Chasin' Mason

Now that the election is over and I've had a chance to internalize everything, I want to share my thoughts. While I strongly disagree with the outcome, our democracy functioned exactly as it was designed.  Ballots were cast, votes were counted, and the Electoral College votes were awarded accordingly.  It worked perfectly.  It doesn't mean the outcome is the one we wanted.  The important thing is, it rendered an outcome in the end. It also proves anyone can run for the highest elected office and win a chance to lead this country.  That's something the framers also designed.  We as Americans are given the right to elect our leaders regardless of background, faith, sexuality, etc.  You may not like the outcome, but be proud you had a say in who represents us in this grand American republic. Lastly, and I direct this to Donald Trump and his supporters.  You've won.  Congratulations on a hard fought race.  Seriously, congratulations. ...

<<blows the cyber dust off the old blog>> Hey... it's still here.  You're still here.  Well, I think you are anyway.  You're reading this new entry on a rather neglected, dusty old blog.  To you I say, "Thanks.  Thanks for sticking around." So, time to get real and catch you up on where I stand and how my weight loss adventure is going.  Simply, I fell off the wagon outside PandaBelly and decided to lay low and not move for a while.  While there, I found out why it's called PandaBelly. I'm happy to report... I've left the village.  A similar wagon to the one I was on passed by and after telling the driver a few cheesy jokes, she let me hitch a ride. Truth time.  I've gained some weight.  I'm nowhere near where I used to be, but weight gain is weight gain. I'm currently at 314.4 pounds.  Like I said, nowhere near the 394 points I used to weigh.  Now you should know, I've been back on the wagon fo...

For ten minutes now a blank screen has stared me in the face, not a single single letter typed on a digital piece of paper.  My head is full of thoughts and my fingers swelled with the words aching to get out.  But all I can do is think of Alison Parker and Adam Ward. Courtesy WDBJ-TV via AP Parker, a television news reporter, and Ward, a television photojournalist, were conducting a live morning interview on August 26 for their station, WDBJ , when a disgruntled former co-worker walked up to them and their guest and opened fire.  Parker ran for her life as did her guest, while Ward appeared to fall to the ground.  While the guest survived, both Parker and Ward were shot and died a short time later. Think about this for a moment.  It will be painful, but I need you to internalize this situation. A news crew was murdered live on the air. This blog has been dedicated to my weight loss journey, but for today, for this moment, I'm going to change it...

In my last post, I mentioned I had registered for my first real 10K.  Up until then, I participated exclusively in 5K races. NOTE:  As I am sure most of you are aware... a 5K is 3.1 miles.  A  10K is 6.2 miles.   A half-marathon is 13.1 miles and a full marathon is 26.2 miles. I was unaware the race was happening until a co-worker had mentioned it and suggested I sign up.  After some thought, I decided to go for it.  I can tell you, I almost immediately regretted it.  Not because I had spent the money, but because I was concerned I wouldn't be able to finish it the way I wanted to finish the race. When I take part in these events, my goal is to jog/run the whole race.  I consider it a personal failure if, at any time, I walk.  I know it's not a failure by any means, but honestly I can't think of doing it any other way. A few weeks ago, I thought it would be a good idea to put in a practice 10K.  I'd been training with t...

Well now... it's been a while. I won't go into too much detail about where I've been and what I've been up to since my last post.  If I had to sum it all up though, I would use the following terms:  family, friends, work and Disney. Notice there are a couple of words that are missing there.  Two very specific ones to be exact:  diet and exercise. So here's the reality.  I've had some failures in those departments.  I haven't been exercising as I should.  Well let's be honest here... none at all.  And let's not talk about the diet... or lack there of. As you might have figured out... I've regained some of the weight I've lost.  I am certainly not proud of it.  Quite ashamed actually.  That's why I've not been around here much.  I've not wanted to admit failure.  I worked so hard to drop the weight... only to regain some of it back. At my lowest weight, I came in at 269 pounds.  I've gained... (oh, how I dread...

At 4:30 a.m. this morning, my alarm sounded.  Unlike most days when it is time to get up, I did not fight it. It was like the first day of school.  I had my clothes out and ready for wearing and the excitement was almost too much. I showered, dressed and kissed my wife goodbye and I was off to the Turtle Krawl 5k Run/Walk . I picked up one of my running mates and we headed to the race location, chatting about movies, music and life. When we arrived, we walked to the starting line.  It was there that I made a very embarrassing discovery. I was complaining a bit about the fact that I didn't wear gym shorts with pockets on the outside.  I was under the impression, at that point, I was going to have to run this 5k with my phone in hand.  I told my friend I was sure I chose a pair of shorts with the pockets on the outside. Indeed I did.  I had put my shorts on inside out.  This was going to be great race day. And it was.  But it was also ...

So, the day is here. Well, technically the day is here tomorrow (Saturday, September 13, 2014). I'm talking about the day I participate in my first 5k. Quick recap for the readers keeping track at home, a few months ago I signed up for my first 5k:  The Turtle Krawl 5k Run/Walk .  Nervousness and concern took over and suddenly I was a bit worried about my decision.  I downloaded the Couch-to-5k app for my iPhone in an attempt to train and prepare. That should bring you up-to-date. For the last eight weeks, I've continued to follow the app's directions concerning the workouts.  Each week, those workouts increased in intensity.  Sometimes, they increased daily. I won't lie.  There are days I considered quitting.  Not because the workout was difficult necessarily, but because of my own personal feelings about the situation... my own personal shortcomings. Back in the day... when I was 400 pounds... I couldn't understand why people chose to ...