Jaminfrog

I’m not really doing resolutions this year, but here’s what I would like to accomplish in 2008:

• Lose 20 lbs. Chel tells me that to do this, I need to ask, “What would the 200-lb. version of me do?” whenever I am making a choice about whether to eat that candy bar or not. I am thinking about getting that printed on one of those little Lance Armstrong-style wrist bracelets, like this: WW200lb.VOMD?
• Save more and give more. Thanks to our trusty family budget.
• Travel. This goal is somewhat contrary to the saving and giving goal, but we’re going to head to the beach again at some point(s) this year.
• Get some more A’s and B’s. I need to get my studying rear in gear much earlier in the semester than I did this past fall.
• Be a good husband, family member, friend and colleague.

You’ve gotta take your car in for an oil and filter change every 3,000 or so miles. I guess the same applies to people, so I went to the doc yesterday for my 30-year checkup.

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So I celebrate being another year older today! Chel and I are going out to dinner between work and tonight’s classes.

My resolutions for Year 29 are probably not that different than the ones I’ve tried before: I will make it to work on time. I will work out more often. (I’m going for three times a week this time — that’s realistic, right?) I will watch our money wisely.

But the year ahead will require me to be more structured, so maybe I’ll be more successful. After all, I’ve already exercised twice this week! As for the being-on-time-to-work, I’ll start that tomorrow. After all, today’s my birthday and I’m entitled to push the snooze alarm a couple more times.

We had a nice Labor Day weekend, bookended by some of the worst pain I’ve ever experienced and two, count ‘em, two, root canals.

Thursday night after class I met Little Mom and Chel at The Cheesecake Factory, where they had dined with our neighbor Larry and had saved a little bit of cheesecake for me. With every bite or drink I took I felt like somebody was punching me in the face. Not a very pleasant feeling! I took some ibuprofen and things eventually settled down, but in the morning the face punching feeling returned again when I tried to eat breakfast.

Now, as it turns out, most dentists in Dallas happen to take Friday off. I called around to as many good doctors as I could find on Google, and eventually found one down the street from our house who was open and could fit me in.

An x-ray revealed that I needed a lovely root canal. He finished it up, and I headed home to sleep the rest of the day away on pain pills.

Everything started feeling better, and I was able to go on about our Labor Day weekend, highlighted by a lot of reading for school and a little time spent researching at the library.

Then the face-punching came back on Monday, except this time it was worse. I went back to my friendly neighborhood dentist on Tuesday morning, and another x-ray later, he discovered that he hadn’t gotten deep enough the first time around, so I got another root canal. I guess it was two-for-the-price-of-one week, since he didn’t charge me.

Today I’m back at work and I haven’t taken a pain pill yet, so I’m feeling pretty good and coherent. Hopefully the second time will be the charm!

Thursday was the first day of school. My workmates wished me luck with a nice card, and they all chipped in to put a little money on my student account so I could buy some caffeinated beverages when I need them!

Tonight I had Legal Research & Writing and Contracts. Both classes seem like they’ll be interesting and challenging, but the Contracts professor let us know that he has automatically signed us up for an additional class: it’s called Introductory Physical Fitness for Lawyers!

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We’ve officially ditched the South Beach diet, and that’s perfectly fine with me. Chelsea did the smart thing and talked to her doctor about the right diet. And surprise! The right diet is watching your calories and fats, eating a balanced diet that includes things like fruit and bread, and (gasp!) exercising.

So thank goodness for Chelsea, because she’s gotten me to go to the SMU rec center a couple of times this week. After I actually get there and get on the elliptical machine, working out ain’t half bad. And if, by working out, I can eat pizza or chocolate cake from time to time and not feel too bad about it, I’m gonna become a workout maniac!

One of Chelsea’s favorite professors, Dr. Doran, once told Chelsea, “if you take life by the inch, it’s a sinch…but if you take it by the yard, it can be awfully hard.” So with that in mind, we decided that this year, we’re going to make daily resolutions instead of ones that attempt to cover the whole year. So here are our new daily resolutions so far:

• Every day, we’re going to eat stuff that’s good for us
• Every day, we’re going to work as hard as we can at work
• Maybe not quite every day, but at least three times a week, we’re going to work out
• Every day, we’re going to tell (or show) people how much we love them

I hope your daily resolutions become a reality.

Day 2 of the big diet and so far I’ve lost a pound and am feeling great. I’m drinking a ton of water, kept myself to 1 1/2 (diet) cokes today and didn’t cheat even though I was presented with free fudge at work and potstickers at lunch. Chel and I also worked out at the rec center today — 30 minutes on the elliptical machine. Good times!

If the saying is true that you are what you eat, in the last 24 hours I’ve become a large deep-dish pepperoni pizza and a chocolate cake with coconut icing.

That’s one of the reasons that Chel and I are re-beginning the South Beach Diet or Some Variation of It today. This time it will be different from the other fifteen times I’ve started a diet in the past couple of years. We’re not thinking of it as a diet — a short-term thing that one day ends in a flurry of Krispy Kremes, pepperoni pizza and more of that coconut chocolate cake.

This time it’s a lifestyle change, a forever change. And as part of that, we’re committing to work out at the SMU rec center three times a week. (We started to make an every day committment, but then realized that the first day we miss going to work out we would probably fall off the workout wagon completely.)

I’m going to post updates on our progress here, because nothing keeps you accountable like seeing your results in black and white. So today I weigh in at a nice, round 212 lbs., and the jeans that used to be a little baggy are now relatively tight around the ole tummy.

We’ll see how things change in the next few weeks. And if this plan doesn’t work, Chel has a friend who just got her ears stapled at an acupuncture place, so that may be our Plan B.