Birthday Weekend and a Certification

I'm Scuba certified!

I don't have any cool pictures to show you from the actual dive.  My underwater camera is only good to 30 feet.  I thought that was plenty when I bought it, because I was planning to use it for snorkeling, and I was confident that I would never free dive to 30 feet while snorkeling.

For our final dive, we just had a few more things to pass off.  We had to simulate an emergency ascent from 20 feet (You pretend you're out of air and ascend to the top while exhaling the whole way, so that your lungs don't explode.)  We also had to take off our mask and put it back on at 20 feet.

Then he let us have about 25 minutes to dive doing whatever we want.  He said that was our final exam.  He was watching us and he told us the biggest thing he's watching is to make sure that we're aware of our buddy and things like how much air our buddy has left.

Robyn and I explored all of the fun things that are down in the depths at the Crater.  There is a wagon wheel at about 35 feet.  There's a ring you can swim through around 40 feet.

Our certification allows us to go to 60 feet, but when our instructor signaled that our time was up, Robyn and I had only worked our way down to 48 feet.  So that's the deepest I've ever been.

But it was soooo cool!  I'm so excited to do some real dives!  We told our instructor that we're going to the Caribbean next summer, but we want to do some local dives with him first.  He said he's doing a trip to Sand Hollow reservoir in a few months.  Maybe by then I'll have a camera that can go diving.

Anyway, since Robyn's birthday was last week, we decided to have a little romantic getaway at the Homestead Resort (where the Crater is located) to celebrate.  Basically, we'll use anything as an excuse to take a trip.

So here are a few of the highlights of our short little getaway.

It was pretty darn cold, but I got Robyn to bundle up and go exploring with me in the snow.  (That's how much she loves me.)  Isn't she so cute all bundled up?

These were the lights on the front porch of our suite.  It thought the icicles were epic.  Part of me wanted to break them off and pretend they were swords.  But the part that wanted to leave them and let them grow prevailed.

There is a little Mexican place in Midway that I love.  We tried to go there for dinner, but I guess in small towns restaurants just close when their owners need a vacation.

Everything was totally frozen except for this little duck pond.  I'm pretty sure it had to be heated because there was no ice in it at all and there was steam rising from it.  It was like a little duck spa.

Hidden under the snow lurked an evil that never sleeps.  That's right, there was a golf course.

These little ice tepees had little fountains on top of them spraying a fine mist so that over time it formed this coolness.  

This is what Robyn does on vacation.  It was super fun to get cozy next to the fire after being outside in the cold.

It was a pretty fabulous weekend.  Robyn's birthday and Scuba certification worked together well to give us a solid excuse to have a getaway.  It will be a long time before we take another trip.  It's nearly a full 2 weeks before we fly to California for Christmas.

Weight Loss: It's Not a Race

I like data.  I like anything I can measure in numbers.  I like graphs and charts and statistics and percentages.  That's why I've been measuring everything about myself as I've been losing weight.

At the end of every month, I weigh myself, and measure my belly, arms, legs, neck, you name it.

It's fun when those measurements have drastic changes.  I had one month where I lost 2 inches off my belly.  I had one month where I lost 10 pounds.  I had one month where my body fat percentage dropped 3.8 points.

Then I have also had months like November.  My weight loss in the month of November was 0.4 pounds.

Did it have something to do with this?

Ya, probably.

Or this?

Most definitely.

While I did do lots of exercise over the month of November, I also allowed myself to splurge much more than normal.

The result was that I basically didn't lose any weight in November.

On the last day of every month, I look forward to seeing my numbers, and looking over my (geeky) little spread sheet.  But when I saw that particular number I was discouraged.

Robyn, in an attempt to cheer me up said, "At least you didn't gain any weight over Thanksgiving."  She's of course, correct.  Many people gain weight over the holidays.  So far, I've just managed to maintain over the holidays.

But then I got to thinking about it more.  There's a show I watch called extreme weight loss.  In it, Chris Powell helps morbidly obese people transform their lives over the course of one year.  Many of them lose 200+ pounds in a year.  There was one particular episode that inspired me.  This particular individual had a severe food addiction.  He could not bring himself to follow the meal plan.  He worked out really hard, but he also wouldn't stop going out for fast food.

The goal Chris had set for him was to lose something like 75 pounds in 3 months.  At the end of the 3 month period, he had lost about 30 pounds.  Chris was furious.  He was so disappointed that this guy had not lived up to his full potential.

But when I watched that I saw something completely different.  I didn't see failure.  I saw someone who could succeed without being perfect.  That unintentional message may have changed my life forever.

I may have lost very little weight in November, but let me tell you about a few other numbers.

In November my biceps increased by 1/4 inch.  (For a while they were decreasing because I had so much fat on my arms.  The fat has finally moved out of the way so that muscle can increase it.)

In November, I worked up to the point where I do 80 pushups every morning.

In November, I set a new record of being able to climb 2700 feet in under 2 hours.

In November, the highest I ever saw my blood sugar was 123.

Looking at those numbers I realized that perhaps weight was never the best measure in the first place.  But, more importantly, I realized that it's okay to indulge on occasion.  It's okay to not be perfect.  And it's okay if sometimes progress is slower than others.

As with many things, it's not a race.  It doesn't matter how fast you get there.  It matters what direction you're going.

Thanksgiving Photo Dump

I had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend.  I sat down to write about it and realized I didn't have one particular story to share, so I thought I would just give you a few photos of the festivities I participated in.

Some of Robyn's cousins were in town so we had a get together with them Wednesday night.  Some I had met before and others I hadn't, but it was lots of fun to spend time with all of them.

Since I've lost weight, I'm not as warm as I used to be.  I've found that my feet, in particular, get cold.  Thursday morning I was just sitting with my feet in the bath tub reading my Kindle.  Robyn thought it was amusing and snapped this pic.

This is me swinging on the swing in my Grandma's front yard.  Robyn was convinced I would break it, but I totally didn't.  I'm totally skinny enough to swing on a swing.

We went on a short walk/hike near my Grandma's house after Thanksgiving dinner.  Naturally, we took a selfie.

Just a view of the mountain on our walk.  The street where we were standing used to be wilderness when I went to Grandma's house as a child.

This is my cousin Jewell.  She's a crane.  That's what happens at Thanksgiving dinner.

When Jewell (The crane from above), was 4 years old, I mentioned that I though kisses were gross. (I've since changed my view on that.)  She insisted quite vehemently that, "Kisses are soft, okay?"  I made this with magnets on Grandma's fridge, to remind us all of that occasion many moons ago.

Robyn made a pumpkin pie from scratch! She roasted a pumpkin and everything.  That's how she rolls.

This was the entire crew gathered at my Grandma's house.  

This was my Thanksgiving dinner.  I know you were dying to know exactly what I ate.

It was a fabulous Thanksgiving.  What was your favorite part about the weekend?

My Wife has the Force

Robyn has a new toy.  I'm a little bit jealous that I don't have one, but we'll talk about that in a minute.

It's called the Fitbit Force.  It's a health tracking device.  In some ways, it's a glorified pedometer, but it also has an altimeter so that it can track hiking or climbing stairs.  Since it tracks her movement, it is also able to estimate calories burned.

She's a good little walker.  Over 16,000 steps in one day.

I've been really impressed.  It has motivated Robyn to increase her activity.  It syncs with an app on her phone which gives her goals for distance walked, number of steps, calories burned, etc.  She's been trying to hit all her goals every day.  I have particularly loved it because that means she asks me to go on walks with her.  Since I love going on walks with her, that has been super fabulous.

Not to mention, it syncs with myFitnessPal, which is the app that both Robyn and I use to track our exercise and eating.  The Fitbit reports her exercise to myFitnessPal so that it is automatically tracked.

Plus, look how cute she looks with it.

So why don't I have one?  Well, that's a good question.  I'm the geek in the family.  I'm the one that loves new gadgets.  But I'm holding out for some new technologies I've been watching on the horizon.  There's some experimental technology that could potentially track my blood sugar.  If I could wear something on my wrist that could monitor blood glucose constantly, I'm willing to wait a year before purchasing a sweet wearable computer.

Meanwhile, I log on to Robyn's fitbit account online and watch her steps go up.  It may be creepy but it helps me pretend that I am wearing one.

In The Closet

Today's post is short. I just wanted to share some pictures of me in the closet. Sorry if you thought the title implied it was something it wasn't.

Just over a year ago, my friend Melissa gave Robyn and I a tour of her new house.  She was a proud new homeowner and we walked through talking about future plans for each room, discussing the little projects, pointing out the cute things we liked, etc.  At one point, I discovered that her closet was the exact height of one Jeff.  Naturally, Robyn snapped a picture.

I do weird stuff like that all the time.  I thought nothing of it.  Until a year later, I was looking at old photos and happened to come across that picture.  It also just so happened that Melissa invited us over for dinner and some good times this past week.  I decided the only logical course of action was to wear the exact same shirt that I had worn a year ago, so that when I was reunited with the closet, it would recognize me.

Above are the 2 pictures, side by side.

It turns out I used to be a fairly large individual.  (And I used to have a super sexy beard.)  When I took the first picture, I had no intention of it being a "before" picture.  The second picture is certainly not an "after" picture, because I still have plenty more to do before I reach optimal health.  But I was kind of surprised to realize how far I've come in a year in improving my health.

The old me couldn't even put my arms straight down.  (And Robyn pointed out that I had a very endearing waddle.)

Hopefully next November I can visit Melissa's closet again.  It's really the best way to measure progress.

Secret Shoppers Rule, Regular Shoppers Drool

I got to be a secret shopper.  It's kind of like being a regular shopper, only it's secret, and awesome.

My sister, Jen, was really the one who got to be a secret shopper, but I was invited along for the ride.

What's that, you say?  You don't know what a secret shopper is?  My explanation of it being secret and awesome wasn't enough?  Well, aren't you a snippy little blog reader.

I imagine that secret shoppers are slightly different wherever you go, but I will explain how it worked this time.  Buffalo Wild Wings was using secret shoppers to do employee evaluations.  Our job was simple, we show up at the restaurant, we request the server that they assigned to us, and we eat food.  They gave us a voucher that we used to pay for our meal, so it was completely free.  After the meal is over, there is an evaluation form that we fill out.  It has questions like, "how long did you wait before your server talked to you?", "Did the server offer you dessert?" and various other questions.

The word is that if they pass the evaluation from the secret shopper they get the wonderful reward of keeping their job.  If they fail, there is a second secret shopper sent from the corporate office.  If they fail the second time, they no longer have a job.  (It's the age old 2 strikes and you're out system.)

The system may seem a little harsh, but I was happy to be a part of it by eating a free meal.

I had never eaten at Buffalo Wild Wings before.  Upon walking in, the first thing I noticed was the awesome crowns that you can wear.  How could I not grab one?  I'm clearly a wing man.

Robyn commented afterward that they would have never guessed that our table was evaluating their service, because clearly someone important would never wear a hat like that.  But she's totally wrong.  Doesn't that selfie make me look important?

I'm not gonna lie.  Our server did an awesome job.  She took good care of us and my burger was delicious.  (They didn't even take away my hat when I ordered a burger instead of wings.)  She passed with flying colors.  She is still employed to this day!

The moral of the story is that secret shopping is way better than regular shopping.  I really want to do it again.  Do you need the services of a secret shopper?  Because I will secret shop for food.