I'm Taking the Plunge....

Sure, you read the title, it's 96 degrees outside and you could safely assume I'm about to dive into a post about my family's summer swimming habits...Well, you're wrong. I'm taking an entirely different plunge; an entirely more anxiety inducing plunge into the Weight Watchers pool.

In 2004, I was rapidly approaching the 300lb mark. I wasn't there but I could see it on the horizon and it scared me. My wife and I began following the Weight Watchers program using materials we borrow from her mom. It worked, I lost about 70lbs and my wife was also successful.

Trouble is, since then I've been up and down and unfortunately for the last year I've been on a steady journey back up. I'm in a different place in my life than I was in 2004. Now I have a 13 month old baby girl at home who is watching very carefully what I do. It's one thing for me to be unhealthy, but there is no excuse to let my poor eating habits begin influence her.

My pants were getting tighter (I even broke down and bought a few larger pairs), and I thought it was time to get back on the horse, but this time the right way. It's one thing to borrow some books and information about Weight Watchers, but an entirely different thing to go to the meetings and learn how to successfully change your lifestyle. This all sounds kind of cheesy, but the more I stay positive about my weight loss the more likely I am to actually do it.

My wife went back to Weight Watchers after our daughter was born and she recently hit her goal weight...

This means three things:

1. She feels really good about her hard work over the last year.
2. She looks fantastic.
3. Her Weight Watchers meetings are now free.

That last one is important in terms of my decision to go to a meeting myself. You see we've been paying for meetings for about a year so what difference will it mean to our bottom line if I started paying for meetings? You're right, none. So last week I went onto the interwebs and signed-up for Weight Watchers Monthly Pass. Now I can go to meetings every week and be held accountable for the poor habits that have resurfaced in the last couple of years.

I'm not one for meetings, but just like when I saw 300lbs on the horizon I realized something had to be done. This time I want to stick it out so that my little girl will grow up in a houseful of healthy eaters. I'm not naive, I know she'll love her pizza and ice cream just like the other kids, and I want her to know that it's OK to eat that stuff sometimes...Just not all the time, like I do.

Are the meetings going to work? I'm not sure, but I'm exercising again and really trying to keep my food intake in check. Something had to be done, so I'm doing it.

Finally, I can Grill like a Champ

Ladies and gentlemen, I have a confession to make. When it comes to cooking meat, I'm a cutter. I'm never confident that the meat I throw on the grill is done, so I cut it open two or three times before I take it off...This method leaves me with meat done to perfection, but it's sliced to bits before it even gets to the table.

All that is in the past now that I have joined the digital thermometer revolution. I've been using a digital thermometer for all of my indoor meat creations for almost a year, but it was never really that conducive for my grilling need. My digital thermometer has the temperature gauge and digital unit connected by a 3 foot cord. If I use this while I'm grilling, I'm constantly in and out of the house checking the temperature. It was a pain so I never really took to it.

Now, I was fortunate enough to have the opportunity to try a Talking Wireless Digital Thermometer system from Oregon Scientific. The unit itself consists of a temperature gauge attached to a wireless transmitter. While my chicken is cooking outside I have the receiving unit on my counter. All I have to do is set the system to 'Chicken' and wait for the system to tell me it's done.

The only problem I had with this little gadget was in the initial setup. I took it out of the package put the provided batteries in the transmitter and the receiver, and put the temperature probe into the chicken. Nothing happened. After a few minutes and some careful reading of the instructions, we were up and running. The receiver actually speaks when your meal is done.

I can't wait to use it again, I think we'll have steaks tomorrow night! For more information about this and a wide variety of great Father's Day gifts check out the RedEnvelope website the place for unique and personalized gifts.

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*Compensated Review

142. They're Back...Thank goodness.

Last week was not one of my favorites. It was terrible coming home to an empty house while my wife and baby girl were away. I wrote in my previous post that I bought tickets for my wife to visit her sister in California...And I'm sure you've all been waiting on pins and needles waiting to see how I survived my week alone.

Well, it was terrible. Sure I went fishing a couple of times and I got some good home improvement projects completed, but on the whole I did not have fun. For the last 12 months, I've come home everyday to a beautiful wife and the cutest baby girl in the world. To suddenly stop that was a bit of a shock. I saw it coming though. As soon as I dropped them at the airport I realized my mistake, but by then it was already too late.

I couldn't sleep or concentrate most days, all those home improvement project that I completed were started randomly throughout the house. I could never work on one for very long before I'd get distracted by another one. Fortunately, I was able to get everything together and cleaned up before they came home, but it was close there for a while.

I'm the kind of guy that needs to be close to his wife and child as much as he can. It bothers me that I have to go to work everyday, while they're at home. I want to be home too, but I can't so I just try to make the best of the hours I am there. Luckily, I work in education and the summer is fast approaching, which means I'll get some time off. I can't wait.

I learned my lesson last week...Where ever they go, I go.