Alvin and the Chipmunks said it best...

~~~We can hardly stand the wait, please Christmas don't be late~~~

Every Christmas season I am reminded that our Saviour was born on Christmas day. I believe in the story of his birth as told in the gospel of Luke. I also believe in the story as told in the gospel of John that "Whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life". Without the Christ there would be no Christmas Season.

I love everything about the Christmas season. For me it starts with the music. Good old reliable 103.7 had non stop Christmas beginning the day after Thanksgiving and I listened to it almost every second I was in the car. Figuring out how we can afford the gifts gets harder all the time but we always seem to find a way and that is fun. Shopping is even fun at Christmas. The best thing is you just spend more time with everyone. I spend more time with Karen the month of December than any other month. Christmas Eve is the big Holland Family Christmas party. That is when my family all gathers to eat and exchange gifts. My Mom, brother, sister, and all the nieces and nephews and their kids ( the kids have kids now!) together is just wonderful. But of course the best is Christmas Day. There is no greater feeling of contentment for me than when I have my wife, my four daughters, and my grand daughter under the same roof with me and that is how I get to spend my Christmas day. The Christmas season truly is the most wonderful time of the year.

Unfortunately this years' Christmas season has to end for now. As of Monday 12/28/09 103.7 is no longer playing Christmas music. The good news is that there will be another Christmas season next year. It just can't come soon enough for me. I say we all channel our inner chipmunk and also sing "please Christmas don't be late."

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Final weigh in for 2009

Phase one is complete. I have obtained my goal of 235 pounds. I plan to maintain this weight through the rest of the holiday season. I will return on Friday January 8th with my next weigh in. My goal for that date is to weigh 234 pounds. Friday will be the new weekly weigh in day for 2010.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

I am off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 12/16/09

My weight control plan set in August of 2009 was originally to get from 280 plus to 210 pounds. There were two phases to this plan. Phase one was to lose two pounds a week until I weighed 235 pounds. My goal was to be there by New Years Day. Phase two of the plan is to lose 1 pound per week until I reach 210 by Memorial Day 2010.

As of this morning I weighed 236.4 for a 1.6 pound loss for the week. I figure that if I eat well and don't eat too much Christmas fudge that I should be at 235 on New Years Day. I might even be able to get me some apple pie on Christmas Day.

WOO HOO!!!

I'm off and pedaling for now.

World's are colliding and you're killing independent George!

I find the old saying that "life imitates art" to be so very true. I can find so many song lyrics that sum up a situation that it astounds me sometimes. There are also situations from TV shows that describe life events as well. One of my favorite TV shows of all time was "Seinfeld". It was the show about nothing but so often it was the show about day in and day out real life situations we all face. I know several episodes described some of my real life situations. I recall once when they tried to co-mingle their friend groups. George Costanza was one type of George around Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer (Independent George) and he was a different George around his fiancee Susan (Relationship George). When Elaine tried to include Susan into their inner circle without Georges' knowledge it was a huge threat to Independent George. He felt he couldn't be Independent George and Relationship George at the same time. I remember very clearly a worked up George screaming " YOU'RE KILLING INDEPENDENT GEORGE" and a sympathetic Jerry and Kramer trying to explain to Elaine how this was the equivalent to "world's colliding". In the same episode Elaine met up with a new set of three guys. They were very similar yet at the same time polar opposites to Jerry, George, and Kramer. It was the Bizarro world to their world. The Bizarro world is from the Superman comics. In the Bizarro world everything is backwards from the way it really is in the real world. Elaine liked both groups but the two groups could not mix. The point is that somehow certain things don't mix and are best left separate. I have two examples of this. One is from my childhood and the other is current day. As you read this try to think of things in your life that fit in this description. I would appreciate some input on this from any one that can relate to this for a future posting.

I recall growing up having two main types of friends. You had the 1) neighborhood friends and 2) school friends. Some kids are lucky enough to have these two intertwine but in elementary school all my neighborhood pals were older than me so I had to find new school friends. For some reason I recall that whenever I tried to introduce the two groups it didn't go so well. From the third grade on Jimmy Cox and I were inseparable as neighborhood friends. In the fourth grade I met Ronnie Sikorski. His family just moved to Irving and he and I were in the same class at LB Barton Elementary School. He was a great guy. We shared a love for running and sports and we were instant best school friends. I remember telling Jimmy he was going to come over and play football with us. Jimmy didn't like Ronnie before he had even met him. Jimmy dogged Ronnie the whole time. This didn't hurt my relationship with either of them. It just taught me something early on and that was for me to attempt to collide the worlds of my neighborhood friends with my school friends was not a good thing. The second and current day example involves my wife Karen. As much as we might love each other it is safe to say that my shopping universe and Karen's shopping universe are probably best left separate. Let me go with ads in hand, zip in and out with the exact purchases I intended to make. Let Karen go to each store, shop, compare, get prices, yada yada yada and eventually make her purchases. I will state on record that Karen's way is best but it just is not me. Both of our styles work, they just seem to work best separately.

Okay guys...get the idea? If you think of something along this line email it to me.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 12/09/09

My plan all along was to lose 2 lbs per week until I reached 235 and to accomplish that by January 1st. Then I wanted to lose 1 lb. per week through Memorial Day 2010 which will put me around 210. That plan has not changed although I am starting to have "What then and why not try to lose 20 more" thoughts BUT... I will cross that bridge if and when I get to it. I mentioned last Wednesday that I was losing more each week than I expected to. It was nice while it lasted but this week got back to normal. I weighed in at 238.0 this morning for a 1.6 pound loss for the week and I am happy with that.

I'm off and pedaling for now.

I did think of something I am doing differently

Addendum to Wednesday weigh in for 12/02/09...

I thought of one thing that I am eating differently. I was eating a lot of hot dogs and bologna sandwiches for lunch. These aren't the worst things in the world as long as you eat only one. I tried it and much to my surprise one was enough. However the past few weeks I have eaten the panini and flat bread sandwiches almost exclusively for lunch in lieu of the hot dog/bologna. That probably has helped me. By the way Smart Ones brand has a flat bread sandwich that rocks. I like it better than Lean cuisine.

Off and pedaling...

Life is a song

~~~I tip my hat to the keeper of the stars. He sure knew what he was doing when he joined these two hearts~~~

The year was 1971 and it was Halloween. It was my freshman year of high school. Halloween was on a Friday night that year. There was a football game and after that there was an all night lock in for the youth at Plymouth Park Baptist Church. PPBC is the only church I have ever attended. PPBC was the place to be at that time on a Friday night and this one was going to be special. It was the first all night lock in that I had ever been to. Food, friends, and great movies to watch made for a great night. We saw two horror/monster movies first. The first movie they showed was Frankenstein vs. The Wolfman. This was right up my alley. I grew up watching all the classics with Boris Karloff, Lon Chaney Jr., Bela Lugosi, etc. on Nightmare Theatre on Channel 11. These movies scared the wits out of me as an 8 year old but my Mom was always beside me watching them with me so I wasn't damaged beyond repair. I even outgrew my secret yearning to grow up and be the Wolfman (eventually). But that movie was perfect for me that night. The second horror movie they showed was the great classic " Horror of Dracula" with Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. That was the first time I had ever seen that movie and I still consider it to be the best Dracula movie ever. By the time those two were over it was probably between 2-3 AM. I was never much of a night owl and I was exhausted. They started a third movie and it was the Andy Griffith classic " No Time for Sergeants". It is a tremendous comedy and this was the movie that launched the great Andy Griffith's career. But at that instant my prospects for seeing that movie through to the end weren't looking great. I was sitting up in my hard plastic chair and I was starting to nod off. After that came the leaning over and starting to fall out of the chair syndrome. I would jerk myself back awake for a minute or two but that was only to be followed by more nods and jerks. I was a few minutes away from a deep sleep and then I heard her call my name.

Her name is Karen.

Everyone knew her. She was special. She had the sweetest spirit and was abnormally kind to every one. She also had the world's most beautiful smile. Every boy in the ninth grade would have loved to call her his girlfriend but she was considered off the market. She had this boyfriend that everyone knew she was crazy in love with. He did not treat her well but for some reason she was so in love with him. They had just broken up but it was assumed she would go back to him as soon as he called her. For whatever reason he wasn't there that night. She was sitting on the floor maybe 5 feet away from me and saw that I was about to fall out on the floor. She asked me if I wanted to lay on the floor in front of her and rest my head on her lap. Of course I accepted her kind offer. I laid on my back with my head on her crossed legs and she patted my shoulder and said I could just go to sleep right there. When she touched me I was stunned. I had crushes on girls before and I had girlfriends before. But her touch was like a million volts of electricity being shot through me. I had never felt anything like this before. I grabbed her hand and held it. I did not want to let go of her hand and I held it tightly. She held mine back tightly too. I wasn't sleepy anymore. I remember that Andy Griffith movie thanks to her. We watched it, laughed at it, and I held her hand as if my life depended on it. When it was over I didn't want to let go of her hand but I had to. It was dawn now and time for the parents to come get us. We stayed side by side until the folks came. I hated that we had to leave each other that morning. I didn't want that moment to end but it had to. The good news though is that while a moment may end a story will live on. The story of Karen and Rick started that night and has lived on for the last 38 plus years. Our story is still evolving. I don't believe that there has ever been one single couple story about whom you could truthfully say " and they lived happily ever after". I think that "happily ever after" only happens in fairy tales and real life is not that kind to us. I believe that in real life if a couple can get to "somehow we got there" and once they get to that point can say "I can't imagine finishing this thing without you" that they've done pretty well.

We have done pretty well.

~~~And I hold everything when I hold you in my arms. I've got all I'll ever need thanks to the keeper of the stars~~~

I'm off and pedaling for now.

Wednesday weigh in for 12/02/2009

I don't fully comprehend this but for some reason pounds are falling off me lately. Losing 2 pounds a week has not been easy but the last 3-4 weeks for some reason it has gotten easier. The only two things I can attribute this to are 1) I am eating fewer bananas. Bananas have no fat grams but they do have calories ( about 100 each). I am eating less of those these days. 2) The other thing I have changed is my exercise routine. I now am using walking as my primary form of exercise. I close the dealership four nights a week and on those days I do a brisk 15 minute walk around 8:30 pm after I finished all eating for the day. Exercising after all my daily eating may have some kind of effect but I'm not really sure. All I know is that even after last Thursday with two wonderful and large Thanksgiving meals I still had a good week.

I weighed in at 239.6 today for a 2.4 pound loss for the week. BYE BYE to the 240's!

I'm off and pedaling for now.