Up North (& Out There doing it)

A definite favorite outing of all time

D was sick again with his usual coughing stuff (thought the sick season was over) and so I convinced him to let me put him in a stroller and have him go out for a run with me. We haven't done this together in a long time, at least since he could talk, maybe at least 3 years (?).

With a little prodding and a small little bribe (one episode of 'Special Agent Oso' when we get back and a 'Little People race car from Target), I convinced him to go to the North County Trail with me.

At the last second, I threw the iTouch into the stroller as well and the 42 lb D, the 21 lb stroller and myself heading out.

It was completely awesome and one of the best runs I've had in a long time. It just felt so good to be out there and D really seemed to enjoy himself.  And I only had to tell him one little fib.

He was insistent that we only go '1 mile' and I knew in his mind that was just arbitrary, he had no ability to determine how long 1 mile was and I knew I wanted to get at least 3 miles in so I just adjusted how long it took us to run '1/2 mile' before turning around (read 1.5 miles).

It was slower than slow, but so much fun.

I couldn't keep thanking him enough for making my day.

 

Reposted on RunningThree65 (I'm going to do this from time to time).

 

Out there doing it

Took the older little guy to his first organized soccer practice. The whole adventure started yesterday by going to get him some soccer cleats at the local sporting good store.

And when we got there, he was a little clingy, but I think he'll really get into it.

In my unbiased opinion, I thought his hand - foot coordination was really at the top of all of the kids. Although, he likes to follow the rules in big groups so he'd only shoot on the goal when the teacher told him it was his turn.

He also was very concerned with how many people were watching practice -- he wanted a little smaller audience. We'll see how the 6 weeks go.

Will D understand 'Work' at all?

I've been working from home quite a bit in 2010 so I'm always curious what this concept will translate to as D and G get older (this wasn't even remotely a possibility when I was growing up and in fact, just talking to Dad during the business day was a big deal).

But D is funny. He asks me what I'm doing that day and then does a spot check against what I'm wearing.

For example, today he asked "Are you working?" (I didn't yesterday because G was sick) and I said 'Yes'

To which he said, but you are wearing that (t-shirt and cargo shorts).

To which I said, true, but I'm just working from home today.

"Oh, OK"

"But sometimes, when you go to work at the office, you wear those shoes"

The shoes he is talking about are my green cap toed Stan Smiths. Which is true, I used to work with a friend who was a sneaker head and he got me into really expanding my desire for Stan Smith shoes (picked these up at Undefeated) and so on Fridays I would often wear jeans, collared shirt and my Stans.

So funny that D notices these things.

Even crazier, if I say that I went to the City and am not wearing pants -- another 'red' flag that he calls me out on.

Secret Life of D?

It was fairly obvious to us that D might not be going to bed after he is quiet. In fact, the evidence tonight pointed to perhaps he was sitting at the top of the stairs, with a party blower just listening to us.

Very interesting.

One of many 1sts -- all in one move

An astonishing number of firsts, as I'm opening up my WiThings scale, in an attempt to liven up and continue the progress 23 lbs less of me initiative. (let's be honest -- weight loss and dieting is a real snoooooooooooooooooooooooooooze). 

So I bought this little number, and to be honest, it was a little bit of a stretch, spending $150 on a scale, but let's talk about the firsts, first.

First 1st -- Twitter-sourced purchase.  @Dens was tweeting about giving this to his sister for Christmas and said that @Jack gave him the idea.

Second 1st -- This, at the time of purchase, almost felt like a purchase for technology's sake. (Never a good move, but I've been accused of that before).

Right out of the box, its presentation is Apple-esque and very beautiful (quite shocking for a scale. Fired it up, and what I loved about it immediately was it was an electronic scale that gave you an immediate reading.

We've had two other scales in our house since Aug 4th. The 1st was an electronic scale that worked great, but I hated waiting, waiting, waiting only to get an 'Errrr' in the morning. Weighing yourself in the AM is rough enough without having to deal with that.

That scale was replaced by the old school 'normal' scale, but while that gave an immediate reading, I was never convinced that it was giving good readings and since little curious fingers could adjust the zeroing out -- didn't feel confident in it and sometimes went to check in on the old electronic scale.

If you do stick around on this new scale, it tries to calculate your BMI.

All of this (and here's the ringer on why I got this thing) is uploaded directly over your wireless network to your own personal tracking website.  The scale is quick enough to recognize different people and all of that.

My only disappointment is that I didn't have this on Aug 4th, when I started this whole weight loss insanity stuff.

Here's to a healthy waist line in all of 2010.  If I get real brave, maybe I'll even let you all take a peek.

What's really going on here?

So 6 days into this whole Atkins thing, a couple of things have become remarkably clear (and some have nothing to do with Atkins)

(1) Major factor to the excess baggage -- eating just a touch when feeding the kids.  It has been eye opening how many times I've had to stop myself.

(2) I freakin' love Pizza and Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwiches (the later, especially on the weekend).

(3) Vegetables have definitely been sold short by me.

(4) Julie & Juila -- horrible flick to check out when you've decided to go on a diet for the first time in your life 5 days before. (otherwise -- not that bad for what it is)

And some Atkins observations:

(1) I am eating steak, bacon, etc that I typically would feel bad about eating but its part of the plan and that's great.

(2) If you want a light snack, its very hard to come up with something quick, and all of the Atkins 'food' that you can buy in a Duane Reade  are super double chocolate fudge, or caramel chocolate crush (making those names up, but you get the idea). 

What I really don't like about it -- there seems to be a real gap in healthy based snacks that are pre-proceeded and produced by Atkins.  Eating junk has to be a number one contributor for most people's interest in a diet in the first place and having these types of 'shortcuts' to help out seems to do nothing but develop additional bad habits (maybe its one of those self fulfilling prophecies).

182.5

182.5. That's what the scale read when I got back from a fun, but physically activity unsatisfying vacation this past Sunday.

182.5 -- that's some serious weight for me. That's over 40% heavier than I was heading off to college (ed note: I was pretty skinny) and 20% heavier than I was leaving college (all muscle I assure you :)).

But that is really besides the point. The point is I feel lousy, am always tired and just don't think it should be that way (even with two kiddos under 4).

So on the way home, I made up my mind. I'm going to do something I've never done -- I'm going to try a diet (strangely enough, I recall 180 being by Dad's trigger point too back when I was little).

Atkins, here I come.

Sometimes, at 3, there is nothing more exciting that being under the table while out to eat.

The Whiteness

I have got to say -- I think my teeth really are whiter than they've ever been. Once you get over the 'bleachy' type of residue smell, this stuff is pretty good.

Perfect Week, after dreadful start

So how many signs do you ignore?

* Getting AC installed and the electrician says "I'm no plumber but you are going to want to fix that cracked pipe over your water heater"

* Getting the pipe replaced and the plumber says "I think I can give you a week on this hot water heater"

* Plumber says "Turns out, the hot water heater is dead and you need to replace it. You are out of hot water when this tank is done"  (we're supposed to go on vacation)

* Plumber installs new hot water heater, but not correctly. Takes two days to fix.

* Paint we just threw on the walls looks drastically different than we expected.

* Start on 6 hour drive with the kiddies and 90 minutes into it, 3 lights in the dashboard of the car go off.

You always have to wonder how many signs to you ignore?

Well, we managed to ignore them all and its paid off with a great week at the Lake.