I have a bike, and I'm not afraid to ride it...

Happy Sunday Everyone!


I hope you've all had a great weekend . Mine was pretty much jam-packed but it was a blast.


I started out Friday night with an Improv show with Strangers and Fools at Smiley's Coffee House for their back to school Friday night live. We had an awesome crowd come out and it was a good time. FYI we also have some shows coming up at "The Box" Theater in Ybor in September, and also we were invited back to American Stage Theater Co. for another show on September 24th at 10 PM. Come out and see us and laugh. After the show we went out for food like we always do, and I am proud to say I successfully resisted the delicious temptations at Steak N' Shake and just made do with my cherry limeade beverage lol. What was unique about this experience, was that I never even almost ordered something. The temptation was minimal, and all I could think of was progress , progress. I'm sure a burger and fries wouldn't have killed me, but it sure would have slowed me down. 


On Saturday, I woke up with one mission in mind: Get out there and find a bicycle! I realized a few days ago that I'd never actually bought a bike, just been given them as gifts when I was younger. So I reached out to my friends etc for help. Thanks everyone for the great ideas and suggestions. Special shout outs to my brother-in-law Dan Crider and Dr. Kris Dewitt for pointing me to Chainwheel Drive Bicycles, a great local bike store here in Tampa Bay. They were happening to have their summer sale this weekend so it worked out perfectly. The people there were awesome, so if you're looking for a bike around here go see them. They have great deals. They let me test-ride about 3 different bikes and helped me find one that fit my body type. Another cool thing is that the color I wanted wasn't built yet, so they built me the color I wanted right there in the store for no extra $$$. Super Cool. It was about a $500 bike, and I got it for $350. After adding a kickstand and taxes etc it was about $387 all said and done. Not too shabby. I went with the Raleigh Venture 3.0 (see pics below). It's a hybrid style bike (thanks Bob Koechig) and I love it.

I went out for a 50 minute ride today on the new ride and it was great. It felt really good to be back on bike. One of the worst parts of the ride was riding through a giant cloud of gnats lol. When I got back and looked in the mirror most of my face and neck were covered in them. Gross.  That's a pic of me with the bike, after I got off most of the gnats. Rough pic I know. This blog is beginning to look like a scrapbook of me and the bike so lets move on haha.

Food News:

I had some great food at First Watch this weekend. My wife and I were craving breakfast. When this happens we usually go to Lenny's, Bob Evans, or the old classic Cracker Barrel. There are so many great breakfast diners around here, and one of my favorite foods in the world is good biscuits. I knew there was no way I could go there and not get one sooo.... I wanted to go somewhere a bit healthier with less temptations and still good food.  So we decided on First Watch. I went with the Power Wrap (see pic below). It was so good. 470 calories and TONS of protein. Try it, you'll love it. It's egg whites, mushrooms, spinach, onion, and swiss. 

I've seen significant progress again this week on the scale and that has been very exciting. Thanks for all the support and encouragement on this journey. 

“Never look back unless you are planning to go that way.” ~Henry David Thoreau

Chili-Fest, Improv, Ruby Tuesdays, Landscaping, and Cheddars.... Oh My

Happy Sunday evening everyone! 
I haven't blogged since Wednesday so we have some catching up to do. 


For one, I got on the scale today and I'm still going down :-). I won't reveal any numbers until weigh-in Wednesday, but I just hope I can keep up the trend. 


I've managed to really keep the exercise going almost every day and have been mixing it up to keep things fresh. I've done long walks, jogging, working outside, swimming, etc. This allows me to stay away from that trap of getting sick of something really quickly. 


I also feel like I'm really settling into this lifestyle change in my eating habits, portion side, etc. You really do have to pick your battles sometimes (more on that later), but the key here is preparation and expectation. New habits start to form and it is getting easier little by little. 


Anyways......This weekend was really great and really busy, and I managed to stay in control. For starters, I had a date night with my wife Jaimie on Friday. We ate at Ruby Tuesdays. I must admit that the bacon cheeseburger she ordered looked amazing.  I ordered two turkey mini's and the salad bar. My Sandwich did come with a few fries, and they were so good lol. However, I still was in control of my calories and since I knew I was going out to eat that night, made up for the fries in other ways. I tasted a little bite of that real hamburger. Wow. But hey, you have to make sacrifices right?


Saturday was going to be tricky, but I planned it out and made it work. I did some work outside in the morning and then hit the pool. I had a slim-fast for breakfast, some healthy snacks, and a small grilled chicken wrap with some fruit for lunch. 


Saturday evening we went over to meet with our good friends from the Improv team I do comedy with (check us out at http://strangersandfools.com/) at Matt and Sara's place. So , at this meeting of the minds we were going to have two different kinds of chili, chips and salsa, and then some awesome desserts like always. The chili was actually pretty healthy, but I knew I'd have some chips and salsa  (most likely more than some because I love chips and salsa). They were great. I was having a great time laughing with everyone. Hooray. But then .... Dustin's wife Shannon, broke out this awesome chocolate waffle dessert with ice cream. Also brownies made an appearance.  Man was it tempting. 

Here's how I survived lol. I cut off a teenie tiny piece of brownie. Ate it. And then drank a ton of water. Everyone around me was practically rolling in chocolaty goodness and I actually felt good. And full. And I didn't ruin my entire week of work.  DISCLAIMER:  I do not think the Improv team is a group of gluttonous maniacs. They just really like dessert. And three of the wives are pregnant lol. I love you all. 

Here they are... or here we are...  Left to right ( Me, Dustin, Matt, Steph, Chris)


I did eat some peanuts and Craisins when I got home while I was watching TV which was totally cheating, and I shouldn't have, but I moved on and I did extra exercise today to make up for it. 


Finally, today after church we went out to lunch with our friends Mark and Cristina to this great restaurant called Cheddar's. Really good. I got grilled Dijon chicken with mushrooms and rice. I passed on my favorite broccoli casserolle and switched it out for steamed broccoli and green beans. Not too shabby my friends. For dinner I just had a mini pita with some Syrian cheese and an apple. Score. 


All  in all it was a great weekend and things are still going well. 


More challenges to come this week, and hopefully more results. 

Thanks everyone! 


“This one step – choosing a goal and sticking to it – changes everything.” ~Scott Reed