My Summer Reading List

I admit, I'm stealing the idea for this post from Mark and his blog post from today. But to be honest (and Karin can back me up on this), I've had a list of books in the works for a while now - I've just never really attempted to make time to work through some books efficiently. Here's to hoping that this summer I can peel myself away from my computer in my free time (since I'm on one all day at work) and take a bite out of these knowledge pies known as books. Here's a handful I have on my list:

• "Welcoming the Stranger" - Matt Soerens (my cousin) & Jenny Hwang
• "Unlimited" - Jillian Michaels
• "Growing Up Yanomamo" - Michael Dawson
• "The Barbarian Way" - Erwin Raphael McManus
• "Anchor Man" - Steve Farrar
• "Dead or Alive" - Tom Clancy

That's a good place to start. A good variety as well. I also have a short stack of Men's Health and Runner's World magazines to work on. I think I'm set for the next few months!

Mark...My...Words

Last November I embarked on a challenge with a few other men in my church to see who could be the first to lose 20 pounds. All four of us had weight loss goals and all strived (strove?) to slim down and improve our health. As I sit here and write you in the first week of May, I'm still at the weight I was when we started this challenge.

Now it's a little bit of a consolation knowing that the other three men made about as much progress (or less) than I did, but it still makes me think. Makes me think about where I could have been TODAY had I stuck with things since November. But I try not to think about that for too long since it just gets me all bummed out and angry at myself and my lack of self-motivation.

And then there was that time (yesterday) where I went shopping for clothing and had to buy BIGGER sizes that didn't hug my gut like some of my current clothes do. When it gets to a point where you need to buy larger sizes to make you look smaller (interesting logic, eh?), you know that some drastic changes need to be made.

So as the title of this post reads, mark my words. I do not want to be putting on my tuxedo on September 2nd for my wedding and regret that I continued to waste the previous four months drinking gallons of Mountain Dew and ingesting pounds of fast food and Doritos. It's time to stop saying "if I had only..." and start saying "I'm thankful I finally...."

A big problem for me has been saying yes to urges for fast food and computer time rather than healthy meals and visiting Cardinal Fitness. Time for that all to change - for good. Time to start looking more like the magazine cover that Karin made for me and less like...well, like I do now! Time to institute some self-control and discipline and do away with self-loathing and internal disappointment.

This goal reminds me of a verse that was shared with me by my worship pastor, Mark:
"For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. It teaches us to say "No" to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age." - Titus 2:11-12 (NIV)

Time to implement this endeavor once and for all. I've nicknamed this plan "Project Shock Factor" in hopes of surprising people with my changes who I haven't seen in a while. I'll do my best to keep you all updated. Thanks in advance for your support!

2:28:56

Sunday marked another milestone in my so-called "athletic career." While it's a career that's seen its share of ups and downs, I feel that it's on the way up once again. The peak of said career came in November of 2002 when I won a Wisconsin state soccer championship - not too shabby. Think I can top that with a complete marathon someday? I don't want to get ahead of myself, so let me back up to what happened this past weekend.

On Sunday I participated in the First Midwest Bank Southwest Half Marathon in Palos Heights, Illinois. My goal going into the race was just to NOT set a personal, slowest time. Back in August of 2009 I ran a 2:33:11 half marathon when I ran the Rock N Roll Half Marathon in downtown Chicago. I trained poorly and struggled for a majority of the race. In the weeks leading up to Sunday's race, I managed to destroy my back doing yard work for the future father in-law (which put me out of commission for almost a week), and I used my "winding down" week before the race to eat whatever my heart desired and only run one day.

Needless to say, I was slightly worried.

But once that gun sounded, my buddy Rick and I hit the road together. Even though I had an entire playlist set up to listen to as we ran, I pulled the earphones out after a couple miles and stuffed them in my pocket - deciding that I'd rather talk to and joke around with Rick. And that's what we just did - we talked with other runners, made jokes about roadkill and just did a great job keeping our minds occupied with things other than how bad our hammies were burning.

Unbeknownst to me, every time I would encounter someone I recognized (fellow runner or enthusiastic fan), my legs would magically move faster! Just seeing familiar faces was a nice break to the pothole-ridden pavement and half dead trees that I saw for the majority of the 13.1 miles. With a little under a mile to go, I turned to Rick and let him know that he was free to release the hounds and finish strong since my legs weren't moving too fast by the time the last mile rolled around. After he took off and I made my way closer to the finish line, the cheering from the crowd and seeing the huge "FINISH" banner stirred up some fire within me and I managed to "sprint" the rest of the way. (It felt like I was finishing quite strong, but it may not have actually happened that way.)

When all was said and done, I beat my worst time and finished at 2:28:56. As I assumed before we even started, my sister Erin smoked me by over 17 minutes. Maybe I'll get her next time :) From here, I plan to stay on task and ride the tidal wave of motivation into this month of May in hopes of chipping away at the number of pounds I want to lose before the wedding. Let's see how it goes!