Solving Life's biggest Issues

With the help of a colleague, I have come up with a plan to solve several of the biggest issues in life.

My wife and I will be taking a vacation next week. Well, most people don't think doing and Ironman is a vacation, but it is our idea fun. As you all know, preparing for a vacation is no easy task. The preparation at work is the worst of all.

I had a meeting with my staff a couple of weeks ago. The goal was to solve as many issues as possible before I left for vacation. I wanted to have a vacation with little or no work contact. Being in technology, there is always a list of issues and the list is long.

The last three weeks have been extremely productive in our technology department. We have solved more issues in the past three weeks than we have in the last 6 months. We have been solving those big issues that have been lingering for months. We solved two of the biggest issues today. I headed to the tech lab to mark them off the list.

As I marked the items off the list, one of the engineers added two more items to the list. You might as well have kicked me in the rear. I was heart broken. I looked at one of the engineers and said, "I guess it never ends". To which she replied, "Like laundry and dishes".

Hmmmm, I have been in quite the problem solving mood lately. What are the odds of me solving this laundry and dishes issue?

After just a short discussion, with my colleague, we figured it out.

"Edible Clothing"

Before you get kinky on me and dismiss my theory, hear me out.

Lets say you could design your clothing to meet the nutritional needs of the body. Certain sections of clothing could cover certain food groups. With advances in technology, surely we could add any taste desired to an edible fabric. If we can accomplish the nutritional value and the taste, surely we could still make the clothing fashionable.

If you eat your clothing all day, there will not be any laundry to do when you get home. The clothing will be biodegradable, so you can use the leftovers as natural fertilizer for your yard. If you are only eating your clothing, then there is need for dishes.

We have just solved the laundry and dishes issues. But hey, lets not stop there, lets solve a couple of more issues.

If we can control the taste and nutritional value of the clothing, then we have just solved the overweight problem. You can assign nutritional value to the clothing based on the size of the person. There would be a simple formula for determining how many calories a person wearing medium size clothing would need to stay slim. If you go down a size, that size has fewer calories and therefore will reduce you daily caloric intake and continue to effortlessly control your weight. Besides, if you are going to be stripping off your clothing all day in public, you need to have a presentable physique.

This brings us to the most important issue facing our society, SEX. No one seems to be getting enough physical contact from their significant other. We either don't have enough time or we are too tired to engage. If we do away with the laundry and dishes, we have already freed up enough time. If we are controlling our weight, through calorie controlled clothing, we will all be healthier and have more energy. To increase the desire, we can make the undergarments in more suitable dessert flavor, maybe chocolate?

We could build on this idea and solve even more issues. This could possible take care of some of our health care issues.

I have done enough problem solving for now. It is time to shut down the think tank and get ready for vacation.

I will have a full Ironman report when I return.

Good night to all and to all a good night!

First Triathlon of the Season!!!!

Finally, the Triathlon season has arrive. This was my first Tri of the year and my first experience at Memphis in May. This is the first step, of many, to get to Ironman Kentucky in August. I am pumped.

Memphis in May is an awesome event! I am sad to say, we probably won't be doing Texarkana, as long as they fall on the same weekend. Memphis in May is like being at an Ironman branded event. 1700 competitors, 30 pros, very well organized and great after party and food. I highly suggest this race to anyone wanted to attend a great event. They also have a short MTB Tri on Saturday, which I will be doing next year as well.

The CARVE Multisport club made this an awesome weekend. We rented two RV's and set up camp CARVE on Friday night. Chainwheel came through on some additional funds to reduce our cost of the RV's and helped with food costs.

If you are a Triathlete, and have been pondering the benefits of joining the multisport club, this was a huge benefit. I believe the MIM will be the designated CARVE multisport event of the year.

Friday night was a very relaxed night. We grilled steak and knocked back a few beers and bottles of wine. I had a bit of hangover on Saturday, but hey, I had nothing better to do than lay around all day and recover. More CARVE members showed up to camp on Saturday night with even more showing up Sunday morning. It was a blast.

A cold front moved in on Saturday night. We awoke to 58 degree temps and 20 to 25 mph winds. The swim was choppy, but surprisingly warm, 71 degrees. That was wetsuit legal, so the swim was like a hot tub, compared to the cool temps outside. I had a great swim. I knocked off 14 minutes from my 1.5 k swim in Arkadelphia last year.

The bike was mostly flat with a few rollers. The 20 to 25 mph winds made it a tough day on the bike. Tailwind in some spots allowed 28 mph speeds, headwind in some spots kept you at 14 mph. I still had a decent bike with just over a 20 mph average.

The run was my downfall, but for not for lack of run shape. My lower back tightened up on the last half of the bike. I believe it was due to the extreme aero position I was try to maintain. I stayed in the aero bars the full 24 miles. I couldn't stand up straight the first 3 miles of the run and had to stop a couple of times to stretch my lower back. This was a shame, as my legs felt great and I was working on a very good overall time.

All things considered, this was a very successful Triathlon for me. I nailed the swim and had a steady bike in windy conditions. I will do a bit more lower back exercises and send more time in the aero bars to prevent this from happening again.

I highly recommend all of you Triathletes give some thought to Memphis in May next year. Camping 100 yards from the transition area was awesome.

Idiosyncrasies

Sometimes, you just have to laugh at yourself. These are words to live by!

I went to the gym for my usual lunch training swim today. Training is starting to ramp up and consistency is of the utmost importance. I get to the gym and realize I have forgotten my flip flops. This is a major catastrophe. I don't walk around my own house barefoot, I must have socks on. I developed some strange foot thing when I was young.

Luckily, I had my running shoes with me, so I could use those to get to the pool and back. This was only half of the problem. I had to make it to the shower. I debated on wearing my running shoes to the shower, no kidding. It was either that or go back to work in my shorts and T-shirt smelling like chlorine.

OK, I decided I would do the right thing and shower. I have not taken a shower in a public place without flip flops in twenty years. I arrive in the men's locker room to find I have it all to myself. I hurry to the shower. Believe or not, I felt more "naked" without my flip flops. I felt like I was naked in someones house. I kept looking around to be sure nobody could see me. I kept thinking if I hurried I could get away from the germs trying to hitch a ride on my wet feet.

I started laughing when I got in my car. Well, at least I got in my swim. LOL.

What a Great Day!!!

Yesterday was one of the best days I have had in a long time. Can you remember the last time a bunch of small things went right to make your day awesome? Yesterday was that day for me.
As most of you know, my wife is a Personal Trainer. I have just recently completed my personal training certification and will be starting that journey soon. In an effort to become more familiar with the ways of the trainer, I decided to take my wife’s core and upper body class. The class started yesterday and will continue for four weeks on Tuesday and Thursday. I also saw this as an opportunity to get into the habit of using the early morning hours for Ironman training. The class is at 5:30 AM.

The alarm went off a 4 AM. I need to get one of those alarm clocks that is the shape of a baseball. You can throw it across the room without damaging it. The impact will activate the snooze alarm, and you will have to get out of bed to find it the second time. It would be an understatement for me to say I am NOT an early morning person. I am not grouchy in the morning, I just can’t get up and going. I would rather sleep until noon. If sleeping were an Olympic event, I would take home the silver. My brother, Rodney, would take home the gold.

The class was small, with just six total participants. Being that this was the first class of eight, I knew it would be the easiest class to get everyone warmed up and back into the routine. However, I did not expect an easy time. My wife is hard core and wants people to get the most out of there workouts. Most of my concern was from my lack of core and weight training. I can run for four hours or bike for ten, but I haven’t worked my core or done any weights since last October. I dare not admit how long it had been before October.

The class was awesome! I was in some pain, especially from the plank, but was feeling great. If you have never done the plank, you should give this a shot. You are basically in the pushup position, but resting on your elbows instead of your hands. You pretty much hold that position until your body starts shaking violently and you want to throw up. Take a master of pain, like my wife, and she can come up with a hundred different variations of the plank for real fun. I loved it so much; I will be attending all eight classes.

My plans after the workout were very exciting for me. I planned to head to another gym and take a nap in the sauna for about thirty minutes. I love the sauna. I had not been in the sauna during the early morning hours. I was concerned that it might be crowded and too hot. I don’t like the sauna to be too hot. I like to warm up slowly and enjoy the nap. I also don’t like sharing the sauna with other people. Its not that I don’t like people, I just don’t like naked men in close proximity of my napping zone. I have enough concern for other people that I choose to at least wrap a towel around me when I go to the sauna. I really don’t understand the desire to run around naked in a public environment, especially if you don’t have a "Publicly approved" naked body. Even worse is the naked guy who plops down beside you in the sauna, on the higher bench, and spreads his legs. This puts certain obscene objects at eye level. I get to the sauna to find it hasn’t even been turned on today. On top of that, no one joins me in the sauna. I had the slow warm up and the sauna all to myself. It was a great nap.

I had a rough day at work the day before, so I was hoping for some work miracles. I won’t bore you with the work details, but it was one of the most productive and pleasant work mornings I have had in a long time.

My younger brother, Rodney, calls me about 10:30. He is in town for a dentist appointment and would like to go to lunch. I am game, so we plan to go just after 11. I don’t get to see my brothers enough, so this is a rare opportunity. However, I know there is one problem. Rodney doesn’t believe in eating healthy. On top of that, he believes in quantity. He will only eat something green if someone hides vegetables on his meat lovers’ pizza. I quickly start running down a list of food options that could minimize the upcoming damage to my diet. We run through the list, and nothing really appeals to him. He has an epiphany, and decides we need to go to Hooters. This is bad; I love Hooters hot wings, curly fries and cheese sauce. This situation is made worse by the facts that I have not been to Hooters in forever, I worked out early this morning and I have only had 250 calories for the day.

We arrive at Hooters and grab a table. Before I move forward, I must clarify; I go to Hooters for the Hot Wings, not the Hooters. This is the only place I can get all drums. I don’t like the regular hot wings, they don’t have enough meat. They also have some of the best curly fries on the planet. Believe me; I take my eating seriously, now that I have changed my eating habits. If I am going to splurge, I am going to make it count. Now I will admit, I don’t mind and cute girl in short shorts serving me food, Is it just not the reason I choose to go to this restaurant.

When I come to Hooters, I don’t even need the menu. I order the same thing every time. I order a twenty piece all drums with curly fries and cheese sauce. Rodney makes the same order. This should be a fun outing. Rodney had a root canal an hour ago and the entire left side of his mouth is still numb. I promise to inform him when a river of sauce is dripping down his chin. I am sure you are all aware of how promises go when a sibling is involved.

The waitress delivers our food and madness begins. Keeping true to my old habits, I go for the curly fries first. I had actually thought about ordering three orders of curly fries and no wings. The fries are awesome! I move to the wings, and they are almost as tasty. We start devouring the wings like we haven’t eaten in days. The most challenging part of eating at Hooters is trying to not have sauce all over your face or stuff in your teeth every time the waitress comes around. I think this the universes way of playing a nasty trick on guys to think they have a chance to get frisky with one of waitresses. I am sure your chances are killed when you smile at the waitress with sauce running down your face and stuff stuck between your teeth. I can just see some guy in that situation winking at the waitress and saying "How you doing"?

Our waitress seems to be spending a bit more time on Rodney’s side of the table. The ladies have always thought he was a cutie and have given him a bit extra in the flirting category. I could give you a few examples of his cute charm, but I fear those long lost moments should be left in the past, especially the one in Dallas on his 21st B-day.

Rodney is faithful married man. That doesn’t mean that a man doesn’t enjoy a moment of flattery from a cute waitress. After a few repeating flirtatious moments, he starts to get that half embarrassed, half cocky smile, that a man gets when a women is flirting with him and not the other guys at the table. He has forgotten that the left side of his mouth is numb and that I don’t always keep my promises. The waitress returns to fill our drinks one last time. By this time he has some courage and decides throw some boyish charm her way. At this point, he has relaxed a bit, and his left lip is starting to sag. On top of that, there a nice stream of wing sauce running down the numb side of his cheek. He smiles at her and is telepathically asking, "How you doing". She obviously spots the cheek and the sauce and starts to retreat to my side of the table. I lean over and inform her that he has some mental issues and this is the first time he has been out of the hospital in weeks.

Funny, we didn’t see her again until it was time for the bill. It was a great day!

The Orange Quest

I have spent the last couple of months scouring the earth for apparel to match my CARVE team triathlon kit. The way I see it, I have three choices. I can be boring, colorful or hideous. Of course, I chose hideous. I figured, hey, if I am going to be in pain I might as well add some humor to the situation.

As you can see by the pics, I have found the shoes and the sunglasses. I am having no luck finding and orange hat. Well, I can find an orange hat, but not a dry-fit orange hat that I can race in for 5 hours of running at the Ironman. My wife is going to attempt to dye a white hat. If that doesn't work, I will just go with a white hat and the orange sunglasses. If I can find the orange hat, I will more than likely go with a neutral color for the sunglasses.

Hey, the bright orange can do two useful things for me. I can blind the competition as they pass me and the orange should make it easier for the medics to find me passed out on the side of the road during the run.

I took the first step into my future career this week. I completed a Personal Training certification. It was a very intense and detailed test by ISSA. Being in the Technology field, I have been taking certification test for years. I was a bit surprised, and happy, with the difficulty of the exam. It is nice to know the industry is improving the quality of their professionals.

My wife became a PT a couple of years ago, and she loves it! She now works out six times a day for at least six days a week, sometimes seven. She doesn't really work out that much, but she does workout a lot. I think her arms are more defined and bigger than mine. Several of our friends refer to her as "Pipes" or "Guns". She is part of the reason I looked into being a personal trainer. She really enjoys her clients and what better way to spend a day than at the gym?

I won't be trading in the dress shoes for running shoes just yet, but I hope one day to be able to be involved in fitness full time. We have some great ideas and some big plans, but it will take time. I should be able to start training clients in a couple of weeks. I am actually a bit nervous about it. I spend most of my day dealing with computers. It will be quite a switch to deal with humans. There is a big difference in knowing how to do something and showing someone else how to do it.

I had a great nutritional breakthrough with a friend this week. I was enjoying one of my HMR meals when my boss walks in. He ask about the meal and mentioned that he wanted to lose some weight. He had quit smoking a couple of years ago and put on a few pounds. He knows I am in to fitness and has watched me drop almost 40lbs in the last year.

He is a lot like me, in the way that you can't push me to do something. I have to hear the right words or have something catch my attention to get me motivated. I ended up giving him a few meals and recommending he try one, or even two, for lunch. At 230 calories meal, he could easily eat two and cut his lunch calories in half or even by 75%.

He liked the meals and ordered a stash for himself. He has lost several pounds in the last two weeks. He sat in my office today and started talking about counting calories. He had never counted his daily calories and was shocked by the number of calories he was consuming. He thought he was doing the right thing by eating a salad and soaking it in Ranch. After all, it was a salad, it should be healthy. Little did he know that salad had more calories and fat than a fast food cheeseburger.

He seems to be excited about this new discovery and motivated about losing weight. It made me feel good that I could help someone in a positive and healthy way. Maybe this Personal training will be easier than I thought.

The Dentist and the talking Ducks

I had a Dentist appointment today. Like most of the people on the planet, I don't find going to the Dentist a pleasant experience. Luckily, today was a routine cleaning and a fitting for crown on a root canal I had a few months ago. The fitting couldn't be that bad, right?

The cleaning went as planned. I had the usual muffled conversation with the hygienists. It is amazing they can understand the gibberish we speak when their hands are stuffed into our mouths. At the end of the cleaning, the DDS will make a brief appearance to check things out. He is nice guy with a great sense of humor. After checking me out, he instructs to move to another room so we can start the crown work. He ask if I wanted some gas to relax. I quickly ask, "Are we doing something that I would need gas"? He laughs, says no, and says he just wants me to be relaxed. I believe him and head for the next room.

I settle into the chair and promptly accept the gas. I must admit, I love the gas! After a few minutes the DDS and his assistant show up. The first thing he does is crank up the gas. I find this odd, but dismiss it as he changes the subject to more humor. He is a duck hunter and has a few pictures of ducks on the ceiling. He ask me to let him know if the water in the duck pond starts moving or if the ducks start talking to me.

The gas has started to kick in and I am feeling pretty good. I start to see two sets of hands hovering above my mouth. Looks like they are about to get busy. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the big needle used to numb your mouth. Wait a minute, what are we doing that requires this much gas and a needle. My fear increases as I see a second and third needle enter my mouth. He turns up the gas and they leave the room.

I am very high at this point and half of my face is numb. The return and start to go to work. I have learned how to zone out and not think about what they are doing. I stare at the duck pictures and notice the water is moving. Should I report this to him? Heck no, I don't want to take any chances of feeling pain. More time passes and I see one of the ducks head move toward me. This is kind of freaky, but I am not about to say anything that will get my gas turned down. I am suddenly hearing other voices above me. You have to be kidding, the duck is talking to me.

"You missed your run yesterday and you have only swam once this week".

I am not going to talk to this duck. Who does he think he is, my trainer?

"If you don't run on Thursday, your legs are going to hurt as bad as they did last weekend."

I know, I know, I will run tomorrow. I can't believe I am talking to the duck.

"You ate Ice Cream yesterday and have only lost 2 lbs this month. You are behind schedule."

Hey, I am getting back on track, ease up. I just started training again.

"You do realize you have an Ironman in 7 months. You can't train like last year and finish."

That's it, I am through talking to you. I am closing my eyes and you will go away.

After an hour of construction, they release me. I am no longer high, but I feel like I have a slight hangover. Half of my face is still numb, so lunch should be fun. Maybe I should use the numbness as an excuse not to eat. After all, the duck is right about everything.

Back in the Groove and Loving it!!!

I am alive again! I can still bike, run and swim without having a heart attack.

You really don't appreciate a long rest period until you get a couple of weeks back into training and start to feel normal again. Those first couple of workouts really hurt and make you wonder if it is all worth it. Fortunately, the body has a good memory and only makes you suffer for a couple of weeks.

I had a more methodical rest period at the end of 2008. I had a great year, lost a lot of weight and was more fit than ever. As I finished my last race in early November, an MTB race, I knew I needed to start winding down and giving my body a break. Putting and Ironman on the schedule for 2009 really changes your focus.

I put the small tire bikes on the rack and grabbed the fat tires for most of November and December. I did a lot of casual riding in the woods and some easy running. Well, as casual as MTB will let you be. A casual MTB ride is still a good workout. I finally figured out how to ride in the dirt without ending up on my back. That really made riding a lot more fun.

December arrived and I decided to do something crazy. I decided to stop exercising for two solid weeks. No swimming, running, biking, core work or weights. I was good the first few days but started to go crazy the second week. I was counting down the days until our annual club ride on New Years day. I would actually walk by my bikes and drool. I longed to be back on my bike or even run. I never thought I would miss running.

I have put in almost 100 bike miles, 21 run miles and an hour and a half of swimming in the past two weeks. I feel like a million bucks. My body is rested, injury free and I am very motivated. To my surprise, the hardest thing for me right now is to not overdo it. I am spreading out the workouts and taking it easy.

I had one of the best runs of my life last Saturday. I call it the "Marianne" run. Marianne is a super runner who will get up at 4 am to run to make sure she doesn't miss it that day. She runs because she loves it and is very good at it. I have never been good at running or loved it. I guess shedding almost 40 lbs will make you enjoy running. I did a few short runs the last two weeks and decided to do a longer run last Saturday. I decided to run in my hilly neighborhood. I was shocked at how good I felt and ended up running 10 awesome miles.

This weekend should be a great weekend. I plan to do a 14 miler on Saturday and a 40 mile bike on Sunday. This is the base period so it will be slow miles so I don't hurt myself.

If you are resting or just getting back into the workouts, don't get discouraged. Your body really needs to rest and you will get back to normal before you know it. Oh, I forgot one of the most important parts. The holiday weight gains are already starting to disappear. We have a great year to look forward to!!

Holiday Stuffing and End of the Year thoughts.

If you took a thousand random pictures of me in December, they would look like the picture above. I have been stuffing my face at every opportunity. To make matters worse, I have been resting my body for most of the month with a full 10 days with no activity.

As we all know, the balance of calories in and out have some unwanted side affects on the body. I steered away from scale most of the month. I checked it in the middle of December and today. To my surprise, the damage was not as bad as I had anticipated. I came away with a gain of 6 lbs. I may not have gained allot of weight, but I have felt horrible all month. I actually miss my clean diet and fuel.

The month was not a total loss. For the first time in three years, I am rested, relaxed, motivated and injury free. These were my main goals for December. I knew I had to be at this level to begin the Ironman training.

I started exercising last week. I have been on my MTB several days last week and this week. The first couple of rides were horrible. I felt heavy, sluggish and I am fairly certain I was sweating sugar from all of the sweets I have been eating. One of the side affects of not maintaining a balanced diet is fluctuating blood sugar. The result has been sugar cravings galore.
The rides this week were much better and I had an awesome 2.5 hour MTB ride yesterday. I almost felt like my old self. My legs were strong, but my cardio is a bit weak. That is to be expected from a long layoff. I got back on the treadmill this week to get my legs moving. I will start outdoor running this weekend and continue my preparation for the Marathon in March. I am so ready to get back to real training.

2008 was a great athletic year! For starters, I finally lost weight. I ended up almost 40lbs less than 2007. I finished my first Half-Ironman and completed a Half marathon in less than 2 hours. One of the most exciting things of 2008 was the fact that I finished those events without much training. I was dieting so I didn't have the full energy and power I plan to have next year.

2009 should be an awesome year. I plan to lose another 15 to 20 lbs by April 1st. This will allow me to be near my high school weight and allow me to train and race hard the rest of the year. I have three big events next year. I will start with my first marathon in March, then a 24 hour ride with Geo to support Arkansas Children's Hospital and finish out with the big daddy, a full Ironman. I have several events and goals scattered throughout the year, but those are the big ones.

I have a very important goal that I have been able to reach every year since I started it. The goal is to enhance the friendships I already have and create several new ones. I have always been blessed with an abundance of friends. I would like to take a moment to thank all of my friends who shared 2008 with me. I hope we can continue to share good times and share our friendships with others.

I wish you all a great 2009!

Ironman Louisville - We are so there!

My wife and I have decided to do an Ironman event next year. We are taking the plunge and going for the 140.6 at Ironman Louisville on August 30th 2009.

For those of you who don't keep up with the Triathlon world, this is the holy grail, the grand daddy of them all, the life changing event. Believe me when I tell you, this was a big decision and was not an easy decision.

I call my wife while on the way home from work. We chat about what to grab for dinner and the usual, "how was your day", chat. Toward the end of the conversation, she mentions that our good friends, Jo and David, are doing the Ironman Louisville. David is a seasoned Ironman competitor, but this will be Jo's first Ironman. We started our Triathlon adventures around the same time as Jo, so I was getting that "left behind" feeling.

Rebecca and I had worked out our Ironman plans last year. We both decided we would do our first Ironman together when we turned 40. That is still three years away, so there was no pressure, until I heard Jo was taking the plunge. Truth be told, for the last few months, I had been slowly moving our Ironman plans up a year at a time. I had already convinced my wife we would look at doing and Ironman in 2010. She was not against the idea and I had confidence in my abilities to persuade her to participate.

We decided to eat out and headed over to Schlotzky's. During the entire ride and meal, I was a focused zombie. All I could think about was doing the Ironman. I had convinced myself I was ready to start the journey. However, I had one big issue. My wife and I planned to do our first one together. She immediately started telling me that is was fine with her if I took the plunge. She was definitely not doing it next year and would still target 2010. Being a man, I really didn't believe her. We had the same conversation ten times in the next thirty minutes. I finally decided to believe that she didn't mind me doing the event with her, but I didn't really believe it. Women never really say what they mean.

I went upstairs to change clothes with the idea of signing up when I was done. I came down the stairs and my wife immediately informed me to sign her up. I was a bit confused. I then noticed her cheeks and face were red. Oh crap, I know what that means, crying was involved in the decision. I walked over and gave her a hug and told her I wouldn't sign up. I didn't want to rush her and it was important that we do this together. She told me she had made up her mind and I need to sign her up right now before she changed her mind. I am husband, must obey.

We both hovered over the computer as I signed us up. I was more nervous signing up than I was starting an event. We were both nauseous after the sign up was complete. There was just something crazy about signing up. It made everything final and signified a complete change in our training mindset and lifestyle. This is big time stuff. You can do minimal training and complete a half-Ironman, but a full Ironman takes dedication.

We are going to stick to our holiday training plans. We will redo our yearly training plan for next year and have it ready by January 1st. Not only do we have redo our training plan, we have to redo our family plans and our daily routines. We have to get the house where we want it and a ton of other tasks we need to complete. Training for an Ironman takes a lot of time and energy.

We both have blogs and will routinely provide updates. This is going to be an awesome journey with friends. As I have always stated, the training journey with friends is the best part of an event. To all of our friends, we are going to need your companionship, your courage and occasionally a shoulder to cry on.

Stress Management

The holidays arrive bearing gifts of stress!

Why do holidays have to be stressful? Holidays should be about spending time with your loved ones and enjoying time off. We shouldn't be battling the inconsiderate shopping crowds, traffic and hustle and bustle. We shouldn't be up cooking all night, only to load up and travel to three different cities to visit relatives the next two days. I don't want to sound like a scrooge, I love the holidays, I just don't like the hustle and bustle. Why can't my wife and I just set on the couch for a couple of days and eat bon bons in front of the fire?

As we all know, this holiday season is more stressful than most. Our country's financial and job loss situation make this a very difficult time for everyone. I have always tried to find a way to manage my stress. The majority of the time I can use exercise to wipe away my stress. However, we have stressful times that move outside the boundaries of our normal stress management procedures. Last week was one of those times.

I reached a point last week where I did not want to exercise at all. I was eating crap, feeling sluggish and completely unmotivated. Naturally, this amplified all of my stress. I had to find a way out of this stress loop and get back on track.

My youngest brother is a hunter. He will hunt anything that moves as long as as he can eat it. I call him to brag about a new bike and he calls me when he has a new gun. I may wear spandex in public, but he thinks camouflage is fashionable for any occasion. I try to hunt with him at least one weekend a year. I am not big on hunting, but it gives us some much needed quality time. My brothers and I are very close and we don't get to spend much time together. Besides, maybe some time in nature will clear my mind and reduce some of my stress.

Last Friday night, we pack up the camouflage and headed to South Arkansas for a weekend of fun in the woods. We arrived at our destination around 1 AM with plans of being in our deer stands by 6 AM. Not getting much sleep did not bother me nearly as much as knowing the temperature Saturday morning was to be around 23 degrees. I had every piece of warm bike clothing I own, under my camouflage pants and jacket. Surprisingly, I wasn't a bit cold. As far as the hunting goes, I saw over 50 deer that weekend but didn't even take a shot. Being in nature and watching the deer run around seemed to be helping my stress.

The deer camp is actually the house of a good friend of ours. He and his brother live across the street from each other out in the country. They are both divorced and have daughters. When ask why they are divorced, they will both tell you some version of their wife not being able to fish or hunt and they had to let them go.

Their daughters, however, are excellent hunters, even the 9 year old. We stayed with the brother with the 9 year old. I had a first class lesson on how a 9 year old girl can run the show. I guess it is somewhat comforting to know that women are born with certain traits and it is natures plan not some evil plan they develop as they get older. I had no idea that a 9 year old girl was so proficient at sarcasm and ordering people around. Truly, women are the more intelligent species.

While chatting with the 9 year old, I noticed a couple of guitars and a drum set by the TV. I was immediately informed she was in charge of this equipment and would allow me to join in the fun if I so desired. I couldn't see myself spending time playing Rock Band, but I would participate if it made her happy.

She turned on the equipment and ordered me to take over the drums. Her dad would be the lead guitar, my brother would be the backup and she would be the lead vocals. I have extremely good hand eye coordination so it only took a few minutes for me to get the hang of the drums. I was mildly entertained and started to relax. As time went on, I started to enjoy myself and loosen up. The next thing I know, we have a house full of people singing and dancing. I have been on the drums for over three hours and all of my stress has disappeared. Who knew that this silly game would wipe away all of my stress. I had a blast, although I will admit there is something inherently wrong with a 9 year old girl singing Hotel California and The Joker.

I returned home refreshed and longing for a good run. I guess I am back to normal, well, as normal as I can be.