I don’t know about everyone else in the world but each year as February 14th approaches I begin to feel a little bit of pressure and panic. I don’t know why I do since just about every year for Valentine’s Day I’ve provided to my lovely bride what I have affectionately coined a complete and utter suck-fest. Yes, it’s true and I admit it here openly, I completely suck at Valentine’s Day. I don’t know what it is about the day but I seem to have some type of block at being able to put together something nice and meaningful for the woman that has been there for me time and time again over the past 20 years. You would think that after all of that time it would be easy, right? Seriously, this is the only other person in the world that I probably know almost as well as I know myself. Why can’t I get it right?

Well this year I was determined to get it right. I was going to take the complete and total suck-fest and wipe it from existence. I was going to make this fun, I was going to make it exciting, and I was going to provide my wife something and do so with a grand gesture all to let her know that I love and appreciate her. Yes I was determined, I was completely dedicated to the cause and I was completely clueless on what I was going to do.

By the time this past Monday rolled around I was starting to have that panic set in. I was less than six days away and had absolutely nothing  planned. I sat on the BART commuter train completed dejected and lost. As I turned my head upward to ask for guidance my eye caught a sign and I realized that this sign was just the sign that I was looking for.

Ever since we lived in Los Angeles my wife has made it pretty darn clear to me that she would really like to go see the musical WICKED. I admit I too was very curious about it and as I sat on that BART train there before me was an advertisement reminding me and all of the other riders of the train that tickets were still available. This set the wheels in my head a turning and a plan started to evolve. I made phone calls, I ran errands on my lunch break, I confirmed baby sitting and I knew that THIS year the cycle of SUCK would END!

First and foremost I didn’t want to just come home and tell my lovely wife that I was taking her to WICKED. Where is the fun in that? That’s the equivalent of just coming home and saying I’d take her to a nice steak dinner, to a movie, or whatever else. Yes it could set her up for some anticipation to actually getting to see the show but it wouldn’t do a darn thing in the way of real fun. I also wanted to make this fun for myself as well. With my plan in mind I simply told my wife that we would have to drop our daughter off at her Mom’s on Saturday at noon and that everything else would be a surprise. When she asked what we would be doing I simply smirked and told her, “Every time you get antsy because you don’t know what is going on simply tell yourself, ‘What I can’t know ends delightfully.” If you have a careful eye you can tell that in telling her that I actually told her what we were doing but not in a direct way.

Before Saturday I packed a purple bag with three gifts.

Each gift had a strategic time to be opened. With our daughter safely dropped off at my mother-in-law’s house I gave her the first package to open.

To those of you that might be wondering the answer is yes I did in fact print out and glue the conversation hearts onto the box. What was inside the box you ask? A BART ticket. Yup, nothing says romance like public transportation! Believe it or not though taking BART was a part of the plan.

As we approached the 12th Street Station in Oakland I gave her the second gift to open.

That right there is a box AND an envelope. In my mind the former necessitated the latter. You see I didn’t exactly buy these tickets way in advance so I had to take the best seats that I could get. Those seats were located in the very last row of the mazzanine level, so we were going to be above and back from the stage. Having never been to the Orpheum theater in San Francisco I didn’t know if we were going to have a problem seeing the stage in an acceptable level of detail so I bought a pair of binoculars just in case we might need them.

So in introducing this weird gift I decided that I needed to throw her off of why she might be getting these things. I was on the same mode of public transportation that reminded me about WICKED so I thought there was a chance we might be on a train that would have them as well and if she saw the advert and had the binoculars maybe her mind might connect the two. I know, a bit convuluted but I couldn’t take a chance so in the envelope I put a picture of some San Francisco wild parrots to completely confuse and and make her think her husband is an absolute bafoon who might be taking her into the city to see parrots that she couldn’t care less about seeing.

Four BART stops later I tell my lovely wife that it’s time to get off the train and we began our ascent back to the surface world from the subterranian Civic Center station. As we do so I hand her the envelope that has the tickets as well as the reveal of the nutty mantra that I gave her earlier in the week.

As you can see each heart is green, just like the main character Elphaba. The first letter of each word is in a different color from the rest of the letters so that when you look at it from top to bottom each first letter spells out WICKED. I handed her the envelope and kept her back to the Orpheum and waited as she looked at the envelope in her hand. She looked at it and looked at me and…. it was pretty clear that my clever little message wasn’t getting across. I looked up towards the marquee, her eyes followed mine and her excitement made me feel like I just won the Super Bowl of Valentine’s Day gifts.

Thankfully that wasn’t everything as I also had reservations at the Market Street Restaurant and Grill across the street for a wonderful post show dinner.

So there you have it. This VD I went from Zero to Hero. Now the panic is setting in again because I now realize one frightening thought: How the hell am I going to top this next year?!?!?!

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Please watch this video and then go to http://www.hopefornatalie.com

Hope For Natalie Nakatani from Patrick Biesemans on Vimeo.

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One of the best feelings in the world is setting a goal and meeting that goal. It can be something as small as finally organizing your closet or something big like sticking to a savings plan and having enough money to buy a house/retire. Goals are good because they help us to feel that we accomplished something and through accomplishment we get to feel alive.

As you may have read in my previous entry EA Sports Active Personal Trainer put forth their 5K challenge. They wanted people to set a goal of running/walking a 5K and they gave them a way to meet that goal with a suggested training plan. They even asked those if us in the community to step up and be Community Leaders for these groups. I saw this and realized, “Hey, there’s a challenge in this Challenge! I accept.”

So I put myself out there as a Community Leader, found a 5K and started soliciting everyone I know that owns EA Sports Active Personal Trainer to join the team. I scheduled weekly group runs and I trained. After a little research I found that the EA Sports Active training regimen incorporated elements of the Couch to 5K running plan so I downloaded a Couch to 5K app to my iPhone to assist me on run days.

The one thing that I am pleasantly surprised at is how the EA Sports Active suggested training schedule worked so well. After four weeks of training I found that I was able to run 5 killometers on my last training day before the event and that is something I hadn’t ever been able to do before. I’ve been in runs before (OK, a total of three) but I’ve always “wogged” the event, needing to walk a bit after every 1/4 mile. Even though it wasn’t the actual race day I can’t tell you how proud I was the moment I realized I was about to complete running those 3.2 miles. Accomplishing a goal feels great, accomplishing it ahead of schedule feels AMAZING!

First and foremost I want to thank each and every member of my team for not hating me. I chose the Rocky Rodge Trail 5K because the setting sounded like a nice outdoor setting and everyone would get a medal for finishing, a win-win right? Let’s just say I’m glad that I knew everyone on my team because that run was a HILL-acious up and down course jam packed full of challenge. Tiny rise after tiny rise got everyone warmed up for the near 3/4 of a mile ascent up this wall that they decided to call a road near the end of the race. With each step up that 400 ft. incline I just kept telling myself to just get to the turnaround point because it would (literally) be all down hill from there.

I also have to say that I surprised myself as well near the end of the race. After traversing back down the hill I realized that there was still one team member behind me. I realized early on in accepting this challenge that I was probably going to be one of the last people in. I didn’t like the feeling I had when I thought about it but I knew it was a very real possibility. Even when the race started and I watched most of my team get ahead of me I was OK with it. After that hill, however, I didn’t want anyone else on my team to be the last of our group over the line. Instead of running ahead I jogged backwards and waited for my final team member and ran with them in to finish the race. This even lead to a last minute dash where I took the finish line by a hair.

This was such a great experience I can’t wait for my next 5K. I’ve also learned a very valuable lesson: be sure to know what you are getting in to and watch for an elevation guide in the 5K promotional materials!

So speaking of the next 5K, anyone in the area interested in running the 17th Annual Walnut Creek Turkey Trot with me? It’s a flat run and you get a goodie bag at the end. Look at the stuff I got for this run! You can even incorporate this 5K into your new 6 week workout routine if you pick up EA Sports Active More Workouts on November 20th.

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EA Sports Active is having a 5K Challenge this Fall to gear up for the release of their new workout game EA Sports Active More Workouts, the follow-up to their video game fitness hit, EA Sports Active for Wii.

I am the Community Leader for San Ramon, CA and I chose the Rocky Ridge Trail Half Marathon/10K/5K that will be taking place at Las Trampas Regional Park on Saturday, October 24th, 2009.

The cost of the event is $30 (if you register before 10/8). All runners will receive finisher medals and technical t-shirts (available in gender-specific styles and in sizes ranging from youth small up to men’s 6XL). You have to register prior to 10/12 if you want to gaurantee your t-shirt in your size on the day of the race.

If you would like to sign up for the 5k Challenge, go here: http://easportsactive5kchallenge.eventbrite.com/

and then go to the Rocky Ridge Trail web site (posted below) and sign up there.

Here is more information about the EA Sports Active 5K Challenge: http://www.easportsactive.com/blog.action?id=5K%20Challenge-20090901103631014.xml

Here is more information about the Rocky Ridge Trail Half-Marathon / 10k / 5k: http://www.brazenracing.com/rockyridge.html

If you have any questions, please contact me at my email address or through Facebook.You can also join the teams Facebook Group!

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Here is the way I’m sure you wouldn’t expect the last day of my 30 day challenge to start:Yesterday I gave in to many many demons. No I didn’t go on a sugar consuming binge, I just didn’t have as much restraint.

It all started out with me not feeling very awake when I did get out of bed (late). The game said today was supposed to be a day of rest. The way I felt, my frame of mind, I figured EA Sports Active knows better than I do so sure I’ll spend a day at rest. I was still determined to weigh in though. End result? No weight change. Well, at least I didn’t gain (didn’t do much for my state of mind however).

I didn’t have as much water as I usually do and I finally snapped on the “turkey vegetable sandwich” that I usually have for lunch. Went to the grocery store and picked up some Lean Cuisine meals instead. Tasty, more sodium than I would like, but OK.

Dinner was healthy and delicious, however I had another half of a chicken breast that I shouldn’t have had and didn’t need. Tasted too good and to be honest I didn’t care (at least that is the lie I told to myself). After dinner had a Skinny Cow ice cream sandwich. Tasty. For some reason chased that with a peanut butter sandwich. 300 calories I didn’t really need.

When I woke up this morning on time I was excited to get back on track and complete my 20th workout for the 30 day challenge. Even though there was jumping and lunging and squat holds I still had a great workout. This one finally broke out the Wii Fit for all of the sports games and for once I didn’t absolutely detest the Inline Skating because I was raising my legs rather than having to do jump squats again. Wonderful all-body workout.

Spent the day eating as right as I could and had at least 64 ounces of water during the day. With dinner I plan on keeping my consumption in moderation and drinking lots of water prior to dinner and during dinner to try to fill myself up.

I don’t think that I can say this enough: I truly feel that the EA Sports Active is the one fitness based game for the Wii so far that can DRASTICALLY change the lives of the people that use it. It focuses on key exercises, core exercises, and in its sports games it tricks you into having fun when you are atually working out. It provides you the tools to get a great workout with almost no exercise equipment and it provides you the tools to succeed. I can’t say enough how much I like this product, I’ve been telling all of my friends and family about it and I am not going to stop either. I’ve lost 11 pounds while using this and it has helped give me motivation again to get serious about leading a healthier lifestyle.

Tomorrow is my lovely wife’s birthday. If I can wake up enough ahead of her I’ll get a workout in. If I can’t so what. I’ll be doing some regular workouts and starting another 30 day challenge on July 1st so I can keep up the pace in a quick and easy-to-understand method. That’s the way I’m thinking now, let’s see how I’m thinking tomorrow.

If you’ve been reading this, thanks for joining me on the journey. Hope you’re living healthy and active.

-Will

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