The Pixar Story

On and off downpours today helped to convince me that today would be a day of rest. I figure on this last day of May, it might not be a bad idea to store up some energy for Juneathon 2008, as sponsored by Jogger Blogger. This is another month of putting up mileage every day. When July starts, I begin a more regimented training program. For those who have read Jonathan Dichter's blog, it will be very similar to what he is planning. After his positive review of "Marathoning for Mortals" I picked up a copy and have decided to commit myself to one of their training plans.

So, while lounging around I happened to stumble across a great documentary on Starz this afternoon. It's called The Pixar Story (http://www.thepixarstory.com/) and, as you can expect, it's all about the Pixar Company. It begins with the start of computer graphics in the late 70's and early 80's, then progresses through George Lucas' role in pushing the envelope with Star Wars, Steve Jobs eventually kicking in as a financial backer, and it moves up to present day with the merge of Disney and Pixar. John Lasseter is featured throughout and they don't shy away from the part of the story where he was dumped by Disney before making a triumphant return several years later.

I would highly recommend this to any Disney/Pixar fan. I know that there is a school of thought out there does not support the Pixar movement. Those traditionalists should rest assured that it does not appear as though Pixar is trying to eliminate 2-D animation. At the end of the film they discuss the importance of continuing to do what Disney has been known for...the classics...2-D animation. Pixar is just a new component of Disney Animation it's not taking over the whole show.

I'll close with a couple of side notes: Congrats to Craig for winning this weeks prize, a copy of National Treasure 2. Congrats to Jeff from Iowa for completing the Dam to Dam and Chris for knocking out a 9 mile training run. Good luck to Jonathan and Chris both on their upcoming head to head, battle royal!!

7 Months 'til Main Street...ok, maybe 7 months and couple days...but you know what I mean.

Better Late Than Never

Chris called me out looking to see if I had registered my weigh-in this week. I have been slow to getting around to posting this week. Part of the reason being I didn't post a loss in the weight category...I didn't post a gain, but I didn't post a loss. Dead even. Still hovering at 279. I'm a little bummed, but I shouldn't be, considering I successfully negotiated 4 cookouts in 3 days, with much less food and beer intake than would normally accompany such a symphony of grilling excellence.

All this really means is that I need to double my efforts this week. This will be a bit difficult considering a "tweaked knee." For some dimwitted reason, I thought it would be a good idea to try running without my knee brace yesterday. When I finished the 3.2 miles, I felt pretty good. Then last night hit, and I suddenly remembered why I always strap on the brace before any serious impact running. Needless to say, I now regret my actions. This week will be a concentration of low impact and cross training.

How's everyone else doing? Congrats to Mike F. who not only put up an awesome performance in the Buffalo half, but also had one of his sweet intros featured on this week's AATM podcast!! It's good to see Chris is back in the swing of things, and let's all wish Matt luck in avoiding the food onslaught that is inevitable during his family trip. Lets finish May on a positive note and move into June firing on all cylinders!!!

Round and Round We Go...

...where we stop, nobody knows. That's the way I've felt lately. Works been very busy and with the decent weather we've been having, I've been trying to get some outdoor chores done. I've still been putting in miles and watching the food intake, so don't worry about this being some setup for why I've been slacking. This is my excuse though for not posting in the past several days. I have still been checking up on everyone else and trying to leave comments on your pages. Looks like everyone is on track and going strong.

Please make sure you check out this weeks AATM podcast, show #58 (http://www.allaboutthemouse.com/). I won't ruin it for everyone, but there is some serious Team Voice love going on. It starts at the intro and carries throughout the show, with several members getting their e-mail read.

I hope everyone has a great Memorial Day Weekend!! This is my mantra for the weekend...."Beware the cookout. Stay clear of the beer." If I live by this, Monday's weigh-in should be decent.

5K...Done!!

It's done!! I've completed a 5K. My goal was to complete it in 40 minutes or less. Final results? 38:45. Works for me. It's nothing outstanding, but it's a starting point. Now I'm already looking forward to my next race to see how much I can improve on that time. The picture is of a group of us from work who ran, standing at the finish line. If you couldn't' figure it out, I'm the one on the top left w/the sunglasses.

A few quick details on the race: The course was a very flat, out-and-back, course with only one 90 degree turn. The views throughout were amazing. For most of the course the Atlantic Ocean was to one side and a salt marsh to the other. The mid point provided a view of a harbor with many boats coming in and out. Living here, I definitely take these views for granted, but today I was drinking them in. The weather couldn't have been any better. Sunny, 65ish, and a light breeze. The best part....at the end I was greeted by my two biggest fans!!

Overall, it was a great experience and I'm looking forward to the next!! Looks like my fellow Team Voicer's also had a good weekend. Keep it up. January will be here before we know it.

*****Monday Morning Update******

No time for a full post this morning, but I just wanted to give a quick weigh-in update. Down 1 pound! I'm actually happy with that. After a difficult week with very little excercise, I was worried that a gain could be in the making. I was also really worried that the post race carb loading (beer drinking) was going to be a problem for this mornings weigh-in. So I will certainly accept a 1 pound loss and refocus my efforts for this week.

Back in the Loop

Sorry I haven't posted in almost a week now. As I noted in my last post, I was home alone with my 8 month old daughter this past weekend. It was a lot of fun, but very tiring and not a lot of free time to get online and lay down a new post. Since the weekend I've been straight out at work. Yesterday afternoon I got out of work at 3:00, which is normal, but then got a call at 5:00 saying I was needed back at the office asap. I figured a quick return visit would resolve any major crises. I was wrong...when my services were no longer needed, the clock read 3:30 a.m. Ugh!!! Two hours of sleep and then back to work. At this point I'm functioning purely on caffeine. As a result of all this, my workouts have suffered drastically.

Ok, that's enough belly aching. We've all got our distractions and hurdles to overcome. On a more positive note, food intake has been going really well. My weigh-in on Monday showed a 5 pound loss this week!! That puts me just two pounds from my goal for the month of May. Now I need to just keep myself motivated and not use my "ahead-of-schedule" success as an excuse to slip up. I've found that pretty much any motivation I need can be found over at the Reverend Jonathan Dichter's blog :0)

It's great to see all my fellow Team Voicers doing so well. Looks like quite a few of us have a race coming up this weekend. I've got my first 5K on Saturday. I'll hopefully be posting some pics after all is said and done. Good luck everyone, and keep up the good work!!!! Off to bed now *yawn*.

Avoiding the Perfect Storm

I took today off from work to be home with my daughter, as my wife has left for a girls weekend away. So after her morning nap, I got her all packed up and we headed to the grocery store. As a result of a unsatisfying breakfast, I was starving when we got to the grocery store. Combine that with the fact that I've seen some progress on the scale, and no wife at home watching over my shoulder....and you have....the perfect storm. The stars had aligned and I was poised to have a major breakdown. In the past, this was certainly the right recipe to take a major step backwards in my diet.

So what happened?? I demonstrated restraint. Picked up enough stuff to get me through the weekend and all healthy choices. Instead of cookies, I went with pita chips and hummus. Instead of chicken fingers and potato chips, I got sushi and a salad.

So what was the difference this time?? You were. I know it may sound strange, but the thought of being held accountable to a bunch of people I've never met, was a huge deterrent. I am committed to being completely honest here...including in my weight loss tracker, and I don't want to let myself or anyone else down by posting a gain or a very small loss this week. Weird, right? Well, it's just another example of how great this group is.

On a Disney note...instead of feeding my food addiction, I've decided to feed my Disney Movie Club addiction. I was a little disappointed to find that The 3 Caballeros/ Saludos Amigos, was not the featured release...instead they choose to feature, Peter Pan; Return to Neverland. I guess it plays more to the demographic they are shooting for. While I easily shrugged off the feature, the special they offered was, buy one movie at regular price, get all additional at 60% off. I couldn't resist that and dropped $120 on 12 additions to my library.

In other Disney news, I encourage all of you to head over to Craig's new blog, http://www.earningmyears.com/. It's packed with great behind the scenes Disney Details.

Hola Darkwing!!

Finished my first Darkwing today!! For those that are unfamiliar...a Darkwing is approximately a 5 mile run with a 16 min/mile pace or better. My run happened to be exactly 5 miles and I was well under the pace. About 1/4 into it, I was not feeling like I was gonna finish very strong, but then the closer I got to the end, the more motivation I got complete the full 5. Needless to say, I was very happy when I finished. I'm definitely sore now, but nothing feels injured. During my run I realized how lucky I am...but more on that with a later post.

Obviously, exercising has been going well. Actually, yesterday and today I went into work at 6:oo a.m. and got a quick workout using light weights, and then after work I headed outside for a run. I'll probably scale things back a little tomorrow, depending on how I feel.

Now that's all good stuff, but what I'm really excited about is the eating. I've been doing really good so far. I know it's only been 6 days and it's easy after a week or two to slide backwards, but I haven't even had any cravings. My big test will be this weekend. My wife is going away for a girls weekend, leaving me home with my 8 month old daughter. That means fending for myself. Now this could go really really good, or really really bad. I'm hoping that because Monday is my weigh-in day, that will be enough motivation to be good during the weekend. I'll keep you posted.

Back from Boston

Just a quick post tonight so people don't think I've fallen off the face of the earth. I was in Boston yesterday for a friends 30th birthday and ended up staying the night. I discovered that this old body can't handle 1:30 a.m. bedtimes anymore. But other than the lack of sleep, I did pretty good. The party was at an excellent Japanese restaurant. I stuck with sushi and did indulge in 1 beer. But considering the options...I think I did great.

Weigh-in tomorrow morning. I'm going to be doing weekly updates of my weight loss (hopefully) so I can hold myself accountable for my progress. I'm a little anxious to see how I've done or not done.

Congratulations to Rae for finishing the Minnie!!! Great job getting to the finish. It's inspiring to see that even though you've had your set backs and struggles leading up to this race, you got it done when you needed to. Thinking about your success will hopefully push me to work a little harder for the rest of this month.

Another congrats to Chris, who finished a 5k this past weekend in 29:00, and then got to watch his Red Sox get a little payback on the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. No wait!! I stand corrected....upon further review...Chris' race was not a 5k, it was 3.5 miles...wow that is an awesome time!!!

It's been nice to see all of the successes recently. Hopefully I'll be joining the club soon with my first 5K in 2 weeks!!

Guess it wasn't such a quick post after all. Tomorrow morning I will add a note to this post with this weeks weigh-in.

UPDATE: This morning's weigh-in (5/5) shows me being down 3 lbs. Not an overwhelming result for this week, but it does start me off on the right foot.