Not too good...

This weekend was not so good on the ol' healthy challenge it all started Friday morning with shorter than normal gym visit, then char grill for lunch. It wasn't overly terrible but it was not too good either.

Friday August 15th 2008

Steps
-----
9010

Exercise
-----
40 mins (1.1 miles running treadmill in 10 minutes, 30 minutes of strength training)

Meals
----
Breakfast = Smoothie
Morning Snack = Muscle Milk
Lunch = Hamburger Steak and Fries care of Chargrill
Dinner = Chicken Burrito, Chicken Quesadilla, rice, refried beans, chips salsa (I love me some Los Tres Magueyes)


Saturday August 16th 2008

Steps
-----
11329

Exercise
-----
70 minutes (5 miles running outside in 45 minutes, 25 minutes of Wii Fit)

Meals
-----
Breakfast = egg start omelette with turkey and garden salsa
Lunch = erm...Jackson and I went to the Movies so, a little popcorn, and some Nestle Bunch A Crunch
Dinner = Bacon Cheeseburger and lots of fries, Five Guys is closing the gap on Char Grill as my favorite burger joint.


Sunday August 17th 2008

Steps
----
3204

Exercise
----
10 minutes (Wii Fit with the boys)

Meals
-----
Breakfast = Sausage Egg & Cheese McGriddle (Granny Carol was in town and had breakfast waiting for me when I woke up. I got to sleep in until 8, I know crazy huh?)
Lunch = Big Mac, Double Cheeseburger, & Fries (It was a McDs kinda day with Granny Carol)
Dinner = Pot Roast, potatoes, carrots, & salad at the Schoenfelds.
Evening snack = 10 - 12 reduced fat Nilla Wafers


Monday August 18th 2008


Steps
----
10201

Exercise
----
80 minutes (4.1 miles running treadmill 35 minutes, 45 minutes strength training)

Meals
-----
Breakfast = Smoothie (anyone seeing a pattern with breakfast?)
Lunch = 1/2 of a Chicken burrito bowl from Chipotle no sour cream
Dinner = Wendy's Large Chili & Side Salad w/ no fat Thousand Island, two of the boys left over chicken nuggets :).
Evening snack = 10 - 12 reduced fat Nilla Wafers w/ cup of skim milk.

My Explaining Later

The information in my previous post was to help me track my daily progress in a 12 week challenge that just started this week at work. There are 4 activities or contests that I can choose to compete in.

210 to win

Exercise 210 minutes or more for the week (an average of 30 min a day). Everyone that does that for the entire 12 week period will be given a chance to win a gift card.

These Shoes are Made for Walking

In this challenge I track the number of steps I walk/run every week. The person with the most steps at the end of the challenge wins a gift card. Work provided pedometers, because counting in my head would be too tedious.

Diary Your Diet

This one is essentially the what I eat all day challenge. If I document my meals for the 12 weeks then I will be entered to win a ...drum roll please.... gift card.

The Biggest Loser

Like the show with the same name, this is to track who has lost the largest percentage of weight during the 12 weeks. I might have had a chance had this started back in February, but I have already been told by too many people to count that I need to stop losing weight. So I'm not going to participate in this one.

Oh only one gift card per person so i can't take home 3 golds.

I plan to post a little more on how i've gotten where I am fitness wise. Just don't have it in me today to do that post.

Wednesday Aug 13th 2008

Steps
--------
19163

Exercise
--------
110 mins (5.1 miles running treadmill in 50 minutes, 60 minutes of strength training)

Meals
--------
Breakfast = Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Morning Snack = Muscle Milk
Lunch = Five Guys Bacon Cheeseburger & Fries
Dinner = Grilled New York Strip Steak (Costco Purchase), Cabbage & Bean salad, Mashed potatoes

Thursday Aug 14th 2008

Steps
--------
16851

Exercise
--------
110 mins (4.1 miles running treadmill in 40 minutes, 60 minutes of strength training, 10 minutes basketball shoot around)

Meals
--------
Breakfast = Strawberry Banana Peach Smoothie
Morning Snack = Muscle Milk
Lunch = 4 slices of pizza care of Capital Creations, small side salad, 1 cupcake
Dinner = Pork Tenderloin, Rice, 5 Oreos

I'll Explain Later

I need to jot a few things down while I'm thinking about it and then head to the homestead (it's almost 5 ya know).

Monday Aug 11th 2008

Steps
--------
12350

Exercise
--------
65 mins (3.5 miles running treadmill in 32 minutes, 30 minutes of strength training)

Meals
--------
Breakfast = Strawberry Banana Smoothie
Lunch = 2 x Oatmeal bread slice, 1 peach (I know not nearly enough for lunch, just didn't have time after the gym and had to get to a meeting)
Afternoon Snack = Muscle Milk
Dinner = 1 bbq chicken breast, green peas, new potatoes
Late night snack = leftover kids frosty from the freezer :)

Tuesday August 12th

Steps
-------
15906

Exercise
-------
65 mins (3.6 miles running on treadmill 34 mins, 31 mins strength training)

Meals
-------
Breakfast = Kiwi, Pineapple, Banana, Blueberry, Peach (Lets just say a lot of fruit) Smoothie
Morning Snack = Muscle Milk
Lunch = Tuna on 2 x Oatmeal Bread
Afternoon Snack = Quaker Rice Snack
Dinner = Chicken Pasta Salad (Thanks Lindsay & Steve), Greenbean Casserole, Crossiant, 2 Cookies

Soooooo....How are you?

Yeah I know it's been forever. February (my last post) seems so far away but at the same time I don't even remember what happened to March, April, or even May. Nationwide's commercials are spot on..."Life comes at you fast."

Speaking of the Nationwide commercials, did you hear about who's going to be in their latest "Life Comes at You Fast" commercial. None other than infamous American Idol Sanjaya. Wow he just won't go away.

I digress. The real reason I decided to post again is more selfish than anything really. We recently got a very nice Nikon dSLR camera and my uber talented photography guru sister inlaw Aly (www.alydart.com) spent some time over the Memorial day weekend showing me some of the ropes of using the camera. Although my subjects were mostly moving little boys I managed to take a few pictures that I felt good enough about to edit. So I really wanted to just post the edited pictures and get Aly's feedback.

Don't go easy on me Aly. I need the truth and nothing but the truth or I will not get better. I'm a big boy. I can take the harsh realities of my photographic noobieness.

Ok so here they are.

This one was taken before my tutoring but I really think something of the subjects and felt like editing it.


The next two were from Memorial Day at Grandma and Pas house.





This one I was just playing with the color saturation. I know it's Grayish. I was trying to just pull out a few colors


I actually didn't take this one. Leah did. This is Payson, our friends little boy. He had such a big smile I felt like I needed to edit it and send it to Quinton and Michelle.


So those are it for now. Aly if you don't feel comfortable criticizing me in a comment then let me have it via email or you can always call me. Whichever is easiest for you.

As for Blogging I'll be back sooner rather than later. I promise we will not reach the 3+ month mark again.

My 3 Sons

It's been a few days since I've posted so I thought I'd post a quick picture of the boys. This is a great picture. Jackson (4yrs) and Brady (~3yrs) seem happy to be taking a picture. Carter (8mon) on the other hand looks just a bit concerned to me. They are all good boys though.

Tabernacle On Trial

If you haven't yet seen this it's worth a read. I had inclinations that there was discrimination against Romney b/c of his Mormon faith. This just provides a little support. It's sad that people feel this way. My guess is that almost everyone knows at least one active member of our church and if those with reservations can still feel that way after knowing a member then we still have a lot of work to do.

The article is just too long and taking up too much space on my blog. Here's a link to someone else's blog with the article and some other commentary.

Tabernacle on Trial, article is from the Wall Street Journal.

The below is a graph outlining the polling results reported from the article.

Full CPAC Speech

Here is the full speech where Romney announced he is suspending his campaign. I'm biased but I thought it was a great speech.

And The Hits Just Keep on Coming

Romney has just announced at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Washington that he is going to suspend his campaign.

Here are a few parts of his speech.

Mitt said that if he continued it would "forestall the launch of a national campaign and be making it easier for Sen. Clinton or Obama to win."

"In this time of war, I simply cannot let my campaign be a part of aiding a surrender to terror. This is not an easy decision. I hate to lose,"

"If this were only about me, I'd go on. But it's never been only about me. I entered this race because I love America, and because I love America, in this time of war I feel I have to now stand aside for our party and for our country."

I understand his reasoning but I certainly don't like the way this race has turned out. Now it truly is down to the lesser of two evils in my opinion. I guess i'll focus on the issues and not the characters spouting on about the issues.

I'm not in a good mood right now. Frankly this sucks.

Tonight's UNC Duke Game

My wife and I both forgot our anniversary this year and had it not been for a post on the MyFamily.com site we probably would still be totally oblivious to it. I'm sure some would get mad or hold a grudge but we both just died laughing. I guess that's what three little boys will do to you.

Now you may be wondering what the heck that has to do with the UNC Duke game tonight. Well they are not totally related but I did completely forget the game was tonight. Granted it's not an wedding anniversary or our kids birthday but when you are UNC fan it does rank pretty high. Luckily our friends (Steve and Lindsay) came over for a little while tonight to visit and asked if I was going to watch the game. THANKS GUYS!!!

Anyway, I guess I could have predicted the outcome seeing as though it's been a week of let downs. With Romney pretty much getting dogged by the Straight Talk Express and Huck on Super Tuesday, Carter being pretty darn sick (ear infection, eye infection, runny nose, cough, no sleep) and work being full of fun process mapping meetings. Well imagine my shock when I turned on the tube to find out that Lawson our starting point guard and potential All American had injured his ankle against Florida State and would not play. That left 3rd string PG Quinton "Human Turnover" Thomas to run the show. He didn't disappoint. The Heels looked out of sync all game with Tyler being the only one that came to play. It's clear that Lawson is a difference maker and without him the Heels don't have a chance at a title run. Hopefully he'll be ready to go against Clemson on Sunday. Carolina has never lost to Clemson in Chapel Hill, but they are tougher this year than normal and it should be a good game.

Happy anniversary Leah, 10 months and 9 days early this year. Maybe I should find one of those calendar ticker things that some people have on their blogs to track important dates.

Glenn Beck's Tribute to President Hinkley

My wife showed me this yesterday morning and I thought it was a terrific tribute to a wonderful man. As you may or may not know President Hinkley passed away Sunday night at the age of 97. Like Beck I did not find myself upset but rather at peace with his passing. President Hinkley truly was a great man and prophet to the member of our faith and to the world.

I had no clue up until this tribute that Glenn Beck was also Mormon. Anyway, here's the tribute enjoy.

Big Day For Mitt

Carter

I wanted to make a quick post and let everyone see the latest picture of our youngest boy. Carter is about to be 8 Months old on Feb 5th. He's the best little boy. You will usually find him smiling and happy, which is exactly what we need since his two big brothers (pictures to follow later) are constantly keeping mommy and daddy busy. Anyway here's a picture of our blue eyed boy from last week at his Grandma and Pa's house. Out of all our boys he looks the most like his mommy, with his blue eyes and blond hair. I've even started noticing that he looks to be following in her foots steps by favoring his left hand for most everything. I won't complain at all, i mean seriously, have you checked the market for left handed free agent starting pitchers these days.

Why Tarheelsuperman?

I've been using tarheelsuperman for quite a while now as an online nickname so to speak. Usually when I give out my tarheelsuperman email address to someone they don't say anything but there is this akward pause like where the heck did that come from. Occasionally someone will actually ask me the origin. So to clarify for anyone who even cares...tarheelsuperman was thought up out of a need to create a user nick for an online game that a bunch of guys from church started playing after everyone's kids went to bed one night a week. That's when it started probably 5 years ago. What made me think to use it is actually a combo of things.

1. My last name is Steelman....Superman was the man of Steel.
2. I was born and raised and lived all my life in the great state of North Carolina, the Tarheel State.
3. My favorite college team growing up and to this day is the North Carolin Tarheels.

So there you go you put those things together swizzle your wordage and bam, Tarheelsuperman.

There's no hidden superhero complex behind the nickname. I'm quite the opposite of extraordinary when it comes to life. By day I'm a mild mannered employee of a financial company, father of 3 boys, and husband to the most loving, sweetest, caring, and wonderful woman heavenly father has put on this earth. By night I spend my time being a father, a husband and a provider. But after the kids go to sleep... everything changes, faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locamotive, look up in the sky, it's a bird, it's a plane, it's...who am i kidding. After kids go to bed my wife and I are so exhausted we end up watching tv, playing video games and surfing cyberspace. Thats as exciting as it gets folks.

Website Signature Designs

I began playing around in Photoshop early last year and it quickly became something I loved. It allows me to be creative which actually serves as a stress reliever. The graphic designs below are signatures designed for forum user posts. Alot of internet forums allow users to post an image at the bottom of every message that a user posts. Those images are usually representative of some aspect of the forum user. Whether it's their current obsession, favorite team, or family photos. Some of the below signatures were designed for other forum users. Some were designed as part of a forum signature contest and some were designed just because I wanted to do something creative. Regardless of why they were created these are some of my favorites.

My Just Because Creations

Guitar Hero III


Grady Sizemore


Ladianian Tomlinson


Silver Surfer


Spiderman


Jazz


Bumblebee




My Signature Contest Creations

Carter Michael


Nintendo DS with Mario Kart


Dr. Pepper


Phoenix (X-Men)


Ratatouille


300


Battalion Wars


Optimus Prime




My Creations for Other People

FDNY


Elite Beat Agents


Mario


BooBoo