Mission Statement

One of our assignments for the boot camp is to make a mission statement that we are to live by as we make our transformation.  This is what I am choosing to live by:

"I choose to live a life where 'Yes' is used more often than 'No'.  I choose to live my life where I am my best coach of encouragement, not my biggest critic.  I choose to bring my mental and physical health to the forefront of my existence.  For without it, I will be no use to my family and friends who depend on me.  Above all else I choose to enjoy the journey of life rather than rushing towards its destination.  To enjoy truly enjoy the journey is to truly appreciate the existence the God has blessed us with."

What is your mission statement?

RECIPE: Spaghetti Squash with Ginger Chicken

This is my first attempt at posting a favorite recipe of mine for all to enjoy.  After our group talk about nutrition and healthy eating I thought it would be a good idea to share what my family enjoys as a health meal.

Now my wife and I are different when it comes to cooking.  My wife likes cooking with a recipe and I enjoy looking into the pantry and guessing what goes well with what ever I find.  This recipe is one of those that I just came up with when my family went to go visit my mother this past summer.  It is so very delicious and so very easy to make.  It is basically a grilled boneless chicken breast sliced over a bed of spaghetti squash and sliced cherry tomatoes with a drizzle of ginger salad dressing over top.  Ummmm umm good!  Here is what you need to do:

Ginger Chicken over Spaghetti Squash

Serves: 2 people
Prep Time: 5 min
Total Cook Time: 15 min

Ingredients:
(1) Spaghetti Squash - Small/Medium Size
(2) Boneless Chicken Breasts (frozen or thawed)
(1) Container of Cherry Tomatoes
(1) Jar of 'Naturally Fresh' Ginger Dressing

Prep/Cooking Directions:

1. Grill the boneless chicken breasts like you normally would.  Try not to make the outside of the chicken breast hard by over cooking it.  It will taste better if you watch the chicken and cook it until all of the pink is out of the center.
2. When you place the chicken on the grill start preparing the spaghetti squash.
1. Slice off the ends of the squash
2. Slice the squash in half, longwise.
3. Clean out the seeds and the guts like you would a pumpkin at Halloween.  
4. Place both halves cut-face down in the microwave for 12 minutes. (If you cook it any other way it will take forever!)  You can cook the squash longer if you like it a little more squishy, but we like our squash a little crunchy.  It helps with the overall feeling of the dish.
3. While the chicken and squash are cooking, take your tub of cherry tomatoes and slice them in quarters.  We like lots of tomatoes, so we slice the entire tub, but it is totally up to you.
4. When the chicken is done (no pink in the center), take a spoon full of the Ginger dressing and cover the top of the chicken breast with a think layer.  Keep the ginger covered chicken on the grill for a good 3-5 minutes until you see the ginger dressing start to 'caramelize'. You'll know what I mean when you do it.  If you are doing this on a Forman Grill, it won't caramelize as much as it will on a traditional gas grill, but just keep it there for 3-5minutes anyway.

Serving Directions:

1. When the microwave beeps, take out one of the halves of the Spaghetti squash with a pot holder. DO NOT TAKE IT OUT WITH YOUR BARE HAND!!!  My first degree burns let me learn that even if it has a skin, it is still hot as hell!
2. Hold the squash vertically over the dish you want to serve it in.  Take a fork and gently rake out the squash starting from the top moving to the bottom with long strokes.  Shorter strokes will make shorter strands of squash.  One small half is usually enough for one person.  Once both halves are raked and separated in their dishes, then throw away the skins.
3. Take a chicken breast from the grill and slice it width wise (short wise) into 1/4" slices.  When the entire breast is sliced, then cut all of the slices down the center (basically in half).
4. Place the sliced chicken on top of the squash. Presentation is everything so make it pretty.  Think Julia Child.
5. Drizzle your ginger dressing over top off the chicken and squash.  Just do as much as you want, but I suggest 3-4 Tbsp, but adjust it to your liking.  Just don't drown it.
6. Take the sliced tomatoes and place as many as you like on top.  

ENJOY!!  This is as healthy as you make it.  Drown it in dressing and it will taste heavy and blah in my opinion.

If you want a little special kick to the Ginger sauce, mix the following ingredients together.  

Special Sauce:
(2 cups) 'Naturally Fresh' Ginger Dressing
(2 Tbsp) Emeril's Green Pepper Sauce (We have to order this online.)
(1-1/2 tsp) McCormick Lemon Pepper (California Style)

Someone make it and let me know what you think!

the Relay Race

Yes, tonight's glorious event for the Zen Super Boot Camp was a relay race.  Not a normal relay race by any means, but a relay race non-the-less.  We broke up into 5 teams which competed head to head.  I have to say that Team 2 kicked butt all night, but I am a bit biased.  I will spare yo the play by play, but some events did stand out from others.  One leg we had to swing a mini hoop around our arms while we ran up the room, circled a chair, and then back to the next in line.  Going up the room went ok, it was the transition around the chair is where you needed some safety glasses.  The quick change in direction sent hoops flying at other contestants which made sure that everyone was on their toes and getting back to the start as soon as possible.

The other leg that was noteworthy was called the 'wiggly walk'.  I am not sure which brain child came up with this move, but it consists of the person taking the hoop and rotating it from side to side like a steering wheel.  While performing this seemingly innocent maneuver, you also had to swing your hips from your furthest extent to the other furthest extent all the way up the floor, around a chair, and back.  It looked like a cross between 'Driving Miss Daisy' and the 'Bear Necessity' dance BaLoo did in the 'Jungle Book'.  Most of the people were good sports and did a great job.  They were like 'Stella getting her groove' back Shaolin style.   For others (like me), we were just trying to hold on to the last bit of dignity left for the day.  Now I have been known to get down with my bad self rivaling some of the more talented white guys on the dance floor.  I have a wife that will vouch for it.  It is one of the reasons why she married me.  But for some reason I could not bring myself to swing my hips 'like I did not care'.  It was almost like if I was caught, I would have my man card pulled.  However, in the spirit of the competition I did the best I could do at the time.  The next time I will have to leave my ego at the door and 'swing it' with the rest of them.  But I don't think you will find me practicing that move anytime soon.

Learning to walk TaiChi Style

So today's TaiChi lesson boiled down to learn how to transition from our 'ready' stance to a couple of stances that we will learn to use regularly as time progresses.  At the start everything went fine.  We started in a Left Front Bow Stance, which is where you stand with your left leg forward of your right leg.  Your front leg supports about 70% of your weight with the rear leg supporting 30%.  We began an exercise of controlling the transition by just practicing sliding from the front foot to the rear foot all while trying to keep your head from bobbing up and down or your hips from moving to some odd angle from the rest of your body.  Surprisingly this is not as easy as you may think.  Trying to keep your hips, shoulders, and head straight while you move slowly from the front to back takes a bit of concentration.  It is amazing what bad habits we form in our daily life.

From there we learned how to transition from our bow stand of one leg to another leg (from left front leg to right front leg).  This is where my legs started not speaking politely to me.  The transition happens when your front foot draws up on the heel and then turns outward to a 45 degree angle.  The hips track with the foot so  they are both aligned when this move is complete.  When the front foot is down, you transfer your weight to that front planted foot and then draw up your rear foot to your front foot.  This is where my quads start complaining, which makes me quickly place that raised foot forward into a Front Bow stance.  This produces the 'Whewwww....' effect.  This is where I am elated that both of my feet are on the ground and that (even for a brief second) I'm not moving.

After we got this move down initially, we instructor asked us to make a circle so that we could all work on our TaiChi walk together.  At first we made a circle, but we started a bit too close.  This made the fast walkers move right onto the heals of the student in front of them.  Since we were moving in a left handed circle it seemed to me that we were performing the TaiChi walk 'NASCAR' style.  Since we are in Charlotte, NC (the home of NASCAR) it only seemed fitting.  I was just waiting for one of the students that were walking quickly to step on a student's shoe in front of them creating a flat tire, forcing them into the wall then to the floor.  This of course would send out the yellow flag and force the rest of us to go EVEN SLOWER as we made our way around the tragic scene.  As you can see my brain thinks up some pretty weird stuff while walking in a circle trying to just stay upright.

The word of the week will be 'practice'.  If I don't practice that walk, I won't get better at it and I will continue to have non-friendly conversations with my legs.  So if you see me walking to the copier at work and it takes me 10 minutes to get 20 feet, just understand that I am not just slow.  I 'm just working on my walk.  

Rule #15: Lay off the Sweet Southern Nectar

Alright. I have been trying to be good and lay off the little things like sweet tea. however, since I have been good for about 2 weeks I decided to tempt fait and drink a regular sweet tea at lunch today.

Well I don't need to have an interpreter to decode that my body didn't like that.  When I got back to my desk I about fell face first into my keyboard from a blood sugar drop.  Note to self...STICK TO WATER! It doesn't hurt you in the long run!

Zen Boot Camp Buddies

One of the things that I am starting to like about the Zen Super Boot Camp is the fact that they set you up with a couple of "Boot Camp Buddies".  The goal is to have a small support system made up of the same people that are experiencing the program right along with you.  My current buddies are Elaine, Jack, and Chrissie.  All are doing their part to keep all of us up and motivated to stay with the program.  We have already started to text and email each other to keep our focus on what we are suppose to do in class and in life.  I kinda relate the experience to that spot in "Finding Nemo" where Dori and Marlin are about to exit the East Australian Current (EAC).  This is where the sea turtles instruct our intrepid duo on how to exit the EAC properly.  If you watch the clip you will understand sometimes how I feel when I receive instructions from our instructors.  I look forward to greeting what lays ahead of us as a team!

Got through another Tai Chi class.....WHOO HOO!!

YES! I got through my second TaiChi class with very little pain.  I did need some oxygen after the 30min warm up routine, but I did manage to get off of the ground afterwards to work on my "Move the Mountain, Push the Sea", which I still don't have the first clue how to do.  I just keep my eyes focused on the instructor and do what he/she does.

I did find something today that you don't regularly see in a normal gym environment.  People actually engaged me in conversation while I was waiting for class to start.  This doesn't really sound like a big deal, but just think about it.  The last few times I was in a regular gym, people nobody really looked or talked to anyone.  I usually see someone say hi when they pass to go to the water fountain (bubbler for you Northerners), but never really just talk.  Today I talked with Natalia and Rick.  Both of whom have been a part of The Peaceful Dragon for a good many years (Natalia for 10+ and Rick, I am not really sure how long).  What struck me is that they were both welcoming and open to talking about their experiences and what to expect.  To me that says a lot about the adherence that the student have to the guiding principals that Sifu (our teacher) has set forth for everyone to follow.  It is refreshing to find a place  that you can start a journey, like the one I have started, and be free from the normal stress of having to fit in immediately.  This growing period as I investigate this school and its offerings is a well appreciated.

I also found out that there are some students that shoot IPSC.  Who would have thunk it!?!  Now I just have to find who they are!

FYI - For those of you who don't know what IPSC is.  It is the International Practical Shooting Confederation.  Look it up at www.uspsa.org . It's a good time for anyone!

TaiChi for the first time...

All I can say is AHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!  You know, TaiChi in the movies does not convey the amount of practice and perseverance you will need to continue to master this art form.  Of course you never "master" this art.  You always have something to discover when doing this.  Take tonight for example, after our 30 minute warm up (which by the way made me realize how much I sit all day and don't use my legs), we started off by a standing meditation for 5 minutes.  Your arms are arced in front of you like you are hugging a tree while standing in your base position.  Well 5 minutes while standing like this does not sound like a long time, but when you are starting out, it feels like an eternity.  The point of this meditation is to relax the body by focusing on your breathing while keeping your static form.  By this time, my quads were screaming and shaking like leaves.  However, standing there helped me control that reaction and stay focused on controlling my breathing, which by this time was acting like a bellows stoking a Blacksmith's fire!

After the meditation we performed the "climb the mountain, push the sea", which I know is not the correct name for it, but it is what I can remember at the moment. This is the first Tai Chi lesson that you have to master to move forward in the class.  It was pretty easy to follow along, which was great because I was staring at the student instructor the whole time.

Then our other student instructor Tim, brought us over and helped us work on our stances which we beginners were introduced to for the first time.  The stances we learned are as follows:

1. Horse Stance (Not Bad)
2. Forward Stance (Not too bad)
3. Backward Stance (I can deal with this one)
4. Cat Stance (Alright, I'm testing out my quads again)
5. Crane Stance (Ahhhh, finally relief!)
6. Box Stance (YOUCH!)
7. Drago Stance (You want me to do what?)

I'll go over these later, but you can at least look them up if you want to.  My favorite was the Crane stance seeing I could do this stance fairly well without loosing my balance because of my quivering legs.  The other stances I REALLY need to work on.  My legs and I were having a not friendly conversation while attempting these pretty simple stances.  However, I know that practice makes perfect, which means that I just need to work on it and the strength will come.

More later, but right now I am looking forward to having a menage a trois between me, Advil Gel Caps, and some Icy Hot.  NIGHT!!!

Zen Super Boot Camp

As this new year has started I have already experienced some major changes in my life.  Last year the Mrs and I had our first child, who we will call the "baby boy".  I have to say that he is so rat blasted cute, that it isn't even funny.  The other major change occurred when I left a company that I had been a part of for 10+ years to start a new career in another another company.  It is a big deal to leave what you have known for your entire adult life to date and start a new life as it were as the new guy in a different industry.  However, I have determined recently that life is not a destination, but a journey we must all experience while we roam these lands of the physical world.

Well the last 10+ years of my "journey" has left me with a good bit of baggage which I am determined to drop along the roadside.  As I was stopped at a traffic light on the way to my new job, I happened to take a survey of the Chick-fil-a bags that littered the floor board.  I seriously think that I have single handedly subsidized my local Chick-fil-a over the past year, morning, noon, and night.  I should have a drive through named after me.  But I digress.

Taking a look at my surroundings gave me pause enough to finally do something about my weight and my state of mind.  Recently I have noticed my family's growing concern about my weight and its effects on my health.  I come from a family with numerous physical ailments which I could be staring down the barrel of if I don't change my ways soon.  Over the past decade I have packed on an average of 7-8 pounds extra per year until I have reached my current weight of 270 lbs.  I am only 5'-10" so you can imagine what that looks like on my frame.  According to the doc, I should be around 185 lbs for my body type.  For anyone that knows me, we all can agree that ain't going to happen.  I personally believe 200 lbs is my ideal weight for a healthy lifestyle.

I'm not going to lie, I'm a big boy and 70 pounds is a significant amount of weight to shed.  I sport a 44" waist, which took me by surprise a few weeks ago as I started buy clothes for my new job.  For some reason I have some REALLY missed placed priorities that need to be corrected.  Especially now that I have a son that will be looking up to me.  Being a good example for him really weighs on me (no pun intended).

So this brings me to my recent decision.  After some good web searching and some soul searching with the Mrs, I have decided to participate in a Zen Super Boot Camp put on by The Peaceful Dragon here in Charlotte, NC.  Now I am not sure what your thoughts are about Easter philosophy, but this is something that actually appeals to me.  I realize that the majority of my problem is mental and not necessarily physical.  The Zen Super Boot Camp is designed to work on the mind first through meditation and TaiChi which will in turn help the body respond to physical conditioning.

I know, it sounds like a 2am infomercial, but it is a serious program that has been honed over time by The Peaceful Dragon.  Plus it helps that I like the Eastern Philosophy and Martial Arts. Something has got to work and being a professional procrastinator doesn't help within the self paced lifestyle of the local gym. We will see what happens over the next year.  To participate in the program you must commit to a 12 month program that deals with meditation, TaiChi, strength training, and yes a little Kung Fu to boot.  For me to commit to a 12 month program, I must be desperate.  But sometimes you just have to let go and let God.

So follow me as I travel along the windy road of inner inspection in order to facilitate my physical correction.