It’s going to sound a lot like I was cramming for the mid-term. There are only a few days left in the #DrinkAndDropChallenge – not a lot of time left to sway those final results one way or the other. However, I promise that today was just a really good day. And there were LOTS of opportunities for movement and activity.

Started out as a normal day. I had my standard, regular breakfast and then sat at my desk for my standard, regular work day. Lunch was … odd. I basically just emptied old containers of leftovers in the fridge. It wasn’t a bad meal, per se. It was just a weird combination of food. And then back to the grind at the desk. All the while, I had two potential plans for the evening that would each entail a good bit of activity. One – my kid had a baseball scrimmage, but the weather was on the iffy side. Two – my regular tennis crew was talking about getting together later, dependent on whether or not they could schedule a playoff match. So, this evening could be non-stop action, completely sedentary, or somewhere in the middle.

Weather held off, so the baseball game was a go. I’m the first base coach and then stand behind home plate in the other half of the inning. It’s unbelievable how many steps I can get in just walking the 60 feet between my two stations in a game. I put up about 5,000 steps in that hour plus (I think I pace a lot communicating with the kids on first.) Super fun and successful evening, spending time with my boy. On the way home, I get the text message that says tennis is a go. Home to change shoes and pack the cooler, and then back out.

We played for a little over 2 hours, and an additional 8,000 steps … bringing my total for the day to over 18,000. Had a blast, got in a ton of exercise … and I still hadn’t eaten dinner. Got home a little after 10 and had some chicken taco meat on lettuce with salsa as a ‘dressing.’ Really delicious and low-cal way to finish the day. It’s certainly far from ideal to eat that late at night, but it was still a great day overall.

Of course, I drank at tennis!

Random assortment of beers in the cooler tonight (2 of which have already been featured this month):

Tomorrow is the last day!! Weigh-in with official results comes the day after.

Mike Pennington by Mike Pennington

With apologies to Matchbox 20, today’s post is about a level of redemption after yesterday’s failures. I finished yesterday’s post saying, “Tomorrow is a new day.” My plan was to get “back to good” on the #DrinkAndDropChallenge. Mission, mostly, accomplished.

I’ll take today as a step in the right direction. It wasn’t a day of perfect choices, but at least it was a step in the right direction. We press onward, eyes on the prize of a smaller version of me on the horizon somewhere.

Today’s Food

  • Breakfast. You guessed it.
  • Lunch. I got a frozen meal. It was small. I mean, kid’s menu small. It was good, actually. Quite tasty, but it was barely enough food for a 4-year old. It’s the SmartMade Chicken Fried Cauliflower Rice Bowl. Bonus points for sitting at just 150 calories
  • Snack. About 11 minutes later, I was hungry again, so I opted for a banana and some trail mix.
  • About 2 hours later, I was hungry again. Ugh. A second banana got me through until later in the evening.
  • Dinner. This didn’t come until after tennis. And yeah … we got housed in tennis once again. There was plenty of beer. I wasn’t altogether happy. And this is why my mission for the day was mostly accomplished. I basically had Fritos and Cheez-Its for dinner. So, I wasn’t over-the-top on calories. But nutritional value …. nope. Not even close.

And Now, Beer

We had our final tennis match of the season (make-up from the washout yesterday.) So I got in a nice workout. Having almost no calories all day followed by a bunch of cardio … yeah. We deserve some beer tonight. Tonight was a simple “empty the fridge of the random leftover singles that have been collecting.” It’s like I made my own mix-a-six for the match. In tonight’s grab bag:

  • Boulder Brewing Pulp Fusion. Not gonna lie. I wasn’t looking forward to this one. But it was actually quite tasty. It’s a citrusy-IPA that gets it bright flavors from blood orange juice, rather than just from the hops themselves.
  • Sweetwater Black Lager. The magic of a black lager. Crazy dark in color, super light in flavor. One of my favorites from Sweetwater.
  • Red Hare SPF 50/50 Tangerine. Pretty sure Red Hare created a style for this one. They call it an India Pale Radler. So, they take an IPA (their Gangway) and mix it 50-50 with tangerine juice/flavor. (Hint – that’s what a radler is: half fruit, half beer.)
THIS. This is what I meant yesterday by recovering from a bad day. I’m not going to let yesterday’s failures become today’s repeat of the same. Each new day is a chance to chart a new course. Yeah, this is more like it!
Mike Pennington by Mike Pennington