Christmas Crazies from Chris Walker on Vimeo.
Archive - November, 2009
30 Days Until Christmas
There are only 30 days left before Christmas….are you ready yet?
Our lights are up and the decorations are starting to make their way out of the boxes. Many presents have already been purchased and there are more shopping trips planned. We have been on a Polar Express train ride and we have several other holiday themed events to attend yet. I am not sure how we fit it all in every year, but we’ll figure it out some how.
How do you fit all of the holiday festivities into your busy holiday schedule?
Becoming A Student Again
I have been working in Information Technology for the last 8 years mostly in support roles. Recently my employer approached me about some changes and asked me to take on a new role where I will actually get to use my degree. I earned my Bachelors in Computer Science in 2001, but the bottom fell out of the job market right before I graduated. It took me 3 months to find my first job in a Network Admin and PC support role. When things went bad there after a couple of years I moved to a Helpdesk Support position. That led me to better Helpdesk job with my current employer. I have been here for 3 years now and have taken on 3 new roles including the latest. My new role is with our development team dedicated to our asset tracking database. I am frantically learning how to use Oracle PL/SQL and C#.NET. Most of you have no clue what that is, but its okay. Just know that they are programming languages. I haven’t programmed anything outside of HTML since 2001. I feel like a student again cramming for exams. It is hard for me being back in the learning role. I like to be helpful, productive, and effective at my job. Right now I have to bother people all day to get help. That is the nature of the role right now and some days are very frustrating. It is really good when I am able to master some of the little things, but it will probably be a long time before I feel much confidence in what I am doing right now.
It has been good for me to be reminded that I must keep learning things that will stretch me. As I prayed about the job changes looking for reassurance that this would be a good move, God reminded me that I must always keep learning. I must always be putting myself in the student role because there will always be things to learn. I feel that I have done a good job of being a student when it comes to learning about God, but I found myself wanting to stop learning when it comes to the rest of my life. It is my natural desire for comfort and control. God needs me to work in the world, so I must keep learning in the world if I want to effectively serve God’s kingdom. Do you ever find yourself struggling with being in a student role?
Looking For The Workout Maniac
When I was in school at the University of Cincinnati, I had access to an exceptional recreation center. During my senior year, I took a few fitness classes to fill up my schedule and get some exercise. I took a physical conditionaing class and a racquetball class. It was a sweet deal to earn college credit and get in shape at the same time. Before I graduated I had become quite the exercise addict. I am now on a mission to find that person again.
We purchased an elliptical trainer this past weekend and the last 2 nights I have began with short 10 minute workouts and stretching to get myself back into the routine. Today when I went into work, I felt that little burst of energy that I used to get when I was working out all of the time. I started to feel a little tight this evening, but I knew that I needed to workout again to fight off the soreness. Tonight was a little more brutal, but now the soreness is gone and I am feeling pretty good.
The exercise will not be as difficult for me as the diet part of losing weight. I am using the DailyPlate online to count my calories and keep track. I have been doing pretty good this week with keeping up with that. It is a little tougher to keep up with on the weekends, but I am confident that I will be able to get it in gear. The funny thing about counting calories is that just by counting them and becoming aware of what I am eating helps me to cut back on the higher calorie and fatty foods. I don’t have to give things up that I like completely, but I do have to watch how much of them I have. Wish me luck as we move into the holidays.
Lifestyle Changes
I went to the dentist a few weeks ago and they decided to check my blood pressure. They did not check Faith’s so we decided that he was fat man profiling. So word of warning about going to the dentist if you are afraid of blood pressure cuffs. They said that they are checking blood pressures now because a lot of people go to the dentist, but not to their doctor. It is good to catch high blood pressure earlier than later. My blood pressure was super high in the dentist’s office. He said it was high enough that some people would say go to the hospital immediately.
I made an appointment with my doctor that day and went in for a little checkup. My blood pressure was still high, but not stroking out. This is probably due to the fact that my dentist used a machine to check my blood pressure and it very likely was coming back with a bad reading. To make the long story short, after some blood tests and a couple more doctor visits, my blood pressure was still high. So I am now taking medication to help control it.
So I am only 30 years old with no family history of high blood pressure. But I am quite a bit over weight and out of shape. When I went to the doc for my initial checkup I weighed in at 286 lbs. My medication includes a diaretic that is taking lots of water off of my body. I have lost about 10 lbs. since I began the medication. I have been watching my diet and started working out today. I will be posting regular updates about my weight loss here on the blog.
I know several other bloggers who have documented their weight loss on their blogs. I hope that I will be able to produce significant results to share with you all. Check back for periodic updates.
Busy Season
I found a few free minutes to breathe so I thought I would give a short update to where I have been on this blog.
The Fall leading through Christmas is always a very busy time of year for me. This year is just as busy, but a few other things have come up that have been reeking havoc on my free time.
Small groups kick into high gear in the Fall each year. I am leading an adult small group and also a high school small group this year. It is also that time of year where the holidays begin to play into all of the weekends.
Late in October I moved into a new role at my job that will require me to learn a lot to get up to speed. I am currently trying to learn as much Sequel PL and C#.NET so that I can figure out how to program for our asset tracking database. In simple terms, I am learning new programming languages on the job.
Last week I learned that my blood pressure is high and am in process of making some lifestyle changes in order to correct that.
There has been an awful lot on my plate lately and unfortunately blogging had to take a little break. I am hoping to get back on track here and share with you all what I have been learning lately. I am also getting amped up about Christmas and I like to blog about that too. Started Christmas shopping officially today. There are only 40 days left so you better get on it.
More to come later.