by Jaime

It didn't happen after the Half Marathon in Olathe.

It didn't happen after the 4-mile race last week.

And it shouldn't have had to happen at all.

I'm talking about my comeback, which is finally here.  Since my last blog entry, I've had a couple great accomplishments - a 13.25 mile half marathon, followed 3 weeks later by the 4 mile Trolley Run in Kansas City's Plaza.  But I missed a lot of little accomplishments - all the workouts that should have happened in between.  Let me help you catch up.

The last time I posted was near the end of March.  Adriene and I ended our fitness challenge with a whimper - we'd done great, but we were burned out.  Total, I lost 45 pounds, and thankfully only gained 5 back during the "off" month Adriene and I gave ourselves.  Now it's May, and we're back on the horse.  But even that didn't motivate me like it should have.  No, it took the complementary copy of Runner's World that showed up in the mail this week.  It was part of a special offer through the Olathe half marathon, and it was a life preserver.  Even when I woke up this morning, I didn't think anything of it, but I opened the magazine and started reading, and it all came back to me.  I love running.  And I love what it did for me over the last few months.  So, I ran my first non-race run in a month, and it felt great.

I started this journey January 3rd, with Adriene.  I started out dancing dangerously close to the 300 pound mark - 294 to be exact.  I had 120 pounds to lose.  Over three months, I dropped to just under 250.  Now it's time for round two.

Stay tuned for the Bellmyer Fitness Challenge #2.  I'll be wiping the site clean, and restarting a lot of the charts and such.  In fact, I'm planning to build our own blog that we'll host on my own leased server (I'm a web developer by trade), and hopefully it will be even better.  MSN has some limitations that I'm not crazy about.  My charts, for instance, have maximum size limits I've been fighting since day one.

Anyway, I just wanted to say it's good to be back!  I can't wait to bring you more, and shed the next 40 pounds.

by Jaime

If you've never read Of Mice and Men, Lenny is the big, dumb brother who doesn't know his own strength. Actually, if you've seen My Name is Earl, I guess it's pretty much the same setup. Anyway, it turns out I am Lenny (or Randy, for you Earl fans), and my weight loss is my precious little pet mouse. Okay, I could also be describing the scene from Tommy Boy where Tommy describes his failing sales abilities to a slightly freaked out waitress. I guess this is a story as old as time/mice.

So I get the mouse, I pet it, and it's happy. All is well. Then I think, if I pet him twice as hard, he should be twice as happy! So I do, and the mouse either dies or just becomes very jaded at having a stupid owner. Either way, I have failed as a mouse owner. This is the story of my recent weight loss.

Last week, I really buckled down - insane amounts of running, strict diet, salad and spinach leaves as far as the eye can see. And it failed. I only lost half a pound. This week, I relaxed - I sensed I'd overdone it the week before, and also I was tired of working that hard. And it looks like this is going to be a great weight loss week. Go figure. I think my pet is giving me another chance. Morgan is going through kind of the same thing, working extra hard and not seeing the results.

We're all Lenny/Randy/Tommy at some point, overdoing something that was working just fine. I guess last week was my week. Our fitness challenge ends in two weeks. I don't think I'll hit the 50 pound weight loss mark, which is fine. But I think I'll set myself up well to hit that by the end of April, my birthday, just with my daily running and healthier eating habits. Sweet.

by Jaime

Last night I stayed up late building a site I thought would be funny. I like it. You should check it out:

http://www.captionater.com

Basically, I put up a goofy picture, and you get to make up your own caption for it. And read what others have made up. It's actually pretty funny. I don't want to oversell it, but it may just be the greatest invention since Al Gore invented the internets.

by Jaime

I was in a really, really bad mood this morning. I knew this week's weigh-in was going to be a tough one, so I geared up for it. I put more miles under my feet this week than ever before, including two runs over 9 miles each, and 7.5 miles last night. Almost 40 miles total. The results? My lowest weight loss to date - 0.6 pounds. Just over half a pound.

Mid-week, I saw the writing on the wall, and quickly switched from the shorter, more speed oriented runs I was doing (in preparation of an upcoming race) and went back to long, easy-paced, good fat burning jogs. But it didn't help, at least not in time for today. There's some good news:

• I still lost at least something.
• Counting my 6 pound loss a couple weeks ago, I'm still averaging good progress.
• According to our fat-measuring scale, every ounce of this week's weight loss was fat.
• I broke the 34% mark for bodyfat, and I'm now at 33.7%.

Despite all this, failing to meet a goal after so much effort was really frustrating, and I just sort of let myself soak in it all morning. I knew I'd bounce back, so I don't mind the occasional pity party. Talking to Morgan really helped. A simple phrase like "these things happen" carries enormous weight (ironically) when coming from someone who has truly been there.

This afternoon started a new burst of excitement, however. I signed up for my first half marathon ever! The closest I've come was a 5-man marathon relay about 10 years ago. I know I can do it, because I can handle 9 mile jogs, and I'm certainly not looking for speed. Part of the reason I'm so aggressive in my weight loss efforts right now is because I think the best thing I can do to improve race day is to lose weight.

So I'll be running the Olathe Half Marathon (13.25 miles) on March 29th. According to last year's results, I'll be fighting for 2nd to last place with a gentleman twice my age. Man, I sure hope he shows up, because the next guy up the list had me beat by at least half an hour.

by Jaime

Oh yes, I have a secret weapon...a weapon so secrety, in fact, I was not even aware of it myself. This puts my weapon a full degree of sneakiness over anything James Bond has ever had. I never saw a movie where say, his shoelaces flew off and strangled a guy when he didn't even know they were special. I'm getting off topic.

Luckily, as predicted, I lost interest in Air Supply this weekend, and found something new to obsess over - the length of the trail around Gear for Sports headquarters near my house. I can google map the distance to and from the trail, because I'm always running on a sidewalk by a road. The trail itself is a different story - no road for google to follow, so the best I could estimate was 1K. And that seemed like a logical size for a trail.

The problem was that I seemed to be running the 5K round trip to/from the trail a lot faster than my loops around the trail. And the trail is the best terrain - mostly level, soft surface - ideally where I'd be running the fastest. So the obsessing began - am I running more than I think? Or somehow less? How does this affect my plans for the half-marathon at the end of this month??

I finally called this morning, and the verdict is in - 0.8 miles. The trail is longer than the 0.62 miles (1K) I'd been estimating. Mystery solved - I appeared to be running faster on the sidewalks because I was underestimating how long the trail was. This is awesome news, because it means I can run faster than I previously thought. It also means I've been getting more of a workout, especially on the longer runs where I do more loops around the trail.

Take saturday. I thought I ran 13K (8 miles) - 5K round trip plus 8 times around the track. But that's actually more like 15.3K (9.5 miles). This is HUGE. I now need to figure out how to confirm this - possibly by biking out to the trail and using the odometer. If this is accurate, then I'm a hell of a lot more prepared for that half marathon than I thought. As Kirk Van Houten would say, "I'm a superstar at the cracker factory."

by Jaime

Okay, this is starting to freak me out. Just for fun and laughs, I looked up that Air Supply video on youtube last night. Then the video ended, and the list of recommended vids popped up, and boom - another song I recognized. Then another. And another. Here's the list:

• Lost in Love
• All Out of Love
• Every Woman in the World
• Even the Nights are Better
• Making Love Out of Nothing at All

I am bothered by two things. First, my parents were apparently rabid Air Supply fans, because I remember hearing these songs all the time during my formative preschool years. Second, growing up I thought these were all man-woman love duets. I thought they were singing to each other. Now I find out it's two men, and they're apparently singing to the same woman in some sort of twisted love triangle or Cyrano de Bergerac situation. I am now forced to reinterpret all of these songs based on this new information. Luckily, I'll lose interest in a few hours, and we can put this whole thing behind us.

by Jaime

I feel like such an idiot, I neglected half of the story with my little lesson on air. Aside from just not over-exerting yourself, the other half of air is...well, breathing. I find on the longer runs especially, I focus a lot on my breathing, and it helps. Here are some pointers:

Breath at a steady pace.
I happen to do best breathing in for two steps, then out for two steps, but figure out what works for you.

Make the most of each breath.
Don't try to max out your lung capacity on every breath, but make sure they're deep enough to really soak up that oxygen.

Don't wait.
This is the most important tip I can give you: start breathing well, right at the beginning of your workout. Don't wait until you've got $1 left in that imaginary account to start budgeting. Air is kind of like water - humans have a hard time knowing when they're low on either. Breathe right, before you think you need to.

Oh, and stay in school, keep off drugs, etc.

by Jaime

Let's take a test:

Are you lost in love?
Don't know much?

If so, then your google search for Air Supply has led you horribly astray. I'm talking about how you manage your oxygen on long workouts. Sometimes I forget that I had the benefit of a great cross country coach in high school who started every friday practice in the classroom. I should start sharing more of what I learned.

Some Back Story

I've decided to go for broke, and run the Olathe Half Marathon at the end of this month. Today I began more race-specific training, by dedicating Saturdays to an extended run to prepare for the 13.1 mile race. That's about 21K. Today I ran 13K, and I'll increase that by two each Saturday until the race. I'll limit my weekday jogs to about 8K.

The Lesson

The fact is, you can probably run/walk/whatever a lot farther than you think, just by managing how you breathe. 13K drained me, but it was possible because I never let my oxygen supply get too low. Analogy time. Say you open a shiny new bank account with $1,000. Every week you earn another $1,000, and life is good UNLESS you spend more than that. If you overspend, eventually that account will run dry.

Your body is like that account. At the beginning of a run, your body has all the oxygen stores it needs. Breathing is how you replenish that supply as you run. But exert too much effort, and you will slowly drain that supply as your workout progresses. The trick is to find the level of effort where you're replacing the oxygen as quickly as you use it. At this speed, you'll find you can run almost forever. Today, I was able to run for just over 2 hours, and that's saying something - 2.5 months ago, I weighed 300 pounds.

The key is to never work hard enough to get winded. Once that happens, it's hard to recover. As a bonus, you tend to burn the most fat when you're in an aerobic (fully oxygenated) state, so it's a 2-for-1 sort of deal. By relaxing just a little, you may be able to turn a 30 minute workout into a full hour, and even with the lower effort, you'll still burn near twice the calories.

UPDATE: I just watched the video to Lost in Love and I am absolutely blown away that both voices in that song were men. I never knew that.

by Adriene

I meant to write this yesterday but I totally forgot.   So yesterday was a very strange day, not like any other I have had since starting this diet.  I woke up and ate breakfast like I normally do.  As the morning progressed I started feeling a weird sensation in my tummy and it took me a while but I finally realized that my stomach was actually growling...I was starving!  I really should have eaten a small snack but I was afraid to try it when I was so hungry so I just put off eating until Lunch.  Well, here comes the second strange thing.....I all of the sudden had an overwhelming urge to eat MEAT.  Yep, I went into the fridge and finished off the brisket we had brought home from the weekend which was probably about 8-10oz and then I ate a piece of left over ham from the night before.  That was my entire lunch, just meat.  After eating it my craving was gone and I then started to realize what I had done.  It's funny how binge eating works, you truely don't realize you are even eating, you just get caught up in the craving..... until it's done and you think back to what all you ate.  I am really hoping my binge didn't spoil my weigh-in for tomorrow.

On another note I was thrilled that was able to run a small distance. I am not a runner...I just never seem to have enough oxygen when I run and can usually only make it a block or so before having to stop.  Today I was actually able to run 3 times around a small gym and I felt pretty good...so good that I called Jaime at work during lunch and told him of the good news.  I could tell he was having a very hard time trying not to laugh but he was still supportive.  Thank you sweetie!

by Jaime

This is awesome. My last good run was a week ago exactly. Since then, I fell ill Thursday night, through Friday. I tried to run on Saturday, and eeked out a decent 65 minute jog. It was tough, and it was clear I wasn't ready to run again. A busy weekend kept me from recovering, and this was the first night I felt up to it. It couldn't have gone better. This is only the second time I've run 10K. A few weeks ago, it took me 108 minutes. This time, it took 93! I shaved off fifteen minutes.

I thought about running 2K more, but two things stopped me. First, Adriene and I had planned to try some new coffee I'd picked up, and it would have been 10pm before I got home. Second, as I finished up 7.5K, which is when I had to decide, I felt like my oxygen level was low. I know it sounds funny, but I can tell.

So, with just two days left before weigh-in, I finally got some exercise. I only hope I can do as well tomorrow night, and put up a decent weight loss on Friday.

by Jaime

Well, I haven't posted for a couple days, but I've had some good excuses.

First of all, I'm happy to announce a new blog I've started, called KC on Rails. I'm a web programmer by trade, and this year I started programming in Ruby on Rails. I'm hoping to get a community of Rails developers going here in KC, and that blog is part of the effort.

Also, I've been recovering from a stomach bug that hit me last friday. I ran a decent 6K workout on Saturday up in Omaha, but that was probably a mistake. I wasn't ready yet. So I took the next couple days off, and it felt good. Almost too good. So no matter what, I'm hitting the road tonight and getting a good (but easy) run in.

Oh, and if you have any remote interest in what I do, visit my new blog!

by Jaime

For this blog entry, I had several good topics at hand. The front runner was actually a tribute and funny imaginary letter to Ted Nugent, whose music helped me eek every last ounce of effort out of a recent jog. It even had a catchy title - "Ted Nugent Gave Me the Runs".

But this entire weekend has been overshadowed by something that happened late friday afternoon, before our two day trip to Nebraska. My boss called me into his office and told me he was unhappy with my performance over the last couple months. Right off the bat, I want to say I'm not fired, he's not angry, and I think the whole meeting opened a good dialog about some communication issues we'd been having, in both directions.

You're about to read a story that is still being written. Obviously, it's a delicate topic, and I'm going to treat it that way. I don't want to offend or disparage anyone, especially those who sign my paycheck. But it's something I'm going through, and this is my journal that helps me make sense of things like this. So here goes.

The Meeting.

My boss was very complimentary of my work and abilities. There was no shortage of praise for what what I can do as a programmer. His concern was that I seem to have lost focus over the last several weeks, as if I no longer "care" about my projects. The more I thought about that, the more I think he's right.

He and I have been working very closely over the last couple months on a couple of projects. This is way more "boss time" than I'm used to having. That, coupled with some differences of opinion, has left me frustrated. I have to admit that while I've tried to remain professional about it, there's no substitute for actually being happy, and I'm sure it's started to affect my productivity.

So on to the weekend.

Hollywood Offers Its Advice.

A wise woman, Bruce Wayne's love interest in Batman Begins, said this: "It's not who you are underneath; it's what you do that defines you." Remember this, it will become relevant later. And technically that didn't happen this weekend, but I remembered it this weekend, and it's my blog, dammit.

Morgan Strikes a Chord.

This has nothing to do with her newfound Guitar Hero addiction. She recently ran her first road race after losing over 95 pounds, but mentioned still having trouble calling herself an athlete. I commented on her blog, saying that it's not how you look or whom you beat that makes you an athlete - it's what you do. Running several times a week, even before competing, makes you an athlete. Do you see the theme developing?

I Learn About my Great Grandfather.

Apparently my great grandfather was beloved by all. During the depression when employment was impossible, he would volunteer to unload produce trucks. At the end of the day he was given a basket or two to take home. Produce perishes fast in a pre-fridge world, so he fed not only his family but his neighbors as well.

If it helps/educates/enlightens, he was a legal mexican migrant worker. To me, he embodies the spirit of America, and he's one of the many people I owe thanks for the great life I have. Back then, he had the wit and skills to survive, where my particular gifts would have probably made me a starving, out of work cotton gin mechanic.



Ben Folds Offers His 3.6 Cents.

If you've ever heard One Down (3.6 To Go) by Ben Folds, my favorite part is:

I could be bussing tables,
I could well be pumping gas.
But I get paid much finer
for playing piano, and kissing ass.

That poetic, profanity-laced recognition that no matter how high up we deem ourselves, everything is a gift. My intellect, my (unusual) education, my upbringing, my opportunities.

The Reading at Sunday Mass.

Finally, it was Church time, and the gospel was about a blind man that Jesus cured. When questioned by angry Jesus-haters, he said, "I don't know if he's a sinner. I just know I was blind, and now I can see.". Being a 30 year old Catholic, it's safe to assume I've heard this same line exactly 30 times - once a year, the 4th Sunday of Lent. But today it clicked. So let's wrap this up, kids.

If you didn't pee earlier, we're almost done.

Batman's girlfriend, my great grandfather, Ben Folds, the man formerly known as blind, and even me, giving advice to a friend: we all knew the same fundamental lesson. Our labels don't matter. Even our past (and future) accomplishments or failures are secondary. It's what you do that counts. If I AM a man who can quote every bible verse (I'm not) but I don't look for every way to help others, I'm just not a good Christian. Well-versed (pun intented) is something you are. Helping is something you do. Which is more important? And I'm a great programmer. I'm a smart guy. But if I don't produce great work, it's kind of for nothing.

My boss and I have our differences. I'm sure there are things we could both be doing better. I'm going to work on mine, so I never have to wonder what I could have done differently. Like my best friend said when I brought up all this, there really is no excuse for not doing your best.

by Adriene

First of all, I know what you are thinking.....two blog entries in a row from Adriene, that's amazing!  To that I say, I TOTALLY AGREE, lol.    Anyways, this morning was our weigh-in day and I was very pleased by both of our progress.  Me not getting the workout I really wanted to yesterday didn't really affect me too much.  I actually made my goal of 1% plus a little extra!  YAY for me.  And Jaime had a very good week too, way over the 1% goal. 

I also found out yesterday that I am soooooo close in moving down a size in my jeans.  Currently I wear a size 18 but they are so baggie around the legs and butt that they feel more like clown pants.  The problem is my stomache isn't going down much so I can get my 16's on just fine and those are actually fitting a little loose in the legs but I can't quit button them yet.  My goal for this coming week is to get into those smaller jeans so I guess I will have to do more crunches and stuff. 

We are going back home for the weekend and my mother in law is a huge cooker so we are both a little concerned about our eating habits.  She is having a retirement party on Saturday and there is sure to be just tons and tons of awesome foods so we will have to be careful.  Luckily I have Lent on my side to take care of the sweets, that's what I gave up, but I am a sucker for everything else.  We will let you know how the weekend goes when it's over. 

Take Care

by Adriene

Tomorrow is the day, the weigh in day that is, and I am hopeful it will be a good one.  I say hopeful because I didn't get to workout today like I planned or wanted to because I think I am getting sick.  I just felt so run down today, tired and like my whole body was made of lead and I started a little cough and hurt all over.   I am hoping to make  my 1% this week! 

To all my friends reading this blog right now, yes my husband is a smartass but his sense of humor is one of the things I love most about him.  If you knew him like I do you would take his blogs lightly and actually find them a bit funny, much like I do. 

And to you my friend/neighbor Kate....I hope you are reading this (see I told you I do write blogs, lol) you know how Jaime can be and like I told you before he was not mad or upset at your family....it was just a frustrating day for him.  And like I told you before, this is a place where he likes to vent those frustrations....it's his journal and like any paper journal you write what you feel.  So please don't take offense to what happened as it was not intended to be that way.

I will post another blog tomorrow to let you all know about my weigh-in!

Night

by Jaime

This random picture shows a Happy Jaime.

I didn't realize this, but apparently if you don't know me very well and you read this blog, I might sound like an angry, disgruntled person. Nothing could be further from the truth! I'm quite happy, and extraordinarily gruntled. Here's the proof:

So let's put the smartassery (which is my trademark) aside for a minute. My wife told all her friends to start reading our blog, and apparently I rubbed some people the wrong way. I guess I just want to say two things. Again, no anger. Remember the smiley face above? Okay, I'd better hurry because I'm starting to be a smartass again

First, I have a dryer, more sarcastic sense of humor. In time, you will grow to love this about me. But I guess if you've only met me briefly (probably on the birthday circuit) you haven't gotten a chance to see that. The important thing to remember is you really can't take me too seriously, especially the stuff I write for all the world to see.

Second, if you read this blog often enough, I can guarantee you will catch me in a bad mood eventually. This is my journal, my log of what I'm going through as I attempt to lose 120 pounds. It has to be one of the biggest undertakings of my life, and I'm glad to say I'm a fourth of the way there. If anyone ever reads this for their own inspiration, I don't want them thinking it was a walk in the park.

So there you have it. Kate, I'm sorry if you were offended by my rant about one of your relatives. In all fairness, that person did offer me cake three times inside of a single minute, and it came at the end of a long weekend of temptation. I don't hate that person, in fact your whole family seems very nice. That's why I answered politely, kept my frustration to myself, and vented later on the internet.

Well, that's all for now. Please be warned, I will most certainly be a smartass again, the next time you read this blog. 

by Jaime

My friend Morgan made a comment a couple weeks ago about how you can be fat and fit. I agreed, but I'm really starting to live it now. And it's a good thing. When I look at how much I weigh now, I am much fitter on the way down than I was on the way up. That's because on the way up I wasn't running several miles a day, or watching what I ate. I dare say even 20-30 pounds lighter, I wasn't as fit as I am now.

The good news is that fit removes fat. Before, it was easy to gain weight - just keep doing what I was doing. Now the same is true in reverse. All I have to do is maintain the lifestyle I've cultivated for two full months now (well, it would be two full months if tomorrow wasn't a "magic" extra day), and I'll continue to shrink.

A couple of good indicators:

• My 2XL clothing, the staple of my wardrobe for the last year or so, is starting to look baggy. In a less and less attractive way.
• I never believed the women in the office when they complained about it being cold. Now, I'm starting to feel colder, and I think it's due to less insulation.
• I think my basic body shape is starting to return, which is awesome. I look cool with a lot of upper-body muscle, so I'm going to start working on that.

It absolutely blows my mind that Morgan can run as fast as she can, and that she would smoke me in a road race. I look forward to getting back to that level. I'm even going to start doing road races, and try to do 1-2 a month. The big goal is to run a half marathon at the KC Marathon this October. I might even bump it up to a full marathon, depending on how things go. I'll keep all (three) of you posted.

by Jaime

It's not often you can break both speed and distance records in the same run. But that's exactly what I did last night. Records since this year, of course, because I used to run a lot more in years past. Anyway, I had 90 minutes to run last night before being back home at 9 to watch Biggest Loser, which we'd recorded. Ten of those minutes were lost to a last minute story that had to be read to me, by my five year old. It was his homework.

I hit the ground running (literally) at 7:40, with 80 minutes to go. I knew there would be heck to pay if I didn't make it back on time. Not just for the show, but since I was skipping putting the younger kids to bed at eight, I had to make sure I was back at nine to put our oldest son down. At a pace of 11 minute K's (kilometers, about .62 miles), I could only get 7K in, but I really wanted 8K. I have this 5K loop I run, which takes me right past the 1K Gear for Sports track I've mentioned, where I can modify my run distance as I please.

Well, I booked it, and made it to the track a couple minutes ahead of schedule. So I really pushed the first of hopefully three laps. The first was nine minutes. The next two were 8.5! I was on fire, and I had all the time in the world to get back home at a leisurely pace. But after pushing so hard before, I was able to take a pretty good pace home, and arrive with over 5 minutes to spare.

At this point, I really need to work on pacing myself, because I can tell I'm getting overeager to push it, which eventually leads to a crash. I think an all-out run like this might be good once a week, but that's it. You burn a lot more calories with slow and steady, so that needs to be the game plan.

by Jaime

This random picture shows that no matter how far you've come, there's always further you can go.

This is a great day. I woke up this morning (after sleeping through the would-be morning run) to find I've finally broken the 30 pound mark. My short term goal now is to lose enough weight this week, so I can hit the 35 pound mark next week.

Last night, I made up for the weekend (kind of) by running almost 2 hours straight. 10K, almost 7 miles. If anyone lives near the Gear for Sports headquarters near 95th and Loiret in Lenexa, they have an awesome track around the building with a rubbery blacktop surface. For me, it's a 5K run if I jog to it and back without using it. So I've started jogging out there, and running as many 1K loops around the track as I feel like, and it's great.

On my fifth and final loop, I went all out, and finished the loop in under nine minutes. Ultimately, I'd like to use the jog to/from the track as warmup/cooldown, and start doing more structured workouts on the track itself. For now, it's enough to just put miles on, and build up a good base before getting fancy.

But this has told me something - I think I want to run some road races this summer. And I'm really thinking about a half marathon.

by Jaime

This random picture shows Troy McClure, an avid cigar enthusiast and lover of fish.

I have a problem with the perception of tobacco in this country. Cigarette companies have largely given tobacco a bad name. I have it from a very reliable source (television) that all tobacco is evil, and living within a mile of a smoker is somehow causing me irreparable harm. Well, I can certainly see how smoking a pack a day, or living with someone who does, can be very unhealthy. I'd even use the word dangerous.

But I'm not that guy. I'm the guy who likes to hang out with buddies, play a little poker, and once every month or two, light up a cigar or pipe. You don't even inhale those, so in a well-ventilated area, your lung exposure is much less than a cigarette. Bottom line, I wish we, the occasional cigar enthusiasts, were not lumped in with the larger and more deadly cigarette smoking epidemic.

That's why I'll be mad if this great tobacco shop I've discovered is no longer able to let patrons enjoy their purchase in their complementary cigar lounge. This would happen if the more restrictive of the two proposed smoking bans (in KC, MO) passes. I don't know why I can't be trusted to make my own informed decisions about how much tobacco I expose myself to.

It's easy to say "smoking is bad", and that relieves us of the burden of recognizing that there isn't just one type of smoking. Maybe one day we'll be saying "drinking is bad" or even "dessert is bad" simply because some choose to abuse those, as well.