easy lesson learned

well, we went out and a little too much fun this weekend and saw the results right away.  it was a good and easy lesson to learn as most of it was water retention and we dropped back down by tuesday morning.  it's crazy to see how quickly that yo yo can happen when you fall off the good food/no booze wagon.  it was an important fact to re-acquaint myself with and i'm glad that's over and done with.  moving on!

i'm actually really impressed by some of the recipes we've been trying out lately from the Primal diet.  i really thought i'd be hungrier and that they would be more bland and blah than they are!  so far this eating habit changing thing has worked out smoothly and i really appreciate that katie helped steer us in the right direction!  we'll be hitting up annie and katie for more recipes soon :)

we got some seriously good progress made on wedding stuffs this past week and i'm getting more and more excited to check out the first venues in Tahoe.  i think next weekend will really help us define if we're going to attempt to put on this shin-dig here or there!  we found some very picturesque places and i really hope they live up to the pictures and expectation. of course, there will also be snowboarding while there :)

more soon!
~danban

too much stress

my life is filled with too much of it.  the job creates the most of it for sure.  i'm in the middle of a client engagement from hell and we're so close to done but not quite done and it's torture.  and because of said client, we may not get to go on a mini vaca with friends which seriously bums me out!  it's just ridiculous that a job can dictate so much of your life and have such a negative impact on a day.  i have no doubt that this is part of my weight retention not to mention the fact that it feeds into alcohol to relax which is empty calories, etc. etc. etc.....

on the brighter side, the diet is going well so far.  of course a few slip ups but we both had weight losses for the week!  ryan lost almost 6lbs and me a mere 2 but a loss is a loss so good news overall!  we're liking the recipes we've put together so far and none are super complicated or bland :)

wedding planning and brew schedule have got to take a front seat this weekend!  we have some very definite goals for both that can be accomplished!  we're planning on brewing at some point this weekend so will post what it is next week :)

hope you have a wonderful weekend out there!
~danban

so far......eh!

well, so far we've stuck to the diet except for one excursion out each that was bordering on whether or not it was within the new diet.  but here's the deal.......we don't have the book yet on what the actual diet is so we're making it up kind of.  we've pretty much figured out what the tenants are but don't have the whole theory book yet to fully grasp what we're getting into.  and we're easing in......part primal diet part south beach diet.  and we've been doing hour long walks with the pooches to get in a little more exercise so in all, good stuff!

we're already researching new recipes for veggies since they'll comprise a good percentage of the upcoming diet so send along any and all suggestions you have!

so far we're headed in the right direction (both have had some weight loss this week) but i'm curious to read the whole story of the primal diet to really get kick started on this journey!  so far Ryan's close to his 5lb goal for the week but i'm not so lucky.  here's hoping the weigh in on monday is more forgiving :)

best,
~danban

re-post but a good one

i came across this and thought it was a great thing to share and remember during this time of wedding planning and related parties.  it is true that you have to have some exclusivity but do have to remember that if it's not done in a mean-spirited way, then it's not cruel as you cannot invite everyone you know to everything wedding related.  i hope it helps anyone out there in a similar situation......

"I had an engagement party on Sunday. It went really well and everyone seemed to have a lot of fun. Now pictures and posts are starting to trickle onto Facebook and Google+ — and I'm watching with a combination of trepidation and interest.

The use of social media in modern-day event planning and celebrating is a relatively unexplored territory, short of making events and inviting people to them, marking them private or public, and waiting for the RSVPs to come in. Most of my friends keep their more formal, more intimate, or more serious gatherings off Facebook entirely; it seems to be the province of housewarmings, open birthday parties, drunken meet-ups, and house parties. Wedding invitations, funerals, bar and bat mitzvot, anniversary parties — all of these seem to be too formal for an event on Facebook, at least in my social group.

However, the post-party roundup seems to go un-addressed in a lot of modern etiquette discussions. Putting an album of pictures up on Facebook where friends who weren't invited to the party can see them? Deciding whether to post a status thanking your biggest helpers and supporters so they can get some community love? Handling how to address the people who were invited but didn't RSVP, or the people who weren't invited who feel like they should have been? None of these things are handled in advice columns.

I didn't think about how our guests would treat our party online. Pictures have been posted, people have been tagged, comments have been left, and there seems to be a small, but healthy, amount of chatter about the weekend's events (specifically around all the pretty henna which arose from it!). I certainly don't mind any of the sharing that's going on, but it's funny, in hindsight, to have thought that I could keep this party on the down-low to keep from ruffling any feathers.

We have to own that we're more complicated than friend requests and status updates and allow ourselves not to be ashamed of being exclusive, as long as our exclusivity isn't mean-spirited.

It's also funny to examine my own feelings as I watch the posts go live. I keep waiting to feel some kind of guilt or embarrassment about folks who weren't invited to the party seeing the pictures and such, but so far it hasn't happened. I look at the pictures from the party and realize that with a couple of exceptions, we've known every person in those pictures for more than two years — many of them have been friends with one or both of us longer than we've been together as a couple. Every single one of them will be invited to our wedding. We didn't invite all the people we're going to invite to our wedding, but doubtless we could double or triple the prospective wedding guest list and still have people left out who could be hurt by their exclusion.

We're blessed with a huge and diverse community of interesting, generous, kind people. The flip side of that blessing is that it can be hard to impose limitations on who comes to what event. Drawing the lines between acquaintances, friends, close friends, and family feels so judgmental, but is a requirement, not just logistically, but emotionally.

This is one of those things that social media (especially Facebook) handles so poorly — the idea that friends are friends are friends, with no variation, no hierarchy. It encourages a sense of discriminating or of being discriminated against, rather than an acceptance of what should be a completely normal fact — that we segregate our social groups into layers of intimacy every time we call someone up to chat, we accept an invitation to lunch or a party, we look at the instant message floating on our screen and decide to ignore it. Social media just makes that segregation more public.

In the age of online communication and digital relationships, we have to fight against social media's drive to simplify our relationships into something computers can understand. We have to own that we're more complicated than friend requests and status updates and allow ourselves not to be ashamed of being exclusive, as long as our exclusivity isn't mean-spirited. We have to remember that making a judgment call is not the same thing as being judgmental.

So, how am I dealing with the posts by other people on Facebook et al? I'm not, really. I'm not explaining, statusing, worrying, excusing, or wringing my hands. I'm certainly not apologizing. If anyone wants to bring it up with me, they're welcome to, and I'm happy to explain our choices. But I'm not going to lie to anyone about why we made those choices, least of all myself."

best,

~danban

new year......new goals

SO......just like everyone, i've gotten a bug up  my ass to really start moving and changing things around and this year will have a LOT of that packed into it!  we have set a wedding date and now we gots to get movin and shakin to get ready for 2013 and to start married life (yes, VERY weird to say that!)!!!

that being said, one goal i have is to hold myself accountable to those around me and myself even more than i do now.  one thing i pledge is to finally get my arse in gear to really get myself and my fiance healthy.  more and more his health becomes my concern as i expect him to be around a lot longer than his father was able. in order to accomplish that, we gots to get moving!  so, what you can expect from me is at least a weekly blog entry on what we accomplished that we to achieve that goal.  each of us needs to lose approx 50 lbs and eat way healthier!

secondly, what you can expect is that we are putting together a schedule of brewing as we need to get out of corporate america and build our own future.  once that schedule is in place we'll be setting up regular tastings so that our friends and family can help us achieve our goals.  you will be notified when we will require your "services"  :)

third, will be more wedding schtuffs and would LOVE input and inspiration from those around me!  we want to keep it simple, we want to keep it small, and we would love to keep it truly representing who we are!  more blog updates about this and some ideas soon......won't post all as some of it should be kept secret for the day of  :)

that's all i got for now but more to come soon......................

much love and a prosperous new year to you!
~danban