Day 286 Pardon The Interruption and Maneuvering Mexican Dining

Day 286

Pardon The Interruption and Maneuvering Mexican Dining

I know the date says Saturday the 27th. But it’s Sunday morning, I promise you! Last night’s severe weather broadcast coverage put me out extremely late. By the time I got home and in front of the computer it was almost two am. And then the power started doing strange things. It must have “flashed” five or six times, like it was trying to recover from a lightning hit, it wasn’t good. I decided the best course of action was to turn the computer and monitor completely off and go to sleep, then get up early and write the Saturday edition of this blog. So that’s what I did. Well, that’s what I planned to do. I set the alarm early, because I had things to do, but those things will have to wait. You see, I woke up on my own because when the alarm went off there was nothing. I set my alarm to the radio station where I work. Nothing. So I grabbed my phone and called the transmitter remote control from the comfort of my bed. With a few code numbers I could make the station come back on the air, but after over 30 failed attempts, I decided that I needed to investigate further at the studios. I think we may have taken a direct lightning strike. The phone lines will not work, both stations are silent, and we’ve sent up the Bat Signal for our engineer to head this way asap for a OAS (Off-Air Situation)—I just made that OAS thing up, but it sounds pretty technical and cool. With another station employee headed to the transmitter sight to check on damage there, and the engineer en-route, all I can do at this point is sit here and wait…and finally write this Saturday edition of my blog. We must have internet service made of titanium alloy out here, because with everything else fried, the internet still works. Our service provider should use that last line as an advertising testimonial. After nearly 21 years in broadcasting (since age 16), the one sound that I’ll never get use to is the sound of silence. Dead air drives me nuts. But here I sit, completely powerless over the situation. Maybe I should have studied electrical engineering instead of on-air programming, nah…not as fun. Well, since this first paragraph was all about my Sunday so far, let’s back up a little and talk about Saturday.

Saturday was a good day calorie wise, even though it had the potential to be a disaster. Let me explain: We decided to go out and celebrate Irene’s big promotion with a nice dinner at one of our favorite Mexican restaurants. There are so many calorie pitfalls at this place, you really have to be on your game going in. My plan was simple. I would limit the number of chips to 10 and order something chicken based without it being drenched in queso or sour cream. I ordered two chicken burritos from the ala carte menu with an extra plate. That would be dinner for Courtney and me. They were loaded with chicken and wrapped in a very large flour tortilla. I had to guesstimate very carefully. I decided on 450 for each. I arrived at that number considering that the tortilla was easily a 200 calorie item alone. Since the only other ingredients were veggies and chicken and it was topped with garden fresh salsa instead of queso, 450 made sense. Still, I knew that with my small serving of chips and salsa (200), I was headed over my personal guideline of keeping the calories at any one meal at or below 500. In this situation, I allowed for it, as long as I didn’t go over my daily limit of 1,500 calories. My drink was lemonade…zero calorie free lemonade! I always order water with extra lemon, typically free in most US restaurants, then I squeeze the lemon juice into the water and add a packet of Splenda sweetener. Wonderful taste and zero added calories, I like it! Amber and Irene split an order of two burritos as well, and we were on our way to successfully enjoying a wonderful celebratory dinner without anyone breaking their calorie budget. Another bonus is how we felt when we left…satisfied and proud, not stuffed and miserable. Had we approached this restaurant with our old habits and without a care, we would have each consumed an estimated 2,000 extra calories in: beans, rice, sour cream, queso, and some fried sopapias with honey for desert. Nobody felt deprived, we all enjoyed each other’s company, we enjoyed our meal, we celebrated and we conquered a Mexican restaurant. This is what I mean when I talk about personal responsibility and good choices. The restaurants are not the bad guys. It’s always up to us to make good choices anywhere we dine. It can be done.

What suffered horribly Saturday was our workout plans. The plan was simple. Dinner first, Irene off to work, the girls and I walk a 10K and then swim at Dylan’s pool. Then the storms started to roll and the weather warnings started shouting for me to head south to the studios to anchor weather coverage. I love thunderstorms, I do. But sometimes I like to enjoy them from the perspective of my front porch, instead of in a studio on the air. Luckily we have a roster of anchors and occasionally I get to stay home and do whatever I was planning. Last night was not one of those nights! And it’s not like we could have walked through the tree lined park or swam in the middle of an Oklahoma electrical light show anyway. Situations like these are not excuses, they’re circumstances. How do we overcome them? We make alternative indoor workout plans. Jump roping in the garage, Sweatin’ To The Oldies, jumping jacks…anything to get that workout done. The girls did, I sadly did not. At after 2am, I decided I would drop in bed instead. Choices. Could I have worked out for even twenty minutes inside the safety and comfort of our home? Of course, I probably spent that much time lying in bed trying to go to sleep. But I chose not to workout, leaning heavily on the circumstances surrounding the evening to excuse myself from feeling bad. But you know me. I’m a no excuses kind of guy. My conscience wasn’t getting off that easily. We’ve walked in the freezing November rain before, the sleet, the snow…We’ve completed a 10 K walk at 2am more than once. So I know that I let the frustrations of the evening complicate and interrupt my resolve just enough to send me to bed instead of to the garage for some cardio. It’s behind me now.

Today (Sunday) the forecast is clear and so is the slate. I bet we do some massive working out today! Thank you for reading, and for those that have told me that this blog is a part of their morning routine, my apologies that it wasn’t available for you this morning!! Good day and…

Good Choices,
Sean