Lyving Well

Weight loss Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Wed, 28 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Hosting Issues
On Thursday of last week we having some issues with our host company. Their site, and every site with them crashed and was unavailable. This affected some of our posts getting posted in a timely manner. This is now resolved and hopefully we will not see this again going forward.

Weight loss
Consumption-
I have successfully made it through a week without any Mountain Dew. An achievement I am quite proud of. It has not been easy, but I will keep on this path for the sake of my health.

This week my goal is drop out the during the week ice cream. Our snack cart at work as various ice cream novelties to tempt me each day. These range from fudge bars, to ice cream sandwiches, to snickers ice cream bars. All these wonderful treats which I love to consume. BUT NO MORE! By next week I should be telling you that I made it through the week without any. Tune in to find out.

Exercise-
This week was not great. I had off work Friday and Monday which are my two exercise days besides Wednesday. However, with the various activities taking place this weekend, I did burn a fare amount of a calories. Probably not equal to, but I think close.

Progress-
Drum roll please. I weighed in this morning and am down 2 pounds. This puts us well on our way to our goals. I think the biggest factor for this was the missing Mountain Dew, but whatever it is, progress is progress, and I will take it.

Three more weeks until you get a new picture of me. Just to give you plenty of warning.

Fatherhood Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Tue, 27 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

This past weekend, on three different occasions, I had to witness pain in my children and be able to do very little to fix it. As Dad's and men in general we tend to be fixers. That is our natural inclination. Show us a problem and we will fix it. However that is not always possible.

The first incident occurred after we came home from eating as a family at a restaurant. This particular restaurant gives this children balloons as they leave. For this reason alone, this is one of my kids favorite restaurants.

Balloons
As we got out of the minivan and were walking towards our steps, our littlest balloon came off the string bumped into the overhang of our garage roof, and all of sudden, Dad (me) with Mr. Myagi type reflexes, snatches the balloon out of the air and saves the day.

Then my oldest daughter's balloon bumped against the overhang and popped. Tears were forthcoming like lies from a politicians mouth. She was devastated, and there was nothing I could do to fix it.

As I watched my wife comfort her, I had climbed our stairs and was on our porch looking down at them. Out of the corner of my eye, I see our middle daughter right below me, loose her grip on her balloon. Once again, my Myagi like reflexes saved the day. I reached out a snatched to string right before it was too late. Thank you Karate Kid.

Bikes
At our family picnic on Sunday, my brother in law had brought bikes for his kids to ride. These bikes were kindly shared with my children as well. This was greatly appreciated since I had not thought to bring bikes for our kids.

I was sitting enjoying conversation with a relative when I noticed my daughter riding down a hill way too fast. Her fall at the bottom was brutal. There were about 20 years separating us, and I have not sprinted that fast since High School.

Upon reaching her, I scooped her up and held her. She was bleeding slightly from her knee and elbow. After bandaging her, the tears kept flowing. She kept telling me that her knee still hurt even after the band-aid was on. My children have a belief that band-aids relieve pain, so this was difficult for her to understand.

These are the moments when as a dad you wish you knew magic. You wish you could just take their pain away immediately. But alas we cannot. Within a few hours she was back on the bike again, so all was well.

Balls
I was trying to teach my four year old son to play catch. Things were going well and he decided to back up some. The first toss at this point hit him in the leg. He said ow, but that was the extent of it. The second toss was a repeat of the first.

A dad with more wisdom would have had him move closer at this point, but that would have made too much sense. So for a third time, I tossed him the ball. This time I tried to give it a little more loft so he would have more time to watch it a grab it. He watched it all right, right up until it hit him in the eye and nose.

Slight bleeding from the nose, and many tears from the eyes. Even more so when he saw the blood. The boy freaks out when he is bleeding and this was not exception. It took about 30 seconds for the nose to stop bleeding and about 10 minutes to calm him down. Not my brightest dad moment.

Conclusion
Even though our tendency is to be Mr. Fixit, being a great dad is not about that. Being dad is about being there. Being part of your kids lives. Kissing booboos, holding through the tears, and just being there. That is the key.

Fatherhood is trial and error. However, to try and error, you need to be present.

Mental Monday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Mon, 26 May 2008 13:41:00 +0000

Today is Memorial Day here in the U.S. Quite honestly, I am going to do nothing but get some long delayed chores completed around the house. Due to that, this will be short.

For future Mental Monday's, here is what you can expect-

Speedreading- I am using the Eyeq speed reading course, I will keep you up to speed (pun intended) on my progress.

Learning Italian- I have wanted to learn Italian ever since High School. Due to lack of discipline, I have not to date. However, I now have The Rosetta Stone. This I will use to actually learn the language this time. Hopefully within a few short months I will be able to type a short example of what I have learned for you.

Photoreading- I have heard a bit about this on some forums I belong to. I got a copy of it, and will explore whether or not it is bunk, or legit.

Other Brain Health Info- As I come across tidbits in my journey to brain health, I will post them here for you to enjoy.

Well that is all, I must go mow the lawn before starting the rest of my list.

Enjoy the day.

Spiritual Sunday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Sun, 25 May 2008 16:41:00 +0000

Today I finished teaching a class on the Christian Reformation. Throughout the 12 week course, I was constantly awed by the dedication these men made to bringing about much needed changes to the church.

Without fail, the reformer, be it Luther, or Hus, or many others, would make a stand on what the scripture said, only to be called a heretic by a church authority. It blows my mind that a church claiming to be founded on God's word would have such audacity.

Please do not get me wrong. I am not intending to be anti-catholic with this post. I am fully aware that the catholic church has changed quite dramatically since this time period. My comments and observations are on the church at that time.

One of the biggest battles many of the reformers fought was to get the Bible translated into the language of the common man. Many gave their lives to make this happen. This was particularly convicting for me.

How often do we so callously disregard the Word. Rarely taking the time to read and learn it. I know I am one of these. What a powerful indictment against us that someone would give his life so we can have it, and we just blow it off.

Lets all make a decision, myself included, to spend more time getting to know God by spending more time in His Word.

Spouse Saturday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Sat, 24 May 2008 14:01:00 +0000

Today is my wife's birthday. She is finally the big 30. Obviously a milestone event and one which I should do something special for her. Something for her to remember.

With this goal in mind, and fully realizing I am not of my wife's demographic(stay at home mom with four kids under the age of five), I contacted several other stay at home mom's and asked for their input. Would they rather have a surprise party or a day without kids? Overwhelmingly, the no kids option was the top choice.

I originally thought about taking my wife out of town for the night to make it really special. Then I realized that we would be going out of town for 3 nights in June for our 10 year anniversary, and the budget constraints would not allow me to do so.

So then I was struck by inspiration. My wife's love language is Acts of Service. So I plan on becoming child free around lunch, and then offering my wife the opportunity to pick whatever she wants done around the house.

After almost 10 years of marriage, one thing is certain. What makes my wife happy, and what makes me happy are two different things. My job is and needs to be to find what makes me wife happy and do that.

That is what selfless love is about. Am I a pro? Haha, not yet, but I am working on it. Why? Because this is the legacy I want to leave my kids. A loving home that they can model for their kids, my grand kids.

Financial Friday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Fri, 23 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Financial success means many things to many people. For some it is status, for others it means security, and for others it signifies power. For myself, none of these trapping hold sway with me.

For me and many others, financial success equals freedom. Freedom to give abundantly. Freedom to spend limitless time with family. Freedom to pursue dreams. Freedom is the destination, not wealth.

For me I take this mindset deeper. When confronted with ongoing expenses like high speed Internet, cell phones, cable, car payments, etc., I convert them into hours worked.

For instance, no too long ago I was making $15/hour. Once the greedy self serving politicians were through with it, I was left with about $12/hour. This means that cable currently running approximately $36/month would force me to work three hours to pay that off.

After that, I annualized it. So now I know that I need to work an extra 36 hours a year just to pay for cable. Taking it a step further, if I retire after 40 years in the work force, that means I had to work an extra 1440 hours to get to retirement just because I wanted cable. Further put, I tacked on an extra 8 months on my working life just to pay for cable.

Kind of sick isn't it. Wipe out your cable, wipe out your car payments, lower your Internet speed, and how much sooner could you be free of the job that enslaves you. The 8 months actually grows greater if you figure in the interest you could earn on these savings over your lifetime.

So freedom is our goal, the question is, how will we get there? Keep checking in and I will update you on my progress.

Random Thursday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Thu, 22 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

For this issue of Random Thursday, I am going to write about one thing that is on just about everyone's minds these days: Gas Prices. As I type this, $4.00/gallon gasoline looks like it will soon be a bargain. So what is the cause, and what can we do about it?

The Cause:
The cause of high oil prices/gas prices can be tied to one thing- the falling value of the U.S. dollar. Why does this cause oil prices to rise? Because oil is currently traded in U.S. dollars. And just like inflation in other sectors of the economy, when the dollar value falls prices go up. Plain and simple.

There are some concerns about supply side issues like drilling in alternative areas, and investing in coal to oil technologies. However, these solutions would do little to mitigate the problem. They would dampen some of the speculative run up we have seen lately, but it would not address the foundational issue of worthless dollars being used to buy it.

A good indicator as to this being the cause is the price of gold also skyrocketing. When currency values fall, commodities rise. Dollar is down, all commodities are up.

Here is an excellent article on this.

Solution:
Basically the question now is, how do we strengthen the dollar?

The only answer is for our politicians to stop spending it so rapidly. The dirty little secret is, that although the politicians love to point their fingers at the oil companies and cry, "Shame", in reality they are the cause of the high oil prices.

They spend all the money, so the print more, and when that runs out, they print even more. Currently we have three candidates, almost two, running for president in the media. I am here to tell you that all three are the same. The will all take us to hell in a hand basket. The only difference is, what decorations will be on the basket.

We need to vote every single one of these bums out. The last 30 years has shown one thing and one thing only in regards to politicians. They only care about themselves first, their party second, their supporters third, and their country last. I do not care which side of the aisle a politician sits on, overwhelmingly they are the same.

I know even mentioning the name Ron Paul will turn many of you away. Many have swallowed the lines the RNC has pushed through the media in attempts to silence him. Try for a moment to look past all that and do some research for yourself. He has real answers to these problems.

Limited spending in our government is the only hope for the future. Politicians have sold our children's' children's' children's' economic future down the toilet.

Fortunately, for those that have caused these problems, the education system in this country is so inferior, that any hopes of clearing these deadbeats out is impossible. The only thing we can do is fight this one battle at a time.

Weight Loss Wednesday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Wed, 21 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Well today officially starts my journey to slenderness. First a word of warning to everyone with a weak stomach. At the end of this post I have included some topless photos of myself. I will try to include new photos monthly so you can visually track my progress.

As to my goals. I mentioned my goal of losing 28 pounds by the end of 2008. Currently I am at 208, so this should have me at 180 by the end of the year. BMI says I should be 165, so there will be room to work next year.

However, our family is going to the beach on vacation in the middle of September. It would be nice to be able to feel comfortable taking my shirt off in public again. So this would actually mean I need to lose 7 pounds a month to lose 28 pounds by the time I leave. I do think this is doable, but I need to stay dedicated.

To that end, I will give you the good and the bad news. The bad news is, I eat like I want to have a heart attack at 30. Here is a sample eating day for me:
3 hard boiled eggs
A candy bar
Plate of Pasta
Vitamin water or Mountain Dew
Ice cream Sandwich
Granola bar
Supper of usually meat and Macaroni and cheese
A bowl of cereal no milk

And that is on a lite day. On a really bad day, ad in a few more candy bars and you get the picture. Clearly this is the most obvious area to attack. We will come back to this.

On the physical activity front of this war, I have had a measure of improvement lately. I have developed my own workplace workout which is seeming to be sticking with me on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays. Still working on creating the habit on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

The MWF workout utilizes my 2 union breaks per day, and 10 minutes of my lunch break. During those periods I will do the following:

20 bicep curls each bicep- 20 pound weight
30 triceps extensions- 20 pound weight
10 pec butterfly's- 20 pound weight
30 crunches- I need to up this soon
20 arm spread eagles- 5 pound weight
20 back lifts each arm 20 pound weight
15 backups- opposite of a sit up
15 push ups- yes I am that out of shape
20 hand raises each hand 20 pound weight
20 trap lifts each trap 20 pound weight

Clearly by the photos below, I am not completely up to date on all the fitness lingo. To that end, I made up the names of many of my exercises I engage in. Feel free to question what each one is if you want to know exactly what I am doing to get such great results.

Now back to the food front, my first step will be to eliminate the remaining two sodas a week I have been eating. After that, I need to reduce the snack food intake as well. Next week is my goal for the no sodas, I will keep you posted.

WARNING!! Once again, the pictures that follow may cause you to vomit on your keyboard. If this happens, do not blame me, you have been warned.

That being said, here I am in my current state:

Fatherhood Tuesday

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Tue, 20 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

For this first issue of Fatherhood Tuesday, I want to take the time to give you my background as a father. This will be quite long, so get a cup of coffee.

Since I was young, I always enjoyed working with kids. Some might say I liked being around people on my maturity level, but those people are not worth listening to. Anyway, I usually took the time to volunteer helping to teach the kids at church when I was in High School. When I was in College, I regularly taught them on my own. It was always a joy.

When my wife and I got married, we both knew we wanted to have a large family. We waited 2 years to begin trying so I could graduate from college and find a stable job. Well we started trying and nothing happened. For two and half years we tried.

We went to the fertility doctors and there answer was that all the test came back good, they did not know what was wrong, so take these hormone pills. Whoever heard of prescribing something for something that you do not even know what it is? I found this totally maddening.

After one cycle of the pills we decided to stop. They were too emotionally difficult on my wife, so we quit. We decided to pursue other options.

We spent about a year trying to find babies to adopt. We sent the word out to everyone, we looked on our doorstep, we were even getting near considering kidnapping. Just kidding, but I wanted to give you an idea of the level desperation infertile parents achieve.

After no leads on any potentially adoptable babies, we decided to pursue foster to adoption. This required six classes with the county to certify we were able to parent.

After our first class we got a call from a friend of ours about a birth mother wanting to give her baby up for adoption. This was a perfect illustration of God at work. The birth mother was in the hospital visiting her father with a broken arm. Our friends great Aunts used to take her to Bible School when she was a child, and 'happened' to be at the hospital because one of them was ill. They 'happened' to pass each other in the hallway. The birth mother pointed to her stomach and said, "Do you know anyone who wants a baby?"

Wow, I still get a little teary eyed just typing this. There were some ups and downs in the whole ordeal until the adoption was final, but God saw us through.

To make matters better, about a month later we found out we were also expecting. So now the size of our family doubled within a year. Our oldest two children are six months apart in age. We took our daughter, our first child, home from the hospital the Saturday before Father's Day 2003. The next day, Father's Day, I spent laying on the couch with my baby on my chest. This is one of the best days of my life.

Our son was born six months later, 4 days before Christmas. To this day he is my best bud and pal. At four years of age, I am honored to be his father, and cannot imagine how our Father sent his Son to die for us.

God was not finished at this point. About a year later, we got a call from the birth mother, she was expecting again and wanted to know if we wanted to adopt this child as well. Of course we said yes. So in November of 2005, our second daughter was born. She is a lover and is so precious.

A week after we brought her home from the hospital, my wife went to the doctors to get a physical for the adoption process (mandated in Pennsylvania). Yep, you guessed it. Pregnant again. Our youngest is eight months younger than her sister. She is my little peanut. Born in July of 2006, she may be our last. We plan it that way, but who knows what God has planned.

So there you have it. Those are my credentials. Each week I will be bringing either a funny anecdote from my kids, or a lesson learned from fatherhood. I hope you enjoyed.

Focus and Purpose

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Mon, 19 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

As I age, I find myself liking structure more and more. To that end I have decided to ad a little structure to our little project here. My goal is to have a theme for each day of the week. That way if you are only wanted to tune into one aspect of my life, you only have to check back weekly.

Here is what I have planned so far:

Sunday- Spiritual Sunday: This will look at our relationship with Christ and how living out our lives for Christ looks. Seemed fitting to put this on a Sunday.
Monday- Mental Monday: We will explore mental stimulation and development. I will also chronicle my speed reading progress and my progress in learning a second language. This will start next week.
Tuesday-Fatherhood Tuesday: I will keep you up to date on my fatherhood journey, maybe some humorous anecdotes from my children.
Wednesday- Weight loss Wednesday: As I stated yesterday, Wednesdays will be used to chronicle my journey to a better body.
Thursday- Random Thursday: Because I can only deal with so much structure, anything goes on Thursdays, whatever suits my fancy.
Friday- Financial Friday: On Friday I will update you on my journey to freedom.
Saturday-Spouse Saturday: Saturday's will be dedicated to exploring being a better spouse.

Well there you have it. Mental Monday will start a week from today, and Fatherhood Tuesday starts tomorrow. Any thoughts or input are always appreciated.

Weight Loss

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Sun, 18 May 2008 19:25:00 +0000

Now that I am thirty, it has become more pressing on my mind to do something about my spare tire. Slowly but surely over the bast ten years since I got married, my weight has increased. The time has finally come to do something about this. With four kids, my decreased energy from my being overweight is not exactly a good thing either.

So as part of my journey to lyving well, I have determined to lose 28 pounds of ugly fat by end of 2008. With just over 7 months till the end of the year, the means I need to lose a little under four pounds a month to reach that goal.

At LyvingWell.com, I will be making Wednesday's "Weight loss Wednesdays." Every Wednesday I will update you all on my progress and what I am doing to reach my goal. This coming Wednesday I lay out my specific action steps I will take to achieve this.

The biggest obstacle for me will be my job. I have job which only engages about 3% of my brain power. Unfortunately, when I am bored, I typically eat. I also have a sweet tooth which further compounds the problem. I am currently attempting to rewire my natural tendency of eating when I am bored into typing when I am bored.

A second major challenge for me in regards to my job is the hour at which it begins. My job begins at 6:30 AM which requires me to wake up at 5:40 AM. If I was a morning person, this would not be a problem. However, my biorhythm is naturally night driven. So not to long ago, I was up to a can of Mountain Dew a day to keep me going. The past couple weeks I have been able to reduce my Dew dependency down to 2 cans a week. No difference noted yet on my weight, but hopefully I will soon.

Clearly I have my work cut out for me. Any ideas anyone has to help me get there faster, feel free to write and let me know. Also feel free to help keep me accountable.

Another Rung of the Ladder

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Sat, 17 May 2008 16:57:00 +0000

Part of my pursuit of investments has always been so that when I get to a certain point in regards to my net worth, I will be able to make great contributions to the needy I come across. For some reason, it never dawned on me to the priority to give back as I walked the journey. This all changed a few years back.

Due to that change, I began to work towards structuring my investments to give back while it grew. I prime example of this is my business Feed Your Family Feed The World. The premise here was simple. For every jar sold, a child in Africa would be sponsored (receive health care, food, clothing, education, etc.) for a year.

We launched this initiative 12/07. So far between warehousing and web development, we have dug quite a deep financial hole with this one, and each month it takes us a little further from our goal.

The bright side is that each month, the amount of money needed to keep it afloat is lessening. For me, I believe in the cause, so keeping it moving forward is painless. It is similar to giving your child the last piece of cake. Yes, you really wanted it, but a force deeper in your core, deeper than the primal desire for something, makes it feel just right.

Long term, once this gets to the point where cash infusions are not necessary, and I have my investment back, I will cut my side of the pricing even further to send even more money to the kids.

These are kids without hope, and I have a chance to give some. Paraphrasing from Christ, whatever you do to the helpless, you have done to me. You ignore them, you are ignoring Christ. You serve them, you are serving Christ. Remember that, and also remember that this was spoken when Christ was speaking about judgement at the end of time. This is a big deal to Christ, try to find a way to serve the helpless. Of course you can always click on my site and make a difference now!

Steps Ahead

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Fri, 16 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

As I wrote yesterday, I have a desire to have nontraditional income replace my current job based income. Today and tomorrow I plan on telling you a little more about my efforts on this front.

My current vehicle I am driving toward this goal is Christian Focus Magazine. As of one month ago, I become the publisher/editor of this magazine. Due to misinformation given to me during the discovery process, I am currently no closer to my goal than before.

Long term this may be part of my freedom, we shall see. Currently we are working to create much better content and working to build our subscriber base. To that end we are creating an affiliate program for missionaries. If you now any that need extra financial support, send them my way.

End Game

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Thu, 15 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

I have had a goal for a long time to be alleviated of my need to work every day so I could focus on my investments and my family. However, with four kids, that is a tough nut to crack. Recently I was home from work sick for a few days. It dawned on me as I lay on the couch how disturbed I must be that I would prefer to get ill rather than go to my job.

This got me thinking and I decided to turn this goal into a number. After figuring for current salary, benefits, inflation, and throwing in extra for the risk factor, I realize I need $6,000 a month to quit my job.

For some this figure may seem huge, and I admit it is a bit daunting to me, but at least now I have some thing to whittle away at. As I post I will keep you all updated as to my progress towards this goal. Currently I outside my job, I make about $2/month through some domain parking.

The road ahead seems long right now, but as time goes buy I should be able to report its shortening. Tomorrow I will tell you about one of my ventures towards this goal.

Getting Sick!

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Wed, 14 May 2008 19:01:00 +0000

Recently a stomach bug has been working through our household. When you have four children, and you go to Chuckie Cheese on a Saturday night, things are bound to happen.

As I lay here during what I hope is the last of my sickness, I am thankful. I know it sounds crazy, but I do not often get time like this to accomplish all I need to get accomplished. All to often the needs of my family or my work or my businesses keep me from being able to do all I need to do online.

Well today is different. Today, I have no choice, so I get to get my work done. Keep in mind that much of life is perspective. I know this sounds cliche, but there is almost always a silver lining, all you need to do is look for it.

A thankful heart truly is a happy heart, and a happy heart heal your body fast.

Take Time to Speak Up!

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Tue, 13 May 2008 17:15:00 +0000

As a fan of Alfredo, I was quite please with Pizza Hut's decision to ad Chicken Alfredo to their menu, and was excited to try it. Upon opening the box, it was quite apparent that they were being very optimistic in calling it Chicken Alfredo. Alfredo with a slight Chicken Garnish would have been a more accurate name.

Too many times, friends and family will voice their complaints to me about such instances of poor quality, but that is where they leave it. They may also refuse to shop at or order from certain establishments, but it goes no further. I take a different path. I believe in getting what I paid for no matter what. People try to discourage me saying I am wasting my time, but I will not be deterred.

In regards to this incident, it took me 5-10 minutes to fill out their online response form describing my dissatisfaction. From this short time investment, I have received 2- $10 gift cards, and one coupon for a free pizza. That is a $30 return for 10 minutes work. This works out to $180/hour. I do not know about any of my readers, but I do not make $180/hour, so it was time well invested.

This is only one example of what I have achieved through speaking up. As a business owner, I appreciate when people take the time to give me feedback. How else can I improve? There are too many people who would never speak up and never come back, and if I do not fix this, then I will keep losing customers.

All that being said, the Alfredo was pretty good. A 7 out of 10. I recommend giving it a try.

About Me

noreply@blogger.com (Kurt) — Fri, 09 May 2008 13:05:00 +0000

The purpose of this blog is to embrace living well. As a father of four, husband and father, I enjoy living well.

My ramblings will range from politics to investing to parenting to general news. As a citizen of Pennsylvania I will probably focus pretty hard on the stories that make national news about Pennsylvania citizens embarressing our state.

I do hope you enjoy the content. Feel free to check out some of my business ventures.