Matt Gehrisch Online

In the fall of 2008, while riding her bicycle, Becky found two three-week old kittens that had been dumped by the side of the road.  She scooped them up, put them in her pocket and rode back home.  In the coming weeks, she cared for those two kittens as if they were her own, even taking them to the office with her in order to maintain their bottle feeding schedule.  She named them Troy and Willey.  They were her babies.

Last night, at a little after 2:00am at the ER vet clinic, we lost Miss Willie.  It was quite sudden.  Only a few hours elapsed between the time that we knew that something was wrong and her passing.  She was four years old, still young, and full of life, energy, and personality.

Willey may have come into this world disposable and unwanted, but she left it deeply loved and she will be dearly missed.

New Years 2011 found me at my heaviest point ever.  I was 230 pounds.  I didn’t feel good, I had no energy, and it was time for some changes.  I started trying to eat healthier in January, but, having been overweight for much of my life, I had tried that many times in the past without success

In the past, I had always wanted to lose weight, but I don’t think I ever really WANTED it.  It was something that I wished I could do, but never could really commit to.  It was never important enough to force me to muster the will power to make permanent lasting changes to my diet. Click to read more …

I just finished reading “One man’s wilderness: An Alaskan Odyssey”.  The book is based on the journals of Dick Proenneke, an amazing man, who at 50 years old retired to the Alaskan bush.  he stayed there for the next 30 years in a cabin that he built by hand, capturing photographs and 16mm film of the pure and pristine landscape and wildlife that surrounded him.

The book made me think about the way I want to live my life.  no, that doesn’t mean that I want to adopt a subsistence lifestyle and disconnect from modern society.  What it means is that I want to simplify my life and become more in touch with the world around me.  I want to affect a real change in my life by unplugging from technology and letting life slow down around me a little bit.  Sure, I’ll keep my high tech job, and stay up to date on the tech industry, but when I’m not working, I need to step back and focus on enjoying the simple things in my life. Click to read more …

I apparently still can’t seem to get myself to update my site regularly.  It has been a few months now since the biggest change of my life occurred.  My son Warren was born in September.  Becky and I couldn’t be happier!  It was a wild ride, but things have started to settle down, and I feel like we’re finally starting to get into a pattern.

It’s been almost a year since I wrote the post about making some changes in my life.  Its been a crazy year, but I’ve made some progress.

Last year, the company I work for was acquired.  It was a little scary at the time, since Becky and I both work there, but it has turned out to be one of the best things that could have happened to us.  Most of the “crazy” in the last year has been directly related to the amount of work that I’ve had to handle with the integration into the new company, and the aggressive release deadlines that our team has been under.

So, since that post, much of my energy has been poured into work, but I have been able to make a couple of big changes.

First, Becky and I have changed the way we think about, and manage our money.  We’ve made a commitment to get out of debt, and we are making good progress.  I’m very proud of myself for making this change, as it was one that was much needed.  The growing sense of freedom is motivating us to continue working towards our goal.

Second, and probably most importantly, I have made a commitment to myself to pay more attention to my health.  I have changed the way I think about food.  We now do the overwhelming majority of our grocery shopping around the perimeter of the store, buying almost all fresh foods.  I’ve stopped eating fast food, stopped buying pop, and also stopped buying beer.

Don’t get me wrong, I still love great food, and will eventually allow myself the occasional beer as a special treat when we go out, but I am paying very careful attention to making sure that I am getting the right nutrition, and most importantly, appropriate quantities of food.

In addition, I have also starting making sure that I engage in physical activity at least 15 minutes EVERY day, and most days 30-45 minutes.  My next step is to join a local gym this week.  The one I plan to join is right on the way home, and I look forward to stopping and working out regularly on the way home after work.

What have these changes done for me so far?

I’m not stressing over money, and I’m coping with stress form work more effectively.  I’ve already dropped about 15 pounds (with a total goal of ~50 pounds), I feel better, and I have more energy.

Yes, my friends, change is good.