The Married Man’s Weight Loss Plan!

A couple of days ago, a friend sent me an email concerning a newly discovered way to lose weight. It was supposed to be a real study done at the School of Physics in Sydney, Australia. According to the study, when you eat something cold, your body expends energy to heat the substance to body temperature, before digesting it. Expending energy means you are burning calories and in the cases given many more calories were expended than what was contained in the substance eaten, thereby resulting in weight loss. The substances used in the study were ice cream and beer. The study went on to explain that some people eat pizza as an excuse to drink beer. Well since pizza is already heated and contains lots of calories, you obviously cannot eat pizza to lose weight. The solution: drink more beer.

I have to admit I’m not the scientific type, but the argument makes sense. However, it is not an option for me since I only like pizza and ice cream on occasion and not as part of a regular diet. Beer on the other hand…

Lucky for me, I stumbled on an easier way for married men to lose weight and you don’t have to get drunk to do it, just send your wife away. Yep! Two weeks ago I sent my wife to visit her family in Panama, since then I have lost six pounds.

Now, I love my wife dearly and miss her terribly. In fact she left on our 33rd wedding anniversary due to some unfortunate circumstances, but there is no denying it’s helped me slim down. My wife is a really good wife and nobody has one better. The fact is she takes really good care of me whether I like it or not.

After a second major surgery on my left foot and my hip replacement last year, I had put on a few extra pounds, OK 20 extra pounds. I’ve tried here and there to exercise to get rid of the tonnage, but it usually ends in pain, so I don’t try too often. I’ve also tried to eat right for the sake of dropping the extra weight but this is a problem because I have a great wife.

My great wife insists on cooking good meals every night, in addition to making sure I eat a good lunch and big breakfast. Sometimes she says she doesn’t know what to cook and I’ll offer up French fries and fish sticks, which I happen to like, a lot! She’ll say that’s not  a dinner and proceed to cook something better, in her opinion.

Not only does she feed me well three times a day, but she insists on covering the plate so you can’t see the design underneath.

Since she left, it’s been lots of stuff that takes 10-15 minutes at 400 degrees in the oven, all of which I can do on a sheet of aluminum foil, thereby avoiding pots and pans to wash.  If I can do it in the microwave in 2-3 minutes and use paper plates, it’s even better. I also take my vitamins and eat cups of yogurt and fruit in a cup, so I’m getting lots of vitamins too.

I’ve also been getting exercise, like chopping wood, cleaning the pool, cutting the grass and washing the cars. This past weekend I also scrubbed the tiled floors in the kitchen, dining room and laundry room. This required me getting on my knees to clean the grout, but it looks great and I found a couple of places I have to re-grout, so I already have plans this coming weekend.

I have two more weeks to lose more weight. When she gets home I’m hoping she’ll be very surprised and help me stick to my new weight loss plan. My guess is she won’t because she’s a really great wife.

AHHH!! The Memories

This past Sunday I took my five year old grandson, Jaden, out to watch his Daddy play soccer with a local men’s team. Also playing on the same team, as his Daddy, was his Uncle Tommy. His cousins Rylan (3 weeks), Rylan (19 months) and his Aunt Nikki (age with held) were also there. Tommy and Joey played opposite ends of the field with Tommy on defense and Joey up front. They both played very well, as did most of their team, with Joey scoring all three of their goals. Unfortunately, they did not have their usual goalie that day and the other team outscored them by two.

This was the first time I watched my boys play soccer together in about 16 years. From the time Joey was about 6 or 7 and Tommy 4 years older, they both played soccer. They started playing while we were stationed in Panama and continued when we arrived in the states.

Some years they played 11 months out of the year. They played soccer for school, Classic soccer (the best teams from each city), summer soccer and indoor soccer. Since they were four years apart, they were often on different teams based on age group. Since my wife and I tried to attend every game and were very involved with the teams, we sometimes had to run from field to field to ensure we gave them both equal viewing time.  It was much easier when they were on the same team.

Anyway, watching them play together again on the same team brought back a lot of good memories. My wife unfortunately is in Panama, due to a family emergency, and was not able to see them. When I told her about the game on the phone, she was so happy that her boys were playing nicely together again. Ahhh! The memories.

Proud To Be An American!!

Yesterday we went to the air show at Shaw AFB, just up the street. They have the show every two years or so in the interest of community relations. There are a lot of things to see and it’s very exciting for everyone. Usually the day ends with a show from the Thunderbirds, the Air Force demonstation team and yesterday was no exception.

There were also other flight demonstations, from the C-17 cargo aircraft to old P-51′s from WWII and an exciting demonstration by the Shaw Air Force Base Viper-East F-16 team. In addition to the overhead flights, there were static displays of all sorts of aircraft, both old and new, as well as military vehicles and weapons. All of the military services were represented in one form or another as were the reserves, guard and Civil Air Patrol.

The kids were all having a great time climbing in and out of the displayed aircraft like the KC-135 refuler, C-17 Cargo aircraft, F-15 fighter, and numerous other fixed wing and rotary wing (helicopters for you civilians) aircraft.  I think one of the most popular displays, judging by the line, was the US Army Virtual Warfare display. In this display visitors were taken inside and divided into teams. Each team was given a mission (HMMWV or helicopter) and weapons (laser guns). They were then placed on a virtual reality battlefield and got to experience what it was really like in the field.

The best part of being there was seeing all of the red, white and blue around you. It gives you a great feeling of pride to not only be on the base, but to see and talk to the troops attending the festivities, as well as those who were working to make it a great day for all. There is nothing like being around thousands of people who love their country and the military who keeps them safe.

If you’d like to feel some of whatwe felt you can go to www.shawfest2010.com and follow some of the links to the photo gallery that is there.