Today was my birthday: I'm now 38 years old. I was treated this morning by three kids lying in bed with me for a half-hour, hugging on me, playing with me.

My wife got me a BBQ grill, which was desperately needed. My mother-in-law gave me a battery operated fan that she was hoping I could use while camping, but honestly it's a bit big for that. No big deal, I'm sure we can find a use for it.

My son was cute, he bought me a Bionicle robot, and it was obvious that he wanted it himself. Unfortunately the pieces are so small and the way he plays, they'd be everywhere. I had him "help" put it together but I really would rather him not play with it. We'd never find the pieces until one of his sisters swallowed them!

Finally, in the evening Angela and I went to Red Lobster for dinner. I got the fresh Pacific Snapper, which was tasty and made for an easy choice. My one "splurge" was a cheese biscuit.

All in all a great birthday!

Today's Black Friday, but I've been at work all day. There was no way I was going to line up at a store at 4am for the priveledge of giving them money.

So I worked. And worked out. I'm going to start something different, I'm going to provide links to the exercises I do in my workouts. It won't be ME in the videos, mind you, but it'll give you a good idea of what I did.

So here we go:

Warmup, Circuit of 30 seconds each exercise, 3 sets
* Jumping Jack
* Split Jack
* Prisoner Squat
* Alternating Lunge
* Mountain Climber

Workout, first exercise is standalone, other three are split circuits of 2
* Jump Squats, 95lbs, 2 sets of 3
* Bulgarian Split Squats, 95lbs, 3 sets of 5
* Good Mornings, 95lbs, 3 sets of 5
* Lying Dumbbell Triceps Extension, 25lb dumbbells, 2 sets of 5
* Barbell Rollouts, 2 sets of 5

Today was a great Thanksgiving.

It started this morning at 7am, with our church's annual Thanksgiving flag football game. At first it didn't look like we'd even have enough people to play, but with the holiday and all people were enjoying sleeping in a bit. We finally got started with the game at 8am. It was a lot of fun, we had a good spread of abilities and ages. We had guys ranging from 10 years old on up to 50!

I've never been known for my football abilities, especially since I haven't played for about 20 years. Still, I did better than I expected, mostly thanks to being in better shape than I've been in for a long, long time. I even caught the ball once! Of course, I dropped it a few times. I managed to swipe the flags of a few guys too. In the end, we played for two hours and all agreed we should play more than just once a year.

Then it was onto the dinner, to which I'm happy to say I did not overeat with. I had my usual 2 cups of lettuce with about 3 ounces of turkey on top, with a tablespoon of Hidden Valley Ranch Light. Three deviled eggs were an indulgence, but I think I got away with it. For dessert, I had a piece of the low carb pumpkin pie I talked about yesterday.

In the evening, we went to Skip & Kelly Bertsch's house and visited, while the kids played. We stayed for a few hours, after which we came home and put the kids to bed. Angel and I watched an hour of TV but I ended up so tired that we went to be at 8:30.

I wish all holidays went this smoothly and were this enjoyable.

While you're eating your Thanksgiving Dinner tomorrow, just remember, not all is lost. Remember portion control, and take steps to ensure success... tricks like this low carb pumpkin pie recipe!

To give credit where credit is due, I altered the recipe listed on Bella Online. I swapped Brummel & Brown yogurt spread for the butter, and cottage cheese for the heavy cream. This reduced both calories & fat content.

Pie Shell
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3 tbsp flax meal
3/4 cups almond flour (blend almonds in food processor or spice grinder)
1/4 tsp salt
1/3 cup Splenda
6 tbsp Brummel & Brown yogurt spread (the original recipe used REAL BUTTER!)

Mix dry ingredients first, then add yogurt spread. Blend & spread across pie pan. Bake @ 375 degrees for 12 minutes. Chill in refrigerator for 10 minutes.
8 servings, 114 calories, 2.5g net carbs, 10g fat, 3g protein, 2g fiber

Filling
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1 tsp Splenda
2 3/4 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups canned pumpkin
2 eggs
1 cup cottage cheese

Combine ingredients in blender & blend until cottage cheese is no longer chunks. Pour mixture into pie shell & bake @ 375 degrees for 45 minutes or until toothpick returns dry. Serve chilled.

Serving size 1/8 pie, 174.5 calories, 7.5g net carbs, 11.5g fat, 8.5g protein, 4g fiber

For reference, a regular slice of pumpkin pie is 30g of carbs & 229 calories.