Monday, Monday..

Date: 20FEB06
Weight: 274.0 lbs

Yesterday (Sunday) I helped a friend from work move some furniture. It was fun, but I realize that I will eventually need to add some weight training to my workout program. For a guy my size, I should be able to lift a lot more than I can.

Next Monday is the next meeting at church about the missions trip to China. I'm still not 100% sure if I'm going to go, but I'm leaning towards going. I have to put up a $100 deposit that night, and my "drop-dead deadline" is April 10th. I don't really have a problem taking the time off, but coming up with the $2800 cost of the trip will be a challenge. But, God provided $3400 for Rachel and I to go to the Netherlands back in '04, so I am confident that if it's His will for me to go, all the details will work out. Oh, I found a Chinese language class at IUPUI that's starting in April. It's on Wednesday nights and is only $125. Might be worth taking.

We had a pastor from Uganda named Jackson Senyonga speak at church on Sunday about prayer. It was really good. He talked about how American Christians tend to deal with problems differently than Ugandan Christians. He said that when a problem arises, the people in his church immediately begin praying for God to intervene. In America, we tend to want to analyze the situation, try and figure out a solution on our own, and then (if we even remember to) consult God. I'm not sure about the rest of America, but that's definitely what I do. Especially in regards to this China trip, I want to do a better job of praying for God's hand to move, and not just try and figure out a solution on my own. This is hard for me.

Victory at Last!

Date: 18FEB06
Weight: 275.0

Rachel's family stayed at our house this weekend. It was nice to see them, and I'm sure they were happy to see Rachel and Ethan (and me, too, I suppose). Last night, I played Shadows Over Camelot with Rachel, Alan, and Doug. It's a cooperative board game, which means that all the players work together to "beat the game", rather than playing against each other. I got this game for Christmas, and I've played it 5 or 6 times, and I have never won. Finally, last night, we won!! VERY satistfying, and I think Rachel's dad and brother enjoyed it, too.

Speaking of games: I think I've thought of a good bribe system for my exercise program. Board games are kind of becoming a major hobby of mine. Not like Scrabble or Monopoly, but War of the Ring, Ticket to Ride, and Puerto Rico. But, most of these games are a little pricey, and it's sometimes hard to justify a new game purchase. So, I figure that I'll make a list of all the games I want to buy, and then get one as a reward for either making a weight loss goal, or reaching a particular exercise goal (like, working out at least 3 times a week for a month). Still working out the details. But, here are some games I'm interesting in buying:

Heroscape
Carcassone: Hunters and Gatherers
Memoir '44
Power Grid

So, we'll see if that's an effective way of getting my rear end on the treadmill. :-)

The Gym: not much fun, but not torture

Quick post, since I'm at work. I made it through my first workout, and it wasn't too bad. I did 40 minutes on the treadmill, walking at 3.6 mph at a 10 degree incline. OK, so I kind of wussed out after 20 minutes and dropped it to a 5 degre incline. My legs need some time to adapt! According to the treadmill, I burned 575 calories and walked 2.57 miles. I'm heading back to the gym after work today. I think that going to the gym after work might end up being a really good option (except for the fact that the gym is PACKED).

Oh, I forgot to give my weight, so that I'll be able to track my progress on a daily basis:

Date: 17FEB06
Current weight: 275.5 lbs

Hmmm, kind of looks like Bridget Jones' Diary. Maybe I should add a line for "number of cigarettes smoked". :-) Nah, that would be zero every day....

Let the exhaustion begin!

Tomorrow I'm going to the gym for the first time in about a year. I'm planning on 40 minutes of treadmill time, or whatever happens to be the duration of the Mark Driscoll sermon that I'll be listening to on my iPod. I'm a little nervous, mainly because I've tried this whole 'exercise program' thing before. It goes well for a few weeks, and then I start making REALLY dumb excuses. Not excuses like "I have a broken ankle", but excuses like "I just didn't have a clean enough t-shirt to go to the gym today" or "I like to sleep" or "screw this exercise routine, I think being fat is fun!". I want to make this stick, so I'm taking it slow and I'm going to try and slowly incorporate this into my life as a permanent change. We'll see.

Good episode of 'American Idol' tonight. I'm not sure who's going to win, but I really like Taylor Hicks, the gray-haired guy who was playing the harmonica. It looks like he's channeling Joe Cocker when he sings. And, the tall, dark-haired girl whose mom is a singing coach (I think her name was Katherine?) is my favorite girl. Hooray for winter TV addictions!

The Brutal Facts

OK, so the whole point of this blog is that I can come here to jot down my thoughts, hopes, dreams, etc. But, my lack of posting either means that I have no thoughts, hopes, or dreams, or it means that I'm lazy and undisciplined. I'll go with the latter. More on that...

I've never considered myself to be a very disciplined person. I'm not particularly good at time managament, my desk is pretty disorganized, and the size of my body is a good indicator that I'm not very disciplined in the area of diet and exercise, either. This has always been very frustrating to me, but it's a hard thing to get a hold of and make changes. But, at least in one area, I received some news today that is I hope will shock me into discipline, whether I like it or not.

I went to the doctor to get some blood work done regarding my overall health. Namely, a blood glucose check and a lipid panel (cholesterol, triglycerides, etc). Given my family history of diabetes and heart disease, I've been dreading these tests. But, I figured that I should know the "brutal facts" before I start attempting to make some permanent changes in my lifestyle. The results were, indeed, brutal.

Total cholesterol: 265 *normal: under 200*
HDL ('good' cholesterol): 40 *normal: at least 60*
LDL ('bad' cholesterol): 171 *normal: under 100*
Triglyerides: 244 *normal: under 100*
Blood glucose: 108 *normal: under 126*

Pretty grim. The blood glucose level is OK, but everything else screams "future heart attack patient". I have a follow-up appointment with the doctor next Tuesday. So, it's time to make some serious, SERIOUS changes in the way I live. I'm a little tired of going around this hamster wheel of weight loss and weight gain. I'm ready to be a healthy, physically fit man. My little boy is always running around the house, asking to play football, basketball, ride bikes, etc. I just don't want to end up like my dad did, spending the last 15 years of his too short life in and out of hospitals. It's just not an option.

So, stay tuned for more of The Science's transformation. I don't anticipate an easy journey, but I can think of no better way to chronicle my path than on this blog. More to come...

Definitely a long week...

It's 12:30am, and I have no idea why I'm still awake. OK, I guess it's because I'm watching a TiVoed rerun of Star Trek:TNG, a show that always brings me good memories of my younger days. But, mainly I'm just trying to wind down from a really hectic week. I've been in my new position for ~3 months now, and I'm starting to understand why most of the other staff scientists are always working late, coming in early, and working on weekends. There's SO much to do! My current project is going pretty poorly, due to a severe lack of baseline separation for the isomeric analytes in my method that share a single ion channel. In other words, science kind of sucks sometimes. One of my managers phrased it best: in bioanalytical high-throughput production, the trend is "success, success, success, success, failure", wheareas in methods development, it's "failure, failure, failure, failure, success!". That's something I'm just going to have to get used to and not beat myself up over. But, the weekend's here, the Super Bowl's on Sunday, and I got my HDTV receiver hooked up just in time. Whoo-hoo!

I should probably get some sleep. In the coming days, I'd like to get some organized thoughts down about the following topics:

1) The upcoming birth of child#2
2) Getting ready for the trip to China in July
3) My goals for 2006 (cheers to Dave for inspiring me!)
4) Thoughts on God and the church

I figured I should jot those down so I can hold myself accountable and actually write on the above topics. I do have a bit of a lazy streak in me sometimes!!

The First "Real" Post

OK, so I've been hesitating to post because I felt like I needed to write some sort of long personal history or biography on myself, to get the uninitiated up to speed. But, I realized that this bloc is mainly a personal journal for me, with a few trusted friends and family members looking on. So, I might as well jump in. There will be plenty of time for long mental meanderings.

Today I've been listening to a great sermon by Rob Bell called "The Flames of Heaven". I'm finding more and more that churches are using MP3s to get their sermons into the hands of the listening public. That's great for an iPod owner like myself. I feel a lot more introspective lately, and I feel like God is putting me through a period of spiritual and mental renewal. In short, I'm asking a bunch of questions about life, God, and reality. I believe in God, I believe in Jesus and his death and resurrection. I believe that we are commanded to love God with all our heart, and to love our neighbor as ourselves. But, beyond that, things get kind of gray. Especially when you've been raised in a Christian church and have gotten used to speaking that sweet, sugary dialect of "Christian-ese" your whole life. Example:

Church friend: Hey, John! How's it going? How have you been?

John: Well, I'm blessed, brother. God is good. How are you? (translation: life is sucking pretty bad right now, but I don't have the time or the inclination to tell you any details, because you probably don't really want to hear it anyway. But, it would be nice if we were'nt afraid to say how we really feel. How are you?)

Church friend: Great! The Lord has been faithful. Lately, I've been trying to step out in obedience and lay hold of the plans and purposes that God has for my life. I feel like God might be moving me to a new level, especially in the area of career. Praise God!! (translation: things are ok, I guess, but I've been totally confused about what the hell I'm supposed to be doing with my life. I'm sick of working the drive-thru at White Castle, because I hate their "food" and the whole place makes my clothes smell like pickled gym socks. I'd really like to talk to you about it, but I'm afraid that you'll judge me, or feed my some scripture verse that will do nothing but make me feel guilty. )

And so on. It's sounds great, but it's a sham. I have such a desire to live a real life, with real relationships, with people who aren't afraid to show who they really are. I think that's the kind of relationship God wants with us. Anyway, I'm trying to break down these "Christian-y" walls so that I can really love people the way God wants me to. Definitely a work in progress.