Jan 3

Jan 3 Bring It On...Weekly Weight Update

It is amazing what the right gear can do for a workout. This week consisted of getting back in the swing of things after a 5 day "break" for Christmas down in North Carolina. As I reported last week I was still keeping up with the exercise routine but it was challenging being away from home and since I didn't bring my normal running shoes. I was wearing some heavier cross training/hiking shoes because I didn't want to pack another pair of shoes for the trip. This was a terrible mistake and I was grateful to get back on and put on my running shoes to get out for a run.

Tuesday I was back running and it felt good. I was happy I missed the rainy weather to get in a nice 3.2 mile jog after work. The night would have been great if I just didn't read my work email right before bed. I got an email regarding a project I was working on that really got me distracted and made it difficult to sleep. What a terrible night it was.

Luckily for me I have a great family and supportive partner that keeps me moving in whatever I'm working on. Rizzo could easily see (I didn't keep it a secret) that I was distracted so Wednesday morning she encouraged me to head in t work early. I did just that and was able to be very productive at work before anyone else got into the office. It can be less than fun to be in the office at 6:30am on a Wednesday but it can help to get lots of work done.

Picture I sent to Cece Wednesday morning. We point at each other to say "Hi".

Wednesday night we all celebrated our third Christmi of the season. Christmi is a word I created that is singular for Christmas. This year, we had three Christmas celebrations so I needed a singular term for Christmas. The first Christmi was with my extended family before Christmas Day. The second was while visiting the Rizzo clan on Christmas Day. The third Christmi was on Wednesday with my parents and my sister. I was very happy that my Mom decided to have a finger food dinner so I wasn't eating too much. I had plates full of carrots, pineapples, and melon with a few mini-pizzas and meatballs mixed in.

My parents were overly generous to me this year and gifted me a new turntable. We had been getting by using our Crosley that was purchased from Target but more and more the records were sounding poor. I'm not an audiophile or anything like that but some records, especially the more recently pressed vinyl, just sound awful when the turntable speed is off. Not like I was expecting perfection. The cheap Crosely box had lasted 4 or 5 years so it was time for an upgrade.

I love listening to records when hanging around the house (as you can read about in the blog Spin the Black Circle or How I Ended My TV Addiction) so when I opened up the audio-technica LP120 I was ecstatic. I made sure to set it up on New Year's Eve in order to listen to some records and the sound quality is out of this world. I shouldn't expect any less from this high quality, professional DJ level turntable but even with the small speaker we are using it still sounds 1000x better than the old box we previously used. Thanks Mom and Dad.

Thursday was my regularly scheduled running day but it also happened to be New Year's Eve. Not wanting to put a damper on the day by running instead of spending time with the family, I decided to postpone my running day until the first day of the year. This was a great idea because I got to hang out with Cece in the afternoon but also because of the new contest you will read about a little bit below.

New Year's Eve really started to show me how much Cece has grown up. Not that the day had anything to do with it. It was just the day that it happened. I was hanging out with Cece while Rizzo was doing some stuff and Cece was playing by herself. This is something she has done many times before but I really took notice. I was just hanging out, relaxing on the couch while Cece was dressing up her dolls, sitting ather new table, "reading" books, and just generally playing. It was cool to witness and really take in how much she has grown up this past year.

Since Cece was born we don't get out much for New Year's Eve. First, we aren't exactly night owls in the Clizzo household. We prefer to follow the mantra of Ben Franklin "Early to bed, early to rise, makes a man healthy, wealthy and wise". Second, I don't want to trouble a babysitter on New Year's Eve to watch the kid so I can go out. My Mom offered, which was great, but I feel as if we ask for babysitting services from family enough already. I like staying in and spending time with Rizzo then going to bed by 10:30pm (staying up late for the holiday).

I'd like to thank Paul Rudd for making my New Year's Eve special. I love comic book based movies and have seen all the Marvel Cinematic Universe films on the big screen. I'm pretty sure I own all of them on blu-ray as well but I'll have to check on that. Rizzo isn't into watching the action movies. She finds the action scenes boring and tends to fall asleep (I don't know how you can fall asleep while the Hulk is punching Thor in the face but to each their own). However, she is a huge Paul Rudd fan (#1 on her "Celebrity's I can hook-up with list) so she kindly offered to watch Ant-Man with me on New Year's Eve. It was a great night of an action movie, some beer, and pajama pants.

Friday and Saturday where wonderfully relaxing and productive days. I got in a few runs, cleaned up the house resulting in donation of lots of stuff to the local Goodwill, got in the weekly grocery shopping trip, weekly Saturday breakfast out, and a Friday evening game of Rummikub. Saturday was also the dreaded day to remove all of the Christmas decorations. For me, New Year's Day always represents the end of the holiday season and the beginning of another 12-months of torture before we can get back to Christmas time. At least I'm not the guy who keeps up the Christmas lights until July, right?

Sunday was the first day back to weigh-in for two weeks. Seeing as those two weeks were over Christmas and New Year's holidays I wasn't feeling to optimistic about the weigh-in results. I felt like I did an okay job over the break. I didn't go crazy with eating and drinking but I also didn't stick to my strict regiment that has produced the results I've accomplished so far. The results were a gain of 2.0 lbs over the past two weeks. Not too shabby considering the holiday treats that were around every corner. I'm confident that returning to a regular eating routine will make it easy to shed these holiday pounds in a week or two.

As part of the New Year, Rizzo and I have agreed to a competition where we track all the miles we accumulate from any source (walking, running, hiking, chasing Cece around the house). We each have a FitBit which makes this an easy contest to track. We will be providing an update of the mileage each week as part of the Weekly Weight Update. This provides (1) a nice place to keep track of all the miles we put in and (2) a non-scale competition that can keep us motivated. At the beginning of the month each of chooses a reward. The winner of the contest gets to cash in the reward. If Rizzo wins she will spend some time at Red Door Spa. If I win I will be paying a visit to the movie theater to see Deadpool.

The first report of Bring It On only includes Friday and Saturday since there were only two days in the New Year. At the end of week one I am in the lead with 16.2 miles to Rizzo's 11.8 miles. Let the challenge commence.