Short trip to St George

The family just got back from a short trip to St. George.  It was I believe a fairly successful trip.  Here are a few details:

1. We rented a condo.  This enabled us to prepare our own meals helping to ensure that I was eating according to my meal plan.  The condo helps feel like you are at home and helps save a few $$ on meals.  You do spend more for lodging so overall it pretty much comes out in the wash.  We did eat one dinner out.  Went to an interesting steak house called Anasazi.  Steaks cooked on a rock.  Now there is a novelty.  We passed on the fondue appetizers.  Plenty tempting, but knew I did not want all the fat in the cheese.  Had a very nice steak, grilled veggies, crisp green salad with raspberry vinaigrette (on the side).  Dessert proved a bit hard to resist.  I did resist the chocolate fondue but instead shared a Creme' Bruele.  I have a hard time passing up Creme Bruele.
2. No problem keeping up the exercise.  The Condo complex had an exercise room at no additional cost that to say it was complete would be an underestimation.  Life Cycles, treadmills, all sorts of weight machines and free weights.   It had everything that I have been used to using in the Wellness Center at Utah Valley Regional.  I got in a full work out for the two days we were there.
3. Took the family to see Disney's The Little Mermaid at the Tuacahn Theater.  We had front row seats which came in handy as we occasionally hot a little hit of mist or water splashes from the stage.  This helped keep us cool on a hot summer's night.  The play was top notch.  The talent level of the cast was fantastic, the set designs were amazing and the special effects were great.  The show runs Monday, Wednesday, and Friday nights through October 21st.  Our family highly recommends seeing this production.  Our kids loved it and as adults we felt that they found a way to make us feel like we were a part of the action and not just watching something on a stage.

Life keeps moving on.  So far in the challenge 23 pounds have melted away, 7 inches have been lost from the waist, blood pressure and blood sugar levels are so good that I seem to not even worry about them any more.  Good stuff.  It is certainly worth the efforts.

Sweet sucess with the help of friends

This morning I did something I have never done before in my life.  I climbed Y mountain.  I have lived in Utah Valley for 36 of my 52 years of life.  Yet I had never attempted to climb to the Y.  For those who are unfamiliar with Y mountain, here is a photo. 

After the past two months of good physical exercise I thought I was ready to take on this new challenge.  My physical routine includes treadmill, biking, and elliptical.  These work the legs and give good cardiovascular exercise.  It did not take long to for me to realize that I was not really ready for such a hike.  The trail to the Y is 1.2 miles long and has a series of 10 cutbacks.  By the time we hit cut back one, my legs were well beyond feeling the burn.  My heart was pumping, pumping, and pumping.  Sweat was dropping like rain.  At that early stage I wondered if I could really make it to the Y.  It was great to have the support of my two sons, Joshua, and Chris and my daugter-in-law Sherry.  Had I been on my own, I may have given up at about the halfway mark saying that I just wasn't ready for this hike.  Chris would periodically say "Come on dad, you can do it".  Sherry keep me in conversations that allowed my mind to think of other things beside my aching legs.  When the going got rough, the trail steep and it took every ounce of energy I had to take just one more step, Joshua would put a hand on my shoulder and give a gentle push.  That little push certainly lightened my burden and made my steps so much easier.  My thanks to Josh, Sherry and Chris for being there with me.  I could not and would not have done it without you.

Sherry, Joshua, and me at the Y.  Picture taken by Chris

Joshua, me & Chris at the Y.  Picture taken by Sherry

On the way down, as we got close to the end of the trail, we saw three athletic type young men sprinting up the trail.  Man, oh man.  How can they do that?  It took everything I had to make it and I was simply walking.  My body feels plenty sore ... just enough to appreciate the exertion that it went through and the fact that I did accomplish this goal.

Wow, am I surprised!!!

My work day yesterday was extra long and physically taxing.  When I arrived home after 10:30 pm, I could hardly walk.  My dogs (feet) were barking with pain.  My legs were stiff and sore.  My back ached.  Simply put, I was exhausted.  It would be an understatement to say I was suffering.  I woke up at 3:30 am hurting so much that I couldn't sleep.  The last thing I wanted to do was go do an hours workout with JD at 6:30 am.  Frankly I didn't think by body could take the hour long workout. 

I mustered up all the inner motivation I could find and got myself dressed and drove the 20 minutes to the Wellness Center, thinking all the way that I would probably not last for the entire time.  Well surprise of surprises I did last the whole hour.  And the biggest surprise of all .... I no longer feel the aches and pains from my work day of yesterday.  I am not stiff and sore.  My dogs have mellowed right out.  My back has just a minor soreness, which seems to be par for the course recently.

I would never have attempted to do a workout feeling the way I did had it not been for JD.  Knowing he would be there waiting for me, I just couldn't stand him up.  Lesson learned from this, for future times this happens ..... if the body aches, go ahead and proceed with a workout because I will feel better physically afterwards.

Indulging

Yesterday was one wild and crazy day.  Physically demanding and emotionally draining.  My eating was challenging.  Challenging in the sense of finding time, or taking time to eat.  I got in a quick breakfast, a bowl of cereal & milk and a granola bar.  Lunch I sneaked in a half a ham sandwich and a banana.  Dinner is a whole other story.  I did not stop moving at work from 4:30 pm until 10:00 pm.  No way I was going to be able to find time to eat a meal, let alone one that would be healthy.  So my dinner consisted of Sub Zero Ice Cream.  We invited Sub Zero to provide their products for the Girl's Night Out event at the American Fork Hospital.  I was hot, tired, sweaty and hungry.  It was a real treat to have ice cream once again.  But as my Father-in-Law says "You have to pay for your thrills".  Right now it is 4:45 am and I am paying for the thrill of eating ice cream by sitting in front of my computer with a stomach that is empty and deprived and a body that is shaky, in needs of nourishment.  It is too early for me to eat.  One thing I have learned is how to spread out, or time my meals and snacks.  I don't want to throw this off so I will just wait for for another hour to get a little something to eat.

So was it worth it?  Yep!  But it will probably be a long time before I do that sort of thing again.

A shout out to the foreign blog readers

I have blog stats that are available to me.  One of those stats shows is a list of countries that readers of the blog are from.  I find it interesting that there are readers from Denmark, United Kingdom, and Germany.  This just blows my mind ... someone from another country reading my little old blog.  If you are one of these blog readers that live outside the USA I say ... Welcome my friend!  Thank you for your interest.  Knowing that you are there serves as an inspiration to me.  Please leave a comment letting me know how you found my blog and a bit about who you are and where you are from.

Occupational Hazzards

For those who don't know I am the Food & Nutrition Manager at the American Fork Hospital.  I jokingly refer to myself as the Food Dude.  I am around food constantly at work.  It has been challenging to keep my eating at work in check and I feel that I have done quite well each and every day.  That was until Tuesday of this week.

I am on the Food Products Committee for Intermountain Health Care.  We meet once a quarter.  During that meeting we evaluate new products, or products that we may want to change due to pricing, quality, availability, etc.  Evaluating means tasting.  Tuesday's meeting we tasted Chicken Breasts, Chicken Nuggets, Chicken Tenders & Chicken Wings.  Chicken is good right?  Well Chicken Nuggets & Chicken Tenders are fried.  Chicken Wings have skin on.  I could have done better.  Where I was in a group of people I didn't want to do the Joe Slanic method which is to chew until you get your satisfaction and then spit it back out.  That just wouldn't be the professional thing to do in  this setting.  But I could have had just one small bite of each item.   But no ... I had to do what I was taught .... eat everything on my plate.  And then I must admit I went back for more Chicken Wings.  I wanted to make sure that they were as good the second time around as the first time around.  During the sampling I ate enough to totally blow through all of my protien for the day.  I'm sure my fat allowance was overspent.  Not as bad as our Nations' Debt, but on the same road.  My biggest failure of the day however was the Oreo Brownie.  I could have had just one bite, or maybe even two bites, just to feel like I wasn't totally depriving myself.  But by this time of the day I was already feeling like I had failed at my eating plan, so what difference could it possibly make.  I ended up eating 3/4 of brownie.  I know at least I did not eat the whole thing .... but I did eat way more than necessary.

Yesterday I found myself having the hardest time controlling my food cravings at work.  It took more effort to eat well than I have experienced to date.  Could this have come from my indulgence of the previous day?  I hope I can get back to where I had been ... and that is able to look at the food and say, that looks good, but not have the overwhelming urge to fulfill my duties in quality control by tasting everything to ensure that the food we serve is up to standard.

Changing it up

I can't believe I did it, but I truly did.  During my 30 minutes on the treadmill yesterday, I ran for 11 of those minutes.  I have never liked to run or jog, just for the sake of doing so.  I never found any thrill in it.  But yesterday I did it for 1/3 of my time and didn't mind it.  Why did I do it?  Just thought I'd change it up a bit.  Could this be a sign of the changing times in my life?

Half Way Report

Well the challenge is now half over and I can honestly say it has been a blessing in my life.  Life changes that are for the good have brought about results that I can only be thrilled to have achieved.

• Weight lost - 20 pounds (only 5 more pounds to reach the goal I set for weight loss in the 100-Day challenge ... looks like I'll have to reset that goal, darn it 
• Inches lost in waist - 7
• On a current string of 15 consecutive days of having a blood pressure less than 120/80
• Extra energy
• Added endurance

What's not to like about this.  It has not been easy by any stretch of the imagination.  It has been work, but I sure love the payoffs from that hard work.

Once again my sincere thanks to all who are following my progress and giving me encouragement.  You are a big part of the motivation that keeps me moving forward.

Veggie Straws

I found something that I have enjoyed that I thought I would share, especially with my fellow heart challengers.  It is Veggie Straws.  I bought them at Costco.  I would imagine that they are probably availabale in gocery stores too ... I just haven't looked for them yet.  These Veggie Straws are a nice crisp salty snack.  They are made with potato flour and potato starch along  with veggie flavorings.  Each package counts as one carb serving and one fat serving.  They remind me of Pringle Chips to a certain extent.  It is nice to have a salty snack that can be fit in with the eating plan.  Each package (serving size) is a nice amount to eat, but then these straws are mostly air so you get a little optical illusion.  Anyway I like them.