Closed for business!

Ok, if you go to lm3design.com you’ll see a sign that says “Sorry, we’re closed”.  Is business slow or bad?  No!  It’s too much!  I get asked about once a week it seems to build a website.   I am flattered that I get asked but I do that and more all day long.  I want to go home and do stuff for myself/family.  Lately that hasn’t been the case.  I swore I’d kick the habit after the last couple of projects but I went back for more.

Well my New Years Resolution is:

No more work on the side for people.  Not for a long time.  I have to get my life more in order.  Then I can revisit it.

Separate, yet similar goals

Well today it dawned on me that she and I have different goals over the next several months/years.  What also occurred to me is that they are kind of symbiotic.  5 years ago when we lived in the ATL our lives were very different.  We didn’t have “goals”.  We got into shape, that’s it, big woop.  That doesn’t embrace the aspects of the life we now have.  To say we are going to do “1″ thing together is a thing of the past.

As she begins to share her coupon madness with our friends, she’s found something she enjoys and has made a hobby out of it.  Through that hobby we can move towards debt freedom and break those chains.  The ultimate financial goal for us is to be able to purchase with cold hard cash (if at all possible).  What about me?  I need something personal to strive for as we both embark on our journey towards debt demolition.  Well I’ve found it!

I’ve already told her that she doesn’t have to do anything to make me think that she is already more beautiful than she is.  Ok, say that sentence 10 times.  GO!  In short, I only wanted her company on our fitness journey but her goal isn’t fitness.  I’m not saying I’m going to be buff hardcheese but I want to be in shape.  I have valid reasons, particularly 2 reasons, one almost 5 years old and the other approaching 1 year.  Yes, I want the energy to keep up with my two boys.  I don’t wanna be a slob and make an imprint on the couch on a sunny Saturday afternoon.  By the way, I took the pre-5 year old, yes, pre-5, to play golf with me.  That was exciting for him!

Ok so what am I getting at.  It’s midnight and I’m babbling.  The point is that I want to journal my progress and what better way than… a blog!?  Hey I can host multiple domains with unlimited DBs on this bad boy hosting plan, I’m getting my 9.95/mo. worth!  It will hold me accountable and a sort of semi-public way.  I have tried to do this a couple of times but not exactly in the way I’m going to do it this time.  I’ve spent a lot of time over the past couple of years doing things for others on this here interweb.  Damn it I’m doing something for myself!

So pretty soon I’ll have yet another blog for you to link to and I want to do something really cool after the 12 week day to day incremental updates.  Ok, seriously tired now.  Beds to be made and maids to be bedded *rimshot*.  (MST3K joke…)

Livin’ La Vida Loca

Hi there Blogworld!

It’s been quite a while since I’ve actually written anything other than tags, so time for a posty. My new favorite blog is quickly becoming zen habits. This guy is frickin awesome, he has like 8000 kids, is a marathon runner, debt free and very organized. Which is exactly what we’re striving to be (minus the 8000 kids-Oooh, babies everywhere). How has he accomplished this you ask? By simplifying his life. Step by step he has reduced the amount of clutter (money, weight and physical clutter) He limits the number of obligations his family has and focuses on what is most important to he and his family. So in the spirit of our weight reduction and debt elimination, our first order of business is to sit down as a family, and decide what is truly important to us. It would be great if I could wake up tomorrow morning with no debt and 40 pounds lighter, but like anything worth having it’s going to take a lot more time and effort. So here’s to baby stepping our way to a simpler life. Zen habits has a great article today on simplifying your life when you have kids. If you are a parent to 1 or 8000 kids you need to check it out. http://zenhabits.net/2008/03/25-ways-to-simplify-your-life-with-kids/#more-678

Conscious Living

Simple living (or voluntary simplicity) is a lifestyle in which individuals consciously choose to minimize the ‘more-is-better’ pursuit of wealth and consumption. Adherents choose simple living for a variety of reasons, including spirituality, health, increase in ‘quality time’ for family and friends, stress reduction, conservation, social justice or anti-consumerism, while others choose to live more simply for reasons of personal taste or personal economy.”

This is from wikipedia, but it sums up what I’ve been discovering the more I research I do and the more hubby and I discuss. I’m beginning to think that the whole “lose weight, fight debt thing” is SO much more than just not eating crap and spending money. We are aspiring to change ourselves. We are in fact battling what society, upbringing, history has told us is “normal”. To be prosperous you’re supposed to have a lot of “stuff”, right? Well I have a lot of stuff and all it’s done for us is give us more to pay for and clean. We get very little joy out of this “stuff”. So at this point, the key is to remain focused. To THINK every time there is a decision to be made, no matter how small. Will this decision bring me joy? If the answer is “No it will make me unhealthy and broke” then the decision is made.

Day 6: End of wonky house

Well we’re all better now or close to it, somewhere around 90% I’d say.  I was reading a magazine this morning and it had “11 steps to better eating in 2008″.  As I read through them I realized that we already had the fundamentals of eating healthier as a habit.  I’ll summarize a little bit.

Eat several meals a day.  Why?  When you eat a large meal your body will only use a portion of that meal as energy, the rest gets stored away as, you guess it, fat.  Eating several meals keeps your body in a constant state of energy consumption.  You don’t get the ups and downs of eating 3 large meals, or worse, some people eat 1 gigantic meal a day.

Balance your meals.  This is a combination of a couple of the points in the magazine.  When I say balance I mean you have ratios of each nutrient you intake.  The three big ones: FAT, PROTEIN, CARBOHYDRATES.   Balance does a couple of things.  First it helps regulate blood sugar and keeps you from getting a rush then crashing.  Second, protein is essential to good health because your lean body mass (muscle) is built/maintained/repaired from it.  Some diet plans have different ratios (zone, atkins, etc).  You’ll see them like this 40/40/20  or 30/40/30  (carb/protein/fat).  We try to stick to 40/40/20 with each meal and if each meal isn’t that ratio we try to end the day with the ratio.  It is literally a balancing act!  FitDay provides a chart to show you ratios.

Drink water.  This should go without saying but water is vital to the body.  We’re mostly water and all of our body functions depend on water.  A half gallon a day is sufficient but if you train or if it’s a very hot dry day, you might need more.

Caffeine!  This was a little surprising to me as I’ve heard that this one is sometimes frowned upon.  A little caffeine in the morning with a meal is something of a catalyst for the metabolism apparently.

That was just a couple of the pointers the article gave.  Small balanced meals with sufficient water intake is probably the keystone to healthy nutrition.  The other half of the total equation is actually training and since I haven’t been the gym in a couple of weeks… I’ll hold off on that topic for now!

until next time . . .

Day 5: On the mend

We’re all gaining our health back but this first week of the new year has been rather, hmm, blargh?

Dinner was great last night and we topped it off with a little treat of sweets.  That was our reward for surviving the week.  I really wanted to end the evening with some WoW but none of my friends were online and WoW with no friends isn’t very ‘wow’ at all.  I ended up just laying down and calling it a night.

I did find a person in Peachtree City selling some dumbells for mega cheap.  Waiting to hear back from them.  Having workout equipment at home usually doesn’t work but I’ve found that I actually use dumbells.  You just pick them up and go to town.  No set up required!

Lastly, something a little odd.  I was reading the ingredients on our coffee creamer and noticed it contains titanium dioxide.  TO2 is a very strong reflective white pigment.  It’s added for color.  So, right now, I’m drinking TO2 laced coffee!

Day 4 Status: Wha?

This year so far has been not at all what we planned. We’ve all been ill ranging from pink-eye to strep to pharyngitis, in the past 4-5 days. Talk about derailment! Well I’m finally back to par and the pink-eye is mostly cleared up so that’s two of us that are set. The wife should be bouncing back soon and the baby lives in a constant state of sniffle, hence his nickname. Mother in law is worse off than the rest of us, diagnosed with strep. Very nasty and painful. Good news is that with medication you generally feel better in a couple of days (at least in my case).

I’m going to avoid beating myself up for making a few ill choices on nutrition the past day or so. I’m also not going to make any excuses. Sick isn’t an excuse because #1 I’m not sick and #2 sick doesn’t justify eating badly. If anything, you either don’t eat much or eat things like chicken soup and drink Gatorade.

I’ve maintained my FitDay updating but it’s getting skewed now by those ill choices. I know that if I continue to make those choices I won’t make my goals. It’s an eye opening experience to see it all laid out in front of you.

Now a link of the day

What’s better than being sick?

Having your whole family sick. I’ll take the blame for it. The wife is down with pharyngitis now and my mother in law has it plus a nasty cold. I’m not done yet! Our 4 year old has pink eye oh joy. Well he’s not technically ill, at least not yet. He may still get the cold thing we have going around.

What a great way to ring in the new year!

It’s a setback right off the starting line but here’s the thing: that’s life. We can’t expect a plan to be foolproof. We have to adapt and take on these challenges as they present themselves. We almost ordered pizza last night because of it all but we didn’t. I went ahead and cooked up some veggies for dinner to go with the pot roast we had simmering. It was mighty good.

So for now, we need to get everyone healthy and get the place disinfected.

more later…

50% through the day – Update!

I have pharyngitis. It will come to the relief of the wife and kids that I won’t die from a sore throat.

Another side update. We’re tracking our intake once again on www.fitday.com – If you haven’t seen or heard of this site, then you have now.

Problem: I CAN’T LOSE WEIGHT
Cause: I HAVE NO IDEA!
Solution: Track what you eat. Everything. All of it. Every single bite.

You’ll find that tracking your daily food intake can be quite eye opening. The old adage is true. Eat right, exercise regularly, drink plenty of water and you will, for the most part, be healthy. No, it is not a cure all for everything. If you’re going to go through life, you might as well try to live up to your potential, yes?

New day, new year . . . and I’m sick

Ok well it’s not officially the NEW year but we wanted to start it off on a Monday. Now my throat had been sore since Friday. I decided to wait till Monday and see what to do. Well the 4a.m. shivers convinced me to go to the doctor. The kind of shivers where you have to be completely bundled into a burrito with just your eyes peeping out. The funny thing is that the lady thought I was having a nervous fit perhaps. I said ‘no, I’m calm I just can’t stop shaking’. Teeth chattering and awful throat pain were the start. I awoke with a fever of 100.8F. So yes, to the doctor I go. It feels like mild strep or maybe tonsillitis?

So, the eating good aspect will go good today as it hurts to eat so I’ll carefully choose my meals. Working out, well not so much today.

I’m also going to work today which is a HUGE MASSIVE pet peeve of mine. Going to work sick that is. I really have no choice. I have no sick time since I started near the end of the year. There is also the chance I could go unpaid for the holiday tomorrow if I don’t show. So it’s off to work I go and if others end up with what I have, it’s not my fault!

More on this later…