Worth the Weight

This is the story of a guy I work with.  He went from 380 lbs down to 245 through gastric bypass and exercise.  It's pretty motivational, but kind of long (8 min.)....if you're strapped for time, go to the 4:50 to 6:50 mark and check out how he got into running and took his pant size from 56 down to 38.

Slowly Thawing Out

We got hit with the Midwest winter blast and have had wintery weather the last couple weeks--- lots of snow, ice, negative wind chills, and school cancellations.  

Of course, we didn't get hit quite as bad as our neighbors in Oklahoma, or Arkansas.  I heard that in Tulsa school was closed for two weeks.  And in NW Arkansas, they set a 100-yr old state record for snowfall in a 24 hr period (23 inches).  My company totally shut down there for 2 days, as did many other businesses.

All this cold stuff always puts a damper on my running (read: no running the last couple weeks).

But fortunately, the weather finally broke over the weekend and we've climbed into the 50's.  The snow is melting.  Woo-hoo.

I got out for a 3 miler last night and it felt great.  I have lost 12 lbs in the last 5 weeks (even WITH all the valentines candy!) and it sounds weird but I could feel it in my running, I felt lighter and stronger.   Still, I have decided that my body is old enough now that it needs extra rest days between runs, so I'm going to try to be smart about that and not overdue it.

Here is a pic of the snowman my boys made over the weekend, after it warmed up and the snow packed really good.

PS--Big win for K-State Monday night.  Thank you to KU for possibly saving our season.

Giveaway Winner! And Some Purple Hot Chocolate.

Thanks to all who entered my $45 CSN Giveaway.    The lucky winner is....................

Miss Zippy!

Congrats!  I will email you with your winning code shortly.

A co-worker gave me some purple hot chocolate for Christmas.  With the wintery weather upon us, we tried it last night.   For the record, it didn't taste as cool as it looked....

pic is kind of dark, can't see the purple-ness

City Museum and Circus Debut

Last November on our way to spend Thanksgiving with family in Illinois, we decided to spend a day in St Louis.    We went to the City Museum.   We had a blast.  If you are ever in the St Louis area and have some time to kill, you should check this place out.

It's hard to describe the City Museum because it's not like any museum I've ever been to.  It's more like a huge playhouse.   My kids absolutely loved it.   We went on a weekend night when it stays open until midnight.  After 9 or 10pm, they turn off the lights in many of the areas and you can explore the building with flashlights.   We stayed until probably 11pm.   Among many other things, the museum has a huge outdoor metal sculpture you can climb around on, a maze of caves indoors you can explore, a 10 story slide, a ferris wheel on the roof, an indoor skate park, an adult sized hamster wheel, the worlds largest pencil, the world's largest underwear, and an old pipe organ that you can play.

The maze of metal sculptures you can climb on.

Notice the bus on the roof?  Yeah, you could sit in the driver's seat.

On the hamster wheel.

Exploring!

The world's largest underwear.

The museum also had a small one-man circus in a theater with about 100 people.  The absolute highlight of our time at the museum was my son getting picked to go on stage with the performer.   This was the finale of the show.  Enjoy.

Heat Wave

Okay, it's not exactly a heat wave but weather forecasters predict it's going to get up to 70 degrees today.  In late January.   In the midwest.   I love it.  It was beautiful yesterday too and we took the family for about a 3 mile walk last night.   I also love that it's starting to stay lighter longer.  Woo-hoo.

I ran on  a treadmill in Arkansas twice in addition to running outside a couple of times this week.  Haven't run more than 3 miles at a time yet.   I really want to ease back into it.   I also have lost about 11 pounds in 3 weeks with the Biggest Winner weight loss challenge through work.  Feeling pretty good about that, but I have much more to lose.

Did anyone watch the Biggest Loser this week?   First, I didn't get why Gillian felt the need to make Dan/Don (whatever his name is) use curse words.  It was like that was her whole mission, to get him mad enough to swear , and when he did it, she felt better.  Like she accomplished something.  I think she tries to psychoanalyze things too much.    Second, did anyone else think it was extremely unfair when the two green team members were pitted against all the rest of the ranch competitors in the challenge?   It was like 2 against 8 or something.   Not fair at all, even though they almost won.

Enough rambling.   Everyone have a great start to the weekend.

Why Do You Run?

So....Why do YOU run??

Anyone ever done the Expedition Everest Disney race?

We are trying to plan a Disney World trip, and one of the weekends we're looking at has a 5K race called the Expedition Everest Challenge.

It's a little pricey, but I think it sounds really fun.   It's an 5K race in Animal Kingdom after the park closes that has obstacles along the way, and then at the end there is a treasure hunt.

I would love to do it with my 8 yr old son.  Has anyone done this race?  Do you think an 8 yr old can complete it and have fun?  Or should he stick with the kids' race?  Thoughts?