Catching Up and My Diet: Two Weeks Later

Posted by Michael on January 26, 2012
Posted in: General, Health. Leave a Comment

So, after my last blog post I realized I didn’t really do any of the “Catch up” stuff. Afterall that’s what a blog is all about right? Writing about pointless shit in your life that not many people will care about. So let’s consider an alternate title to this blog “Catching Up On All The Pointless Shit No One Cares About”. That’s the key to a blogging in my opinion, just writing about stuff that’s important to you while not caring if anyone else truly cares or not.

I will say, though, that prior to this site going into it’s long slumber I did actually have some people who enjoyed reading about my single guy antics. Then I got married and life settled down, and the last time I was active in blogging on this site I had just adopted my son. Since then life has changed a lot, my son Jack will be 3 in less than 2 weeks and my girlfriend Sarah and I have been together for almost 2 years. We moved out of Anne Arundel County a few months back and are settled into Howard County, where I’ve always enjoyed living. So that’s it… it only took one paragraph to catch you up on my life to date. But this coming year looks to be a big one for me.

About 2 weeks ago I decided it was time to get healthier and shed some weight I had slowly been accumulating over the past few years. My body is like a squirrel, except instead of hoarding away little nuts (haha!) it’s been slowly hiding away pounds as if some worldwide famine was about to begin and it might have to start eating itself. But as much as I’d love to blame genetics the real blame here all falls on me and my terrible diet consisting of sugar, fat, and sugary fats topped with butter and salt. I know sounds yummy right? BUT, it leaves you looking like a sumo wrestler and trust me, you don’t want to see me in a thong.

So armed with the knowledge that if I kept up my current eating habits I’d start to have planets circling me if ever I caught fire I decided to use Sarah’s method of weight loss (she’s  shed 40 pounds in about a year… FANTASTIC job babe!) and use MyFitnessPal (shameless company plug coming very soon). You basically just tell it your weight, the total amount of weight you’d like to lose (your goal weight) and how much you’d like to lose weekly, and based on that info it comes up with a daily calorie intake diet for you. This method is nice because it doesn’t shoehorn you into any certain type of food, but rather allows you to add into a food journal exactly what you’ve eaten and gives you a breakdown of your calories consumed along with fat, sugars, and vitamins.


But it’s cool cuz I’m eating grapes

The first night I did it I was completely honest with what I ate right down to how much ketchup I put on my fries and what condiments went on my bacon cheeseburger (nope, not making this up). At the end of the night when I saw how bad the numbers were it was all I needed to being making dietary changes. After that first night I’ve stuck to my 1,900 daily calorie diet pretty religiously and in 2 weeks I’ve dropped 7 pounds, and can already notice a huge boost in energy as well as feeling like I’m in a much better mood, and I feel like I’m starting to sleep better at night. Not only that but for about 6 months now I have had this nagging pain in my right foot, and it’s all but gone away (I have no explanation for this but I swear it’s not in my head).

Along with the dietary changes about 3 months ago I decided it was time to kick my phobia of the dentist and began getting a lot of work done to fix my teeth (which can lead to heart disease if left unchecked). February should see the culmination in the completion of that work so I’m patting myself on the back for manning up.  Not only that but the two main reasons which kept me from going for so many years turned out to not even be a factor. 1) My dental insurance is a LOT better than I thought it would be and 2) turns out I was a pretty big pussy about the pain for nothing; 2 root canals, several cavities and some bridge work didn’t even hurt all that much. The field of dentistry has really come a long way since I was a kid.

This coming year looks to be a big one for me, and I look forward to being more healthy, active, and in better shape for myself as well as my son and girlfriend. Ok that’s all for now, next time I’ll try to come up with something more entertaining and less preachy. I promise.


Yep, here comes the plug

Should you feel yourself wanting to make some changes in your life I highly recommend My Fitness Pal. It’s free, web based, and they also have apps available for Android/iPhone.

A Time For Change

Posted by Michael on January 14, 2012
Posted in: Sports. 1 comment

After a long absence from writing I felt it was time to resurrect this site, and what better way to get started than to discuss the recent decision I made to end the era of Vikings fanmanship in favor of the Ravens. My girlfriend feels like maybe I’m expecting more flack over this than I’ll actually get, but after 21 years with the same team I felt I had to get this off my chest and explain the reason behind the decision.

My fandom with the Vikings began when I was 12 years old and just beginning to show an interest in sports. It’s one of those days that I can remember so clearly, which is comical because I have a hard time remembering what I had for dinner last night. I woke up, hopped out of bed and went into the living room to find my brother (also a Vikings fan) watching the Vikings-49ers game. It was 1991 and I was living in California, where everyone was on board with the 49ers Montana-Rice-Roger Craig machine. If you didn’t watch football in the early 90’s or don’t recall that period of football it was one dominated by the 49ers. You couldn’t walk into a 7 eleven to buy a slurpee without bumping into some SanFran nuthugger. It was ridiculous.

So there I was watching this game with my brother and I could feel his energy as the very underwhelming Vikings (they went 8-8 that season) put it to the 49ers. The most memorable moment of that game was Wade Wilson connecting with Anthony Carter on a deep sideline pass that he hauled in one handed while stretching out over the out of bounds line. So many people put Rice on a pedestal (and rightly so, he was an amazing receiver) but to this day that catch is one of the best I’ve ever seen in football simply because of the athleticism displayed.

Minnesota won that game and after that morning it was me, my brother, and the Vikings for the next 21 years. In that time we have been through a lot with the Vikes; some good, some bad, but always together. My love for this team is probably the main reason why I constantly feel the need to root for the underdog in just about every competitive event. If not for 3 major points I couldn’t get past I would have probably remained a Vikings fan indefinitely.

Now that my sons almost 3 I came to the realization that if he ends up rooting for the team I root for it’s going to be very difficult for us to enjoy the game of football the way it’s supposed to be enjoyed. Being Viking fans living in Maryland we’d never get to go to the stadium and see them and experience that father/son experience (not easily at least), never get to watch them on TV (unless I fork out hundreds for NFL ticket), and he’ll have so much outside influence to like the hometown teams.

If that wasn’t enough reason to make the change ask yourself this: how would YOU feel if you lived nowhere near the team you liked, had zero friends who liked the team you like (that’s right, in 21 years I have NEVER had a friend that liked the same team as me aside from my brother, and he’s 3,000 miles away) and watch maybe 3-4 games a year if you’re lucky? That question is probably best asked to a serious football fan, and having lived in that scenario I can tell you right now you really feel alienated. It really sucks when your friends all like a different team and don’t share in your joy or sorrow at how your team performs (and to be clear I understand friendship circle don’t always like the same teams but that’s a far cry from having zero team buddies). Really think about that for a minute. At times I feel like I am on a sports island all alone while within earshot I can hear tons of people celebrating and having a good time on the nearby island.

Then there’s also this: I genuinely LIKE the Ravens. I enjoy being able to watch a team that is near to me, and I enjoy feeling the shared energy when they win. You can really feel the electricity in the area when the Raven’s win, and that’s something I envy. It’s something I felt when I watched that first game with my brother and it’s something I haven’t felt in a long, long time. I want my son to feel that, I want to share that with my son, and I want to take him to games and watch games with him while eating really fatty pizza’s and dips. In short I want to start enjoying football the way other people do. I’ve lived in Maryland for 15 years now, longer than any other area/state in my life so I feel like this is my hometown now, and feel pride in my hometown.

There’s one last thing to touch on before I call this blog entry completed, and to my really good friends it’ll go without saying, but to the rest I will address it. No, it has nothing to do with my team coming off the worst season in 21 years and the Ravens having a strong playoff shot. Being a fan means taking the good with the bad, and I’ve shoveled my fair share of shit as a Vikings fan. I’m 31 years old, have never been a bandwagon or fair-weather fan and want to make it clear my decision is based entirely on a love for this sport, for the future generations of Goodale’s, and love for the area I live in. Anyone who thinks my switch has anything to do with being a fair-weather fan or wanting to jump on a bandwagon really doesn’t know anything about me, my character, or my sense of loyalty.

So with that said let me just say… GO RAVENS!