway, thanks for the kind words and know that I appreciate any comments, even if it's just to say you were here and read my blog. If you are asking yourself, "how do I post a comment on your blog?" then here is how.

1. Scroll down a little
2. See that off colored word that says 'Comments' preceded by a number (hopefully not 0)?
3. If you answered yes to #2, click on that word.
If you answered no to #2, keep looking and then come back to the beginning of #3.
4. Type in your comment in the box provided.
5. Click on the Publish button.
6. Feel good about yourself for learning how to use new technology.

Helpful hint: I would like to know who you are. So if you are " anonymous said* " then include your name, social security number, and the numbers of 2 major credit cards (also include the three digit security number on the back of the card)........Or just your name, whatever.

Keep the comments coming in, I'll keep the posts rolling out.

Praise God.

*For more on this topic see "I am easily influenced by my peers" posted Sept. 7th on this blog.

Well, today we are only 10 weeks out from Braden's due date. 30 down 10 to go. Last night I stayed up late again cleaning out what used to be my closet and is now Braden's closet. The closet is clean... now everything is out in the middle of the room. So tonight guess what I'll be doing! As we close in on counting weeks in single digits, the % of thought that is baby-related continues to increase, as you could imagine. At work I've been talking to my boss at every opportunity to insure that someone will be hired to cover for me prior to my leave. At this point there is no one to cover my job when he is born. At home I spend much of my time preparing one thing or another for Braden's arrival. And any free time I have I am generally looking a baby-related stuff on the net. In general I am enjoying the experience of getting all of these things taken care of (some of them should have been done a couple years ago anyways).

An interesting note about fatherhood (or pre-fatherhood actually): Even in this era of increased expectations that men will assume greater responsibility for child-rearing, nearly all resources on becoming a parent cater to the mother. I am signed up to receive newsletters from Babycenter.com and even though when I filled out the profile I stated that I was the FATHER, every single newsletter refers to "mother's like you." There are a handful of websites dedicated to expectant fathers but they are second-rate compared to those available to mothers (and nearly all of them focus on two things: money and changing diapers). The one resource I did find that was pretty good was the book "The Expectant Father" written by a guy that found pretty much what I'm finding as far as quality resources for fathers-to-be.

Ah, yes. It is Thursday and I'm required to post my weight loss progress (even though Todd has been holding out on me). It was a disappointing morning, though I can't say that I'm surprised. The last two days have not been my most disciplined and I haven't done a lot of physical activity (unless cleaning out the closet qualifies). So here it is:

Starting weight: 230 lbs
Current weight: 222 lbs
Total weight loss: 8 lbs

Yes it's true I GAINED a lb over the last three days. But this has provided me with a little extra motivation to be more vigilant with my eating discipline and reinforced the fact that I must also exercise. I walked from Angela's office to mine today and plan to do the same tomorrow. Monday will be my next walk to work from home experience. My goal by the next posting is to get under 220. This may be difficult because this weekend I'm going to the lake with some friends and we will probably be having some good eats. Hopefully I'll manage that well.

Praise God.

My feet hurt.

I estimate that I have walked between 10-12 miles in the last two days. My poor lazy feet weren't ready for that. I have some quite painful blisters in the middle of each foot. However, my resolve is strong! I will resume my walking tommorow, despite the pain. I figure I'll develop some tough feet over the coming weeks.

They say that when you start a diet (if you want to call it that) you lose the most weight in the first week and then you actually have to work to lose it. I'm not so much looking forward to that. I'm at about 10 lbs down from my start weight (an official count will come tommorow) and yesterday was probably the hardest day so far. I felt like I was starving almost all day.

This wasn't the best fantasy football week for me. I won only 2 of 5 games. However, the 2 I won are in the 2 leagues I most want to win in (co-worker league and the league my dad and friends are in). I'm also in a league at church but since I missed the first 4 rounds of the live draft and got quality picks like Joseph Addai and Jake Plummer, I don't hold out much hope. The other two leagues are public and I don't know anyone in them.

Tommorow will mark the 10-weeks-til-baby mark. I'll have some comments on that tommorow.

Praise God.

When I was a freshman at SMSU (now Missouri State) I lived in a residence hall on the far north side of campus (Hammon's Hall). This required me to walk a considerable distance to all of my classes and any other activity going on around campus. I was also walking to Christian Campus House multiple times per day which added to my walking significantly. On top of this, the parking situation was dire and once you found a parking spot (especially one close to the building) you never moved your car. So this promoted walking to destinations off campus as well. The point is I walked a lot. In combination with generally not horrible eating habits I lost about 25 lbs my freshman year.

Today I walked from my home to my office. I estimate that this is between 6 and 7 miles and I completed this feat in just under 1 hour 20 min. I actually quite enjoyed the experience (except for the developing blister on my left foot). My new plan is to make this trek once a week (probably on Mondays) and to car pool with my wife and walk from her office to mine (probably about 2 miles). This in an effort to meet two goals. One, to beat Todd in our little weight loss thingy. Two, to accomplish a goal I set 5 months ago, to be more healthy when my child is born. To date I had not really done anything to accomplish the second. I will totally wuss out when it gets too cold, but until then, I'm walking.

As for my required posting of progress in weight loss:
Original Weight: 230
Weight this morning: 221
Total weight loss to date: 9 lbs

It should be noted that I ate at Ryan's Steakhouse and McDonalds over the weekend. However, I maintained discipline in my eating and feel pretty good about my eating despite the overwhelming desire to eat steak until my eyes fell out and french fries until my arteries jammed.

Praise God.

WOOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!

FOOTBALL IS HERE!!!

Last night was the opening game of this season of NFL football and consequently fantasy football. I am managing 5 fantasy teams this year along with a handfull of other fantasy related teams. I'll probably keep some kind of record as to how those teams do on this blog.

It is interesting to me that now that my wife and I are expecting, most of my thoughts turn toward "what if's" of the future and pondering about what my son will and won't like/dislike etc. I was contemplating earlier whether or not he will like football, if so, what team(s) and so on. It's an odd new way of thinking about things. It also makes me think of how my father's interests influenced my own as I grew up. Dad likes Golf, so do I. Dad is a Cowboy's fan, this is my team of choice (stop laughing and/or groaning). It makes me wonder what my child will pick up from me... and what he'll reject (that's the scarier part, i think).

On a completely seperate note: I have issued a chalange to fellow blogger and friend Todd. I chalanged him to a weight loss competition. Over the next six weeks we will be documenting our progress on our respective blogs. We should be reporting each Monday and Thursday but to make an official report this week I will post today.

Starting weight: 230 (from the start of Todd's blog not this one)
Weight this morning: 227 lbs
Total loss (not including my latte today): 3 lbs

Hope your day is blessed!

Praise God.

Seriously...

I have a blog?

Stop laughing.

My main motivation for starting this blog is because I don't want to be "anonymous said" on other people's blogs anymore. But as I think about it, it would be interesting to keep some kind of public account of my daily actions. As I enter a new phase of my existance on this planet (becoming a father) it might be interesting to document this experience and get feedback from Todd, the only person who will read this blog because he sits at his computer all day and he owes me for reading his!

So I will be daddy-tracking and sharing any other random thoughts here. Posts will be short and easy to read because I don't have time to type an essay every day.

Praise God.