Conflict the Sequel - Man vs. Himself

Today it began.....

With a little encouragement from my spouse, my friend, and the guy my spouse knows from college, it began.

I had a dental appointment scheduled for this morning, at 7:30, and they called to say the tech called off so they needed to reschedule. I crashed back to bed and later woke up to check email and blogs and such.

Here's what I found. After a great 5 weeks building up to our cruise, Amy has lapsed as far as hitting the gym and the Weight Watchers thing. I can't criticize because we signed me up for a gym in January and I have been there ONE TIME since that day. Add to this my friend. My friend is April. She has been very public about her desire to improve her health and has been the bravest woman I know who is doing this because she is actually posting her weight publicly, which certainly adds to the accountability. In a similar manner, the guy my spouse went to college with, Steven, is doing the same thing, but he is asking for support from those who will help him be accountable and who may join him (at least online) in their efforts.

So here's the deal. I had some stuff to do today. Some of it was planned, some of it obliged, some of it just needed doing. So, I left Amy at the house and went over to Woodstock in search of a haircut. I was pretty sure there was an old-time, traditional barber shop in downtown, but I found another one very close in, at Hwy5 and Hwy 92. I was a little surprised to find it open because traditionally barbers work Tuesday through Saturday, but it was open and I went in.

The shop is called E's Barber Shop and it just opened in January. It is a simple design with 5 cutting stations and a hair-washing sink, add to it a video game (old school arcade style) and a small flat-screen TV on the wall and the proprietor Jim. Jim is the father of E who is currently in barber college. E stands for Engelbert. Jim owned a barber shop in South Florida for 30 years and moved here because E has provided a grandson and an excuse to head North as Jim is originally from Syracuse. Granted, Woodstock, GA is not Syracuse, but it is considerably cooler than Fort Lauderdale.

For $12, less than the cost of a wash and cut at a national chain, I was advised about what I should try versus what I thought I wanted, and then got a cut which included a shave with warm foam and a straight razor and a warm towel wrap at the end. Guys can appreciate these long-forgotten nuances in the realm of a haircut.

After the haircut I went to the Walgreen's I used to work at to drop off copies of a flier I designed for our Poker Tournament. The tourney is the final incarnation of what was originally a casino night to benefit the American Cancer Society. My old boss, Kevin, is the district coordinator for charitable efforts, and I was helping him find a venue and make it happen.

The event will be on Saturday, May 31 at Winston's, the pub where we play trivia and I occasionally play poker. It'll be a $25 donation to enter, with raffles and door prizes for the players. The bar will benefit from the business that night and we'll likely award extra chips to the players for buying food and drinks during the game. Our top prizes include box seats to a Braves/Phillies game in June (provided by Coke) and a mountain bike (provided by Pepsi).

After dropping off the fliers and chatting with now former coworkers, I went to, THE GYM!

It's been a long time, so I can't hurt myself by jumping in too strong. I did 20 minutes on the elliptical machine (with a 5 minute cool down). The end result was just over 2 miles and about 300 calories. I then worked a bit on 3 of the upper-body weight machines and came home to Amy.

So here's my introductory post on the get-in-better-shape-to live-a-longer-life-for-my-wife-and-my-future-children effort.

Monday, May 12, 2008 262 pounds.
Ultimate goal 210 pounds.
Progressive goal 10 pounds per month on average.