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Friday, August 31, 2012

What's new Fall 2012??

Well,

College is behind me now, mostly. I do have about a year's worth of credits left on the Post 9/11 GI Bill left that I may be able to use towards my Master's degree should I choose to pursue that later. The baby will be 9 months old tomorrow on September 1st. My wife is still as always awesome and she has been helping me to stay healthy and in shape. She has even surpassed me and has lost more weight than I have and she had a baby last December. As for me, she thinks I might be a little crazy. I've been doing things a normal person, or at the least the old me would never have attempted. After I left the Army 5 years ago I kind of let myself go and when I started my Corporate desk job the pounds started piling on. Somehow in all this I was still able to meet my awesome hot wife and she even agreed to marry me after dating for about a year and a half. I saw my wedding photos and started to realize how unhealthy and out of shape I was. Meanwhile, around the same time I started working for my company we were blessed to get a corporate gym on our property. I joined but never really committed to any sort of routine. The gym would have fitness challenges every so often and I would consider participating but never really did it. Finally after my wife and I were married for a little while and we started trying to conceive our child I decided if I was going to be a father I wanted to be a healthy parent that would be around for a while. I told myself that if my BMI was high enough and I qualified to participate that I would finally make myself do it. I went to our onsite clinic and was measured and weighed and discovered how unhealthy I was. Thankfully with the help of some good people including my wife who helped me plan healthier meals, my nurse practitioner, and my coach at the gym, I was able to not only lose weight but I won that challenge as well as the confidence to continue my newly formed healthy habits. I started taking CrossFit classes at our gym, running more 5K races, started attending a Bi-Annual running clinic local to my area known as Death at Dawn, and during this time I completed my bachelors' degree and we gave birth to our daughter. All in all alot has happened to get me where I am now. A group of us CrossFitters at the our gym decided to sign up for a running series that tours our country. We signed up for the Tennessee event coming up outside of Nashville this year. As we were getting ready for this one, I found out that a different local mud race was coming up sooner here in town and signed up for that one as well to train for the Nashville Warrior Dash. Finally my boss ran across some videos on YouTube of a team building event led and conducted by Army Special Forces and other Military Special Operations professionals known as the GORUCK challenge. This one wasn't scheduled to come through our town but we found out that with enough participants and the right price, they would come to you. So we found 30 like minds that were likewise not in the right mind, so we will be going through this 9-12 hour 15-30 mile challenge on November 2nd. Tomorrow is the first of these three events, the Mud Run, and then I go through Warrior Dash in two weeks. Its hard to believe that I am in the shape to do this or that I would even be brave enough to try. It's been a great year and it's going to be a great Fall.

Thursday, March 22, 2012

Almost Done

And we are in the Home Stretch.....

I picked up my cap and gown for graduation today. I have at least three research assignments left as well as some other miscellaneous assignments and then in May I will walk and become a bonefied College Graduate with a Bachelors Degree in Interdisciplinary studies. I gave a piece of my life to the United States Army for 6 years and the best thing I got out of it was the Post 9/11 GI Bill to help me finish my degree. My wife has been very supportive and understanding these last couple of years and I am thankful for her and for our new baby daughter Brogan. I can't wait for what our future holds for us.