Happy Mardi Gras 2012! A day to indulge before the fasting and atonement of Lent. This year I’m giving up two things: sweets and the English system of measurement. That’s right! I’m going metric. Even the English have dumped the English system of measurement.  It’s grams, meters, and litres for me.

The giving up sweets is a necessity. I’ve gained some major kilograms since being off my feet and hobbling around on crutches. I’m not entirely back to normal, but am able to ride on the stationary bike and use the elliptical.

Mardi Gras King Cake

One of my regular features in this blog is an item called “America Unchained” where I feature a small, independent business in the hopes that we get back to the idea of locally-owned, family businesses that focus on customer service and pride in product.

I’m proud to say that some co-workers and myself were the first customers at Tokyo Restaurant in the shopping center between Goodies and Jay-C Plus.  We had anxiously awaited its opening as it offered something other than burgers and pizza to the local menu.

We were not disappointed. Some of us were more adventurous than others and tried the sushi. Excellent and made right before our eyes. Other offerings were hibachi grill and tempura.  The price was very reasonable and the portion size was generous.

By the time we left the place began filling up with Japanese workers from Aisin. It would be interesting to get their take on the food. Support this local business.  

This is an expansion on an earlier post. Susie and I had attended a presentation the other night called “Call Me Jim” which was about bullying. (Excellent presentation, by the way!) Jim Johnson, the presenter, told a statistic that I found staggering.  By age thirteen, 70% of children who were once involved actively in organized sports have quit. This contrasts sharply with a generation earlier in which children stayed with sports through their school career.

I decided to research the issue further and post it so that my faithful readers could be informed.

So why do kids quit sports?  The number one reason that children cited for quitting: It’s no longer fun. Upon further questioning as to why it’s no longer fun, children ages 5 through 13 provided the following insights:  

1.) Coaching. Children cited that coaches’ children got more playing time regardless of their ability. Further, children stated that many coaches use humiliation and negative reinforcement rather than using positive reinforcement. I can think of my own son’s coaches and also what I have witnessed first hand at games. I also can think of an individual that Seymour Parks and Rec should be ashamed that they let this person coach or mentor any child.  His unsportsmanlike conduct is appalling. Whether it’s baseball or basketball, it is a disrespect to the sport.

On the other hand, my son and daughter have had the privilege of being coached by some great people. Deryk Baurle, Dan Hodge, and Randy McCoy immediately come to mind. My son had a fantastic time under these coaches and benefited as a human being by their example of respect and sportsmanship. And, ultimately, isn’t the children’s enjoyment the key reason they want to play.

2.) Parental Pressure:  children cited pressure from parents to perform as another reason that the sports stopped being fun. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve actually taken to the basketball court a couple times.  But, having worked with children for 20 years now, I have to remember a few things I learned from Jean Piaget and child development. Elementary school years are the time to work on the basics. By high school the focus can be about winning, but earlier than that the key should be on learning the game and focus on skill-building. Children have a limited attention span at age 6 and an hour and a half practice is overload.  Making friends and farting around are more important than winning during these formative years. When I ask my own son about last year’s baseball season, he immediately tells that story about Julian Deaton (who nearly always struck out) hitting an over-the-fence home run and the team going wild. I was there and I still get a little choked up. It’s a credit to the coaches that they had bonded the team and the team in turn supported each other.

3.) Time Commitment:  Having survived a couple years of travel team baseball, I’m with the kids on this one!!!  Over the summer I’ve barely had time to get the grass mowed for hauling Seth to practices, traveling the state to games. Again, going back to child development, children have a shotgun approach to interests. It is not the time of life to narrow down to one or two specialties. Children cited that they didn’t have time to pursue other interests and do “normal” things. Families often give up taking a vacation or attending events such as family reunions because of participation in sports. I, like many parents, feel that if my son doesn’t participate in these travel teams he will have lost his chance further down the road.

Or, will participation in the travel teams lead him to feel burnt out and overwhelmed? A dilemma!

Regardless, organized youth sports needs some re-thinking as it has strayed from its original goals: wholesome fun for kids of all backgrounds and incomes. An alternative to other illegal or unhealthy activities.  Learn life lessons and work as a team.  It’s about the kids!

On January 21, 2010 the United States Supreme Court ruled in favor of Citizens United (A Conservative SuperPac) in a 5 to 4 decision lead by Conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice Roberts. The Conservative justices broadened the narrow scope of the original case before the court in their opinion written by Justice Kennedy.  Some Background: in 2002 the McCain-Feingold Act was passed in a bipartisan effort by Congress to limit the influence of special interest and corporate money unduly influencing elections. McCain-Feingold Act was a brilliant piece of legislation that demonstrates that bipartisanship can happen in Washington.

In Citizens United vs. FEC (Federal Election Commission) the Supreme Court ruled that  ”If the First Amendment has any force, it prohibits Congress from fining or jailing citizens, or associations of citizens, for simply engaging in political speech.” He also noted that since there was no way to distinguish between media and other corporations, these restrictions would allow Congress to suppress political speech in newspapers, books, television and blogs.”  Prior to this ruling the First Amendment applied only to individuals. But in Citizens United the Supreme Court applied the Freedom of Speech to corporations and organizations. Heretofore, courts had ruled that Corporations and organizations “serve the public good’, but did not enjoy the same liberties as individuals.

In essense, the Citizens United ruling opened the door to “Corporate Personhood”.  We have seen the influence of this ruling in the 2012 Republican Primary Elections.  Candidate Newt Gingrich is funded almost entirely by SuperPACs made up of corporations and well-healed individuals who want to influence the outcome of the primary election. Already, a few individuals have unfairly tipped the scales in their favor by giving one candidate an unfair advantage by buying up air time and producing commercials aimed at front-runner Mitt Romney.

My problem with this is that it undermines the right of individuals to freely and fairly elect officials and the principal of one man:one vote. Numerous studies have demonstrated that the more money that is spent, the more likely a candidate is to win an election. It also opens the door to further influence-peddling and the inevitable Corporate Oligarchy.

Now that Corporations have the sames rights as individuals, can the right of corporations to run for elected office be far behind? Not as ludicrous as it sounds!

Currently, 62% of the American people favor a Constitutional Amendment that would outlaw unlimited campaign funding by individuals or corporations. Save the democratic process by going to   http://bit.ly/xHh61J and registering your support of the amendment.

2011 was not a good year for blogging. I’m hoping to get back into the game in 2012. The blog posts won’t be about swashbuckling athletic adventures as I just had extensive knee surgery.

A HTO (High Tibial Osteotomy) was performed by the renowned Dr. Jack Farr at OrthoIndy. A cut was made through the tibia bone just below the knee and a wedge made of synthetic bone was slid into the cut to correct the misalignment of the leg due to deterioration of the medial meniscus. The wedge is held in place by a plate and screws. Sound painful? Yes, it was! The advantage of this surgery is that I will be able to return eventually to a normal active lifestyle.

In the meantime, I have plenty of time for blogging.

I’d like to tell some witty anecdotes and explore some ideas. Despite my earlier protestations against politics, I find no alternative other than to vent on the state of the nation and the state.  I’m still available at me@danthomas.me if you have any suggestions for posts or just crazy random ideas.

Franklin County High School

Yesterday I traveled to Franklin County to do an annual Ironman presentation in my sister’s English classes.  The classes have read the novel Ironman by Chris Crutcher.  The novel revolves around a troubled teen who finds resolution and redemption in the world of triathlon.

As always the classes were very attentive and welcoming with a lot of great questions.  Thank you for allowing me to come and share my passion for triathlon.

Alright, it’s been one month and I’m still going strong.   I’ve lost 3 inches around the waist at the navel  and 2.5 inches around the chest.  My percentage of total body fat is down by 3.8 % in one month.  At one point I was down 12 pounds, but the increase in muscle mass has made it a net loss of 8 pounds at this point.

After a month I’ve found that the keys to this are the strength training and the lean proteins.  With lean proteins (unlimited quantities) you get the feeling of fullness without the resulting crash two hours later.  Examples of lean proteins: egg whites, chicken breasts, legumes, fish, lean pork cuts, hemp protein.

“The ducks never get into a row.  Shoot them and enjoy the soup.” –Dan Thomas 2011

Accountability posting.

“That which gets measured, gets managed.”     A mistake that I’ve made in the past with weight-loss is rolling by the seat of my pants. Ya’ need data in order to manage effectively. So, here’s this week’s data:

Waist at navel: 39 inches! (yes! I couldn’t believe that number. down 2 inches in one week!)

Chest  40.5 inches (down .5 inches)

Weight: 192 lbs. (down 6 lbs.)

I was elated at these numbers. Makes me feel like the effort was well worth it.  Tomorrow is my scheduled binge day.  You read that right. A binge day. It’s part of the rules.

Oh! By the way, here are the rules:

1.) No white foods. (Or foods that could be white) No breads, no pasta, no rice, no cereal, no sugar.  No starches.

2.) Eat the same few meals over and over. Simplicity is best. Lean proteins are best. Lots of vegetables.

3.) Don’t drink your calories. Avoid calorie-rich drinks. Diet drinks cause a rebound hunger. Drink lots of water.

4.) Don’t eat fruit.  Eat your fill on the off day.

5.) Take one day off per week. My favorite rule. Avoids the body going into a starvation mode and hoarding fat. Plus, increases long-term compliance in the diet.

That’s it.  Courtesy of The 4-Hour Body by Timothy Ferriss

Susie was horrified when I told her about blogging about my new healthy lifestyle and had posted all my stats. Not horrified that I did it, but just couldn’t imagine doing that herself.

“The biggest lies are the ones we tell ourselves.” Total honesty is essential to make this work.  Accountability is another key component.  When coming up with a strategy for my new healthy lifestyle, I searched through a lot of the literature on weight loss. Much of it is a rehash of the same old thing. Calorie theory is great if you’re talking about burning wood.  Calorie is a measure of food actually being burned as in incinerated.  None of it factors in the fact that individuals have widely varying biochemical make-up.  

The 4 Hour Body only spends one page on the diet.  It spends much more time on motivational tools to actually follow through on that one page. Ultimately, that is where “diets” go astray.

Also, there is the need to keep accurate stats.  Without a measure of success or failure we are adrift.  A daily assessment of status allows us to adjust and make changes before the whole program goes awry.

Day 1 was a success.  One adjustment is to stagger meals out so I’m not as hungry at night.

Before Picture: January 1, 2011, 198 lbs.

Unvarnished. I’ve noticed in social media most people portray themselves in the best possible light.  And some post pictures that were taken decades before and falsify stats.

I’m fat. Let’s not mince words. For this accountability post on my blog to be helpful it needs to be honest.  I could go into a myriad of excuses as to why I am currently fat, but that would not be helpful.

Today, January 1, 2011 I weigh in at 198 lbs. My chest circumference is 43 inches, the widest point of my gut is 41 inches.  I’m not planning on monitoring weight, however, as I find Percentage of Body Fat (PBF) a better yardstick of fitness.  Today my  PBF is 24.5%.   Statistically, not terrible. But, definitely out of my comfort range. My goal is to get back to the fitness I enjoyed in November 2005.

As a general strategy I’m using advice from Tim Ferriss’s Four Hour Body. Increasing muscle mass to burn fuel more effectively. Low glycemic carbs, high protein diet. Unconventional wisdom.  Follow my progress. 

November 5, 2005: 168 lbs. 11.5 percentage of body fat. GOAL