Thomas Aquinas, 13th Century
The Minister
“Have upon your study table, always accessible, a good-sized substantially bound blank book. Whenever a germinant thought comes seize your pen and write it down. Such thoughts will come out of your special course of literary reading, out of your cursory scanning of current fiction, even out of the five-minute glance given to the morning paper, out of nowhere and from anywhere. Thought-compelling suggestions entirely foreign to the sermon on which you are just now engaged will frequently send you to your treasure book, and without any damage to present preparation you will scribble down a page of matter that will set you on fire at some future day just when you are in need of inspiration and help. Have also a special vest-pocket notebook and let nothing escape you.” -The Methodist Review, 1907
Excellent advice from 1907. Field Notes brand memo books make the ideal "vest-pocket notebooks".
To weigh 180 lbs in 77 days.
On March 24 I had my annual mini health-check at work where they take your vitals, take a blood sample, and measure your weight and body fat. A few days later I received my results and they were just fine, except for body fat at 23.3%. That didn't sound good and it bugged me for a month.
On May 7 I went to a high school track meet and watched young, fit athletes run nimbly around the track and bound up and down the stands with ease. My trips up and down the stands revealed a significant amount of jiggle. The next morning I dressed for church, took a good look in the mirror and didn't like the way that jiggle filled out my clothes.
That afternoon I did a little checking on body fat and BMI and found that, for the first time ever (I'm almost 52), I was out of the healthy range. How? I had become inactive, mostly due to a recent, six-month job rotation.
Motivated by a great little book I had just read, 59 Seconds, I created goals and a solid plan for weight loss (jiggle reduction). Part of that was to identify benefits and potential roadblocks. The benefits for me were being healthy (nimble), and comfortable in my clothes. The roadblocks would be trivializing bad eating (one more small helping won't hurt), and not having time to workout.
So my plan is to lose 18 pounds in 77 days. One of the keys for sticking to a plan is to make it public, so here it is. But I have some catching up to do - I started this challenge on May 10. In my next post I'll tell you how my first of five checkins went.
Curtis quotes from The Princess Bride. "maa-widge..."
Galen talks about Rick & Susie. And thanks them.
Kristen talks to Galen's parents.
Galen recites his vows. From memory. Kristen tears up.
Kristen recites her vows. Galen makes her nervous. She's giddy.
Rings. Unity candle. Their friends surround them for a prayer. (Very cool.). Curtis prays.
The stick! From camp many years ago. The stick breaks - nothing will come between them. Except Jesus.
Awesome wedding! Laughter & tears. Congratulations Mr & Mrs Soden!
Clayton Zane McCullough graduated from Lakota West High School, Hamilton, OH, on Saturday, June 4, 2011. He'll attend Harding University this fall to major in International Business. (Er spricht Deutsch.)
Clay is my nephew, the younger of two of my sister's sons (Cooper is the older). Mark and Leslie moved from Albuquerque about ten years ago and, of course, I haven't seen them near as much as I'd like to. But I did get the chance to go to both boys' HS graduations, and here are a few pictures from Clay's. (Unfortunately Teresa didn't get to make the trip with me, and Cooper was unable to take a break from his summer intern job.) In addition to Mark, Les, and Clay you'll see Clay's aunt and uncle, Dave and Shauna.
