Food Day - Blog #9

Temptations
Whenever you take on any challenge there are going to be some difficult moments where you are going to be tempted.  Last week seemed like that was the theme for the week!  Here a couple of examples this week.

Ex #1 Food Day
I have learned the last 3 years being over at the courts that if something can be celebrated, we are going to do it, and we are going to celebrate it with FOOD!  Of course that day is obviously named Food Day.  Do not get me wrong I have learned to LOVE food day.  The ladies at the courts, as Eminem puts it, are Phenomenal and their food is unbelievable.

I do not think I even have the writing skills to accurately describe the amount of food, so I just had to take a picture so that you could witness it with your own eyes.

I love taking part and would eat anything as I walked by, just because it was there.  Food Day is always done on Thursday, so all the leftovers could be put back out on Friday.  What a great plan, well except when you are on a diet!!!  So this Food Day I spent two days walking by all the awesome food and I never took part.  I stuck with my eggs, chicken, turkey, sweet potato and everything else that is good for you.

Ex #2 80s Arcade/Bar

Going out with the guys has always been fun.  Hitting the town, having some drinks, and just basically being a bunch of guys.  While I have been on a diet the guys have gone out and trust me I am still having fun, but that part about having some drinks (that I am not participating in), well that sucks!!  Last weekend we went to Ups and Downs, a great bar that is filled with old 80s arcade games and pinball machines.  All the TVs on the wall were playing old WWF reruns of the greatest wrestling matches.  When I say it was hard...IT WAS HARD not to cave in and order a beer while playing games and watch Ultimate Warrior flying into the ring!!

Heck, maybe the drinking would have made my pinball scores seem that much better.






Ex #3 Casino

Along with going out to bars with the guys we love to go to the casino.  If you know me you know that I love to gamble.  I love Blackjack, throwing the bones on the craps table and of course sitting down for some Hold'em.  I am so use to doing all this with a drink in my hand that doing this stuff without an alcoholic beverage seems odd!!!

I however did manage to get through the night without having a drink and as you can see, I still have a huge smile on my face at 2am!  The smile is not because I won money, more that I got a Jerry Springer signed photo!!!










There were several other times this week that I was somewhere and usually I would have a beer.  Such as, enjoying a cold overprice beer at the Royals game, sitting at the dock at the lake watching the kids swim and even going to BWW munching on a few wings.  So I am sure you are asking "Has it become easier?"  It has a little, but do I miss drinking my beer at those key times, OF COURSE!

NOW FOR

I mentioned WWF, so you are going to get a little Ultimate Warrior!!!

Have a rad day and an awesome week!!

-= Kurt =-

So Easy Down ... So Hard Back Up - Blog #8

Since I have started this journey to become healthy, eat right and prepare myself for an incredible challenge, I am now entering week 6!!  I am also happy to report, I am still ... Beer Free!!!  I knew going into this challenge that it was going to be more like playing Super Mario 3 for the very first time.  I was going to have to visit every world one at a time, there was not going to be any secret whistle that I could pick up to send me directly to the end without putting in the work.  As each week passes I feel a since of accomplishment!!

The family took an overdue trip to the lake house last weekend.  It was perfect weather and I was even able to get outside in the morning before everyone got up and did some running.  If you have not been to the Ozarks, let me tell you THERE ARE LARGE HILLS.  Driving there you do not think much about it, however, running up a steep incline, I thought about it a lot!!!

Hitting those hills I started to think, yes thinking is a dangerous thing sometimes!!  But I was trying to get my mind off of my legs which were burning and onto something else.  Figure I would share those thoughts that I had going through my head!  The first hill I ran down I thought, how easy is this!!  So glad that I did not have to work very hard, I was gain some distance on my run without having to spend very much time doing it!  There was a slight wind blowing, my music was rocking, my head was high, I felt great, I felt like I was on top of the world....well as I soon found out not so much on top of anything, but down in a valley.  Soon the easy down hill came to an end, the road flattened out and ahead of me was the hill back to the top!!!

Just remember, I was feeling good I thought I could tackle this, well I thought that until I got about half way up the hill.  I had to slow down, I REALLY had to slow down!!  Holy Hill I said.  As much of an easy road I had down the hill, I had an extremely tough time back up the other side.  Once I finally got to the top and back to level ground I started to think about what just happened and realized something.  All those hills (or times in life) that you put limited amount of work or effort into what you are doing, it will eventually change and when it changes it will be drastic!!!  Once you make that change you are going to have to work twice as hard going back up or getting to where you once were in life.

The Hills in Ozark (Left hill down, Right hill up)

Kinda sounds like when you make the decision to eat healthy?  Taking the easy hill down, not worried about your health, eating what you want...until you reach the bottom.  Now the hill back up is going to be so hard, so tough and a lot of work!!  I want to make sure I am the person when going back up that hill I do not give up and take the detour back to the hill to go back down.

Now for

We did some talking about Super Mario 3, how about we take a trip back to the original commercial!!

Have a rad day and an awesome week!!

-= Kurt =-