So my wife Rach came up with a list of rewards at her 10 pound milestones. I thought it was an excellent idea, so I stole it!

270
New 7' Flats Fishing Pole, for catching redfish in the Indian River Lagoon.

260
Fix up the canoe, attach the pole holders, new coat of marine paint...

250
Night at Port Canaveral, a cool strip of nearby restaurants on the water with live music and fresh seafood in outdoor dining settings.

240
Roadtrip to Key West, Rach has never been and it's been probably 20 years for me.

230
Smoke Pistol for use with my BBQ smoker.

220
Beer Brewing Kit... mmmm.... beeeeer!

210
Dremel Tool Kit, it's a guy thing, something about a need to cut random metal objects with laser like precision.

200
Longboard, hang ten braugh!

I wanted to pick items that would encourage me to remain active, keep off the couch and on my feet on the weekends. Okay, the smoker accessory and beer brewing kit is not so active, but maybe I could work on brewing a 0 calorie porter? Huh? Yeah? Okay, I'm reaching there.

Now the longboard is something interesting though. Growing up in Florida I got a lot of chances to try out surfing over the years.  It was something I always enjoyed when I could do it, but my fluctuating weight always kept me from being able to fully get into the sport. Okay, so "I" let my weight be a factor, I can't really blame the fat can I?  I'm supposed to be the one with a brain, right?

So I was a fat kid, got skinny right before and through high school, then ballooned up in college to late 20's, got healthy again, found the love of my life, got fat again, lost a little weight for the wedding and then expanded to where I'm at now. So my final reward to myself is going to be to pick up where I left off and learn to surf all over again.  We live about 15 minutes from the beach now so I could get plenty of practice in on the weekends. I would also love to be able to teach Harper to surf when she gets older.  I was telling Rachel's sister the other day that for some reason I picture Harp being some kind of punky pink haired surfer girl or something. Don't ask me why, I think it's because she's a total ball of fire already and she can't even walk yet!

So this weekend I lost 4 pounds between Saturday and Sunday.  I didn't get on the elliptical and I didn't jog around the neighborhood. Instead, I played the part of a lumberjack for probably a total of 12 hours!  We just had a full grown pine tree cut down and to save some money I had the guy leave it on the ground (cut into manageable pieces.) So, Saturday and Sunday I hauled it to the street, the city waste services picks up yard debris during the week. It was two half days of carrying medium logs and branches, rolling enormous goliath chunks, and raking and bagging the needles as well as the leaves from our oak. All in all I think I had some 15 or so bags of leaves.

So when I was done I cracked a beer (just a light lager) and admired my work, which you see pictured here. I thought to myself, "wow, I did all that" and got little sense of pride and accomplishment. You know, with normal exercise I don't ever recall feeling quite like that. Those feelings come on the scales, but I never feel quite as accomplished after doing cardio for 30 minutes.

It occurs to me that I should try and do more stuff like that, things that I can feel are productive beyond just losing weight. A little hard to do on a busy schedule, sure, but when the time changes and we have more daylight I'm going to see if I can't make use of my evening workout once in a while to get it done in the process of accomplishing a needed household chore. Give the yard a 30 minute raking, spread some gravel in the landscaping. On the weekends an afternoon of laying sod or building a fence would act as an uber-workout that actually did more than just burn calories.

A couple donuts totally discounted my 100 crunches a day plus some.  I picked up a pound and some change, but it's really more about the fact that I talked myself out of 30 minutes of cardio somehow. I got all in my workout clothes and everything, but told myself, I can do 100 crunches in front of the TV, it will be just the same.

Granted, my abs are nice and sore and it was better than nothing, but it didn't burn calories, and that, my friends, is what a couple donuts are. Big rings of calories.

So today I am on track for staying within my calorie range, not eating donuts or cookies (Girl Scout boxes are at every corner around the office), and tonight I will do 100 crunches AND 30 minutes on the elliptical. In the morning I'll see some results and I can move on, all the wiser for it.

I planned a 10 am meeting today with the staff writers and some members of PR to go over some best practices for writing for search rankings. So I thought it was only right to provide some breakfast items for the attendees since they were having to spend their morning in the conference room.

So I hit the grocery store and I honestly did try to get something healthy. I knew some people at the meeting, myself included, were trying to eat healthy. Some of the people are toothpicks and eat like horses, so I grabbed a box of regular old donuts for them, and the best alternative to that I could come up with was blueberry or banana nut mini muffins.  I guess that helps with portion control, but damned if I didn't just eat a donut and a mini muffin. Even if I just had a mini muffin, that's still like eating cake.

So what's out there that's tasty for breakfast, easy to grab at a store, and lets people have a 200 or so calorie breakfast that's not garbage? Does it exist?

I want to be around for my daughter, wife and entire family for a long time. I'm now in a job I love, moved to a town I can grow my family in, and now it's time to pay attention to my health. My goal is to lose 90 pounds to get down to 200.

I love food. I love taking my time to make great tasting food. I love enjoying interesting and new food at great restaurants. I enjoy great beers, specifically dark porters and stouts. But I also enjoy the outdoors. Fishing, canoeing, swimming, biking, hiking, geocaching...

I'm not going to stop enjoying an ice cold amber ale as I slow smoke some pulled pork on a balmy Florida day. I won't become a granola munching health nut running marathons every weekend. I'm realistic. But the way I figure it, I need to eat smaller portions with more of a balance towards healthy foods more often. At the same time I need to ensure I exercise regularly.

I've been obese twice in my life and it was exercise that made me lean. Now it's the third time I've left myself become obese and I have more at stake now than ever. I want to teach my daughter how to make homemade pizzas, but I also want to sit in the back of the canoe and not make her lift a foot out of the water. I want to be able to play sports with her without getting winded after 5 minutes. I'm not exactly there yet, but I'm heading that way, time to turn that car around and fast! Wish me luck (or better yet, will power!)