Today, Yvette and I climbed Enchanted Rock and I couldn’t be more proud of my wife for her accomplishment.
The trip grew out of a plan of Yvette’s to keep me from going back to work for two days when we returned from El Paso on Wednesday. That day, we had stopped at the visitor information center in Ozona for a break and lunch. There we picked up some travel brochures including one on Enchanted Rock. Yvette knew I wanted to go since I had previously downloaded a copy of the park map. So when we hit the road again for the last leg home, she threw out the idea of going to the park on Thursday or Friday. Thursday ended up being a sleep late and catch up on grocery shopping, so Friday became the day.
This morning started out with me making a good breakfast to get us started before we hit the road for the 134 mile drive to the park.
We couldn’t have asked for more perfect weather for climbing. It had been raining and overcast so it was relatively cool for a summer day.
After checking in at the park, Yvette and I started our climb up the summit trail. It wasn’t long before she realized and started to vocalize how difficult the climb was for her. I tried not to laugh at some of the comments that came out of her mouth.
When we were about two thirds of the way up, it became pretty steep and we had to zig-zag up the slope. We would take about 20 or 30 steps and stop so Yvette could rest. I could tell that her will was starting to break down when she hinted that I should go ahead and that she would catch up. Instead, I stuck with her and we continued slowly up the rock face. It didn’t help that I never broke a sweat or showed any signs of exertion during the climb.
We finally reached the top and it was then that I could tell how proud Yvette was of herself.
Yvette’s struggles reminded me of the time that I tried and failed to climb Grouse Mountain in Vancouver during a business trip in 1997. I failed because I was severely overweight and out of shape at the time. I have vowed that when Yvette and I take our Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver, that I will attempt and succeed at climbing Grouse Mountain.
Yvette has her own struggles, but today, she really showed how she overcame to reach the top.
Yvette has been following the Olympics and occasionally updating me on results and medal counts, when I will listen. This got me to thinking about whether I would medal in certain areas of my life. After giving it some thought, here are my results.
Myself – Bronze Medal: While I have lost over 30 pounds in the last year and have kept the weight off for the last six months, there are areas where I am falling behind. For example, I keep telling myself that I need to take my GRE and register for Graduate school; however, here it is almost 5 years after getting my Bachelors degree and I am still not back into school.
Marriage – Silver Medal: I am doing a great job. Yvette and I are a team. She loads the dishwasher and I unload. But in other areas, I could be a better husband. As Yvette will say, our marriage is great, but not perfect. That leaves us something to strive towards.
Spiritual – Did Not Medal: This is the area of my life where I am really falling behind. As much as I want God to be a part of my life, he is not first in my decisions. That’s not to say I am not a good person. I have tried to read the bible in a year, but as soon as I hit a dry section, I stop. I have been away from the church for over a year. In another post, I hope to write about my ideal church.
Work – Bronze Medal: While I am doing my best as an individual, I need to step up my game when it comes to motivating my employees and getting them to perform at their very best.
There are no gold medals this time around. How would you medal if you evaluated yourself?
I have been struggling to lose weight almost all of my adult life. A part of that struggle comes from my upbringing. While our family struggled at times, there always seemed to be enough food and being “husky” was not an issue.
Since March, I have been blogging about my latest effort to shed pounds to get to my goal weight of 160, which I have reached. Mind you, my goal weight isn’t even my “healthy” weight according to Nutrition.gov. At a height of 5′ 6″ and weight of 160 lbs, my calculated body mass index (BMI) is 25.8, which is considered overweight.
Here is the interesting issue, some thoughtful people have approached my wife with concerns that I was secretly ill, which was causing my weight loss. While I appreciate their concerns, it is interesting that my weight loss, which is still heavy, brought it on. Some of these people knew me when I was at 230 lbs, my heaviest. Others new me when my heaviest this year was 194 lbs. So, is the concern really with my current weight, or is it a comparison between what I used to look like and what I look like today?
I plan to stay right around my current weight, which feels really good. I am happy with my body and Yvette is happy with me, although she wants me to bulk up my chest and arms.
