Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts
Showing posts with label faith. Show all posts

Monday, July 14, 2014

July 14th, 2014 Not Exactly What I Planned

July 14th, 2014 Not Exactly What I Planned

I'm usually well prepared. I woke up this morning to not a single egg in the fridge. I enjoy starting my day with eggs of some kind and fruit. My breakfasts are nearly the same most mornings, with slight variations. If it's an omelet, what's inside might change. The eggs seem to keep me satisfied longer. My back up plan this morning was steel cut oats with diced apple and cinnamon. It was good, but not exactly what I planned. And that seemed to be the theme of the day.

It was mid-morning when I realized I was out of lunch items in the employee fridge, so I ran home and prepared a good lunch. On the way back I had a front end blowout just as I was pulling into a parking space at the downtown studios. My back up plan was the station remote vehicle because I couldn't use my spare. I called the tire place and made arrangements to get my car fixed tomorrow. This wasn't exactly what I planned.

I was very tired by the time I got home mid-afternoon. I decided a good nap before spinning class was a great idea. I had been looking forward to spinning class all day long, even though it will likely be the toughest workout I've endured to date. I'm genuinely excited to climb back on the cycle because I know what it does to my body. It's good. I set my excessively loud radio alarm clock for 4pm. This would be a solid hour and fifteen minute nap. I turned on the NPR Fresh Air podcast and set the sleep timer for ten minutes. I don't think I lasted three minutes. I was out and sleeping deep, as sound as I possibly could. I was sleeping well. So much so, that when the alarm started blaring (loud enough to likely be heard in adjacent apartments), I didn't budge.

With the radio volume blaring as loud as it goes, filling my entire apartment with noise, Mother Nature decided to lend a hand with a big thunderstorm...still, I peacefully slept. When I finally opened my eyes at 5:08pm, I was disoriented and frantic. The alarm had automatically shut itself off after an hour of rockin' my pad and the thunderstorm was still rolling. The immediate urgency of the weather (which I should have been covering live in-studio) and the list of warning notifications on my phone had me frantically dialing a colleague, hoping and praying she was on the air in my place. And she was. Thank goodness. At 5:11pm I sat on the side of my bed and realized there wasn't any way I could make the 5:30 pm spinning class. Had I been awake, I still wouldn't have made it to the class because I would have been on the air covering this pop up thunderstorm. I decided to pull myself together and get into the YMCA for my regular elliptical workout. I grabbed some turkey and cheese for a pre-workout snack and headed out. It was good, but not exactly what I planned.

The entire day wasn't exactly what I had planned and yet it was still a great day. I had moments of frustration. I experienced potential temptation when a co-worker generously and innocently gave me a small Italian pastry she picked up from Starbucks (I re-gifted it to the break room where it's anyone's treat--anyone but me). I now know I must get new tires tomorrow--that's an unexpected expense--slightly stressful and I had genuine disappointment in missing the spinning class. And of course the incredible stress of waking up in the middle of an unexpected summer time thunderstorm when I was supposed to be in studio and on the air covering it, instead of sleeping through it. 

Through it all, I somehow maintained the integrity of my calorie budget, had a great workout on the elliptical and enjoyed a fantastic home cooked dinner before making my way to the store for a long overdue grocery shopping trip.

I'll have my favorite eggs in the morning. I'll get tires tomorrow. I'll climb aboard the spin cycle for an intense workout tomorrow (unless Mother Nature calls me into work). It's all good. And then, as a nice punctuation to an otherwise out of sync day, this happened:

As I made my way out of the YMCA a very nice lady spoke to me. I was still firmly in the grip of an 80's music party in my head, but I could tell she was speaking to me, so I removed an ear bud. She told me she reads my blog everyday and that she's proud of me. She said that what I do was inspiring to her. She expressed how she sincerely appreciates the decision to include the meal tweets in this daily blog because she doesn't do Twitter. She told me we had a mutual friend in Cathy at the hospital. She also said she's already lost 25 pounds. I congratulated her and thanked her for the kind words, then we wished each other well as we continued on toward the parking lot. An encounter like that lights me up like hardly anything else. It inspires me even more and reconfirms that what I'm doing is important, not just to me, but to others. And that's a feeling so good, it's hard to describe. I sat in the big station vehicle for a moment, turned off Billy Idol and gathered my thoughts. This was exactly the way my day needed to go. It was perfect, really. You see...

Having steel cut oats and fruit as a backup breakfast reminded me how fortunate I am to have good food ready to go. Having a blowout at 5 mph as I pulled into a parking space at work was a blessing. If that tire had decided to give way on Highway 177 last night, it could have resulted in a tragic accident. And if I hadn't over-slept my nap and the storm wouldn't have happened, I would have been in that spinning class today and I wouldn't have met the nice lady on my way out of the Y tonight. Oh--and I forgot to mention how I ran into Andy, the spin class instructor at the grocery store. I had a wonderful conversation with him about the class and weight loss. It was perfect and had my day been aligned differently, this delightful grocery store visit wouldn't have happened.

A good or bad day isn't necessarily dependent on the things that happen, it's decided by the perspective and attitude I choose. Today was a great day even though it wasn't exactly what I planned.

Thank you for reading,
Strength,
Sean

Today's meal tweets:






Bonus Tweet: The grocery shopping trip...



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Sunday, July 13, 2014

July 13th, 2014 What Isn't Written

July 13th, 2014 What Isn't Written

Part of sharing the details of my life on a daily basis is the risk of sharing too much. I've become much more seasoned in keeping a level of privacy despite being a "daily diary." Still, if you try, you can draw conclusions by what isn't written. A prime example was my sleeping in today, on a Sunday. I tweeted my first meal of the day shortly before 1pm. I received a very nice message from an acquaintance who expressed concern about whether or not I was a member of a good church. Her intent, sweetness and caring was clearly evident. She wasn't passing judgement, it came from a place of genuine caring. She told me she reads my blog and twitter regularly and has noticed I never mention attending church. She then, very graciously invited me to her family's church, describing their non-denominational style and mentioning how it took her years to convince her husband of 40 years to go, but now he doesn't miss a service. I thanked her for the invitation and explained to her things I normally don't share in my writings.

I'm not ashamed of my faith, I'm just very private about it. This is a non-denominational weight loss blog. I respect other people's freedom of religion and I rarely "go there" for that reason. My faith isn't something that ever needs publicly examined. I have my spiritual moments each day. I pray and I believe. I abundantly give thanks and I don't dare take all of the credit for my dramatic turn around. It's true, I don't have a church home, but I do have a relationship with the divine spirit. I just don't write about it. The fact that this very sweet lady reached out to me like this was touching because she clearly cared very much, even mentioning how much she's enjoyed reading about my wonderful relationship with my mom and grandson Noah. Rest assured, I'm okay, and if ever I decide to once again seek out a church to attend, that nice lady will likely see me sitting in the back row of her non-denominational house of worship. When I have attended, I like sitting in the back. Not because I'm shy, I'm not necessarily. You're able to have a broader perspective back there, where everything is in front of you.

I enjoyed a fabulous workout this afternoon at the YMCA. Turning up the resistance on the elliptical has proved to be a wonderful enhancement! I confirmed the spinning class schedule before departing. Looks like my rear end will be perched atop a spinning cycle at precisely 5:30pm tomorrow afternoon. That's the plan! I'm part nervous and part excited. Mix that together and oh my-- it's a party! I'll be fine. I'm not making any plans in regard to the spinning schedule further than one day out. I need to get in there and see how I do. It was a challenge at my healthiest and lowest weight. I will remember what the spin instructor said to me: "Just do what you can at your own pace." I will. And it'll be good. I can't wait to tell you all about it tomorrow night!

I visited Stillwater this evening to celebrate mom's birthday. I missed the official celebration night on Wednesday, so this was an extra celebration. My Aunt Kelli's husband Tim just had a birthday yesterday, so we were also recognizing him and his. I stopped by Brace Books and More, our big-locally owned and operated independent bookstore, on my way out of town to pick up the book mom requested as a gift. The book was "The Doctors Diet," from the popular daytime television show The Doctors. I felt a sense of irony in buying my mom a book all about weight loss. I joked that I think she has a crush on Dr. Travis Stork, who graces the cover of this latest offering from that show. As I turned to leave the store, I glanced over to see my book nicely displayed on one of the many shelves. Seeing it there made me smile.

We decided to skip the bigger restaurant and visit what has long been one of my favorite fast-food Mexican places. Taco Mayo has some choices I can feel okay about, even though I had some serious mental hurdles to leap, simply because I haven't had any fast food whatsoever in nearly three months--and not that there aren't some good options available out there in the land of fast food, it's just that I was kind of proud of my record. You see, I haven't gone three months without fast food since I was fourteen months old.

I contemplated my dinner options on the way to Stillwater and made my selections in my head prior to arriving. The crispy beef tacos check in at 161 calories, but I didn't want the grease that is often found dripping from those. After all, I was wearing a new shirt! They are incredibly tasty, I'll admit. Taco Mayo always had these crispy ground beef tacos on sale when I was a kid. Twenty-nine cent tacos, then thirty-nine cent tacos were regular specials for many years. It was eating on the cheap--and we loved it so much! Tonight I chose a simple bean tostada, not too unlike what I sometimes make at home, and two white meat chicken crispy tacos with lettuce and tomato only. It was a big, satisfying meal--and I left feeling confident in my choices.

My meal tweets of the day:






And my #lastfoodofday tweet:


Thank you for reading,
Strength,
Sean
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