chris lee

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House Sold!

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Sometimes you’ve just got to cut your losses.

It’s Gone

We’ve had a number of stressors this year.

One of them was dealing with our previous house.

We moved into a new house just 7 houses away. It had a number of things going for it that made my wife really want to buy it (big backyard, open kitchen/living room area), etc.

It was also cheaper & we were able to lower our mortgage payment.

When we bought it, we attempted to sell our previous house but didn’t have any takers.

Tried to Sell, But Rented

We listed it for rent and found a couple that seemed like a good fit.

From the start we had all kinds of problems.

We had lived in the house for 7 years and not had any of them. We had significant problems with the pipes and sunk a bunch of money there.

They were there for a year & then gave us very little notice and moved out right at the end of the year (a rough time to rent).

When that happened, we put the house back on the market and also looked to find renters.

Tried Again

At that point, we didn’t have much luck. It was priced too high as we were a bit upside down and were trying to get out without a significant loss.

We finally found some folks to rent it but had to come up with a refrigerator, washer, dryer and we had to agree to replace a bunch of flooring.

So we did that & it hurt.

They moved in & seemed quite good.

Again though, we had more issues with the house & sunk more money into it.

And then the two roommates had issues with each other and their friends which resulted in them deciding to move out.

And Again

We listed the house again & started to go through the process.

Had to drop the price again.

Were hoping to get some money out of it.

Had one deal on deck for a lease to own but there was uncertainty there.

Had a person we knew before who made a cash offer on the house. It was very much lower. We countered at a point which would just cover what we owed & leave us with a little bit. They accepted.

And we’re out!

Finally!

With the prices in the neighborhood, at some point, we hoped we might make a chunk of money but that didn’t happen.

It is good to just get shut of it though.

Our mortgage was interest only for a certain number of years and that was coming to a close. We weren’t able to get rent at a level to cover all of that so that was an imminent problem.

I’m also worried that housing prices might drop with the debt ceiling issue.

So no big money payday but we’ve dropped one of our major stresses…

 

No More Moderation?

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Wondering if I can pull this off.

I’ve always been envious of some of the less moderated folks out there who speak their minds regularly on social.

I’ve seen Brian Gardner make some changes to his blog and change to a more personal, transparent voice.

I always play it safe. We’ll see if I can pull it off.

 

 

Phase 2

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Time to make another push.

Still down 30 lbs from a high of 230 but I’ve been stuck around 200 for too long.

I started trying to work myself into shape sometime in early 2011. I focused on my diet and went on a protein sparing modified fast.

In addition to that, I started running and training for a triathlon. I worked out most every lunch hour. Did a variety of running, weight lifting (basic compound movements), swimming and biking. I was able to finish my Olympic triathlon last September and was happy with it.

The past year since the triathlon.

Since then, my diet has been pretty good and I’ve kept up with workouts. I’ve done a lot of running and have improved at a very gradual rate. I’m still slow & still have a long way to go.

I’ve been stuck around 200 lbs for a while though. I haven’t been super strict with my diet but I was never too militant about it. That being said, I’m wishing to make some more significant progress.

Recent Synchronicities.

Funny enough, a bunch of events in my life have seemed to come together to get me to commit to a concerted effort.

  • I came across a book called Why We Get Fat: And What to Do About It which looked interesting & started reading it.
  • My sister posted something on my Facebook wall about Bulletproof Coffee (basically coffee with butter in it).
  • My sister & brother-in-law just started bootcamp again & are embarking upon a Paleo diet.
  • A friend added me to a Facebook group focused on weight loss.

With all of these together, I was ready to commit to taking it to another level.

The book , Why We Get Fat, basically details scientific arguments that obesity is caused by the consumption of carbohydrates. Will talk more about that at some point.

And then my wife came back with a cup of Bulletproof Coffee from my sister one morning & I tried it & actually kind of liked it. A couple days later, we made it ourselves & for some reason (I’m guessing the fat content of the coffee), I didn’t feel the pull of my typical sugar cravings in the afternoon.

Finally finished the book & decided to give the no/low carb thing a try. My wife is on board so here we go.

Starting now!

Will let you know how it goes!

Image credit: Carol Vorderman’s Sudoku red number 2 by LEOL30 on flickr

No Fan of Instagram Video

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instagramSee on ReadWrite that Instagram now allowing people to post canned video. Kind of a bummer for me.

With Instagram’s new feature, users can import any 15 seconds of video from their media library. As with photos, Instagram will also let users square-crop their footage to keep in line with that perfect Instagram uniformity.

I wasn’t a fan when Instagram (Facebook) added video. I think that video takes away from the craft element that Instragram has (had). One of the things I really loved about the platform was that many people tried to take artful pictures of whatever they were posting. There was some thought to framing, lighting, etc. With video, there are a few people that do that, but not many. I know it was much harder as videos had to be captured in the moment (nothing shot previously & saved).

With the addition of uploading existing video, there could be more craft put into videos but I still think that the extra effort needed won’t be given for the bulk of video. I bet we’ll mainly see businesses & marketers taking advantage of this & uploading more & more promotional video.

Know Instagram has to make money but it just seems to be a corruption of the tight community & the killer product that previously existed. :(

Kids Facing Fears

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This past weekend, I had some great moments as a dad.

My girls have chosen to focus on ballet so that’s what we’ve done for 6 years now. I’m happy with that and they are great at it. I enjoy supporting them, going to performances, watching our 1 or 2 parent allowed practices per year. But that’s really all they’ve done.

I’m a sports guy. I thought my kids would play volleyball. I played forever, coached and was expecting that’s where my kids would go. Well, our first is tiny. So that wasn’t a great fit. Their cousins do sports though. Soccer, basketball, softball. Chess too. And they’ve seen them win many trophies and ribbons never to get one themselves.

Well Heather put the girls in swim team this summer. It’s been a long while since they’ve swam so they were a bit rusty. And while this is rec swim team, they pretty much just throw them in & have them swim laps.

With the first week, we had some struggles. Some tears, some hesitancy to get in the pool, some extended kickboarding instead of the featured stroke. They pulled through though. And they have swim meets as well. The first swim meet was this past Saturday. I figured it’d be good for them. Everybody gets a ribbon. Be good practice at confronting their fears.

I bribed them with a 5 money each (that’s #mrlee code for $5) and an ice blended drink from the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf. Our little one only had to do the 25m event. 1 length. She can definitely do it but she was very nervous. I wanted our oldest to do both the 25m and 50m events. She was eager to do the 25m.

Well when we got there, we were fish out of water. We saw all these parents with chairs, ice chests, shade covers. Totally unprepared. And then when warmups started, they started doing many laps. Not good for my middle one. I’d basically told her she just had to do 1 length. She did get in and do 50m of warm up. But that was it. Opted out of the diving off the blocks practice too.

When time came for her event, she did it. Though she was nervous, she was a trooper. Dove off the blocks. Swam her length and came in 5th out of 8. Got her ribbon & was quite happy. Couldn’t get her to do the 50m event but I think it was still a major win for her.

The oldest did her 25m event & loved it. She didn’t really want to do the 50m but stepped up & did that as well. She didn’t do as well finish wise as her 25m event but I told her I was much more proud of her because it was tough & she faced her fear. Got a little choked up there myself.

At times they were a bit let down they didn’t finish higher but we had to remind them that some of these kids swim as much as they dance. They got it then.

Anyway, it was pretty cool for me. No concern about finish or winning (which is against my nature). Just doing something different for fitness and for the experience. Both girls pushed themselves and accomplished more than they’d expected.

Proud day for dad. :)

It’s Fitness

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I’ve always been looking for something that would help me post more regularly. I think I’m going to start including some posts about my fitness journey.

I’ve gone up & down in fitness and in weight but have been doing pretty well over the past year. I’m down about 25 lbs, feeling stronger & just better in general.

Over the past few months I did my first triathlon (the Olympic distance at the Nathans Tempe Triathlon), a Splash & Dash and then over the past few weekends a 5K with my 5 year old daughter & friend(Lungevity 5K) and a 10K with my sisters and wife (the Phoenix 10K). Now I’m not fast by any means, especially when it comes to running, but training for and participating in these has become a very cool thing to do with Heather and the kids.

Over the past year, we’ve put some pretty neat habits in place. We often go for a run with the kids on Saturday mornings before the weekend gets crazy & then we often go for a leisurely bike ride with the kids & as many of our friends & family that we can bring along. We’ve been upwards of 9 or 10 a few times with a possibility of 17.

I figure I’ll start sharing some of the things I’ve learned along the way and the things that keep me going in the hopes that it might help somebody else!

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