Four Christmases: SC Edition

The Thursday before Christmas Kelley and I took off for my parents house in Greenville SC. I did work that day, and we got down there kind of late. The kids, at that point, had been at Kelley's mom's house at the lake for an ENTIRE week. So that was a nice vacation for her, and we had a lot of fun just being together as the two of us. But that night was Kelley's birthday, so we stopped at a nice restaurant for dinner that included this slice of goodness:

That was so good I felt like I should be eating it alone at home in sweatpants while crying. It's a warm brownie with an entire Hershey's chocolate bar melting on top served with vanilla ice cream. Oh. Lawd.

After we got down to SC, I got to enjoy the first beer of vacation, a Fat Tire. It did not disappoint. This vacation is the longest I think I've ever had; I don't go back until Jan 2. 13 days out of the office worked out thanks to our holiday schedule. We're closed for 4 days over the holidays, and I planned to take 4 more days of PTO (M & F Christmas week, M & Tues New Year's week) to stretch it out a bit. Then Christmas in SC worked out to be the weekend before, and Spartanburg County wanted us to show up in court on Friday the 20th. So Thursday night we headed down, I had to take a 5th day of PTO, and Friday we won the court case (we had to sue this tenant we evicted to try and collect the unpaid rent). I worked on a Thursday, and go back into the office 2 Thursday's later. Since I usually worked Christmas breaks in college, I think this is the first time since high school I've had 2 weeks off from work consecutively. It's pretty nice, gotta say.

So Friday was the court appearance, the kids came up to Greenville, we got to hang out with SC friends Friday and Saturday afternoons, and overall it was a wonderful trip. But the Barnhill (mom's side of the family) Christmas this year was really cool. 

Uncle Mikey and baby Tula

Our girls loved playing with all of the babies

My Grandmother turned 89 recently

Tula being playful over the couch - also pregnant cousin Sarah

There were BABIES this year! We have 10 grandkids in my generation, and 8 of us were there. But now all 8 of us are married (well, 7, but Morgan is getting married in May), and there were 6 kids running around! Plus two of my cousins are pregnant and due in the spring. With any luck, next year's Christmas will have a couple more pregnancies and even more babies. It's so cool to see the family growing like this.

Missing this year was my Aunt Angie and her clan. She beat breast cancer this year and had another surgery the week before so they were unable to make the trip back to Greenville.

We had a really nice family picture taken as well.

Spending time with family is the best part of the holidays by far. I am blessed to have such a large group of people who love each other to share this time.

Monday morning we did the traditional Flynn family breakfast and Christmas. It was so nice to have everyone over, but I think we all really missed my dad's mom who passed away earlier this year. But Christmas #2 was still wonderful.

Me and my mini-me. Seriously, tell me that's not my exact copy! Freaky. Same face, same posture, same hand position.

Evil Genius was glad to get her own rocking chair for all of the present opening.

The official Flynn family picture, Christmas 2013

It's pretty tough to get me anything unexpected, and I should probably make that last picture it's own Not Wordless Wednesday post. But this year, mom really got me. She was going through some of her mom's stuff when she found a box of my grandfather's old stuff. Some of the paper things just fell apart in her hands, but these were intact enough to frame.

Her dad used to write down everything. This piece in the middle was on some type of industrial cloth like a gym bag. It is his results from the State Track Meet in 1941 for SC, where he took 2nd place in the half mile and missed first place by only 6"! He wrote down the names of his coaches and fellow track teammates as well. The 405 is his race bibs that he wore on the front and back of his jersey. And when Mom told me how proud he would have been that I am a runner now, I totally broke down and cried. I miss him so much - he passed away from lung cancer in 1998 about a month before we got married, and that's still the biggest reason I do what I do today. I knew he played football in high school but didn't know he ran track as well, much less at a state championship level. This is a treasure to me.

Monday afternoon we headed back to Raleigh, tomorrow I'll post the pics from the other two Christmases!

Four Christmases - the preview

Since I just realized I never posted any Christmas tree pics or anything, I thought I would start early with our Christmas report. Spoiler alert - the kids are spoiled. rotten. But they are older this year so it's almost ok.

Bigun helped with the lights

They are happy with the tree

Bigun got to put the star on top

Something really cool happened this year. We got the tree and put it in the stand, then I hung the lights with two little assistants. Then, Kelley and I just sat back on the couch and let the tree just decorate itself. It was so cool just to watch the kids go to town. They got medieval on that tree. For the first time, this year they were big enough to decorate the entire tree, not just the bottom third. They had a blast, we really enjoyed only having to watch, so it was a good time all around.

Evil Genius is holding that bottom light a little precariously

Goofballs

They drew some of the ornaments this year. This one is our favorite

They also got to decorate gingerbread cookies for Santa!

It's a cute little tree, with tons of presents

The kids are 8 and 6 this year, and this is the perfect age for a great Christmas season. This is the sweet spot. They aren't yet old enough to care more about ignoring us than having fun, and are so young that they still believe in Santa Claus. They are still nice to everybody, and still glad to see all of the family members even if they can't remember all of the names. It's such a sweet, special time for us all.

The Results: PR achieved!

 

So for the last 2 weeks Kelley and I have been doing this Paradigm Diet challenge. We started this with the end game in mind:

1. shred some body fat
2. heal the right foot
3. make it a habit
4. get a shiny new PR!

The raw data does not lie.  We did a fairly strict adherence to the program, and I recorded my weight/bf%/workout log/diet log here on the blog. The raw data doesn't lie, here's how the goals turned out:

1. Body fat went from 22.2% to 18.1%, and my weight went from 185.2 lbs after the Thanksgiving bloat down to 175 lbs. So I lost 10 lbs total, and 9.4 lbs of that was pure bodyfat.
2. Healing the foot is tough to quantify. It does feel better, but not much better. These things take time.
2. Make it a habit. Today I missed my breakfast smoothie, but had one for lunch instead. And it was a real mental debate if I wanted to do the smoothie or the kale salad. Save that for tomorrow. I'd say it's a habit.

Ok cards are on the table. After the race and choir practice on Saturday we kind of went non-vegan nuts. Kelley debated me that the number of plates I get at the Chinese buffet should not exceed the number of miles run, but I proved her wrong (3.1 mile race, 5 plates at the buffet). This kept going into sunday, and by sunday night we both felt like absolute crap and couldn't wait to get hungry again so we could finally eat something healthy. Today was back to vegan with quite the sense of relief from both of us.

4. Shiny new PR! Why yes, actually I did get a shiny new PR. Saturday morning was the Jolly Elf Trail Run 5k. This was my third time doing this race, I set my old PR here 2 years ago, then in 2012 came in a minute slower than 2011. In other training runs, I will routinely do 5k tempo runs with times ranging from 20:45 to 21:30, so I thought I could easily beat that 21:58 PR.



Hi there! PR awaits this guy

They gave us all bells to wear on the shoes to make a big jingle.

I was not trying to blend in with this outfit.

I got there very early, and warmed up by jogging to the packet pickup then back to the car. Some light stretching in the park, a quick trip to the men's room to lose some extra weight, and I was ready to race. I got up towards the front and started talking with some other guys with much faster times than I was going for.

At the start I took off pretty fast, but was careful not to go too fast. The course starts out in a field, then heads off into the woods for some trail time. Some of the trails are paved. Then right around the one mile marker, you come out of the woods, run up a hill around the field where you can see the finish line clock and get a rough 1 mile estimate. The clock said 6:19 when I ran past, and the garmin said my 1 mile split was 6:49. My goal was to break 7 minute miles, so this meant I was right on point.

The second mile had the only really tough hill in there, and I passed my friend Jason on that hill. The 2 mile marker was right after the water stop, and the garmin said my second mile took 7:12. I was ok with that. Jason passed me at the water station, I was less ok with that.

The third mile repeated the first mile of the course, but this time when we came around the baseball courts I walked for only 4 steps to let my heart rate come back down some. I had been pushing it for a while and wanted to put up a strong finish. When I came back out onto that field the garmin said 20:35, so I thought I had a PR well in hand. I mean, you could see the finish line right there in the field!

Turns out the garmin also said that was only 2.9 miles into the race. I thought it was a short course at first, but when you start that finish line kick.... then keep kicking.. and kick... and there's the 3 mile alarm from the garmin... and you still need to hold a strong kick..... yea. not a short course. But my lungs, abs, and legs were totally screaming when I hit that finish line in....

21:56! I still got a PR by two whole seconds! I'll take 2 seconds. It wasn't the 21:30 I was looking for. It wasn't the sub-7 pace I thought I would get for sure. but I'll take it.  Goal 4 is very achieved!

Paradigm Day 11

Thursday Dec 12 2013
MMNW: 175 lbs, 18.3% bodyfat
Pre-workout:
AM Workout: core strength routine, yoga
Breakfast: Smoothie - banana, apple, pineapple, spinach, frozen (strawberries, peaches, blueberries), water, OJ
AM Snack:
Lunch: Company Holiday Party - BBQ, fried chicken, slaw, hush puppies, mac n cheese
PM Snack: sleeping in my cubicle
Dinner: leftover shepherds pie
PM Workout: swim 3200 m RAM practice
Snack: Chobani black cherry greek yogurt

Today we had our company holiday party at work. I dove in and fixed a "normal" sized plate, only to regret it later. Turns out, when you only eat fresh produce for 10 days, you don't fall asleep at your desk. But when you have a typical meal on the standard American diet, you will fall asleep at your desk. I had totally forgotten how bad that stuff could make you feel. The catering is from one of my favorite restaurants around here, Smithfield's BBQ. They are a wonderful establishment and the food was delish, but not Paradigm in any way. totally came back to bite me in the afternoon.

I really wanted to get in a swim tonight so I downed some leftover Shepherd's Pie and headed for RAM practice. Got to work off all those meat & fried calories. 3200 meters of speedwork later and I could barely lift my arms. It was an insane workout, we almost never do intervals at puke threshold in the pool.

Friday is a rest day, and Saturday I'm going to end the experiment with the Jolly Elf trail 5k. This is where I set my 5k PR 2 years ago, then last year I was about 30 seconds slower. This year I think I can break that PR, and being powered by plants and the Paradigm Diet I like my chances.

Paradigm Day 10

Wednesday Dec 11 2013
MMNW: 177 lbs, 19.1% bodyfat
Pre-workout: banana, 3 dates
AM Workout: run 4 miles in 32 minutes
Breakfast: Smoothie - banana, apple, pineapple, spinach, frozen (strawberries, peaches, blueberries), water
AM Snack:
Lunch: leftover Oh She Glows vegan chili on a giant salad
PM Snack: banana and a few dates
Dinner: leftover shepherds pie with some steamed broccoli
PM Workout: choir practice at church
Snack:

I worked from home today and hit the snooze button a few too many times. So after running and showering, I had to start work while still taking down the smoothie and some coffee. We've got our Christmas Cantata performing on Sunday, so tonight was a particularly long and exhausting choir practice.

This morning I weighed in a full pound higher than yesterday morning and seem to still be holding strong in this 176-177 place. Maybe that is where I'm going to stabilize at, but I don't like it. I should still be able to slim down a bit more. The final truth will come out Saturday morning, as I signed up for the Jolly Elf 5k again. This will be my third year running it, the first time is where I set my 5k PR and I aim to break it this time.

Paradigm Day 9

Tuesday Dec 10 2013
MMNW: 176 lbs, 19.3% bodyfat
AM Workout:
Breakfast: Smoothie - banana, apple, spinach, frozen (strawberries, peaches), water
AM Snack: Nature Valley oats n dark chocolate bars
Lunch: leftover Oh She Glows vegan chili, chobani greek yogurt
PM Snack: banana, 2 clementines
Dinner: Moe's veggie bowl
PM Workout: core strength, long extended workout of ashtanga yoga primary series
Snack:

aaaaand now the stress comes back. We had this house in SC - the first house we ever bought back in 2002  and now our last investment property - under contract to sell, supposed to close by the first of the year. Last night they backed out because the inspection showed an active termite infestation and structural damage under the house. So not only did we expect to relieve several hundred $$ a month from our budget, receive a cash windfall,  and finally be done with real estate investing; now we have to figure out how to pay for even more repairs and wait on another buyer to show up. So today's diet is brought to you by stress eating.

The kids were out and about with Kelley's dad today and we ended up meeting up and swapping the little misbehaver's over dinner. The only non-paradigm  stuff in my bowl was the rice and cheese. I hope it will not come back to bite me.

We stayed out long enough for me to miss the swim practice, so I threw in a dvd of Ashtanga Yoga primary series and went through as far as I could. I've really been wanting to pick up the next set of moves in primary series, and as stressful as today was, I seriously needed the release. It was wonderful.

Wordless Wednesday

Giant kale salad

Chickpea burgers

Some of the fantastic new meals we've discovered on the Paradigm Diet and will be working into our regular routine from now on. Unreal good!

Paradigm Day 8

Saturday Dec 7 2013
MMNW: 176.6 lbs, 18.4% bodyfat
Preworkout: 1 banana
AM workout: run 3 miles
Breakfast: smoothie - apple, banana, spinach, frozen (peaches strawberries), water
AM snack: banana
Lunch: leftovers - chickpea burger, vegan chili, baked sweet potatoes
PM snack:
Dinner: a great vegan shepherd's pie recipe that Kelley found on pinterest
PM Workout:
Snack:

easy 3 mile run this morning just to knock the legs out, average 9 m/m pace.  My frozen fruit and liquid selection was quite limited today, so breakfast was a bit skimpy.  Also, I got asked about my smoothies today by a co-worker, so here goes the plan:

My smoothie recipe is really a formula. I start with fresh fruit, add a green, add frozen fruit, and add enough liquid to make it easier on the blender.  The key point is "whatever is on hand" there. At the end of seasons, we tend to go to the farmers market and buy in bulk whatever is being sold cheap just so the farmers don't have to dump their crops on the compost heap. Then we freeze it, and this works out very well for us. Last year we got blueberries, $20 for a flat of 8 huge containers that are now $12 each at the grocery store. Freeze them and we had blueberries in smoothies all year long. This year it was peaches. We got cases of peaches for $10 each, sliced and froze them, and now have bags of frozen peaches.  Typically we have fresh bananas, apples, and spinach. Sometimes we have fresh pineapple, berries, oranges, or anything else that we can find. After the fruit I throw a green in there. Spinach is usually fresh, but sometimes we have kale, bok choy, etc. Frozen spinach is ok too, but we don't usually have that. Sometimes as well I'll throw in some flax seed, chia seed, or cacao nibs as well.  My key for frozen stuff is to buy in bulk and freeze. Once the fresh berries start to turn, freeze them. Cantaloupe, watermelon, mango, pineapple, strawberries, any high water content fruit freezes well. I fill the blender with that stuff, then add liquids. Orange Juice is my typical liquid base, then I'll add water, ginger ale, muscle milk, etc to make it easier for the blender to chew everything up. We don't have a vitamix or anything fancy, just a couple of $15 Target blenders so we have to make it easy for them.

When we're not doing the Paradigm Diet, sometimes I'll use other smoothie addins like (instant oatmeal, milk, and water), a spoonful of peanut butter, chocolate chips, or anything else I can find laying around that might blend well. I've even been known to throw chocolate chip cookies in the blender and let it rip. One of my favorites is where I started with a bunch of chocolate stuff, then addins that pair well with chocolate like frozen cherries.

The pie Kelley made for dinner was great! Lentils, sweet potatoes, cabbage, some spices. It was quite tasty and we have lots of leftovers. All of these vegan recipes we've found serve 6 so there are always tons of leftovers. which is fantastic.

Holiday Festval - now it's appropriate!

That other Holiday Festival was a blast, but it was before Thanksgiving. Come on now. Pullen Park and the City of Raleigh put on a Holiday Festival every year and it can be tough to get tickets. This year we were able to score some for Friday night. Originally we wanted Sunday night, but Friday ended up being 70* and fantastic, while Sunday was 36* and raining.

The most impressive thing was that the city didn't oversell the event! There were some lines for things, but nothing took a really long time to get through. It wasn't crowded at all. insane. The first thing we had to do was ride the train, then get on the Merry-Go-Round



Bigun giving me crazy eyes on the bus ride in

Then this guy put a parrot on her head! I thought I was going to have to kick his ass.

Then we found a snowman and a fairy

All of us riding the train. Of course Evil Genius refused to look at the camera.

until she was absolutely forced to

my focus sucks

On the merry-go-round!

I had to stay with EG. That is the fastest carousel I've ever seen!  After that we went around the rest of the park and played on the playgrounds and did some crafts. They really had a neat setup going, and the kids had a blast! Kelley and I had a fun time too.

Pullen Park has the pool that I swim at most of the time for RAM practices, and the kids love coming down there to play. It's a great place and the city put on a fantastic holiday festival.

Paradigm Day 7

Sunday Dec 8 2013
MMNW: 176.4 lbs, 18.4% bodyfat
Breakfast: 1 banana, couple of animal crackers
Lunch: Giant salad - Kale, spinach, peppers, rasins, shrooms, black beans, avo dressing, you name it we threw it in there
Dinner: Oh She Glows vegan chili
PM Workout: strength/yoga
Snack: Chobani blood orange

I woke up too late to eat any breakfast before church, which was really not good.  I had to sing (some solo, some in a trio) with the choir in a big performance. So it was kind of an important morning. I ate a banana at home, then some crackers while I was driving.  Totally starved by the time I got home for lunch! It didn't help that the kids got me to stop for their favorite hot dogs on the way home (which Kelley and I did not partake in). So by the time I made the salads I was famished. ugh.

Evil Genius and I gave Mommy the night off tonight. I found a great recipe online from Oh She Glows, one of the more popular vegan blogs for a chili that looked really good. We had all of the ingredients, almost, and it seemed easy enough to put together. Now, today in Raleigh has a low temp of 35 and a high of 36, and it's supposed to rain all day. My main goal after church was to not have to leave the house again, but I did make a run to the grocery store. But when EG and I got back we cooked dinner for the whole family. It's an Indian Princess thing.

We still cook a separate dinner for the kids than what Kelley and I eat. Being a short order cook is no fun, but they are so incredibly picky we haven't figured out how to get out of it. It does make it easier for us to try something like this Paradigm Diet for a couple of weeks without it having any effect on them, or trying to convince them to eat special vegan stuff.

My legs are really sore today after the 15 miler yesterday, and that hasn't happened in a long time. kind of nice.

First week of this detox/trial is complete, and I'm down 9 lbs and the body fat is down from 22.2% to 18.4%, which is great. I really couldn't be happier with how it's gone so far.  However, the last 3 days I have pretty much stalled out. Weight loss is a side effect, the main point of the diet is to optimize the way the body performs. I do certainly look thinner, and am running faster than I have in a while. But I doubt that 18% bodyfat is really... optimal. I bet it's going to get lower than that.

Cowboy Up!

The next day, after Thanksgiving was over we went back to Saluda for some horseback riding. It was Bigun's idea, and it turned out to be awesome. She went nuts over it, and is now a "horse girl" - there may be boots in her future (and mine).

This is as close as Evil Genius came to riding

Bigun hopped right up!

Before long after we got there, Bigun was up in the saddle. She was a natural! Aunt Joan taught her how to instruct the horse and she was turning around barrels in the pen before you knew what was happening.

Before long, I ended up on one too. Sure, I was just walking around on a kids saddle, so Kaileigh was making fun of me. Eventually I did end up on a growd-up saddle.  And eventually we ended up out of the pen and riding on a trail through some of their property.

I'm a cowboy now!

EG and Aunt Joan about to hit the trail

Here we go!

We ended up back at Leigh's house to hang with the calfs for a bit. Horses take a lot of care, and it was great to see their barn and all of the equipment it takes to maintain all of that.

EG actually wanted to get her car seat to ride in the back of the truck. City folk, I swear.

She will strike a pose but wouldn't get up long enough to pose for a picture.

She did get down to pet a calf!

The coolest part about spending time with family like that is getting into their wheelhouse. I thoroughly enjoy being on the back of a horse. But I'm not going to chase down riding farms here in Raleigh. The coolest part about the whole thing is getting to spend time with someone that you love doing something that they love. Spending time in someone else's comfort zone is good for you too. If anyone else wanted to go run with me it would be the same thing. You might not run, but if you run with me you're coming into my wheelhouse. It's comfortable. The best part about getting to hang out with these members of my family was being in their comfort zone.

Paradigm Day 6

Saturday Dec 7 2013
MMNW: 176.6 lbs, 18.4% bodyfat
Breakfast: Life cereal in milk
Preworkout: 1 banana, 4 dates
noon workout: run 15 miles
Lunch: smoothie - banana, apple, pineapple, frozen (blueberries cantaloupe peaches strawberries), spinach, muscle milk, chia/flax seed
PM snack: organic animal crackers
Dinner: Chickpea Burgers, baked sweet potato
PM Workout: watching college football
Snack: nothing
I gained 0.2 lbs but lost 0.2% bodyfat this morning; probably an anomaly in the scale. I'm ok with that.  Not only was breakfast not Paradigm, it's not even vegan. First blatantly non-vegan meal in the detox. I had my weekly long run today, and didn't know how to handle that, so I just handled it wrong. A big bowl of cereal is what I always eat before a long run or a big race. Today it did not serve me well.

During the run I felt a bit heavy, then bonked around 90 minutes in when I ran out of blood glucose. I didn't want to have the normal breakfast smoothie before the run, since smoothies are a great recovery tool for after a long run. I think I should have just loaded up on whole fruit instead. I mean 1 banana and 3 dates isn't enough calories to run long on. The 15 miles took 2:03, but those last 30 minutes were really tough. I was trying to keep the last five miles at a 7:24 pace, but could only hold it for two miles before hitting that wall.

Oh, those burgers!!  Saturday night was the college football championship games, so we made Lisa Fallon Mindel's Chickpea Burgers. This recipe was fantastic. I was so excited I took pictures. The baked sweet potatoes were sort of like fries, so this gameday classic got a Paradigm twist! We served on deli rounds, which are not paradigm, and topped it with sliced avocado. Still totally vegan, very appropriate for the day, and it went great with football.

Chickpeas, onion, garlic, turmeric, other spices and stuff. unreal good.

Topped and served with sweet potato and football

Pradigm Day 5

Friday Dec 6 2013
MMNW: 176.4 lbs, 18.5% bodyfat
Preworkout: 1 banana, 3 dates
AM workout: strenth/core work
Breakfast: smoothie - banana, apple, pineapple, frozen (blueberries cantaloupe peaches, strawberries)
AM snack: Nature Valley oats & dark chocolate bars
Lunch: 3 clementines, some animal crackers, and a sandwich from a local deli - eggplant, roasted red peppers, mozzarella, and 9 grain bread
Dinner: veggie burrito - enormous
PM Workout: walking around Pullen Park
Snack: nothing

The only times I've seen 18% body fat in the last 20 years has been right at the end of a build phase in ironman trianing.  So, loving that. This morning I was too hungry to wait for lunch so I snacked on some bars that I keep in my desk at work. First processed food I've had all week.  I don't miss it, but really didn't have anything else to snack on.

For lunch and dinner I ended up in restaurants. Forgot to bring anything into the office and didn't have time to go home for a salad. I had gotten this vegetarian sandwich from that deli before, but this time the eggplant was sliced too thin and felt loaded with oils. Of course the mozz was not vegan, the fried eggplant and bread are not Paradigm. Everything else was good.  Friday nights we always eat out, Kelley won't cook on principle and I'm ok with it. We had a holiday festival to take the kids too, so we used a groupon for a local healthy burrito place with a nice vegan menu. I think the tortilla and some rice in there are the only parts of that meal that aren't Paradigm. and that ain't bad.

I haven't been having any cravings or really wanting to take in anything specific.  well, the kids made some peanut butter cookies yesterday that smelled great. But no cravings for cheeseburgers or anything. I eat tons of delicious food, stay full all, or at least most, of the time, and feel better than ever. Taking in that sandwich today made me realize why I kept falling asleep at work around 3 pm. Here I thought the job was just boring (boring is good in my industry). My only real concern is based in variety. Going into next week, how are we going to come up with new or creative dinner ideas?  One week and we're already out of recipes. I made the same salad 3 days for lunch, what happens when I want more variety?

I'm incredibly excited about being down 9 lbs after only 5 days, and being in 18% body fat. Weight loss and fat loss is actually a side effect of the Paradigm Diet, not the intent. The intent of the program is to get the body to perform at it's peak, to have harder workouts and recover from them more quickly. To fight off injury and disease. So far I'd say it's pretty incredible.

Paradigm Day 4

Thursday Dec 5 2013
 MMNW: 178 lbs, 19.4% bodyfat
Preworkout: 1 banana, 3 dates
AM workout: overslept
Breakfast: smoothie - banana, apple, pineapple, frozen (blueberries cantaloupe peaches), OJ, water
Lunch: giant salad - kale avo dressing, black beans, carrots
Dinner: plenty of leftovers, baked sweet potatoes, steamed broc and the quinoa stuff. Just as good tonight.
PM Workout: swim 2850 m
Snack: couple of dates, chobani greek yogurt

Had a dentist appointment this morning and everything came out clean. Worked from home today, it all went fine. Today the kids track out for the December break so they are home from school until January. They were excited and slept in pretty good this morning.

I was really excited to be under 20% body fat this morning! Pre-ironman weight (almost) and bodyfat (almost) and this happened significantly faster than I was expecting. Under 180 and under 20% in just 4 days? Thank you.

Had a great swim too. This is the second swim since B2B, and the first one felt horrible. Tonight I felt, well, not fast, but comfortable in the water again. That was really nice.

Thanksgiving Report

We really enjoyed the Thanksgiving holiday this year. It allowed us to go down and reconnect with some family that we haven't seen in about 4 years, which was wonderful. Wednesday night we headed down to Kelley's Mom's house in SC, then Thursday headed out to Aunt Kathy's little house for the big turkey feast. It was so great to see everyone again.  Kelley has two aunts and 3 cousins that live next door to each other there. But next door is so far away you have to take a horse or drive to get there. Really out in the country, which is really cool. We used to get down there pretty often when we lived in Greenville but haven't really seen this side of the family since before we moved to Raleigh in 2010. So that made it extra great.

Friday was Kelley's mom's birthday, so we made one historic cake, plus some other stuff that makes up Monday's post.   Then Saturday we headed up to Greenville to get one night in with my folks, and headed home on Sunday, stopping at the Maness thanksgiving in Asheboro for one final turkey day family celebration.

Bigun started with a dinner plate that small

especially compared to Daddy's

then ended up with this HUGE piece of cake

Hanging with my sweets

There's a goat in the background there

She's too adorable! My little city girl enjoyed getting out to the country

They had peakcocks in addition to the goats and dogs

Did I mention the epic cake? Evil Genius designed it. She wanted 7 layers but I could only make 4

Neena loved it

Sunday was a beautiful day to be back in central NC

The Maness clan that was able to make it. Kelley's dad is the youngest of 8 kids, so it's usually a huge group!