Yup, I'm serious this time

My husband introduced me to a program called "Radio Lab" some time ago. While this program deserves an entire entry dedicated to its existance, I am going to refrain at this time. But I would highly recommend checking it, it is facinating.

I recently listened to an episode entitled "Help". The part the most intriuged me was right at the beginning. You can listen to this section of the program at the following link. (Its about 20 minutes, the entire episode is about an hour.)

Help! On Radio Lab


The story is essentially about this really awesome woman, who had been a huge civil rights and gender equality activist, who had been a smoker for most of her life; a heavy, 2 packs a day, smoker. She had a close friend who also smoked, and they talked about quitting a lot and her friend successfully quits. But this woman can't. Years pass and she is still just smoking away. She talks about quitting, she goes a day without smoking but relapses, but can't really quit. One day her friend says, "you're still smoking?" And it really bothers this woman.

At this point the program talks about the science behind these sitations. In this instance, the woman had many incentives for not smoking, she knew it was bad for her health, stained her teeth, was really expensive, etc etc. But those are all "future" incentives to quit. When experiencing a craving for a cigarette, it was a "right NOW" incentive. So our brains are fighting this "right now" incentive with a "future" incentive so its easy to understand which one is going to win.

So what did this lady do? She made a pact with her friend that if she ever smoked a cigarette again she would donate $10,000 to the Ku Klux Klan. Yes. That's awful. You can't even imagine giving them anything. That's why this is so brilliant. Now all of the sudden she has an immediate "right now" incentive to NOT smoke. And she did. Quit cold turkey from that day, never had a cigarette again.

I listened to this, found it facinating, but didn't think about it much more after that. Well the last couple months... let's say... I have been talking about losing weight. I get a lot of responses like, "You're just fine the way you are" although come to think of it, I am getting those response less and less... hmmm. Anyways, the point is, I really am not "fine" at my current weight. Which is frankly embarrassing that I let myself get to this point.

And I have all these "future incentives" to lose weight. I have an entire wardrobe too small to wear and I can't afford to buy an entire new wardrobe, I can't be as physically active as I like to, it is literally killing me (all the studies showing how obesity affect overall health are pretty much conclusive at this point), and I really don't like the way I look. All that being said, I still can't help myself to that extra "afternoon snack" candy bar from the vending machine at work. I couldn't find the motivation to act. I even remembered this program, but couldn't really come up with something that seemed to fit.

At the end of work today, people were talking about tatoos. And I thought to myself, "yeah right. I would never get a tatoo". And then it hit me! I could make some kind of committment to get a tatoo if I don't live up to my obligations health and eating wise!

I've ultimately decided I do need to put a time limit on this. I don't really want it to be a forever thing. And I am giving myself leeway. So the final committment is this:

I Marie Mines Paulsen will not consume more than 2,000 calories in a single day for the next 365 days as of today, March 27 2012, or I will get a tatoo "2,000" (2,000 calories?) that covers my entire back.

I announced my decision to my husband who looked less than excited about this. "I'm not really hot on the idea of you getting a tatoo. Especially one that says '2,000'." "Perfect!" I responded, "You'll be very motivated to help me meet this commitment!"

So there it is. I started today consuming a grand total of 1600 calories which when you think about, it still plenty of nutrition given a sendetary life style. I really am still giving myself plenty of cushion. But I'm so excited about this.

2012, here we come!

Well, for anyone reading this, sorry I have been so sporadic in writing. It isn't intentional, but if you know me at all, you know just how ADD I can be.

2012 is looking great. After an incredible Christmas/New Year's Christian and I are settling back in to "normal" life. Its been difficult. We got the chance to go down to Saint George for Christmas, just the two of us. It was tons of fun and a very special first Christmas for us.

Yesterday, we went to the Salt Lake City Downtown Library, or in other words, my favorite building on the planet! I still remember my very first introduction to the library. A good friend of mine, Creighton, gave me a tour. He showed me the ins and outs, the architecture, the nooks, the design, everything, about the place and I fell in love. One of my favoritest things to do is to take people who have never been there and give them the same tour. It really is a remarkable building and we are lucky to have such a place in Salt Lake. I took some pictures which you can view here

Other than that, you can see some of our other adventures below!

Hope all is well and that 2012 is an amazing year for you!

Us as Zion's National Park over Christmas

Going to see a movie with mom and dad, ironically, NOT the Muppets.

My new haircut! :D

What can happen in one year?

So I just had a sudden realization, maybe any of you may relate to this. i had an event in my life that was tied to a very specific date. Last year, and four days ago to be exact, I flew to New York intending to continue on to Ireland for a vacation with a couple of friends. Alas, a volcano in Iceland erupted and canceled thousands of flights including ours. After coming home prematurely, I ended up going out on my first date with the man who is now my husband. (Yes, for anyone that missed it, I got married. :) See here for details.

Its just crazy to realize that a year ago, while I had met and even befriended Christian, we honestly hadn't really had any romantic goings on at that point, and now he is my husband.

I guess you never know what a year is going to bring.

Oh how time flies

I can't believe how quickly time goes by. Last night I was talking to Christian and my father and I just realized how much has happened in the last twelve months. First and foremost, I have successfully dated a boy for eight whole months! Which, for anyone that knows me, knows this is monumental! And not only have we been dating for eight months, but its a healthy, happy, good relationship with a good man. I am in uncharted territory! ;-) I could go on and on about how amazing he is, but I will save that for another time.

I also purchased a couple large ticket items this year. First, Bucephalus, my motorcycle. And also a new condo! I have been looking for a place to buy for a couple years now. This place came up and it just fit perfectly with everything I was looking for; space, location, price, etc. It all just came together. For now, Christian has moved in and is enjoying being there. We were able to celebrate Christmas there and really enjoyed it.


Christian and I, in front of the fireplace

"Santa" was very generous to both of us. :)


Christian got a new laptop from google! They are coming out with their own laptop that is supposed to be super easy and cheap and they sent him one for free to test out for them!



I was also blessed this year to be able to find a new job that I am really enjoying. I am working at an outdoor clothing company called "Kuhl" (pronounced "cool"). I am working in the customer service department. I was extremely grateful to have found a job that is still in the outdoor industry. Its something I enjoy being around.

As for the rest, I have enjoyed a year full of fun trips/vacations, hiking, camping, and other sorts of adventures. I went on lots of motorcycle rides including a ride up and around Yellowstone with my dad, a houseboat trip down to Lake Powell with my family, an annual camping trip with good friends, a ward campout, and many more.

I got the chance to go up to the Olympic Park in Park City and Luge! Given that probably my top favorite winter activity is sledding, that was pretty awesome, admittedly scary, but awesome.

All in all, 2010 has been a pretty amazing year. I hope you had just as full and enjoyable year as well. Here is to 2011! Cheers!

Crash Landing!

My baby sister just received her driver's license just over a week ago. Last night she was trying to back the car out of the garage and stepped on the gas. Unfortunately for her, the car was in drive and not reverse. Opps! :)

And I shall call him, Bucephalus!

So as my last post indicated, I did not make it to Ireland. Alas, it was not meant to be. Instead, I got this!!!

My last bike was named Angelina, but this bike is not a girl bike, its a boy bike. I was having a hard time finding a name when my latest boy toy, (thank you Christian!) made an inspired suggestion, Bucephalus! Bucephalus was Alexander the Great's horse and one of the most famous actual horses of antiquity. A massive creature with a massive head, Bucephalus is described as having a black coat with a large white star on his brow. It seemed fitting.

Bucephalus is a Honda ST1300, no, for those of you who are wondering, that is too much bike for little ol' me. :) It is crazy what common peception is out there about what kind of bike a woman should and shouldn't ride. Yesterday, I actually had a man roll down his window and say, "I hate to have to be the one to tell you this, but you don't look like you belong on this bike." I think he meant it as a compliment, so I tried not to tell to go walk the bear. Instead, I replied, "It sounds like we need to change your expectation of who you think should ride this bike." But I have a feeling that is going to be a common tune I sing for the next little while.

So far I have had him for three whole days and put over 200 miles on him. Oh yeah! I forgot. So over the July 4th weekend, my father and I went on a 1,200 mile ride up through the Grand Tetons and Yellowstone to the Bear Tooth Pass on our motorcycles. I was still riding Angelina at the time, I didn't have Bucephalus yet. The ride was absolutely incredible. We didn't ride on freeways and such. We stuck to back routes through canyons and lake sides and the like. It was an absolutely gorgeous ride.


View Grand Tetons,Yellowstone, Bear Tooth Pass, 2010 in a larger map

Ireland Iceland? What's going on?

Well as some of you may be aware, I was supposed to be going to Ireland this week. I've been planning this trip for the last nine months with some close friends of mine, Ireland enthusiasts, you might call them. The plan was to leave Friday the 16th and return home the 26th.

On the 14th I got a call from one of these friends, Brent, telling me the errupting volcano in Iceland had interrupted airtraffic in all of Europe and that our flight might be canceled. You can imagine how closely we followed the news after this. Friday morning, the flight wasn't canceled so we decided to try. We boarded the plane in Salt Lake, made it all the way to JFK airport and waited for six hours to baord our plane. One hour before we were supposed to board, the flight was cancelled. Ouch.

It wasn't so bad, we spent the night in New York and came home the next day. We still haven't made up our minds as for if we are going to reschedule the trip or just request a refund. (Which I must say I thought was pretty generous of the airlines to offer us both.) I have to admit, while I'm not happy about it, it isn't this bitter pill of dissapointment like I thought it would be. My mom suggested that maybe I am just growing up and learning to cope with disaspointment. I paused when she said this and replied, "... Naw, that couldn't be it!" ;-)

Well Ireland, hopefully you and I will meet again soon!