I found running to be an outlet for my busy mind. As you can tell by my writing, I don’t hold thoughts well as my mind is usually racing from thought to thought. When I run it isn’t much different as I first thought, but as I get into my groove, I find my thoughts begin to disappear and I can focus on one thing. Right now that one thing is reaching my goal of making it 2.5 miles of jogging w/o stopping.

When I first started this spring, I started on a treadmill. Poor thing took a beating from my Phat arse I am sure, but it kept me sweating for 20-30 minutes a night up at the Dilworth Fire Hall. I finally felt good enough to get out and hit the road early this summer. The first time I went out, the road kicked my butt. My problem was I couldn’t get a good rhythm to run. I wanted to run with a long stride (like I used too) but would tire way to quickly. After a few nights I started to really feel I was getting back into things.

Sadly last month I hurt my foot/ankle. I don’t know how but just walking on it caused pain. I was able to get back out and run again a few weeks ago without any pain, but it feels like I am starting all over.

So now I have to get back into the swing of things. It is important that I lose 40 pounds before I gain another 10 pounds. It is unrealistic for me to lose it, but with my work schedule pushing 60 hours a week, finding time to run is incredibly hard to find.

I am going to start again this week and hope to continue (even through my vacation).

One item I am definitely looking to purchase are some good running shoes. I am hoping to use the money I have made from http://www.sadtrombone.com to buy an nice new pair. Then I can run like the wind, or maybe a slight breeze in my case.

All of the hoopla is over now though and traffic to my site have dwindled almost back to normal. It was a great ride while it lasted. It has even given me some inspiration for another single purpose web site, but we will have to see how that pans out. Until then … www.sadtrombone.com

How most people spend their money is being debated by the economist, but the targeted recipients historically will not use all of the funds to pay off debt, but instead will use it to purchase more goods and services.

Because the part of the Midwest that I am in is not “suffering” the same effects as the rest of the country, I have decided to do what I can to help the economies that need it the most. Wanting to enjoy the extra cash this year, but still do something good for the economy, I decided that I was going to use the majority of the money to go to Michigan and spend it there.

Michigan’s economy has been suffering for several years now and it is likely to suffer even more unless the auto industry rebounds and is able to bring the Michigan economy out of what some are saying is a “one-state recession”.

The state is struggling to deal with over three years of large job losses, a distressed real estate market and a populating that has been steadily declining.

I would like to challenge 130 million stimulus check recipients to use spend the majority of their stimulus check vacationing to some areas of the US with struggling economies. Michigan is just one example of a state with a struggling economy. There are several other states that have great tourism opportunities and would be a great place to vacation too.

We haven’t received our check yet, but we are already making plans to vacation in Michigan for a week this year. We are expecting to have a great week and we hope if enough of us follow suit, we can make a difference for the states residence.

The bet is that if she loses another 10 pounds and I lose 15 pounds before June, we are going to take a little trip away from the kids. I tried to think romantic so I told her I was thinking about renting a room for a few days at a nice hotel somewhere between Dilworth and the Twin Cities. Her response to me was that if I did that we could “Go all the way!” I guess that means she wants me to drive to the cities. [rimshot here]

It is a good time to start this. A friend of mine sent me a link to a photo that projected what I would look like in another 3-5 years on my current course. Let me tell you people… this is not pretty! See below!

I have been real good about making the right choices while eating and have eliminate almost all soda from my diet. The result is the weight has been coming off well, but I got to thinking. I stay up all night anyway, why not head to the fire department and run on the treadmill for 30 minutes?

That was a month ago. Seems every day I was going to get my butt over there, but I never made it. Tonight was different though. For some reason, it just had to be tonight. It was Gages birthday, so I had to come home quick to wish him happy birthday again and get him off to bed. After that though, I got changed and headed over to the treadmill at the fire department. I was more then a little worried that someone was going to make fun of ol’ tubby-tubby-tubby working out, but everyone left me alone.

I hit the treadmill for about 2 minutes on manual and then thought, “This is too easy, I best step it up a notch”. I chose the “weight-loss” program and entered in my weight and age and to my surprise it did not say “ouch” or “get off tubby” when I stepped on the machine. I started my 27 minute workout on about 5.5 (don’t know if that was miles per hour, but that is what I am going to lie and tell everyone it was). About 4 minutes in, the machine changes pitch and moves to a slight incline. Not to give up, I kept running. It was right after I hit the 20 minute mark that it went back down, but by that time I was spent. I paused the machine, went over and got some cool water and decided I best not wait to long.

I figured I might do better if I get my mind off watching the timer count down, so I thought, what would Pauline say? “Think about baseball?” Hey yeah Pauline, I never understood what it meant in the bedroom, but I understand the advice now. [rimshot here] I turned on the TV and watched ESPN Sports Center.

I got back on the machine and started all over at 27 minutes. The first 4 minutes went by pretty well, but after about 2/3 of the time at the incline, I was getting burned out. Not wanting to stop again, I decided to move the speed down to about 3.9. This was just the perfect speed for a “brisk” walk. I was able to complete all 27 minutes on the treadmill this way. The machine would speed up for the flat surface and slow down (automatically I should add) when it would move to an incline.

So day one is down and I don’t think I am going to skip any days this week other then Thursdays (I just get home to late and we have a fire department event that day). I am going to stay away from the scale for a week just to see how it goes, but I am hoping that I can drop 10 pounds fairly quickly while getting in shape. If that is the case, I might move my goal down another 10 pounds before June. Wish me luck!

http://www.nytimes.com/imagepages/2008/03/09/opinion/09opart2.ready.html

So with the help of my co-workers I was able to find that “wah wah waaah” sound and found that it is referred to as the “sad trombone”. Wanting to share all of this with the world I went and purchased the domain name www.sadtrombone.com and posted the sound. It is a great partner for the rim shot.

You be the judge!

www.sadtrombone.com

Jason and I decided to stop by WalMart to see if they had this iilusive Wii that everyone is talKiing about. What Wii didn’t know is that CaSii meant to say Target in Moorhead had all the Wii’s and not WalMart in Moorhead (they across the stRiit from one another). What a great and lucKii move that turned out to Bii.

You Sii, there had to be at least 18 or more Wii at the WalMart and they just appeared to be stocked. Without even battiing an eye, I told the clerk to get Mii a Wii and bEiing Jason is a Siiasoned Will player, he thought it best to get another Wii remote. While I paid for the new gaMiing console, Jason took a few photos of all the consoles the store still had to send to his faMiily and friends.

Now that I bought the Wii for Mii, I will be adding some posts and comments about games. The console came with Wii Sports and I purchased Super MaRiio Gallaxy shortly after as it was on sale at Target.

Super MaRiio is fantastic. It is not a hard game at all, so if you are looking for a riial challenge you will likeLii be disappointed. It is fun to control, the galaxies are fun to explorer and conquering the boss on each level isn’t incredibly difficult so both young and old can enjoy. You can enjoy runNiing, flYiing (in the Bii suit) and SwiMiing with the penguins. The bonus levels offer races and other odd uses of the Wii remote. One level you have to use the Wiimote to move your character across the course on a large ball without falling off the course. As you move the music slows or quickens with your pace on the ball.

The only con are some of the “stories” you have to go through as the written dialog is written out slowly. This is annoying to most gamers, but it really isn’t that bad compared to other Nintendo games.

I also purchased Resident Evil 4 on the recommendation of Jason. UnfortunateLii, I have only gotten to play it a few minutes, so I can’t give an accurate review, but one will be forth comming.

Just another motivational factor for losing some more weight. Of course I have only lost 6 pounds in the last two weeks. Funny that it only took about five days to gain close to ten pounds but takes three times or more longer to lose the same amount.

Well, the one good thing about this diet is I hope to be able to save a little money with the lunches I am not eating to go and get a nice gift for the bride and groom. I am a practicle person so probably will get them a toaster

On the fitness front, I purchased a Wii the other day and might start bloging about some of my Wii adventures with the family. It can definitely give a work out. My son and I played a game of baseball and he was winded and sweating when we were done.

I don’t believe that is anyway to lose weight, but it worked… that is until Christmas. During the Christmas break I went home to “Grandma’s” house and it was a non-stop eating orgy. We had breakfast followed by snacks between breakfast and lunch, followed by lunch followed by snacks between lunch and dinner, followed by dinner AND dessert and topped off with snacks after dinner.

The bad new is when I got back, I had almost gained all 10 pounds back. So back to healthy eating I go. I don’t know how long it has been since I had a good carbonated beverage, but I hope I NEVER go back to drinking several soda’s a day like I used too.

Water, coffee and cold tea are my choices through the day and they seem to make a dramatic difference. I enjoy my coffee with some toast in the AM and maybe another cup of joe during the morning hours of work. Then I drink water or some instant Lipton diet green tea for the remainder of the day. I know I probably still don’t get the amount of water recommended during the day, but it really starts to affect me about 16:00 CST as the trips to relieve myself come frequently and without much warning.

I have more motivation for dieting now this year as well. I purchased a truck and have a nice little payment each month on it, so I need to cut some expenses and my “dining out” expense had gotten out of hand. My wife has been gracious enough to purchase some healthy lunch alternatives and I have been packing them more often in stead of heading out of the office for lunch.

Today I get to enjoy some of those Tamales we made last month (have to eat them before they go bad :))

We spent Saturday evening visiting with the family and on Sunday we went to a late morning church service in Trinity Lutheran Church in Tolley, ND. It was really great to see a full church as the Sunday School children put on the service. We came back and I was able to watch football all day. Of course my Dolphins lost their game to New England which I should have expected, but for some reason I thought they would make a game of it. In the evening we went out to Coulee to visit with the Kings as most of them were back to spend Christmas together. We were only out there a few hours, but I know I could have stayed until the early morning and visited. We promised to visit Paul and Kim on our next trip down to the Minneapolis area.

We made it back home to see the Redskins pull away from the Vikings in the fourth quarter. It was a bad day for my football teams, but a good day for visiting family.

Today is Christmas Eve and all the children are excited to open their gifts and I am excited to see their face when they do. I have to finish charging my phone so I can make all my phone calls this evening to wish our family a Merry Christmas.

Of course all of this is related to the blog because I don’t think I have stopped eating since I walked in the door to Grandma’s house. It will take a lot of work to get all of this weight off