P90X For Everyone – Diamonds of Gold

Hello friends and family! Susan and I have just completed our first round of P90X. The results are absolutely amazing. I honestly went from the worst shape of my life to the best in just 90 days. I was out of shape and now I am fit and healthy. Susan went from thin and healthy, to super fit. With a 7 month old baby, she is in the best shape of her life. We really gave it our all, never missed a workout, and stuck to the nutrition plan. We are both so happy with the results.

As happy as I am with my current level of fitness, I really want to do another round of P90X to take everything to another level. I’m inviting everyone to join me. I’m starting my second round of P90X on Saturday April 14^th. If you’re at all interested please let me know and I’ll be glad to help you get started. I can share all of my weekly menus with you, share my biggest challenges, tell you my favorite protein bars, and help encourage you throughout. You can start the same day I do, before me, after me or whenever. If you start with me, you’ll be done mid July with plenty of summer left to show off the goods.

Susan and I really enjoyed every step of this program. Yes P90X is very difficult, but the results cannot be denied. After 90 days, there are still several exercises I can’t do or can only do a few times. You can modify and work your way to meet your goals. Susan started by doing all of her push-ups on her knees, but she doesn’t need to do that anymore. I started doing most of my pull-ups while standing on a chair. On the last back workout I did 105 pull-ups/chin-ups in an hour workout without even thinking about using a chair.  P90X is not a gimmick or filled with empty promises. P90X is a great exercise program and a very healthy nutrition plan.   This is not a weight loss plan or a plan for body builders. It is a plan for fitness.  If you would like to start P90X please let me know. You can join my group that I unofficially call “Diamonds of Gold” which is a name you’ll only understand after day 3 of your workouts.

The Workouts: The part of P90X most people think about first are the workouts. These are pretty intense workouts at a pretty good pace. Each day you do something different. Three days a week you have resistance training, once a week you do yoga, once a week you do Kenpo (cardio kickboxing), one day a week you do plyometrics (the mother of all that is P90X), and on the seventh day you can rest or do X Stretch. I always did X Stretch to make sure I was going the extra mile. Yes you do a lot of push-ups, pull-ups, squats, and jumping.  If you’re thinking “I can’t do push-ups or pull-ups” then you can modify. Remember I went from 8 pull-ups to over 100 in an hour. Modify, Modify, Modify. Tony will show you easier and harder versions of just about every exercise. Watch the infomercial, a guy was 370 pounds when he started. Do you think he was knocking out 15 pull-ups per set?

The menu: Our P90x week was Saturday-Friday. Every Friday I would set up the menu for the following weeks. Every day for 13 weeks, nearly 100% of the food I ate was accounted for in my own preplanned nutrition plan. P90X supplies two nutrition plan options. It will provide a meal plan covering each and every meal each and every day. Each meal has a recipe and instructions and an accurate count of your daily nutrition requirements. If you do not have a job, love to cook for hours a day, and have a rather large food budget, by all means get to cooking Tony Horton style. The other option is a little bit more manageable in my opinion. The website will give you a list of the nutritional needs you should meet each and every day. For example, Phase One (the first part) Level 2 (depending on your current weight) eats 7 servings of protein and 4 servings of vegetables per day (plus other requirements). The website also provides a list of samples to meet these needs, for example 3oz of chicken counts as a serving of protein. I have created my own menu following these requirements as closely as I can. I’m sure you would want to make adjustments for you taste and convenience, but it’s not a bad start.

Commitment: More important than the workouts or the nutrition, is your commitment. P90X is not promising anything new. Exercise and diet. Well, extreme workouts and strict diet. The difference in success and lack of success all lies in your commitment. If you want to maximize your results you have to give it 100%. Susan and I did our workouts at 6am before Reagan would wake up, or during a nap, or even starting a workout at 9, 10, or 11 at night. I would pass on desserts, a cold beer, and even stayed on diet at my own Super Bowl party.  The mental commitment is by far the hardest part.

What you’ll need:

P90X

Pull-up bar – you can find at any Big 5 or other sporting goods store

Resistance Bands – We use a set of three from Target for $29.99. The only problem is you have switch the handles all the time.

Yoga mat – Any Target or sporting goods store

You may also want:

Push-up Stands

Weights

Yoga Block

Yoga Strap

The menus I created

P90X is awesome. We feel great, have tons of energy, and can’t wait to push ourselves through Round II.

Happy Birthday Mom

On one of the coolest birth dates ever, 4/4/44, Gladys and Arvie Laituri welcomed my mom into the world. I’m so thankful for every day I ever spent with my mother, but birthdays in our house were always extra special. I still feel guilty about the time I made my mom a birthday present and hid it under my bed. Because I was such a messy little kid I lost it. I was crawling under my bed when I heard the family singing “Happy Birthday” and I gave up hope. I never did find that drawing. I also remember a year when I asked if I could put the icing on Mom’s birthday cake (which she of course made herself). As I was finishing the final touches Josh came up and said something like “Nice job Terry, Happy Brithday Mom.” I had missed spelled it. Damn. It was the thought that counts right Mom? 

I know I know, I have a problem with only remembering the negatives, but here are a couple of good ones. When I was about 13 or so I planned a surprise party for Mom at her favorite restaurant, Tony Roma’s. It wasn’t anything extravagant, just the family and the Shearers. She probably knew what was going on, but it was a nice birthday for her anyway. A few years ago I planned a picnic for Mom in Forest Falls, another favorite spot for Mom. It was cold with snow and ice everywhere. The snow looked pretty hard packed so we decided to take a little hike. The “snow” was really a shell of frozen ice. When you applied pressure the ice would break sending your foot 6 inches closer to the ground. Now if you’re a young person with any leg strength or balance you just pull you foot out and take another step. If you’re Mom, you fall over. Then you get up, take another step and fall over again. I would feel bad making fun of my dearly departed mother, but she was laughing harder than any of us. This is where Steve offered one of his great one-liners “Instead of Forest Falls, we should call this place Grandma Falls.” We had a nice little picnic. I wanted to take care of everything for the picnic but Mom couldn’t handle that so I think I put her in charge of drinks and chips. When I arrived to pick her up she somehow managed to stay up half the night preparing her drink and chip assortment, had two ice chest full of every beverage a human could need, 5 bags of chips (for 5 people), deviled eggs, plus bags of plates, cups, tablecloths, and flatware, just in case I forgot. 

Last year Mom’s birthday arrived a few days after she moved into the hospital. We were finally getting an idea of the severity of the situation and dark clouds loomed overhead. Nevertheless, we busted in Mom’s hospital room with balloons, flowers, presents, red velvet cupcakes, and the classic Snodgrass Family “Happy Birthday” sign. Mom was sitting up, talking, laughing, and for a few brief moments we weren’t surrounded by the grayness of hospitals, cancer, pain, medication, and fear. We were home. We were the loving, loud, laughing, silly, caring, and special family Mom had worked her life to create. 

On Mom’s birthday I’m so appreciative for all the gifts she ever gave me, but none more than her love and the family she brought me into. I’m so thankful for my siblings and their families. I’m thankful Brenda, Steve, Susan, and Reagan were able to join me up in “Grandma Falls” on Sunday. For the feeling of Mom in my heart every day, I am thankful.  Happy Birthday Mom.

500 Walks!!!

If you go to your file cabinet, pull out the file marked Snodgrass Family Christmas Letters and find the 2010 issue, you will see that Bailey made the ambitious New Year’s Resolution of going on 500 walks in 2011. Well folks, as most of us said good-bye to our resolutions in February, Bailey kept walking. He walked and he walked. He walked as we all fought through the emotional saga of his Grandma Margaret’s three month long losing battle against cancer. He walked through his Dad’s constant back and forth to San Bernardino for those several months. Bailey learned to share his walking with the constantly pooping Micki back in April. He walked through his dad’s insanely busy 8 class teaching schedule. As his mom entered her third trimester during the warmest part of the year, Bailey kept walking. He walked even with a newborn baby at home. Down the home stretch he walked after learning of his own diagnoses of terminal cancer. He walked and he walked. Bailey walked all over Irvine, down to the beach, at the dog park, to the Top of the World Park, on hiking trails all over Orange County, and around Woodbridge North Lake again and again. Bailey walked with the help of his loving human Mom and Dad, grandparents, and of course Riley, Micki and Reagan.

We are happy to announce on December 30 2011, Bailey completed his 500^th walk of the year. He was very happy to reach this hard-fought goal. His 500^th walk was a one mile loop around our lake on a beautiful Southern California winter day, with the company of Terrence, Susan, Reagan, Randy, Ginny, Riley, and Micki, Each walk helped keep Bailey as fit as a fiddle and helped Micki transform from obese to a toned stallion of a dog. Bailey is a joy to be around in all activities throughout the day. He is a great dog to lie around and watch TV, he has a youthful exuberance at play time, and is the perfect walking buddy. All who ever get to walk Bailey are better off after the experience.  Sometimes I want to stop walking in the middle of the trail to pick him up and give him a hug, but hey, we’re dog people.

My sister likes to make the strong differentiation between dog people and people who own a dog. Brenda owns a dog. We are dog people. One way to tell if you’re a dog person, your dog makes New Year’s resolutions and you write a blog about it.

Here are some photos of Bailey’s 500^th walk of the year. Enjoy.

When Susan and I were still dating I told her to me, peace and happiness was having dinner with my family and taking a walk. We have been doing just that for years.











The original walking duo.

Many of my favorite walks included a leash in each hand and a baby strapped to my chest. I am a do-it-all kind of dad.









Micki has joined every walk since April. She'll walk right under your feet and stops for too many twosies, but she has been a great addition.

 We kept a chart on the refrigerator all year to write down the date of each walk. Bailey is filling out the very last square. Good for you Bailey!

Giant Baby Attacks Ginger Bread House

Reagan is so much fun. She is down for whatever. If you want to play with her Elefun Busy Ball Popper for hours, she is ready to play with you. Making these silly little videos is a blast. I have been thinking about this one since Susan, Reagan, and I built the house three weeks ago.  And how about Susan huh? I personally think her portrayal of Ginger the Gingerbread Woman stole the show. I found a woman who loves me for being me, married her, had a baby, and we’re having the best time of our lives! Enjoy the video!

 

Holiday Dinner with Friends

For years the holiday season would be on its way and I would tell myself, “this year I’m going to host a friends holiday dinner.” But the holidays would come and go filled with parties and shopping and grading finals and being lazy and I would miss it again. This year I finally had my chance. My close friends Aaron, Naomi, and their handsome baby boy were coming to town for Christmas. Aaron suggested we get together for a family night: husbands, wives, babies. I turned this suggestion into a 21 pound turkey and a ‘bring a side dish’ holiday dinner. In one house we had thirteen close friends and three babies 10 months old or younger. What a wonderful day. 

A few highlights were:

·         Sharing a dinner table with Susan, Reagan, Aaron, Naomi, Cameron, Brian, Sandra, Kaitlyn, Matt, Kat, Trevor, Melissa, Daren, Winona, and Brandon (Michelle you were missed).

·         8 month old Cameron Koles and 10 month old Kaitlyn Peel play, talk, and crawl all over each other.

·         3 month old Reagan almost acknowledged the other babies.

·         Kaitlyn giving Reagan a kiss. Causing Reagan to cry. Causing Kaitlyn to cry.

·         The biggest bird I had ever cooked came out wonderfully juicy.

·         All side dishes and desserts brought by friends were delicious including Brian’s stuffing that he bragged was his “Mother’s recipe” which I think was the brand of pre-made stuffing he bought.

·         The Farkas’ gravy so thick you had to cut it with a knife, but absolutely scrumptious.

·         Having so many friends together at one long table, talking, laughing, and saving lives . . .

Which brings me to the ULTIMATE HIGHLIGHT, Brian choking to death.

·         “Are you choking?” Trevor interrupted his own story to ask Brian, but Brian’s overall pleasant look on his face and speechlessness left Trevor confused. So Sandra, watching her husband’s lips turn blue jumped into action. “Are you choking? He’s choking!!!” She attempts to pound it out through his back, reaches around to start the Heimlich but the chair diminished all productivity. As half the table watched in wonder, confused that this large adult male couldn’t chew his food properly the other half still assumed he was joking around. Finally Daren jumps over two dinner guests and starts to pound on his back. Up pops the food and Brian (not kidding) catches the obstruction in mid air as it leaves his esophagus and mouth, and shouts “Got it!” As Brian regained consciousness Farkas topped off the event with a well timed “All right I get it, the gravy is thick!”

You know me, I love to host, I love my family, and I love my friends. I’m so thankful to enjoy a night like tonight. As I prepared my toast for the evening I decided to find a nice little quote about friendship to share. I will leave you with that quote, Happy Holidays.

"Each friend represents a world in us, a world possibly not born until they arrive, and it is only by this meeting that a new world is born."
- Anais Nin

Thankful for Thanksgiving

This year Susan and I are so thankful to celebrate Reagan’s first thanksgiving. We are so thankful for our happy and healthy little baby girl. She amazes us each and every day. As excited as we are to charge into Reagan’s first holiday season, we must also embrace the sorrow that comes with first holiday’s without my Mom.

I can’t even express in words how sad I am to face the holiday season without my mom.  Out of a lifetime of being loving, Mom really shined over the holidays. From October through December she had kids and grandkids’ birthdays, Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. All special days which revolve around Mom’s specialties, cooking and gifts.  Therefore I can’t help but feel sadness during this time, much like my siblings, their families, our extended families, close friends, those missing their pecan pie, and those who will not receive their little personalized gift in their Barton mailbox this year. Fortunately Mom left us so many reasons to be thankful.  

I am thankful for the memory of last thanksgiving. Mom hadn’t hosted a thankgiving in years. And even when she had it kind of dwindled into the smallest remainder of our family. But last year, Mom’s condo was filled wall to wall with love. At dinnertime, the table literally stretched wall to wall. Mom really put on something special last year. At one table she had her children, grandchildren, close friends and family. We actually had to move her living room furniture into the bedroom to fit the banquet table she bought just for that day. Mom worked way harder than she should have and would only accept our help if we gave her no other option. Mom, who hates crowds of people, was so happy to have crowded her condo with so much love. It was the perfect day. Even when Bailey came out of the master bedroom (a.k.a. pie storage) with a beard of pumpkin pie on his face, Mom was unphased.  She was probably just happy that poor Bailey was finally able to eat some people food. I’m so thankful that Mom decided to host last year. I’m so thankful so many of us were together. I’m so thankful for that wonderful Thanksgiving.

I’m just as thankful for the thanksgiving the year before. Mom came to my house and had thanksgiving dinner prepared for her by her baby and his wife mere months after their nuptials. When you’re the baby of the family, I think you’re always the baby. It doesn’t matter what you do, how old you get, or what you have accomplished. You’re the baby. Well two years ago Mom sat at our table, set with our wedding china, in our home, with a dinner prepared by her youngest and his bride and hopefully was able to take comfort in seeing her baby was grown up enough to host thanksgiving. Everything tasted wonderfully and was the perfect output of Susan and I working together.

I have 28 more thanksgiving stories (including a complete thanksgiving at a campsite) that I will spare you.  I will say that perhaps what I am most thankful for is the years of learning I had under Mom’s tutelage teaching me the ins and outs of making special days special. I promise to do my best Mom.

Susan, Reagan, Bailey, Micki, and I would like to wish you all a happy thanksgiving. We hope your day is filled with love, family, friends, and memories of special days you have all shared. Happy Thanksgiving from our family to yours. 

Stop and Smell the Roses

I met a man today who told me his story. I was walking the two blocks from Chapman to the first non-permit street parking, where I park M-F, and I stopped to ask a question about roses. On this route of mine there is this beautiful little yellow house with rose bushes everywhere and whatever colorful flower the season permits. Every blade of grass is a crisp green surrounded by a white picket fence. It looks like something out of  Thomas Kincade painting or some place that Brenda would want to live.

Anyway, I stopped to ask the elderly home owner a few questions about his roses. This is what I learned:

He doesn’t know about the roses. His wife takes care of them. He joined the marines after high school. On the way down to boot camp the train stopped in Orange and he had an hour to walk around before the train continued down the tracks to San Diego. He thought to himself: “I like this little town.” After his commitment to the Marine Corps was up, he headed home to Michigan to attend Wesley College (Wesley University at the time). When he graduated he was ready to start the adult chapter of his life, but where? How about that little town called Orange he had spent an hour 10 years before? He spent the rest of his life in Orange. He married a woman, had a daughter and they lived together for years raising their child. Eventually she “wanted to live a different life” (I did not follow up). So he was single, in his 50s, hosting an office Christmas party, when he saw a beautiful 30 something friend of his secretary. “I kissed her that night, by the file cabinets between the As and the Cs.” She pulled back, things got awkward.  “She must of thought, ‘who is this old guy shmooching me.”’ A week later his secretary asked why he hadn’t called her friend. They had been together for 35 years and together they raised her 3 sons. Now they have 11 grandchildren and 4 great grand children. The four great grand children call him “Great Papa.”

I learned much more, but I wont share every detail. I enjoyed my ten minutes with this 85 year old retired insurance salesmen. He stood in the middle of a lawn, rake in hand, leaves surrounding his feet, and a warm smile on his face. His name is Bob Junstalls.

Every now and again you get the opportunity to meet someone. You get the opportunity to learn about the life of a stranger. Just like most people, I miss most of these opportunities by playing with my smart phone, reading, or even just ignoring the opportunity so it doesn’t slow down my day.  I’m going to try to embrace these possibilities more often in the future. Before I walk by, go to my phone, or open my book, I’ll ask myself “What would Morrie do? How about Tad, John, or Ginny?” I bet they would stop, and ask about the roses.