What a Beautiful New Year's Eve Morning

Plans for this weekend...not a good situation as far as I'm concerned. J and the kiddos are traveling to LA for a belated Christmas on the farm with her family and because I drew New Year's as my holiday on call this year, I have to stay home ALL weekend (including Thursday) and answer my pager. So, it's just me and the dog bringing in this New Year together. Still, I'm thankful for my job and am just glad that NEXT year, I won't have any holiday call. :)

I got to Memorial Park this morning for a workout before the fam packed up and left. It was a pristine morning, nice and cool, just perfect. I had a real treat this morning of running into my friend Reuben. It's funny because I haven't seen Reuben in over a year but I was just talking to J about him yesterday. No lie!!! Reuben is an incredible man and I won't take the liberty of saying much about him on the internet without his permission but suffice it to say, Reuben is an inspirational figure in my life. I was telling J that as inspirational a person as Reuben is, he has always encouraged me in my running and in my weight loss and always said that I inspired him. This never made sense to me as the complete opposite is true. Anyway, it was GREAT to see him this morning and get to talk. Like always, Reuben left me with some words I've been thinking about all morning. He said, "Vic, you have to have your health. Your health will help protect the things in your life that you love, your family, your kids, your career." And I'd add to that my relationship with God. He's so right and that's why this time, I've got to get healthy and STAY healthy, for the rest of my life.

If I make it through December

Yes, it's been a while since I've posted. That's not to say that I haven't been fully engaged in my quest to lose weight and live a more healthy lifestyle. Well, fully engaged may be stretching it a bit.

Just before Thanksgiving, I looked at the checking account and noticed I was spending quite a bit of moo-lah on weekly visits to the dietitian and with Christmas looming, I decided to give it a go on my own for a few weeks. To quote Catherine the Great, "This isn't the most opportune time to cut loose on your own, Vic." (or something like that). Of course, as always, she was correct. I got a little busy and a bit complacent over the following weeks. I happened to NOT do too much damage on the body mass front. When all the pounds are added or subtracted, I'm just about even to where I was at Thanksgiving. Believe me. It could have been worse. The area where I REALLY faltered was my running/exercise. I only got out 5 times in December and managed to log a dismal 15 miles.

Gearing back up this week, I ran 2 on Monday and just felt GREAT!!! The plan this week calls for 2 on Monday, 2 Wednesday and Thursday, 3 on Saturday, and a mile walk on Sunday. I opened a new log for 2009 and planned out the next 4 months of training as well on another spreadsheet. Here's a little sample of the spreadsheet that I use to plan my training.

I've got formulas in the Goal Weight column that set a 2 pound loss for each week based on the current week's weight. So, even if I lose 5 pounds this week, next week's goal weight will still be 2 pounds less. That way each week is new and the goal is always 2 pounds. I know. I'm not explaining it very well. No biggie. The point is I'm trying to get motivated and get my planning and record keeping set up for the new year.

Well, I'm off tomorrow. That's the good news. The bad news is I'm on call the next 4 days. Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. Blech!!!