Wednesday, December 31, 2008

New Years Resolutions?

New Year's Resolutions - Who needs em? Well as I look around the blogosphere they seem to be all the rage. I think I like the retrospective followed by the resolute so here it goes.

2008 - Where did the time go?

1. CPA License. I consider this to the the achievement of the year. It took a masters degree, passing an awful exam, and working for two years and some help to get the application in while trying to work full time but I completed it, the board approved it and I now need to get my continuing education file together.

2. The House. Still not finished. More on that later. However, this year I did make great progress in the bathroom, move upstairs so I could finish the trim downstairs, get my shop organized, and install doorknobs all through the house. That's a big start.

3. Work. This was my first full year of employment out of law school. I am lucky to have a great job where I enjoy my work and practice with a good group of people. What a difference it makes.

4. Fun. 2008 has been a fun year. We have really had the chance to meet some new people and to develop our relationships with our friends in town. I've enjoyed playing golf with many of my friends on Saturdays and I started playing some tennis as well.

5. Ending on a high note. I started a "diet" a/k/a "healthy choices lifestyle" at the first of December. My high weight at the beginning was 222.5 pounds. I weighted in at 208.4 this morning. That's a loss of 14.1 pounds. I fit in my clothes, I feel better and I have more energy. We started eating tons of fresh vegetables and being more active. It has been a great change.

2009 - Something to Look Forward To.

1. Consider obtaining another professional accreditation? I am eligible to take the patent bar exam or even another bar exam in another state.... hmmm.

2. Work? I want to continue to progress in my current position. I would like to do more activities that would advance my skill levels. I don't know if there are enough hours in a day but I think it could be beneficial to start some sort of rote memory program for eminent domain law. In short - read more materials that are substantive in nature.

3. The House. FINISH THE EXTERIOR.

4. Fun? Take more trips. See more friends who live out of town. Continue developing the relationships here at home. Work on the consistency of my golf game.

5. The high note... I think for 2009 my first goal is to stick with this eating/exercise program. It was a difficult adjustment but it is getting easier with every day. If successful, my dietitian will have me at my college weight by the end of the first quarter of this year and I think that would be amazing.

2009... What's going on in your life?

Sunday, December 21, 2008

A Good Weekend

I've had a great weekend. I hope you have too. We spent the weekend at home, making meals on the "plan" and went to a couple Christmas parties. I do love a good Christmas party. Its interesting though. I've stopped consuming alcohol while I'm trying to drop this 50 pounds and it makes some interesting "cocktail' conversation. I think me not drinking makes others more un-comfortable that me. I'm fine with not drinking and while I do miss a god gin and tonic, I don't need to drink to talk to folks and hang out. It does seem that people don't really know what to do when I say I'm fine or, "I'll take a water" or "Soda and lime". Man, the looks are classic. but I must say, I'm educating my friends on what is going on and for the most part they have been very understanding.

We made some progress around the house. I'm finally prepared to work on the dormers and other parts of the exterior that need work but this week I focused on making a little oak shelf for the upstairs kitchen. I'll have to take a picture later. I have made it to match the cabinets and glued it together so there aren't any fastner holes.

I hope your weekend went great as well!





not drinking on this plan and it makes for some intersting

Wednesday, December 17, 2008

You Are What You Eat



Well I'm on week two of this nutritionist diet and I must say I'm pretty impressed overall. We have never given food this much thought. Its amazing how persave our food choices can be. My nutritionist gives me a seven day a week, three meal a day plan and you pretty well have to stick to it. I've never eaten such variety in my life. I hated it for a few days (this could be because we hit 5 christmas parties last week and tried to initiate this diet but I digress). It's actually gotten to be a fun challenge to make the meals conform to the plan and be tasty!

I've lost 7 pounds, that is 3.5 pounds a week. I get hungry but I'm eating a ton of food. I bet my salad for lunch weights 16 ounces.

I eat a wide variety of things like fish, beef, chicken and even have to eat my carbs. She gave me a hard time for forgeting my bread with lunch one day. Seems that carbs help buffer protein or something like that. I've mostly stopped drinking alcohol and am required to exercise for an hour a day, all cardio, no weights. She say's we'll do weights later to keep me from looking too skinny. Overall its a pretty good deal and its nice to know that I'm losing weight and gettting the foods that I need to stay healthy overall.

Well back to work for me. I've got to hit the gym over lunch!

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

When it Rains, It Pours

Well the footrace known as Christmas has officially begun. We have bookings for every night of the week just about. Thankfully, we are home this weekend so we can recover. I must admit I do love a good Christmas party.

This year we will be celebrating the season in a different way. I finally went to see a nutritionist to help me lose the weight I gained in law school and well folks, try not having alcohol, butter, cream, cookies, cake, pie, etc and let me know if your holiday season feels a tensy bit different. I'm trying to adjust and this plan is as good as it gets but it is amazing how little attention I paid to what I ate. I now have a hard time just getting in a coherent order. But i am working on it and have yet to go terribly hungry just yet.

We're moving things around in the office as well. Our paralegal graciously relocated to another office so we could make room for a new attorney. It will be an exciting new year here at work.

So, in short there is much going on here at cadleized. I hope your deep fall is going well too.