About Motivation
Greetings, everyone. Today was the first weigh in. The holidays had really packed a punch, as my weight spiked up to an even 290 on the official start of my log. Wow. the term “overweight” doesn’t do the current situation justice.
As explained in an earlier post, I’m attempting to become healthier and live well, all while targeting an 80+ pound weight loss by December of 2010. Or, as the project title states – Forty 200. Two-hundred pounds by age 40.
This project will hopefully not only detail my attempts (both successes and failures) at weight loss, I will also review and chronicle:
- Exercise Programs and Techniques
- Cooking and Nutrition
- Food and Beverage of all types
- Health, Medicine and Supplements
- Lifestyle Issues and Changes
- Product and other reviews
- Helpful resources and tips that work (or don’t, for that matter)
- and insights into my state of mind and attitude, which I’m sure will be just fascinating.
It should be pretty interesting, well, to me anyway. I’m equally certain that it will be difficult, with plenty of highs and lows along the way. That’s why you’re here. While I would love to receive words of encouragement, advice and tips as I work towards the goal, even snide remarks and discouragement will be worthwhile to serve as motivation. Let’s keep it reasonable, of course.
Who knows? This may inspire you to start your own “Age|Target” project.
And of course, now I have two other reasons to get into shape that I didn’t have until a few years ago.
I’m really looking forward to this project, so please join me, and wish me luck!
Say a Prayer for Henri Naccache
I just found out this evening that a colleague of several years, Henri Naccache, has been diagnosed with cancer.
Apparently a few months ago, Henri became ill and was losing weight. Though the initial diagnosis was ulcers, he was in a lot of pain, and in the past week several hospital visits have confirmed cancer in the stomach, and potentially in the liver and pancreas. What a stunner. Even more of an eye-opener is that he’s a year younger than me. It’s now time to stop and think.
Henri and I both were contractors with the Cisco Networking Academy program in the early 2000’s, and worked fairly closely on a few projects. When my team split off into the Global Learning Network, Henri and several of his then-Unicon brethren were assigned to the Cisco Learning Institute’s projects, and we gradually lost touch over the past few years. I had heard he had moved to Seattle (actually Bellingham) and that he was married with a young family, but those were just quick catch-up conversations with friends-of-friends.
But I still feel a bit lousy about the situation. We weren’t really close friends, but I could have done a better job of staying in touch. I think we all could have. In the world of the technology worker, where a great portion of our communication is virtual, it still helps to have actual conversations, even about the most trivial things. Especially memorable are the talks, not about project deliverables, which are forgotten as soon as the next deadline appears on the horizon, but the personal interactions which are the most rewarding.
Here are some nuggets from conversations with Henri:
- An avid motorcyclist, Henri believes that the optimal temperature for riding in Phoenix is 92 degrees – the heat cancels out the “wind chill” making it quite comfortable. I also learning everything I know about Joe Rocket motorcycle gear from Henri.
- Once riding home on the 202 Red Mountain Hwy – Henri’s Oakley prescription glasses (which we both favored) fell out of his backpack and were crushed in the car pool lane.
- His wedding band is made of titanium, which has a distinctive “ting” sound when spun on a Formica conference room table.
- He collects and restores old arcade cabinet games and pinball machines, and told me about the huge Ebay market for these things. This was pre-Craig’s List, which only could have helped. However, this was also pre-child, so maybe he’s doesn’t have the time any longer. I’ll be sure to ask.
- When discussing someone else’s contributions to a Calendar portlet (in Java), Henri never said a bad word. He merely held his arm just above waist level, indicating the length of the offending code when printed out. Then he indicated the “proper” code’s length was about three inches.
- I was fascinated by his photos and descriptions from his trip to Lebanon in 2003 or 2004. After all, there was a war going on, and I didn’t even know at the time that he was from there. Amazing stuff.
The day I started this site – all of six days ago – was the day Henri first went to the hospital. My world hasn’t changed all that much since then. But the world of Henri and his family has been rocked to the core. My goals were to get healthier, and live well. Simple goals with a non-chalant attitude. In the coming months, I sure hope Henri can meet these goals and accomplish them
Henri and his wife Jill have set up a site to help distribute updates and information to family and friends – here’s the link: http://henrisblog.nidal.com/blogs/
Although those that know me would be surprised to hear me say it, please say a prayer for Henri and for a speedy and complete recovery. He’s one of the good guys.
Now That’s a Breakfast Sandwich!
That, ladies and gentlemen, is the Farm Monte Cristo breakfast sandwich at the Morning Glory Cafe, part of the Farm at South Mountain in Phoenix, Arizona. Simply wonderful – both the breakfast and the locale. One heck of a sandwich, so much so that my friend Brad was compelled to photograph it before I started. Let’s dig in:
The menu describes it as “French Toast “Sandwich” with Slow Baked Ham, Over Easy Eggs, and Melting Cheese, with Warm Maple Syrup.” Technically correct, but as you can see, that’s like describing the Mona Lisa as “portrait of woman with dark hair and slight smile.”
First of all, the presentation was fabulous. Deep, squared plate containing a reservoir of organic maple syrup at just the right level of viscosity – not too runny, but firm enough to let you know it’s there. The slightly raised edges of the bread acted as an additional levee to contain even smaller pools of syrup on the top, which were then carpet-bombed with powdered sugar. (This was helpful in keeping the powdered sugar “down” on the bread, so as not to gag when accidentally inhaling loose powdered sugar, which can be a problem.)
The French Toast itself was incredible. According to the menu, the bread was called “sweet rustic bread” – it was sturdy and able to absorb the syrup without becoming overly soggy. Plus, there was a decent amount of cinnamon in the bread as well, and when combined with the syrup, resulted in a wonderful maple/cinnamon/vanilla tour-de-force. The “slow baked” ham was thin-sliced and was very tender and not overly “hammy” of lesser restaurants – much like good fish doesn’t have a “fishy” taste/smell to it. But let’s not go there.
The egg was over-easy and was supple and firm, yet delectable. Top-quality yolk there as well. To paraphrase George Costanza (at rival Reggie’s Diner), it won’t kill you to have a yolk. The cheese was a very thin sliced swiss that melted perfectly to further bond all of the wonderful ingredients. Of course this had to be eaten with knife and fork – you wouldn’t want to waste this fine item eating with your hands. It’s meant to be savored and each morsel enjoyed to its fullest.
In fact, the only downside to the entire experience was really a positive, in retrospect. As the cafe is primarily outdoor seating, we were under an arching canopy of southwestern trees – palo verdes, I think. There was a slight breeze, and several of the flowers from the blooming trees would fall into our area. Normally one wouldn’t want the outdoors intruding on your place setting, but thinking about it later – why again were we complaining about flowers falling from the sky? It sounds lovely.
Now remember when I said I was starting Project Forty 200 just a few days ago? This project was not only about weight loss and getting healthy, but also living well. Ideally they would all be on the same side of the ledger, but this sandwich was definitely not about weight loss nor getting healthy (though there were high percentages of my RDA of carbs, fat, and protein). No, this was a big item on the “living well” side of the equation. Absolutely no regrets on this one – plus we “walked it off” the next few hours by enjoying a quick hike.
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