The week started off well with a frigid trip to Frying Pan Park. It is the time of year for fall festivals, pumpkin picking, and hay rides. We tried to get to a similar festival the day before but it was a massive failure. Luckily for us the Frying Pan Park festival was much more fun even if it was a bit cooler than expected. Cece was able to get out and see some farm animals and even pet a few. I think her pig was the favorite (mainly because I got a picture of her with the pig) but she also liked petting the sheep.

Rizzo and I spent the afternoon watching football and cooking for the week. Our lunches this week consist of salmon (for Rizzo and Cece) and lamb (for me) with a side of mashed sweet potatoes and zucchini. We also cooked up our dinner for the week which is a vegetable soup with grilled cheese sandwiches. I'm so happy to be home for a week so I can get some healthy meals instead of eating our for every meal.

Monday and Tuesday were finally some normal days at home consisting of work, bowling on Monday night, and jogging on Tuesday night. This week I decided to change up my workout out of time constraints and daylight constraints. I have been following a training app for a 10K which has been going well but with the runs getting longer I was running out of time to spend with Cece in the evening. If I kept going forward with the same routine I would be getting home from work and going straight out for a run. By the time I would get home from my run Cece would be asleep and I wouldn't get to hang out with her at all. I could always wait until she goes to sleep to go running but under that scenario I would be going out to run around 7:45pm and not finishing up until after 9:00pm. If you add on top of that my distaste for eating dinner before a long run I wouldn't be having dinner until extremely late (I know, this doesn't count as late for most people but when you start to get ready for bed at 9:30pm this is extremely late).

In order to make sure I could balance work, life, and exercise I decided to cut back the time but try to amp up the intensity on my runs during the week. With that in mind I started a 5 minute walk, 30 minute run, 5 minute walk routine on Tuesday. I made a conscience effort to increase the speed and was still able to cover about 3.3 miles in the time. In the past I would never have thought of a 3.3 mile workout as "cutting back" but it just goes to show how perspective changes the more you exercise.

Wednesday morning really through a wrench in my schedule because I had a dentist appointment scheduled. Not just a regular dentist appointment for a cleaning. I had an appointment to have part 1 of 2 to get a crown on my top right molar. That's right everyone, I was getting a crown on the very last tooth in my head. The appointment was at 7am which was also a fun little addition to the awful morning.

I'm usually not one to place blame on someone else for my faults but in this case I will make an exception. This crown is my parents fault. When I was a kid I had two adult teeth grow in with holes. It wasn't cavities from poor dental hygiene. My teeth were simply inferior so each of my top back molars had big holes. The dentist filled them with, as was the practice in the 1920s, metallic fillings.

What dentist at the time and what most people don't think about is what happens to metal when it changes temperature. Here is a science lesson: when metal gets cold in contracts and when metal gets hot it expands. So every time I had a delicious cup of coffee my fillings would expand and every time I enjoyed some wonderful chocolate ice cream my fillings would contract. Over the course of 20+ years of expanding and contracting, this metallic filling plugging this natural forming hole caused my tooth to crack and split. Sounds nice, right?

I finally had to bite the bullet and get the tooth crowned (I'm sure I'll have to get the other one crowned sooner or later). It wasn't too terrible but the novocaine made me feel a bit weird all day and I had a pounding headache. The weirdest part was mid-procedures when I slid my tongue over to where I thought my tooth would be only to feel that it was gone and all that was left was a jagged stub to which the crown would be secured. I was fitted with a temporary crown that I'll be wearing for the next two weeks until the permanent crown is affixed on November 5.

Thursday was a pretty normal day if a normal day consists of a board meeting in the morning and then scouting a golf course for a non-profit golf tournament in the afternoon. I learned something about golf during my trip. I don't like playing golf. I was stuck with three strangers that I didn't want to really talk to playing a sport that I am learning that I don't really like. I'll have more on this later but the point is I got through nine holes before I had to call it and move on with my day. I got home and immediately hit the road to get in my afternoon 3.3 mile run. I was so glad to get in a good run on a Thursday afternoon.

Friday was a day off workout wise but both Rizzo and I were tempted to splurge on food. Luckily neither one of us said anything about it before I had already started making dinner. Rizzo made the comment that she would literally eat anything I wanted that night. ANYTHING. Too bad the grilled cheese sandwiches were already in the pan otherwise we would have been eating some General Tso's Chicken.

On Saturday morning Rizzo headed off to her Body Back class (seriously you people aren't working hard enough at bugging her to write a guest blog on all the exercise she does) which meant that Cece and I made our way to the farmer's market for breakfast and shopping. At the farmer's market this week is when I really noticed something unusual. Apparently, if you are a dad that goes out with your kid without the mom then you are some sort of god.

Look, I like spending time with my kid. She is a cool cat. I probably have this reaction because I can make her laugh at just about anything so when I'm hanging with Cece I'm sort of like George Carlin. So I don't see why it is such a big deal to people when they see a dad out with his kid. I got multiple comments along the line of "That is so cute that you are out with your daughter by yourself" or "You are such a good dad to let your wife some time off" or "I love that you are here just the two of you". I suppose it is nice that I got the complements(?) but it wasn't as if I was overcoming some sort of crazy obstacle to feed Cece some cottage cheese. I had some coffee and Cece had some water. I had a scone and Cece had some strawberries (she is a much healthier eater than I am). Cece hung out in her stroller while we walked around to buy some broccoli and beans. I was just doing what a dad does. I feel like in our society no one would think twice if Rizzo was out with Cece on her on but if it is me out with Cece then it is some sort of miracle. I truly do appreciate the complements but I'm just being what I hope is a good Dad so no need to think of me out with Cece as being any cuter than Rizzo being out with Cece. Both are equally cute.

After the farmer's market Cece and Rizzo went off to their music class while I hit the road for my long run of the week. This run consisted of a 5 minute warm up, three rounds of 18 minutes of running and 1 minute of walking, then a 5 minute cool down. It was a beautiful morning to run and the cool air made it easy to get through the run. Since I was finally getting to run with the sun up instead of in the dark I was able to hit the trails behind the house to see the leaves changing color and lots of babbling brooks. It was a hard and tiring run but also refreshing. I tried to pick up the pace due to the cool air and it paid off as I got up to 5.58 miles. Not a bad morning if I do say so myself.

Fitbit proof that I ran 5.58 miles and Fitbit is never wrong.

After Rizzo and I both had good mornings full of exercise and quality Cece time, my parents and sister came over to join us in a trip to the Reston Farm Market to let Cece play and pick out a pumpkin. There are lots of places around that have great fall activities and pumpkins but I think this may be the best place for kids under the age of 3. There are lots and lots and lots of pumpkins to choose from, a fun teepee to play in, a train ride, and even a pig to pet. The good thing is that there is no charge to get in (unlike other places that charge just an entrance fee) and everything is pay as you play. Kids of all ages can have fun (it was just $3 for all day access to the bounce house) but not having a cover charge really made it great for us. Here are a few pictures I grabbed from our visit.

Aunt Carrie pulling Cece in a Radio Flyer

Even Batman knows that farming is important.

This morning I wanted to make sure to get as much activity in as possible before weighing in at Weight Watchers so I went out for a nice jog. I like the routine I started this week of getting in two decent runs of about 30-45 minutes during the week with one long run on Saturday and another decent run on Sunday. It allowed me to keep working out without taking over every free moment I have. I'm happy to report that being at home, eating regularly home cooked meals, and running regularly paid off because I lost 4 pounds this week bringing me down to 217.6, which is the lowest I've been since starting to lose weight about a year ago. This isn't definitive proof but I think it goes a long way in teaching me that when you are traveling, be it for work or for vacation, if you keep your wits about you, keep working out, and don't let yourself go too crazy but still let yourself enjoy your meals, you can keep your weight steady and still lose those extra pounds quickly.

Have a good week everyone. I'm sure next weeks Weekly Weight Update will be full of some good pictures since Rizzo and I are in the car right now with Cece on the way to another play date at a farm and because Saturday is Halloween.