Killing Me Softly...

I love Taco Bell.  I love Taco Bell so much that I actually almost purchased a franchise with a good friend and business partner (no joke...met with they Yum brands management team and they extended us a franchise agreement...but that whole story is worthy of another blog post).  I try to limit my Taco Bell intake to once a week...but I am not always so successful in that effort.  I celebrate a thing called "Taco Bell Thursdays"...that is, I eat Taco Bell every Thursday evening for dinner.  It's a way to welcome the weekend and I've been doing it since college...yes, every Thursday for the last 11 years, except Thanksgiving of course, cause no T-Bell's are open...otherwise, I would.  My wife has been so kind as to allow this OCD routine throughout our marriage.  I will typically pick her up a healthy sub from Subway, and then proceed over to Taco Bell for my gluttonous urges, which normally add up to about $13 in cheesy, beefy goodness (a don't get me started on their hot sauce, for which I have a stash that could make it through an apocalypse).  It is a literal addiction that I crave the Bell; I swear they put something in the food that gives me a chemical reliance. 

As I currently assess my life, which is a fabulous one, I realized that I'm not getting any younger and my health is as important to me as ever.  I have a fantastic family and I feel as though it's imperative that I preserve my life and start to make healthier decisions to impact it.  As I ramble, I have a point...Taco Bell is killing me softly.  I did a little research and was blown away by what I discovered related to my Taco Bell relationship.  Let me break-it down for you:

Recommended daily nutrition intake for a 25-50 year old Male:
Calories:  2,700
Fat:  88g
Sodium:  2,300mg

A Big Mac and medium fries:
Calories:  920 (34% of daily intake)
Fat:  48g (55% of daily intake)
Sodium:  1,390mg (60% of daily intake)

2 Beef Meximelts, 1 Chicken Quesedilla, 1 Cheesy Gordita Crunch, 1 Beefy Crunch Burrito, and 1 Nachos and Cheese:
Calories:  2,430 (90% of daily intake)
Fat:  127g (144% of daily intake)
Sodium:  5,190mg (226% of daily intake)

That is ridiculous.  It has to stop.  I have vowed to only allow myself this indulgence once a month.  It will be hard...it's been a long, tumultuous relationship...but I think I can do it.  I put a post-it note in my wallet with these statistics as a friendly reminder.  Perhaps I should have a picture of the "grim reaper" on it as well...

I Saw the Sign...

A few days ago, I was listening to Sirius satellite radio on my way home from work, when "The Sign" by Ace of Base began to play.  Without skipping a beat, I reached for the volume button and...turned it up.  Just after I did this...I paused, and realized that I actually, with a smile on my face, turned-up the volume on this Ace of Base song.

Most people would've changed channels as this song was considered "uncool" and "for chicks", but as many of you know, I tend to have a penchant for these types of songs (when I'm not jamming to Insane Clown Posse, of course).  As I continued down I-96, I started to reminisce about the funny fact that I purchased this CD (generation check, mp3's did not exist) from my best friend's 11-year old sister...I was 16.  If anyone at high school knew I did that, it would've been deemed social suicide...but I digress.

I guess it's stories like this that earned me the name "Cheesy Chaz"...

Setting A Bad Example...

I do not consider myself to be an overly political guy.  I believe in independence, a free-market, and personal responsibility.  Much of the political chatter these days continues to be on balancing the budget through budget cuts and taxation.  I'm not going to give my extended opinion on this as I don't intend for this blog to be driven by political propaganda...but, I will say this...I consider myself to be an extremely fiscally responsible individual.  I work hard during the week, I earn a living, I save a larger than average percentage of my salary, and I don't spend outside of my means.

I started to dig deeper into US's fiscal responsibility in order to better understand it.  Most of you know that our national debt continues to grow, but what you may not understand (I sure didn't), is that all the banter back and forth from our elected politicians on the topic of budget cuts, really becomes insurmountable in the big picture.  Here's a financial breakdown I found that shows the US Budget, simplified down to a level we can understand as a "household budget" (removing 8 zeroes from each figure):

U.S. Tax revenue: $2,170,000,000,000
Federal budget: $3,820,000,000,000
New debt: $ 1,650,000,000,000
National debt: $14,271,000,000,000
Recent [April] budget cut: $ 38,500,000,000

Let’s remove 8 zeros and pretend it’s a household budget:
Annual family income: $21,700
Money the family spent: $38,200
New debt on the credit card: $16,500
Outstanding balance on the credit card: $142,710
Budget cuts: $385

Wow!  Looks like the US has a lot of credit card debt.  Not to mention, those budget cuts sure don't seem that great...that's like me cutting out Starbucks for a year.  This really makes me wonder what's going on in D.C.  I don't think "fiscal responsibility" is on the radar...but perhaps I'm stating the obvious.

Grocery Store Blues...

Grocery shopping is a wonderful time to be entertained by people...here are a couple of my favorite:

• The person who stands right in front of the item that you need...starring, completely obstructing your ability to make it an efficient grocery trip, probably thinking..."do I go with the generic, store brand version of mac 'n cheese or do I stick with Kraft...the generic will save me $.17 cents...I wonder if it tastes better...?"  You get the picture.  And I know they're thinking this because that's what I think.  I just do my thinking next to my cart and out of the way of other shoppers.
• The mom with three kids who are completely hyper-active and bouncing off the wall...uncontrollable.  You then look in her grocery cart and see nothing but Fun Dip, Candy Bars, and Mountain Dew...and then it all makes sense.
• The person that doesn't realize you are supposed to "take a number" at the deli counter.  They stand there yapping on their phone or doing God knows what, while the person behind the counter continues to rattle-off numbers to help those who are waiting.  They finally realize what is going on after about 5 minutes, get pissed off (probably not so much at the fact that they just wasted 5 minutes but rather because they look stupid) and proceed to make a scene.
• The Health Expert is the person who spends 5 minutes reading the nutrition content on the label.  I always wonder if they really know what they are looking at and why it takes 5 minutes to do so.

These are just a few of my favorite...I know there are more.  Can you think of any?

I am not your average dude...

What can I say...I don't like football like most other dudes. I will admit that I am the weird one in this scenario. I look like a complete fool on mondays at work when everyone is talking about football outcomes and scores from the weekend. I don't even know enough about football to even pretend like I know something about football. The truth is, I am happier watching an old episode of "The Golden Girls" or reading a Cooking Light magazine...

"It's time for the percolator..."

My coffee is brewing as we speak.  Some may call it "percolating".  I think that is a hilarious word and it got me thinking about that funny dance video...

My life versus "in my head"...Facebook versus blogger

I'm trying to set boundaries for what I discuss on this site and I think I have some direction.  As I was falling asleep last night, I thought to myself...is this an extension of Facebook?  Managing Facebook and this simultaneously will become tedious.  And then it occurred to me...Facebook will be my outlet for day-to-day activities and "It's the little things in life" will truly be those random things that my brain thinks about throughout my life journey.  It's that simple.

The 100 Workout

I guess I'll start out my first "real" post, and fitting as it should be as we ring in the New Year, by talking about my workout regiment.  Like most of the world, New Year's resolutions run rampant, and although I consider it not so much a resolution, but rather a continuation of 2011 activities, I have my approach.  I have not joined a gym.  I did that back in the 2000's.  I always got a kick out of how damn busy the place was in January and February...come March, the place was dead.  Which was nice for me, cause all I wanted to do was run on the treadmill.  When I lived in Chicago, I truly had an issue with waiting a half hour, just to get on a treadmill.  But have no fear...I have my own gym in my basement.  An old college friend tweeted about the "100 workout".

Now I will admit, this is a chick workout, but I modified it...and I'll tell you, it's an ASS-kicker!  Instead of squats, I initiated push-ups..cut in half.  So instead of 80 squats, I do 40 push-ups...and so on.  Needless to say, this workout takes about 30 minutes and it is the best all body workout I've done since high school.  If you were in my basement at 5:45 am when this workout is going down, you'd think I was being whipped and tortured by terrorists...it's good, and I highly recommend it for anyone trying to get back to the grind and actually tone their bitch tits (revert to Fight Club visual).  I know I am!

It's The Little Things In Life

As some may say...especially women of chivalry, "It's the little things in life...".  You can finish the sentence however you'd like, but most might say..."that make me happy", or "that count", or "that are noticed".  I guess I could agree.  But the truth is, for me, it goes like this..."it's the little things in life that bring me entertainment".  Whether at work, on the weekends, or on vacation, I find myself finding true entertainment out of those little things in life that take place day-in and day-out.  Although I plan to blog about my life, my family, the things I do, the food I cook, and all the other things that make me who I am, I will start by giving you examples of these little things that spark my interest:
-Lazy people
-Restaurant wait-persons that are not friendly
-People that don't use turn signals
-Lincoln Park trixies
-People that don't know how to walk properly in a mall
-Uggz
-High school girls and North Face
-People at Taco Bell that have to ask about every single menu item before they order
-People talking on their cell phones at times when they shouldn't be
-Unattended children
-Occupy Wall Street
-People who plow into an elevator before allowing those in the elevator to vacate
And the list goes on...

The truth is, all of the above are things that not only spark my interest, but they annoy me for one reason or another.  I will not allow this to be a 24-7 rant, but I will not hesitate to provide my opinion on topics such as the above-mentioned...mostly, because I can.

Starting this blog is somewhat overwhelming, as my personality causes me to want to have the most perfect-looking blog within an hour of creating it.  So against my nature, I will defer to building this over time...so forgive me for my initial poor housekeeping.

So my first task...determine what is sparking my interest this evening?  I feel like I need to include a photo with my first post.  Stay tuned on these fronts...