Finishing Touches in Utah

One of the highlights of our trip to Utah was an incredibly large bowl of homemade Caramel Corn, made by T'liese. It was Charloe's birthday, and that was her only reply when asked what she wanted in order to celebrate.

There is just something magical about a vast pot of caramel.

We also got busy sanding, priming, and painting the outdoor bench on my parents' porch. It had gone from looking rustic and shabby chic to homeless and abused. It was time for a face lift! After letting the primer dry for an hour, a whole team of people descended to paint two coats of "Crushed Seed" onto the bench. I love it. It sure brightens up the porch! The best part is that Mom likes it. Other than me losing patience with some little kids being around paint (and, subsequently making a complete idiot of myself), I would consider this bench makeover a success.

Friday night, I made a batch of Red Velvet Cupcakes and Birthday Cake for Charloe. I will blame a gas oven that the cupcakes got a little too much heat, and consequently were a little dry (meatloaf, Sigourney?). Nothing a ton of cream cheese frosting can't fix, right? A picture snapped of me making this cake is what caused my turning point to take place! I'm glad I did it, just for that reason. The cake was scrumptious. If you like cake and all.

On Saturday, we loaded our things into Cuh-ROW-lla and followed my parents caravan-style to Koosharem. We were able to see cousins and my Aunt LeeAnn, who lost her husband to cancer just a few days before. Though the circumstances were not fun, it was such a treat to visit with people I hadn't seen in years. Family really is what it's all about.

After Koosharem, we met up with Charloe and her little family at an awesome sandwich shop in Richfield. It was hard to decide from their endless menu, but I got a Philly Cheesesteak. Everyone around the table seemed to enjoy their massive bread-and-meat combinations.

After a stop in Walmart to help my Mom find some new lampshades and a welcome mat for the porch, John and I were on our way to St. George. The original plan was to stay in Richfield with my sister yet again, but when she woke up fiercely sick that morning, we decided to avoid their house for the night. Instead, I used my Gold Priority Club Points to score us a beautiful free hotel room in St. George. After a three-hour drive, we finally arrived at the brand-new Holiday Inn Express. We watched Food Network (we don't have television, so this was a rare treat) for an hour before picking a place for dinner. Wingers won, and we enjoyed an AWESOME dinner. John had a huge burger, and I had a delicious BBQ chicken wrap. Then we wandered around TJ Maxx before crashing for an early night.

Sunday meant a 7-hour drive home to Arizona. We passed some beautiful scenery and enjoyed finishing a book on CD. No matter how wonderful the trip, and this one was pretty stinkin' wonderful, it always feels great to be home.

A Turning Point

When I was in high school, I played three sports all year long. Small schools afford such luxuries, and I really loved being able to participate in all three instead of having to choose. The athletics year began in August with volleyball season, which was only a primer to get me in better shape for basketball (my favorite), which ran from November through March. Softball began immediately after and continued through May. With several team sports camps each summer at various colleges, even the summer didn't allow me to fall away too much from being fit and trim.

The summer after I graduated, I visited my sister in New York. We had a great week of traveling the east coast and seeing some incredible sites (I'm talking to you, Williamsburg!). However, I assumed that vacation meant eating dessert after every meal and finding treats at every stop. Since I was no longer working out as strenuously as the past four years, the weight just magically appeared for no reason. By the end of the summer, I had gained my Freshman Fifteen before beginning my classes that fall!

Over the next eleven years, weight was a constant battle for me. Since my preferred major food group is the sugar family, it was inevitable that pounds started to pile on. Most of the time, it was gradual enough that I wouldn't sense it until I found a scale and weighed it in. Then I would panic and try to get back to my better days through Tae-Bo, dieting, and any other drastic measures I could find. I also found that unhappiness in my life simply invited more weight to join in on the fun. I couldn't keep ahead of it, and I certainly couldn't get back to that high school weight (which I thought I was so fat at the time, mind you).

While living in North Dakota and attending flight school, I tried the latest fad of The Atkins Diet and had much success. I lost twenty pounds in about two months and looked amazing. Compliments abounded, and I was loving the results. However, I felt like crap. Atkins consists of a low-carb diet, and even fruit and vegetables are forbidden! What type of healthy diet won't allow fruits and veggies?! I was restricted to only proteins, like meat, cheese, and eggs. I still have a hard time scrambling eggs for breakfast! Though the weight came off quickly, my body felt awful. I was putting bad fuel in and feeling the affects. And, of course, after I stopped eating the Atkins lifestyle, the weight all came running back to me and then some.

I've gained an additional twenty pounds just since being married. It feels awful to admit that, though I'm sure it's been obvious to all. Despite trying to eat healthy and working out rigorously (in occasional spurts), nothing I've done has lost more than a few pounds over the past 2.5 years. It's to the point now where I am constantly thinking about my appearance...and not positive thinking, either. I'm miserable. I've lost so much confidence and have seen that trickle into every aspect of my life. Truth be told, it's taking over. It beats me down all day, every day, until I hardly recognize who I am any more. Physically, emotionally, and mentally...this monster has infiltrated every part of who I am.

So I've decided to change my life through healthy eating and consistent physical activity. And I've also decided to keep track of my progress here on Captain Micah. I do best at maintaining goals when more people are aware. I've been a little gun-shy about displaying it for the whole world to see because it felt like I would only let more people down when it didn't work. But you know what? I can't think like that! I've got to do something, and if it means letting more people in on my efforts to become healthy again, so be it!

I refuse to take drugs or supplements to help in this endeavor...I need to do it the right way by changing my lifestyle completely. It's called working out and eating properly. This doesn't mean I can never eat a brownie again. When I've tried that no-sugar approach on multiple occasions, it's only been marginally successful for a short time (losing two pounds in one month). What I need to do now is just make every decision better. And to be consistent. If I eat fewer calories in a day than I burn, the weight will subsequently go away. That's Micah Math at work, so you may want to check that! I've got some fun tools to get me through...a gym membership, an app on my iPod Touch that helps me track every calorie that I take in or burn off throughout the day, and a loving husband who wants nothing more than for me to be happy. Perhaps the most important tool up my sleeve is the burning desire to find me again. Seeing a picture on my Mom's blog of our trip to Utah last week had that killer impact on me...I couldn't believe that was me. Where is Captain Micah?!

This process may take longer than I would prefer, but I've taken an awful eleven years to get to this point. I, thus, have to understand that in three months I won't be fifty pounds lighter. But you know what? That is a goal that could happen in six to eight months! I'm not going to obsess with a number on the scale as much as I am going to measure it through self-esteem and how I feel about myself day in and day out.

I'm excited. I need this. I need to lose the weight and feel better about myself. I know obsessing about how I look, even if just in my head, has impacted everything I do for the past several years. I need to get healthy so I can focus on things that really matter, and be happy doing it. I'm tired of trying to fill my life with things that are supposed to make me happy. I've been treating my symptoms instead of simply killing the root of my problems! I am tickled to begin this journey and love that results are already taking place. I don't know what is different about this time, but it is. And it has to be! I can't live like this any more! I know what I need to do, and the excuses need to leave my life so that I can get to work and make it happen.

So to the side of this blog, I will "weigh in" each week. I will update the pounds of weight lost and maybe occasionally make a post or two about my feelings on progress.

If you want to join me, feel free. Rumor has it there is strength in numbers. I've only just begun and am already feeling better about myself. What a difference to actually DO something about it!

New Captain Micah, here I come!

Lighting Up the Living Room

I thought I'd take a little break from Utah today to show what I got done yesterday. My airplane is finished with maintenance (it's been over two weeks!), and now the anticipation of a call for work is yet again prevalent in my life!

The call never came yesterday, so I kept busy with lots of projects.

Like this lamp! I happened upon a Goodwill this past Saturday that was offering a 50%-off-everything promotion. I practically ran back to the lamp section and was able to find one with a neat shape. Seeing the old, awful, peach-and-brass combination made it difficult to imagine the piece transformed by spray paint. I'm glad it turned out so well in the end! For $3.99, though, it was certainly worth the risk.

The heavy and modern look was just what I wanted for that end of the room. It brightens up the dresser and seems to ground everything on top. I also like how big it is, and that my favorite drum shade from Walmart made it look ever better in the end.

With people over last night for games and snacks (hi, Ted and Ann!), it was definitely obvious that the opposite side of the room needs some additional lighting. I'll start keeping a more-attentive eye out for something to illuminate that space (yippppeeeee! A new goal!). I love having glowing lamps as opposed to the severe overhead lighting housed in our ceiling fan.

What fun things did you get accomplished yesterday?

Handy Hubby Strikes Again!

While we were visiting in Utah, my computer geek Hubby was put to work installing all sorts of technical gadgets for my parents! He made their printer wireless and reloaded some Nintendo games to the family computer that had "mysteriously disappeared." Since the nerdy stuff only took a few hours, my parents had a back-up plan ready for him in case he zoomed through it all with ease (which he did...show-off).

Hubby flexed his handyman muscles by installing shelves in the garage to store camping gear, used tattoo guns, small refrigerators, archaeological dig finds, fishing poles, a tent the size of Rhode Island, and cat Man Caves (don't ask). This will free up some shelving room inside the storage room inside the garage (I can draw a picture if you're already lost like me!) for the ever-important food storage which is currently living in the basement of their home. Mom is so excited to get her family room back to normal, and Hubby was happy to oblige.

Besides, it meant he got to play with power tools, measuring tapes, hammers, levels, and shaky ladders all day instead of fraternizing with the still-spray-painting / constantly-gabbing women in the back yard.

With such gorgeous weather, Hubby was able to work through the day and finished by the time my step-dad, Merrill, came home from work! Isn't he handy?! Only my husband can make shelf-building look that good.

We narrowly dodged the bullet unfortunately missed out on helping them move the 14,938 five-gallon buckets from the basement to the shelves, but I've heard that Hubby's hard work is in use just a few weeks later.

The only problem for Hubby? Now I want some shelves in our garage, too! It might be his own stinkin' fault for making this project look so stinkin' easy. I can't be blamed for this particular whip cracking.

At least I'll wait until it doesn't feel like an oven in the garage before forcing him to complete kindly encouraging that he begin such a fun task. It was fun, Hubby, right?

Right? Hubby? Am I right?

(For those concerned, this is a hypothetical question since Hubby wouldn't be caught dead reading my blog. Says he, "Why should I read it when I live it?" If he only knew my secret-agent skill of embellishment!)