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In what I hope will be an annual tradition, I organized the second annual hiking trip to Caprock Canyon State Park in Quitaque, TX (according to a sign outside the town, pronounced “kitty-qway”; but according to a reference online, pronounced “kee-tahk-way”; never heard a local pronounce it though). This year, in addition to my youngest brother, Chris, coming along, one of my best friends, Brent, also agreed. The following is a summary of the trip (please note that it is very long).
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There it is… I’ve drawn it on the ground… I’m refusing to cross it.

As is our weekly ritual, Amy and I got on the Wii Fit and weighed ourselves. In a drastic turn of events, I gained 6.4 pounds in one week. I honestly know that it was a combination of many bad food/drink choices (hello? I had two glasses of White Sangria on Friday night, then a large glass of Sangria and a Margarita on Saturday night; just as examples of the drink choices). I am truly glad I had not experienced a gout attack. I spent all day today making mostly healthy choices (onion rings and ice cream excepted) and drinking only water or unsweet tea.

And yet, here we are (or is that Wii are?). I stood on the Wii Fit board and it told me I had gained 6.4 pounds to weigh around 283 pounds. My old starting point was 319, which means I’m down 37 pounds… I have on my keyring a small token that proves that at one point while on WeightWatchers, I was down 50 pounds.

That means I’ve gained back 13 pounds. So I’ve drawn the line. That line is sitting on 284, and I’m NOT crossing it. I refuse.

My first decision immediately after that was to go to the kitchen and prepare 4 sandwiches for my lunches for the week. I’ve been eating out WAAAAY too much. It has to stop. My breakfasts will consist of either cold cereal at home or oatmeal at work; no more stopping at Chick-Fil-A or McDonald’s or Braum’s for “wreckfast”. I’m taking sandwiches and pickled okra (found I love the stuff and, other than high-sodium, is a good snacking choice). I will drink only water, unsweet tea, and 1% milk.

I need to stop working so much overtime (though I may see that drop some anyways unless another “high-crisis” project comes up this week). That’s been forcing me to pick up dinner and eat much too late. Either it’s dinner by 7pm or not at all.

Hello, sand? Yeah, I know… I messed up your surface a little bit, but I won’t be making any footprints on the other side of that line… I’m walking the other way.

(cross posted on fatbloggers.net)

Yeah, it’s a nice pun, but I wanted to make sure you knew that this has a somewhat positive outcome. After all, I did not complete the marathon yesterday. But before we get to that, let me go over the whole experience.
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It’s less than 6.5 days until I start running my first marathon. I’ve been through some emotional lows in the past week and have had doubts about even trying. At this point in time, I plan on running it and doing my best to finish it (preferably in the 6.5 hour window). I did a 3 hour walk today with my running partner and it helped me mentally prepare for the temperatures and recognize where I was lacking in my choice of clothing.

So I’ve already started packing my running gear… I still have to pack for the hotel stay as we plan on spending Saturday and Sunday night at the Marriott only about a mile or so away from the American Airlines Center. This will reduce time to get to the event and to allow for a place to crash away from our home and all the clutter and such there. We’ll relax and tackle everything after we get home on Monday.

I haven’t been posting except on twitter or facebook and most of that is due to the emotional roller coaster I’ve been on, combined with work stress as I’ve been pretty much doing overtime most weekdays since I got back from my vacation in October.

Perhaps things will clear up soon… but it’s not looking very promising. I’ll post a full report of my marathon (finish or not) next week.

For those of you wanting to know some basic details of my upcoming experience:

Dallas White Rock Marathon
When: Sunday, December 13th, 2009
Start: 8:00am (with a small break for a wedding)
End: around 2:00pm (that is approx. 6 hours)
Updates: watch my twitter account as I intend on pretyping a text for every mile of the marathon and will send them only as I feel necessary. They should also post to my facebook page.
Bib #: 5003

Dear Christianity,

Do you not have enough holidays? You’ve got Christmas, Easter, and Thanksgiving (though some argue that it’s not a religious holiday… but then who do you give thanks to?). You’ve got every Sunday (though it hardly counts for most as it ends up being about 30 minutes and back to reality). Why do you need to claim another day as Christian?

What could I possibly be talking about? It’s what I found in a CHRISTIAN book store in Ardmore, OK. I purchased for 99 cents a bookmark with the following “Pumpkin Prayer” (copied from here):

Dear God,
As I carve my pumpkin help me say this prayer:

Open my mind so I can learn about You;
(Cut the top of the pumpkin)

Take away all my sin and forgive me for the wrong things I do.
(Clean out the inside)

Open my eyes so Your love I will see;
(Cut the eyes out in heart shapes)

I’m so sorry for turning up my nose to all you’ve given me.
(Cut a nose in the shape of a cross)

Open my ears so your word I will hear.
(Cut the ears shaped like the Bible)-we did rectangles

Open my mouth so I can tell others You’re near
(cut the mouth in the shape of a fish)

Let Your light shine in all I say and do! Amen.
(Place a candle inside and light it)

As the website says, “This is a great way to put a little Christian in Halloween.” Really? This is what happened with the Fertility festival till all you had remaining was rabbits and eggs and candy and no clue what the heck it has to do with the Messiah’s resurrection. The same thing happened with the Winter Solstice festival until all you had remaining was trees, candles, and fat men in red coats and no clue what they heck it has to do with the Messiah’s birth.

Pretty soon, you, Christianity, will have claimed every holiday as your own by the process of Christianization until you have no clue what all these traditions are that you do around this worship. Let the pagans keep their holidays and you stick to what scripture teaches to observe.

Then again, you’d have to give up almost everything you do now (including Sunday) if you wanted to go back to what scripture teaches. Frankly, you’re having too much fun to want to give that up.

I weep for what the future holds.