I was at breakfast with my daughter at Marston’s in Valencia and was reading the newspaper. It said that the Saturday before Christmas was the second busiest shopping day of the year.  I did not know this, but it makes sense. Later in the day, i was speaking to another business owner in my building and she said this Saturday will be particularly busy because in addition to being a Saturday, that because it is falling right after a payday for most folks (15th) that they will have just gotten paid and have money to burn.  I guess that might make sense.

For us, our shopping is done.  Not that we got everything we wanted to get, but that whatever we have now is what we have.  If there is something else we wanted to purchase, it can be gotten after Christmas.

For us, this weekend will be about wrapping presents. We are really trying to be prepared this year.  After this weekend, we only have 3 days before Christmas Eve and with being busy with the business, Thursday will be here quick.  My wife and i have always been bad with Christmas.  We are usually out shopping for last minute gifts, feeling the pressure to “just get something”.  Not this year, if we got something for you great, if not, that is fine too.

One thing for sure, we are going to wrap our presents this weekend. Probably open a glass of wine and watch a movie while were at it.  What we are not going to do, which is what we have done every year in the past, is wrapping presents on Christmas Eve at 1 a.m. because we put it off for so long.

We are still planing for our San Diego trip.  I can’t believe how hard it is to plan everything. We are only going for 4 nights and i am trying hard to have reservations for everything we want to do, such as dinner, whale watching and things like that.  Being that we are going during Christmas and New Years, everything is booking out quickly and we are just getting started with making reservations.

I am still doing the hiking in preparation of the Spartan on January 31st. On Sunday, I am gong to do the 2 mile loop twice and see how that goes. Have been feeling pretty good doing the single loop and need to step it up to 4 miles now.

I dragged my wife on a hike this weekend at Towsley and we saw a few deer. Check out the video.

I have been using an app on my phone called run tracker but am considering purchasing a FitBit. Anyone have any thoughts? I was looking at the reviews last night and it is a mixed bag. Maybe I will wait until after christmas to see if there are any deals.

Talk to you on Monday.

I recently signed up for a Spartan Race.  I am starting off easy on what they call the “Sprint” which is a 3-5 mile course with 26+ obstacles, mud, hills, etc.  You get the point.  I decided I would take down the whole family and signed us all up.  Well, not my wife, when she heard about it she said, No way.”  She is more of a Yoga person and not so much running through fire kind of person.

So it is just me and the kids and the race is January 31, 2015 at Vail Lake Resort in Temecula, CA. so i have about 6 weeks to get ready.  Not enough time, but gives me the motivation to get to the gym and workout.

I called a friend who has done these races in the past and asked her advice for getting ready. Her advice was to hike.  I had not even thought about it, but apparently there are lots of hills to climb.

That’s why we headed out to Towsley Canyon yesterday to do our first hike.  We did the short loop and my plan is to try to get to the trail every day and try to improve my cardio and time on the trail.  I am starting with the short loop and plan on moving up to the larger loop just to get the time and distance in.

I have to keep checking my phone to see the date and can’t believe another year is almost behind us.  My Daughter is on college break and my son is on Winter break.  He said they don’t go back until the week of January 11th. That seems like a long time.

I have decided to totally take advantage of the business slowing down around this time.  I have written several articles about how the amount of divorce cases we handle reduces by about 50% between around Thanksgiving and the end of the year.  But really slows down when the kids are out of school.  This allows me to catch up on work, reflect on the year and spend much needed time with my family.

We are still making plans on our end of year trip to San Diego.  This will be our only real vacation of the year.  That is if you consider 5 days and 4 nights in San Diego. We usually only get away for a weekend camping trip, so this is a big deal.  This, while we watch our friends go to Jamaica and Hawaii.  That is okay.  Since my daughter has applied to 3 colleges in San Diego, we will be visiting the campuses while we are down there. Hopefully the weather continues to be nice.

Time to hit the trail this morning and get my hike in.  This time just me and the dog.  Then off to work for client meetings and then to do some marketing.  I am really going to bring the heat with videos for my business this year.  I have recorded over 700 videos at this point.  I want to do a video a day next year at least which will increase my video production quite a bit.

I guess that is the problem with using a blog is that it also records failures.  Oh well.  I have a lot of good excuses though if that matters.  And if I had to come up with one excuse, it would be my business.

Back in 2012 I weighed 197 pounds and ran everyday from 5 to 10 miles.  I was running 1/2 marathons and working out every day.  I once ran a 200 mile 24 hour relay race called Ragnar.

When I started my business I spent every waking hour trying to make it work.  If you have a business or have started a business from thin air, you know what i am talking about.

Now that i am going on 45 in January 2016, working out is more about longevity and health than looking good i guess.  Health is what is motivating me now and what got me back in the groove.

So back in the saddle with working out and have hit 3 days consistently with running (jogging for now) and getting in the gym each day.  The solution this time was making it a priority and not something to do if I had extra time.  So to do that, I have decided to work out each morning before getting into the office.  Otherwise, life happens and the workout does not.

I have gained abut 70 pounds in the last few years and I definitely want to get back to where I was.

This is a picture of me from March 2013 at 197 pounds  I was running, hitting the gym and doing cross fit.

It is going to take me some time to get back in that shape, but I am hopeful that i will.

I am going to try to make a daily “Tim” post from now on.  We will see how that goes.

Talk to you tomorrow.