Weekly Check In - July 27 - AKA - Bounce Back Week!!!!

Bounced back in a big way this week!!! Lost 8 pounds baby!  After a tough week last week I hit my calorie goals all but one day this last week, but Frank and Lola's was totally worth the cheat and you need that occasionally!!!  I am also getting very excited about school starting.  I am in a great new school building (well, new to me, the building has been around for over 100 years.) With a great new room.  It's so big I feel like I need to put a couple of goals at each end!

MY NEW SCHOOL BACK IN THE DAY!

 I got some great training this week at our local Great Expectations training from two wonderful trainers (Thank you! Rhonda, Jentri (who is a finalist for Oklahoma State Teacher of the Year) and follow middle school campers for making the week GREAT.)

SOME OF MY FOLLOW GE CAMPERS

And thank you to my wonderful wife for allowing me to still get my workouts in AND time in my classroom.

Milestones:  I swam a mile Saturday with my face in the water all but the 50 meters of back stroke I would do at the end of each 350 meter set, and my last 800 was two minutes faster than my first 800. I also kept up with Renee for the most part in my 3rd 350 m set! Renee swims a lot and is sooooo smooth in the water. I want to be like her when I grow up (as a swimmer that is!) The life guard even commented that I looked much strong at the end! Also walked/ran a 5k on Friday and felt great after.  I starting to dig this exercise stuff more and more!!!

Remember to leave a comment on my SEE'S CANDIES post for the opportunity to win some of their awesome lollipops! Click Here to Read and Enter!


and here's my week folks!!! Hope to have a few more like this along the way!

See's the Moment

One of the perks of being married to a popular blogger is the swag.  Companies are tapping into the power of bloggers and inviting them to visit and in exchange for a little swag the bloggers tell the world about their experience.  Because of this new market we have seen Stomp! gotten and given away boots, received some awesome grilling tools and given away lots and lots of gift cards and so on and so on...  Because she is the administrator of Oklahoma Women Bloggers (If you are a Woman and a Blogger check it out) This last week my awesome bloggy wife was approached about gathering a group of bloggers for an event in the State Capital,  OKC baby!!! I was a sweet deal!  Literally!!!

On the way down to OKC the younger girls and I were making plans for what we were going to do will mom/wife was at her bloggy thing.  Would we find an arcade, hang out at the hotel pool or maybe go to the Apple store and play. Then the wife got a text from one of the bloggers:  "Got to work tonight!" then another, "Stomach bug! You do not want me there!"  Sooo  I took John Keatings' advice: “Carpe Diem! Seize the day. Make your lives extraordinary.  I told her that I know I am a newbie blogger but I would be more than happy to step in if needed.  She called the organizer of the the event who said, "Sure, the more the merrier! Can you please send his blogger address so that I can send it to the store manger so that he will be expecting him."  He only slightly chuckled at the irony of sending the "Former Future Fat Man" into a chocolate store.  


Soooo, we checked in to our Hotel. Then made our way to the Penn Square Mall for The Event! We checked in with mall security and were escorted to a little slice of black and white checkered heaven on Earth.  See's Candies has opened a store in the Mall.  When you walk in to a See's Candies Store (See's Candies is a Berkshire Hathaway Co. BTW - Mr. Buffet likes quality you know) you first notice the candy case with rows and rows of chocolate goodness.

 Everything is Black and White as a nod to Mary See's kitchen.  Mary was the mother of founder Charles See and her image is the face of the company.  You will see it hanging in every See's Candies location. We sampled  and sampled and sampled and it was glorious.  Truffles, Chocolate enveloping creamy peanut butter, hazelnut, almonds, everything was great.  Everything is sold by the pound. You can buy pre-packaged candies or have them box up your favorites right there in the store.  As a matter of fact we got to pack a box just like Lucille Ball did in the iconic scene filmed at the actually See's Candies plant.  If there is not a See's Candies in your area you can always order on-line as well. See http://www.sees.com/.

The See's Candies staff were courteous and attentive and very accommodating.  When Steve the counter guy asked the name of my blog, he only chuckled slightly and then proceeded to point out all of See's Candies lower sugar and lower point (for you Weight Watcher's out there) offering, of which there were several.  My favorites were the sugar free peanut brittle and  Summertime (only 3 grams of sugar)  They also have assorted Lollipops that last and last and last for only 2 Weight Watchers' Points. They are a great way to get that little sweet treat on a calorie budget.  Also last Saturday was National Lollipop Day. So in honor of See's Candies Grand Opening in OKC and National Lollipop Day and because this blog is focused on healthy living, I will be giving away a Box of See's Candies' Lollipops. 

To Enter Leave a comment on this post telling your favorite way you get your sweet on while working with a smaller calorie budget.  I will randomly select a winner Thursday at 7:00 CST.  Sorry, due to shipping cost this contest is only open to individuals living in the Continental United States. 

Weekly Check In - July 21st

This week real life slapped me in the face, Hard!!!  I gained two pounds this week.  This my friends was a product of poor planning.  Up to this week I have not had to really deal with "real life" in regards to my diet and workout routine.  With no true work commitments I would sit down in the morning and plan out what I would eat for the day and when I would work out, taking in account this trip to Tulsa and that birthday party and would plan accordingly making adjustment to workout out more or eat less strategically, but this week that went out the window. First off, work started for me with two days of training, real work ya'll, followed by an unexpected trip to The City, which included an unexpected attendance of a blogger event (my first as a blogger) at See's Candies (more coming on this later, with give aways) and a trip to our favorite burger joint and one of you favorite breakfast places.  Because of this I made some poor choices (some not intended) this week.  Some like too much chocolate at See's was totally intended, but in my defense I thought the water park had a real pool.  This along with backing off the mileage of walking and biking this week, I just needed a little break to let the knees recover,  led to the gain.  I take full every delicious morsel of chocolate responsibility for it, and will be back on track for this week.  Which will require tons of planning as I have four days of job training each of the next three weeks and then the real job starts!!!!  Did I mention I had a great week and I feel awesome lately!!!!  Soooo, here's my week folks!

Weekly Check In July 13

Milestones:  Did an indoor Triathlon - 500 yd Pool - 8 mi Bike and 1.5 mile walk Total time - 1 Hr 38 min -

Begin Couch to 5K - Did all three days - was planning on doing each week twice but that was so easy I am moving on to week 2 next week.

Had three people this week ask if I had lost weight - Yay finally showing!

Post this week:

On Wednesday I talk about A GREAT Program my younger daughter is in and how it is impacting my family in So It Begins.

On Thursday I talk about my experience with Listen To Your Mother (see mine and the wife's readings) in The Day I Became and Mother - Which Drove Me To Be A Blogger.

Here is My Week:

The Day I Became a Mother - Which Drove Me To Be A Blogger- Read and Listen - You Won't Be Sorry!

As a few of you know my wife blogs (Check her out HERE), has been for a loooong time.  As a matter of fact she is a very good blogger and author (Check out her books) and public speaker and teacher and mother and wife, but I digress.  Because of this two years ago she told me about this little show called Listen To Your Mother.  She thought about submitting stories to Austin the year before but didn't because it just seemed a little too far.  Then two awesome ladies, Stephanie McCratic and Lela Davidson (Check out their blogs and Lela's books) brought Listen To Your Mother to Northwest Arkansas and Heather jumped in with both feet. She submitted several stories and was chosen for the cast.  Her experience was so powerful that she and another great Oklahoma lady, Misti Pryor enlisted the help of Julie Bohannon and produced an AWESOME show in Oklahoma City.

After sitting in the audience and watching a lot of the videos on You Tube from previous years, I had a few story ideas floating around in my little head and I had a conversation with one of the Oklahoma producers that I happen to sleep with.

Me:  Hey, what would you think if I submitted a story to Listen To Your Mother?

Oklahoma Producer (My wife):  Really? (In that high pitch disbelieving way) Sure if you read, I will just not read.

Me:  You have a book coming out! YOU ARE NOT NOT READING!


So I secretly wrote a story and submitted it to NW Arkansas Listen To Your Mother, and lo and behold I got an audition and not just an audition I got cast in the show. So on May 30th of this year I officially became a mother!  It was an amazing experience getting to sit in the audience and become a part of the lives of all of these wonderful women in Arkansas last year and OKC this year as they shared their stories with the world, but being on that stage this year myself was a surreal experience.  The love and support you feel from the audience is indescribable. I had never considered myself a writer, but by expressing myself in this way I learned a lot about me.  Which lead me to begin this blog and start this journey to be healthy.  Which I hope allows me to be apart of many Listen To Your Mother Show for years to come.  If you have a story. Write it down.  You won't be sorry.  If it happens to be about motherhood please consider finding a Listen To Your Mother Show in your neck of the woods and submitting your piece.  Again you won't be sorry.

Below are the links to Heather's and My stories from the last two years and a link to the Listen To Your Mother Video Room.  Do yourself a favor and spend some time in the video room. You won't be sorry!

Heather's piece from last year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aAaVRx7hd8s&list=PL6D7EDFB11FF2EA58&index=4

Heather's from this year:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PYlW5YJCqE&list=PL5oPQWgVdsDnFSbpGeEBhNXh04CjuNSLu&index=1

My Piece from this year:  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=rCIHgyX9sF0

Listen To Your Mother You Tube Page:

https://www.youtube.com/user/LTYMShow/featured

So It Begins!!!!

My younger daughter is an active being.  She has to be moving.  She rarely sits through a whole movie and does not like reading.  Why, not because she doesn't like the stories, not because she struggles; she is an excellent reader.  It's because it would require her to sit still for an extended period of time, and by extended I mean 10 minutes.  On any given day she does no less than 100 cartwheels, shoots baskets, jump on the trampoline, rides her bike, shoots some more baskets, practices pitching and runs around the block. If she is not moving, she is really, really tired or sick, and sick usually doesn't slow her down much.

Last year in an attempt to get the older daughter off the couch we signed both girls up for a program at our local YMCA.  The program is called Girls Rock and Run.  The program runs for 12 weeks, two nights a week.  In the beginning the coaches talk with the girls about empowering themselves, positive self image and other life skills with small physical activities.  As the program progresses the coaches start moving the girls into a walk/run program similar to Couch to 5K which culminates in the group participating in the Run the Streets (Another great Y program) 5K in the fall.  Registration, a program run shirt and a new pair of very nice running shoes are covered in the cost of the program.

Both girls completed the program last year, and the older daughter can now claim to be a 5K finisher, but the younger daughter has been bitten by the running bug.  She loooovvveees GR&R.  On the way to this week's session she even told me she wants to run a marathon, and I have no doubts that she will.  As a matter of fact I see her, more than likely, embracing triathlon as well.  This kid love to swim and bike as well.  I'm sure she will be a future workout partner for me.  Knowing this motivates me to quickly get to the point where I can keep up with her or at least not slow her down too much.

I highly recommend Girls Rock and Run.  It is a great program for empowering young girls to become strong, fit, confident young ladies.  I know mine have.

Younger Daughter crossing the finish line of her 1st 5k

Weekly Check In - 7/6

Milestones this week:  Played basketball twice this week and didn't die, actually held my own.  Swims are feeling more productive, with the drills Mr. Kause has given me I am feeling these workouts more and my catch is sooooo much better.  Thank you Colton!!  I also made to through the holiday with no major binges.  Probably ate more than I needed but did not completely binge like I normally would have.

Realizations:  Dropped another notch in the belt this week.  Which surprised me when there was no loss on the scale, but I am feeling much stronger and one of the girls said something about my muscles the other day, so there may be some redistribution going on.  Not pinning everything on the scale, but I do like to see it go down.

Hope everyone had a great and safe Independence Day and I challenge everyone to try at least one new thing this week.

Here's my week!

Thanks You Mr. Lock and Mr. Jefferson

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness. 

One of my most favorite subjects to teach is US History.  It fascinates me how the philosophies of John Locke and the documents created by our founding fathers have stood the test of time and how the struggles of so many years ago can still be being haggled over today.  We are still having an arguments over States Rights over 200 years later.   If just goes to show you we are NOT learning from our history well enough.  

When I teach the Declaration of Independence in my 8th grade US History classes.  I always start the lesson by finding the following letter on the floor in my class.  I always seem to find it on the floor between two girls and remind my class of my policy of reading "passed notes" to the class. Usually the students have already experience this at least once by the time we get to the Declaration.   I then start looking over the letter and tell them "It just may be a little too juice to share." and of course they beg and plead for this juice gossip.  I remind them that I did just find it, not sure it was actually "passed", but they really insist that I must reading it.  You know it is policy after all.  So I begin reading.  As I read, the wheels are turning.  Names of couples in the school are being tossed out everyone has there idea of who the author is.  And when I get to the end...


I'm not sure how to start is letter, but we need to talk.  I've been thinking about us a lot lately. Things use to be great.  It was like we were M.F.E.O.  I mean everyone said it was perfect.  I really thought we would be together forever, but then things changed.  

I feel like you started taking me for granted.  You just started doing whatever you wanted and never even asked me about anything or how I felt.

I've been thinking about this for a while now and I don't want to hurt you, but I think its time we broke up.  I mean it's just not going to work.  I need some time by myself to see what it's like on my own.  I'm sorry it didn't work out, but I do think you are the one to blame. Sorry, but US is over!

Sincerely,

The American Colonies

.... there is complete silence as it sinks in.  We then talk about how the Declaration of Independence is just the most famous "break up" letter of all time.  It's one of my favorite lessons of the year.  This also leads to a deeper study of John Locke's Natural Laws from which Mr. Jefferson drew frequently as he wrote our Declaration.  Most boldly proclaiming our unalienable right to pursue happiness.  

As I watch the happenings around the world most recently in Libya, Egypt and Syria just to name a few, I am thankful everyday that I live in a country where this tenant is being live out.  I know we are still a work in progress.  That many in our country are still have to fight for this right, but our Founding Fathers and Mr. Locke had it right.  Every person no matter who they are or what they believe has the right to pursue happiness. I am also thankful for the service men and women, past and present, who have or are putting themselves in harms way and work tirelessly throughout our world to make sure me and mine continue to have this right and to give this right to more and more people across our globe.

Happy Independence Day!!!