SparkDad

I know that each of you remember that Christmas or school photo day where you looked like this! I know I do. This week was a momentous week at the Spark Dad household. Both Pork Chop and Skeeter lost a tooth this week and on the same day.

Skeeter had been wiggling his tooth all day in a frantic race to beat Pork Chop in losing his tooth.

So while Pork Chop and I were at football practice Mama pulled Skeeter’s tooth with the good old string around the tooth trick.

When Pork Chop and I returned we convinced him that pulling his tooth was a good idea and that he would get to enjoy some tooth fairy money. I pulled out the Flip Camera and began video taping thinking that it would be very cool. So we wrapped his tooth and Mama pulled the string. It tightened up and slipped up around the gum but did not pull the tooth! As you can guess by now the death shrill began and Pork Chop was in full tears! It was terrible. Off with the camera!

We began icing the tooth so that we could pull without as much pain but finally decided that Ora Gel was in order. I was off to the store. On the way back I got a call saying that the tooth was history. Uncle Dee bribed Pork Chop with five bucks if he left Mama pull the tooth.

So I would say that Pork Chop made out like a bandit!  – Spark Dad

                       Pork Chop                                                 Skeeter

With my current weight loss I am paying close attention to what I am eating. My goal is to get to 180 pounds by April 1. I am working really hard to get there and then of course maintain it.

Starting at 214 I was not huge, but I am definitely not at my optimal weight. Now as I was writing this post, I thought “What is my optimal weight?”, so I went out and found a health calculator   .

Health Calculator

You can read the rest of the weight loss challenge posts here.

Last week was a rough week for me in my weight loss challenge. First of all I only went to the gym 2 times last week. I did get a workout on the elliptical at the house, but I find that it is a lot less of a workout. I burn fewer calories during a 20-30 minute workout than I do on the treadmill.

Secondly, my diet was terrible. I succumbed to temptation and ate several cup cakes left over from the Dia de la Candaleria. Our neighbor Veronica made these cupcakes which where carrot cake with cream cheese topping. Oooh! They were good! So after devouring 4 of them I gave them away to another neighbor : ) In addition I had Chick-fil-a a couple of days. Granted I had grilled instead of fried it was still not homemade.

In addition Mama and I went out for an early Valentines night out. We ate wonderful food at Mark’s restaurant in Houston. We both had seafood, but it was all very rich. Add cocktails and a bread pudding for desert and you have a recipe for diet disaster!

So this morning when I was schedule to weight in I was very worried. I woke up and took care of all bodliy functions and then stepped on the scale…..

199 pounds! I broke 200 pounds!!!!!!!!!!!!!

180 here I  come!

- Spark Dad

Hopefully you have been to the Weight Loss Challenge page and read about my attempt to lose 30 pounds by April 1. Today was a good day for me in controlling my diet. I ate very healthy choices. Exercise did not come into the game today however because the kids were home today.

I wanted to share a simple health snack with you. Mama introduced me to it. You find this concoction in Mexico nearly all over the country. They put chili on all sorts of fruits. Mangos, oranges, you name it! It is a delicious example of Mexican tradition.  I am not sure what to call it. Maybe the chili orange? You read on and decide.

The ingredients are simple an Orange (or almost any sweet fruit) and Trechas Chili Powder.

Steps:

1. Slice the orange

2. Remove the seeds

3. Sprinkle the orange with the Trechas

4. Eat!

Simple! Tasty! Healthy!

- Spark Dad

Yesterday morning I had a septoplasty. The septum is the piece of cartilage that separates the nostrils. Mine was deviated and was restricting my breathing. So my doctor went in a peeled back the skin in my nose and cut a piece of my cartilage out and straightened it out. This is not what a Rhinoplasty which is done from the outside so did not have any bruising from the outside. > I feel generally good today without much pain. I am just biding my time right now. I

can’t eat anything solid for 5 days. So I am a soup and mashed potato sort of guy! The packing comes out of my nose on Tuesday! Let me tell you that I cannot wait for that. I will finally get to breath right. You can see a video on YouTube of a surgery like mine.

Mama is now tasked with running Skeeter and Pork Chop around to soccer, swimming parties and a graduation today. What fun! I will be glad when I am back up and running so that I can help out again and get to moving on my projects!