Sanjay the Superstar

Several weeks ago Sanjay told me that he tried out for a speaking role in the 2nd grade play.  He was hoping for a singing part and said that he tried his best.  The music teacher told the kids that she wanted to give all the classes an opportunity to audition so her decision would take a few weeks.  He was hopeful but in the back of his mind worried that it might be given to someone else.  His passion for this was strong.  Throughout those weeks he'd casually mention to me that he hoped the music teacher would pick him.  I was nervous for him.  It was the first time that I can recall as a parent feeling like my child is truly going to be let down if he doesn't land this role.

Priya's personality is like mine... a bit afraid of failure so she refuses go after something like this without 100% certainty that it will be hers.  Sanjay's confidence lands completely on the other end of the spectrum.  It is admirable and innate, and I cannot relate.  I can still remember him as a toddler watching "Dora the Explorer" and shouting out answers to the TV screen with conviction even though oftentimes the answers were completely wrong.  It would get me in a fit of giggles it was so dang cute.  Even when the backpack announced the correct answer, he wasn't bothered that it didn't match his.  No doubt in his mind the backpack was wrong.  :)

It turns out that he did get the role as Great White Shark and cheerfully announced it to the family that night.  Music is one of his favorite classes in school and he was excited to be practicing his part during class over the next couple of weeks.  He brought the script home and had to have his lines memorized by the weekend before the play.  He worked diligently on this and even took it to bed with him as his nightly reading a few nights.  He took advantage of any opportunity to sing his solo for anyone who would listen.  He was ready for the big performance.

Tonight was the big night.  Unfortunately Daddy was out of town on a business trip so he couldn't make it.  However because of his absence, I have recorded Sanjay's performance on three different devices.  And I have a fourth copy which I recorded this afternoon at the matinee showing for the students so it all worked out in the end.

The play had a great message.  Several sea creatures have "disabilities" if you will.  For example, the Tuna Fish cannot sing or "hold a tune", the Octopus has only 7 legs, the Starfish hasn't had a star acting role in several months, the Clownfish can't tell jokes and the Zebrafish has spots instead of stripes.  One of the main characters is a Tigershark who is looking for friends but doesn't want to be friends with any of these misfits.  The Great White Shark is sort of the hero as he steps in to show Tigershark that it's okay to be unique and in fact different is nice.  He sings a song to drive home his point and that's the final scene of the play.

Here is my little superstar singing this great message...


I am so proud of him tonight.  He did a great job and received lots of compliments from parents and other students.  He cannot wait to show the video to Dad.

My Weight Loss Journey - Though It's Far From Over

In early January 2012 I came to the realization that it was time to take care of my weight yet again.  In adulthood the number on the scale has generally mimicked a yo-yo, bouncing up and down over the years.  I would say the range is something like 20 pounds and I have lost the same 5lbs, 8lbs, 14lbs repeatedly since college.

Although I think this picture makes me look especially large and unattractive, and I can't believe I'm posting it here... seeing this in the mirror day after day is likely what inspired me to take it to the next level this time around.

Like many that struggle with weight, my past is riddled with small successes and bigger failures at commercial diets like Jenny Craig and Weight Watchers.  I cannot say what made it different this time, but I am more committed than ever.  As much as I hate to say it because I feel it will jinx my progress, it actually seems pretty darn easy this time around.

Simply put, I have been watching what I'm eating and I started exercising.  I have not changed my diet per se but the portion sizes are considerably smaller.  If I want a cookie, I'll have a cookie... If I want pizza, I'll eat a slice... I won't ever say 'no' to an Indian paneer dish with lots of cream.  I find that if I eat a lot of salads or low calorie foods it feels like a restrictive diet that I can only maintain for so long.  I now realize that I have to eat like this for the rest of my life and you know what, that's not such a bad thing!  Like I said I am still indulging in everything that I love but I just don't do it every day.  I don't want to even think of the number of calories I was consuming on a daily basis pre-January-2012.  One thing that has been instrumental in helping me track all aspects of my progress is MyFitnessPal.  It's a website and a mobile app for tracking calories and exercise.  It's been dubbed "Facebook for Fat People" as it also provides forums for social networking. That name is misleading though because the members range from personal trainers to folks that need to lose 100lbs or more. I would highly recommend it if you're looking to manage your weight.

In addition to watching my calorie intake, I have added exercise back into my life.  I'm no stranger to working out, but the past couple of years have been a little tough.  Upon turning 40, I had the bright idea of running my first ever half marathon. As a result I ended up with a bad case of plantar fasciitis that left me unable to run for about a year. This is where I packed on the pounds and accepted defeat by announcing that I was "embracing my fatness" while shopping at Fashion Bug for the first time in my life.  After more than a year like this, it was difficult getting started in the gym as you can imagine.  I signed up for a group fitness class that met at 9am on Monday through Friday.  Because of this class, I would literally feel compelled to show up and put forth some effort at the cardio and strength exercises. I definitely credit this class for helping me prioritize fitness in my life once again.

Working at the gym entitles me to an employee discount for most things and I made up my mind I wanted to try personal training. I started with one trainer in March, but only had a couple of sessions with him before he was promoted. It worked out great because there was a another trainer that I had been wanting to work out with. I've been working with that trainer now for the past 5 months and in that time I have learned a lot about strength training. Since money does not grow on trees, I have to give up this personal training that I've become so fond of.  I know that I have the knowledge now that I need to continue this on my own.  My trainer asked me a couple of days ago to send him Before and After pictures with a short paragraph describing my progress so that he can add it to his portfolio.  I got a little carried away and it ended up being more of a booklet.  What follows is my client experience with Lawrence...

I started this journey in January deciding to do it without the help of a "diet".  After roughly three months, the scale started to level off as it had in all of my previous attempts to drop the extra pounds.  Doing this on my own without the advice or support of a commercial diet, I had been reading A LOT about the science of calories in vs. calories out and how our body reacts to both food and exercise.  From the research, I knew for sure that I needed to add strength training to my regimen.  I did not want to tackle this alone.  I trust myself with cardio workouts but figuring out what to do with the dumbbells and weight machines... well that was out of my league.

Lawrence was just what I needed to kick start this phase of my weight loss journey.  He was coaching the T.E.A.M. Fitness class that met during the time that I would routinely be in the club and the ladies in the class kept boasting about the excellent training they were receiving.  I could see that they were doing a lot of strength exercises, so I asked Lawrence if I could try out a class.  During that class, we were spread out on the circuit machines.  In my previous T.E.A.M. class experience with another coach, the weights were fixed on each machine and then the students rotated among them in intervals.  This means that each student regardless of ability lifted the same amount of weight.  However, in Lawrence's class he encouraged, if not insisted, that we set the weight according to what we could handle as individuals.  At least 2 times during that one hour class, he came over to me and said "I think you need to add a plate".  Somehow just by watching my movement he KNEW that I was loafing.  Now I'm new to weight lifting, so maybe this is common, but for me I saw this as a special gift.  He could sense by watching my muscles, my face or something that I was not pushing to my full potential.  Immediately after that T.E.A.M. class I knew I had to get some personal training sessions with this guy.
 

Excited but nervous I set up some training sessions with Lawrence.  At the first one, he got me on the scale. This industrial strength scale measures weight, lean body mass, body fat percentage and percentage of body water among other things.  It's quite fancy and even tells you your body fat in each appendage.  Lawrence though concentrated on just one figure when the display lit up; my body fat percentage.  He didn't care one iota about the number of pounds it registered even though I was elated since it was down from the week before.  He had me focus on weekly goals of lowering my BF% and told me not to worry about my actual weight.  He was absolutely right and hearing it from him made it sink in a little more with me.  Although I think I'm still too focused on the scale, to this day when I see an increase or a plateau it's his voice I hear in my head reminding me that this is not the number that's important.

After working with Lawrence for a few weeks, I started to get a lot of compliments and inquiries about my weight loss.  It always surprised me because I knew that I had dropped significantly more weight in the first 3 months before training with him... why were people just starting to notice now?  When I look at the progress pictures it is obvious to me.  My body is finally starting to take the shape of an athlete.  My waist is coming back and my quads have some definition again.  My chubby cheeks are less chubby. Although the number of pounds lost is small, my body composition is definitely changing in a good way.  I am putting on muscle while losing fat.

Lawrence's style of training is so refreshing and far from traditional.  You should not go into it expecting a workout consisting of 3 sets of 8 repetitions on such and such machine.  No worries though, you can get that sort of thing from a book or the Internet.  What Lawrence provides you cannot get anywhere else.  No two workouts are the same; he will push you to your limit; he believes in working a combination of muscles in each exercise (compound lifts), rarely just sitting you down on a machine to work, for example, your inner thighs.  A typical conversation during a workout would have me proclaiming "30 of these with this much weight? Are you kidding me?" and him replying "Negative". :)  I never know what to expect, I do know that I will love the workout, I'm always sore the next day and it feels great!  Lawrence has given me the confidence to lift heavy... he really has taught me just how strong I am.  I have learned a lot from him during the last five months and now it's time for me to try it on my own.  If it doesn't work out, I know what I'm asking Santa to bring me!  Actually, even if I do well I think "PT Sessions with Lawrence" will inevitably end up on my wish list.

-----

And just for kicks, I will include the full Before/After comparison.  The "Before" photo in this comparison was taken in early February about a month into my journey and already 10lbs down.  

This journey is far from over as I still fall under the "Overweight" category according to my BMI, but I am feeling a level of fitness that I haven't felt in a long time.  I am enjoying working out and am looking forward to what the future holds.  I cannot ever forget to keep exercise and diet at the top of my priority list.

Thanks for sticking around 'til the end.  I know it was quite long, but I wanted to get this documented. :)

Scraps of Paper

Time for another edition of "things my kids said in the past several months that I thought were worth jotting down".  The problem is that they are scribbled on scraps of paper without any context and sometimes I'm not sure whether it was Priya or Sanjay that made the comment.  I'll do my best to recall as much as I can.

Talking about a kid in his class, Sanjay held his hands up to his cheeks and said "That kid... he was puffy".  Later when he was describing someone else he said, "She has a skinny head".  I seem to recall that after he told me who he was talking about, this description was indeed perfect.

Priya had a substitute teacher for one of her classes and apparently the lady was not exactly one of the friendliest.  After school she described her like this to me:  "Mrs. Weaver, which silently in my head I called Mrs. Beaver, she was really, really mean".

"No I didn't hear you.  I was wide asleep"  - Sanjay (in all seriousness)

"My smelling powers ejects me that we are almost home" - Sanjay (This one is really old and may have been blogged previously.  It was uttered on the drive back home from the airport after a long visit to Maryland.)

"It's really shiny.  It's like the world is inviting me outside." - Priya in the car on a particularly sunny morning.

Sanjay has been enjoying a book series called "The Pet Fairies".  He's blown through several of the books already and keeps asking for more.  I don't know if his friends are asking or what but he has become a little self-conscious about reading books that might typically look like "girl" books.  He said to me "I thought the girls would be embarrassed of me" and then later that night asked Priya if she was.  She thought it was really cute and came running to tell me about it.

"It doesn't really hurt that much.  It's like... in the medium." - Sanjay about some pain that he was having.

"I want him to go on to the seventy finals." - Sanjay watching a tennis match.

"I expect all old mans to like country.  Or some other music that was back then." - Sanjay after pulling up to a car at a traffic light where an old man was inside jamming to pop music.

"The patriots are versing the Kansas City and the Patriots are winning. It is 10 to 3. The Kansas City they can't, they can't come up. They are so bad." - Sanjay explaining to Daddy over the phone what's going on with the football game.

"I'll just do it, like, $2.99 and keep the price.  I won't do tax." - Sanjay regarding pricing at his yard sale.

The Powerful Lure of the Haiku

Priya has been learning about the Japanese style poem called a haiku. They are made up of 3 lines each having a specific number of syllables. The first line has 5, next has 7 and the final line has 5. She had to submit a couple for her homework assignment a few days ago. Since then she has been creating quite the collection of haikus. She told me yesterday, "Mom writing haikus is addicting. I'm really into it and I can't stop". I may reference this post in the future when she's a teen and may have other ideas of what's addictive. Here are her most recent poems with the capitalization and punctuation maintained.


Home
Warm and comforting
Keeping us safe in our lives
Earth will protect us

Wonderful Things
Trees, flowers, and life
Oh all these wonderful things
Colors, grass and... Friends

Fort of Love
Fort of love this earth
Spirits sing, We care, Plants give
Surrounded by love

Mountains
Tall figures tower,
Majestically, very high
Up into the sky

Rivers
leaping and playing,
washing through the forest green
Raging Rivers play

Creatures of the Earth
Playing Manatees
Laughing dolphins, dancing birds
Creatures of the Earth

Paradise
Earth; a Paradise
Worth a thousand coins of gold
a place of beauty

The Storm
Winds blow with great force
Thunder booms, lightning crashes
rain pours from the clouds

Sanjay's edit for the last haiku:
The Storm
Winds blow with great force
Thunder booms, lightning strikes down
rain pours from the clouds

Annual Ski Vacation

As we have done for the past several years we ventured into the mountains for the annual family ski vacation. This year hasn't exactly been a great year for skiing but we lucked out with some fresh snow a couple of times during the week.

What's different this year is that my sister now lives nearby so we hooked up with them on the first Saturday at Keystone. We put in a full 3 runs on the bunny slope, had lunch and called it a day. Actually, that's a slight exaggeration as we did move over to a true green run just before grabbing lunch. Jeanette and I took the kids back to their condo after lunch while Bartee and Chad had an afternoon of fun on the mountain. This worked out great for me because it tired Bartee out early in the week. He's a maniac on the slopes and I have a hard time keeping up. Now that the kids are just as skilled as he is, I can't keep up with them either.

Just for some sympathy and to give you an idea of how crazy Bartee is about working out, I have a little side story for you. The other week while he was traveling for work, he ended up with a hotel room on the 9th floor. While staying there he avoided the elevator and took the stairs regularly. Since he was missing the gym and his routine workout, he decided to come up with an alternative. Here's what he did...

* Walked down the 9 flights of stairs.
* From the bottom walked up 1 flight and back down.
* Walked up 2 flights and back down.
* Walked up 3 flights and back down.
* Walked up 4 flights and back down.
* (you get the idea)
* Walked up 9 flights and went in his room to grab a drink.
* Walked down the 9 flights of stairs.
* From the bottom walked up 8 flights and back down.
* Walked up 7 flights and back down.
* Walked up 6 flights and back down.
* Walked up 5 flights and back down.
* (you get the idea)
* Walked up 1 flight and back down.

Needless to say his legs were still sore about 3 days later, but he did say that it was a great cardio workout. I bet!

We decided to take it easy on Sunday spending the morning at the Breckenridge sledding hill and dog park, having lunch at the outdoor crepe shop and spending the afternoon shopping in the outlets. It's the first time we've endured that many hours at the outlets but we did walk away with some deals. We all agreed that Eddie Bauer was our favorite. I scored a spring jacket for $11 and Bartee got a new winter jacket for about $30, if I remember right.

The next five days we hit the slopes hard, alternating between Vail and Beaver Creek. By Wednesday, we all had our ski legs back. At Beaver Creek, we enjoyed a lunch time photo shoot in the snow:

At Vail we enjoyed live music and some appetizers after skiing in a slope side restaurant:

The last 2 days of skiing were at Arapahoe Basin and Breckenridge. This was my first time skiing at A-Basin and I tell you, I'm a bit of a fan. That Saturday was literally the perfect day for skiing. Wind was minimal, sky was bright blue and the scenery was phenomenal. It's a small mountain with not much terrain, however it is tucked deep inside the valley. The mountains just jut out of the ground and reach up for the sky. All the more stunning on a bright and sunny day because of the shadows that are cast. The resort feels less commercial and more personal. The BBQ smells coming from the mid-mountain restaurant are amazing. My mouth was watering and I don't even eat meat! The lifts are a bit rickety and few. Some of them don't even have lap bars, which made the kids *very* nervous. The entire day I was in a state of awe at the beauty, for real. Sometimes when you live by the mountains you take the beauty for granted however on this day I did nothing but appreciate the jagged edges of the land all around me. The proof is in the number of photos I walked away with from that day.

It looks like the COO and Vice President of A-Basin was as enamored with the views as I was on Saturday.

Within the past 2 years Vail has added a vertical tracking feature to their pass so that at the end of the day you can log into a website and see how much vertical footage you covered. Sanjay became a little obsessed with checking his numbers. :) We all increased our footage each day through Wednesday, then after that it slowly decreased each day. The rest of the family covered more vertical than I on all days except for the last day we skied and that's only because I took it upon myself to make sure that I beat out Sanjay and Priya. Here's how I secretly did it: Priya was cold and needed a break in the warming hut, so I took one more run! Then Daddy took Sanjay down a double-black which ended up taking them a little more time to complete, so I went ahead and grabbed one more run to outdo Sanjay as well. It was fun to point it out to them later what had happened. They were able to rub it in all week and now it was my turn. In any case, they are both better skiers than me and have been since last year. This year Sanjay made a lot of progress and Bartee tells me that he has a hard time staying ahead of him. I'm a little worried about what the future holds for Sanjay and skiing. If neither Bartee or I can keep up with him and he's 8 years old, will he want to ski alone? I guess we'll cross that bridge when we get to it.

Bartee was so tired at the end of the week that on the last day I found him asleep at 8:12pm next to Sanjay in bed. The lights were on and the kids were each sitting up in bed reading. We are all wiped out as we usually are at the end of this trip. Look at this, even the cat has had enough and she didn't spend one single day on the slopes. :)

To recap our vacation, I made a video that I should share as well. The song is one that we heard while on the shuttle bus back to the parking lot at A-Basin. It is "How 'Bout You?" by the Yonder Mountain String Band. It will forever remind me of the 2012 ski vacation.

Whiteboard Musings by Sanjay

At school the first graders have been working on constructing paragraphs. It is their first experience with expression in the form of words. The format they are being taught seems to be "First, Then, Finally". They've been at it for about a month now and so all of Sanjay's paragraphs follow the same outline and are equally hilarious. Each one is exactly five short sentences long and closes with "Clearly I know many things about..." which always cracks me up because there are only ever three things brought up about the subject. See for yourself...

This last one is a little disturbing... perhaps I should model better behavior in front of my kids. Why doesn't he notice all the cooking and cleaning I do? :)