First sorry for the delay meant to get this out at the beginning of the month.

My February goal was simple:

Enjoy Disney with the family and we did. We had such amazing weather (mid 80s every day with no rain) and had a bunch of fun each day at the parks.

This was our second trip using DVC, we booked it a little late, so we had to stay at 2 separate resorts, but in doing so we got to stay at the Polynesian. We normally would have just tried to stay at the cheapest resort, but since those weren’t available we decided to go all out. It was awesome and we are now spoiled. So much so that we have already booked the Polynesian for our next trip in August. The resort was just amazing and the closeness to Magic Kingdom was wonderful. We can take multiple routes to get there: small boat, large boat, monorail, we may could have taken a bus as well, but why would we with all those way better options. The larger boat was my favorite. It was the least crowded option and there always seem to be one ready and waiting when we needed it.

We enjoyed all 4 parks hitting he Magic Kingdom almost every night of out trip since most days it was so easy to get to.

Some of our best moments was getting picked for the front seats at Festival of the Lion King. I was chosen to do the warthog sound and Lincoln got to go up with some of the other kids (something he’s always wanted to do) and walk around with the performers during the last song.

We also had such a great time at both our sit down restaurants ‘Ohana’s and Chef Mickeys. The food was great and the characters were so much fun.

We got up right next to a giraffe on our safari ride and and an iPad ostrich followed behind us for a while as well. There were so many more great moments. We never get to do all we hope to, but with us there is always a next trip already planned so that always helps when it comes to leaving day.

So February was a success and I am working towards my March and April goals this month of finishing another book and getting an app finished and ready for the App Store. It’s been and going to continue to be a busy March!

So last month I started using my iPad Pro 10.5 more again. I really do love this thing, but after getting the iPhone X, I was blinded by its newness so I was using it for everything.

Here are a few things I’ve been using the iPad for again:

• Reading – I just finished one of my books for my April resolution 🎉
• Work – I use the iPad as a second screen from time to time and it’s amazing (see image below). The duet app with the Mountie+ is a great combination.
• Entertainment – Using it for watching YouTube videos and an occasional Movie or TV show when working out.
• Taking notes – I’ve been taking my iPad to church on Sundays and using it to take notes of the sermons. It’s really helps keep me more focused as well. 👍
• Writing – I’m using it for this blog. All articles I’ve posted so far this year have been writing on my iPad. Currently I am using it with an external apple keyboard, but I am tempted to eventually try out the Smart Keyboard cover.
• Reading – Ha yeah a second time, but I also love using it for reading comics it’s great.

So yeah I feel like January has been a pretty big success and I am looking forward to taking it on my vacation with me in the very near future. I also hope we eventually get some version of Xcode on this thing, so I could be even more productive on it then more of a cunsumption device.

My Dual Screen setup:

So to help with hitting my July resolution (getting healthier). I’ve been avoiding sweet. So far I’ve gone 32 days without any candy, chocolate, juice…, which is a major milestone for me at least. I’m pretty horrible when it comes to snacking and sweet.

You always hear how addicting sugar is, but you never feel it until you greatly minimize your intake (sugar is in pretty much everything). Crazily, It took about 20-25 days before the cravings for it were reduced, fruit has been a great replacement.

It’s not been easy, I starter right after Christmas, so I’ve had to go through New Years and 3 birthday parties thus far. Along with many #donutfridays for the kids. And we also keep a stock pile of candy and cookies for the boys (which we limit of course), but it’s also always been there ready for me when/if I wanted it. Does my keeping track prove I have a pretty bad sweet tooth?

I don’t plan to continue this streak forever. The current goal is to keep it going until our Disney trip in a few weeks, break it with a Dole Whip (of course) and possible a few other Disney snacks (in crazy moderation) and then try to beat the streak I had set when I get back.

I feel like overall it’s still to early to say I feel way better without or any claims like that. But just the accomplishment of going without feels pretty great.

So after 3.5 month most of my bald patch has grown back 🎉. I could probably even grow my hair back out at this point and be able to hide the remaining spots.

However, I am not sure what I am going to do right now. I actually enjoy having short hair, it takes no time in the morning to style and I can wear hats off and on throughout the day. My old hair style didn’t allow that.

Shaving my head is a paint hough and I am not a fan of the feeling of a fully shaved head. So, I gotta figure out sometime soon what I want to do. I am also not looking forward to the awkward stages that will come with growing my hair back out. 😬

Just to remind you this is the bald patch I had before I shaved my head on Oct 1st 2017:

And here is my hair today:

I think I thought up a few items last year, but they didn’t last past February, so this year I wanted to take another swing at them and do them in a different way. So I am setting a goal for each month. Some will be easy and other will take work every month before their goal month to accomplish. Anyways here they are:

January

Use my iPad more

I love my 10.5in iPad Pro  it amazing, but since I got the iPhone X, it’s been sitting in its sleeve. So this month I’ve been getting it out more and more to read, browse and also to write this blog post with. I’ve also been trying to use it more as a second display on my MacBook Pro from time to time. I’m still hoping that one day I can easily develop apps on this device I love its portability and the battery life and would love to be able to use it less as a consumption device and more for creating things.

Back in June of this year after getting caught in a down pour at Disney, Tiff (my wife) noticed that I had a small bald patch in my head.

It bothered me, but unless my hair was soaked it wasn’t noticeable at all. Sadly it didn’t stay like that the patch continued to grow until it reached my hair line which made it annoying to try to cover up. My old hair style too me less then 30 seconds each morning to style, now I was spending a few minutes just trying to cover up the spot in hopes that it would eventually grow back.

I did see a doctor about it who confirmed it was Alopecia areata, She also told me that my hair follicles were still there and that it should grow back. Then she  gave me cortisone injections in my head (ouch), and I get to go back at the end of the month and do it again. However in the mean time I am done trying to cover it up so after Church this morning I went ahead and shaved it all off.

So for now this is the new me. I don’t mind it. I’ll probably be wearing a lot of hats because my head is really cold already and it 70 degrees right now. So this winter is gonna be fun!

One good thing about it all is I was able to have a mohawk again for a couple minutes.

So I’ve decided to take a different approach to blogging. Rather than type it out on a computer. I’m using an app called Nebo and writing it on my iPad with my Apple Pencil.

My handwriting is pretty horrid and after just a few sentences my hand is already starting to ache a little, but I still think it will be a fun experiment.

So what I plan to do is use Nebo to write it out, then use it’s awesome export to text feature to post to my blog. I will also be adding an image of the notes I wrote in the app so you can see just how awful my handwriting truely is and see if it improves over time. I haven’t written with a pen and paper (so to say) on a regular basis since High School which was 17 years ago! 👴🏻

I’ve been wanting to create a semi-steady blog for a while so hopefully this project will help me with that.

Also feel free to tell me I’m crazy.

Gonna be trying out Marsedit’s 4 beta. I loved this app back in the day, when I blogged more regularly so hoping it can get me back into the swing of things.

Had a great time at Disney World last week, but now I have to get back in the swing of things. Goal is to start weighing in again starting on Monday.

In the past the only way I have been successful at losing weight was by not eating less than 1500 calories, most day less than 1200 (which I know is not enough). I’ve been trying to fix that this time around, but the results have been well basically nothing.

What I’ve been doing:

So my goal the last few weeks have been to eat close to 1800 calories each day and have an active calorie burn of at least 600 calories. But the results have been me basically losing and gaining the same 2 lbs over and over.

What am I going to do next:

I have to change it up, cause this hasn’t been working. So I am going to increase my active calorie burn to at least 800 a day and decrease my intake to 1600. That way I’m burning half the calories I’m eating.

I know this is not the best approach and will be less maintainable for me in the long run, but if I don’t start seeing some progress soon. I’m gonna wanna just give up altogether.

Sorry for the rant, just had to verbalize my frustrations!!