Far From Refuge

Time has gotten away from me, friends, and I apologize. It has been much to long since my last post.  I suppose I have some excuses (i.e. Christmas, New Years, out of town), but I am back now.  It was an interesting holiday season this year.  The lady spent her first Christmas away from her family, which was difficult as one could imagine.  We tried to make up for it by entrenching her with tons of MY family.  In retrospect, not sure if that helped or hurt the situation.  :) I kid.  Christmas Eve was spent with my mom and LaMar in Yorba Linda, with a little twist , however, this year.  We were joined by pretty much ALL of my mom's side of the family including my grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins(even our Navy Sailor John showed up), and our family jewel Aunt Margie.  It has been a while since we have all gotten together during the holidays and I enjoyed seeing everyone. 

On Christmas Day we got up early and went to my Mom's ward for church.  It was great to see everyone there, especially some old friends I hadn't seen since high school.  Ash and I brought all our unopened presents with us to my parent's place so we could all open everything together.  I got two pairs of Tom's from my mom (red and black burlap) and a video game I had been wanting (Modern Warfare 3), but the real treat came from Ashley in the form of an AppleTV.  My lady gets me, I tell ya.  I hooked it up a a couple days after Christmas and am loving it.  I will love it even more once we move and I set up my surround sound so I can listen to my iTunes music on good speakers.  As for her, she got a new Marc Jacobs bag, new boots, and few a other nice trinkets. 

New Years came and went without much of anything.  We watched Gaga, LMFAO, and others rock(I use that term extremely loosely) NYC as well as the corpse of Dick Clark being controlled by strings.  A quick kiss at midnight and off to bed.  Sometimes it feels like we are so old we have kids in our 20's rather than actually being in our 20's ourselves.   

As for the diet, it started off well, but soon got lost in all the hubbub of the holiday season and my trip to Denver(more on that in the next post).  I am now proud to say that I am back on the wagon and am doing very well.  My brother, Rex, suggested I keep my intake under 2000 calories a day, and that combined with a few cardio sessions a week would equal quick weight loss.  I have decided to take the suggestion and am liking the process so far.  In fact, my first day on the new program I only had 1500 calories.  Weird huh?  I guess that means I have room for a snack in the middle of the day like yogurt, fruit, or cottage cheese.  Most importantly, it feels good to be back at it again.  Nothing makes you feel more out of shape than being a mile above sea level.