Highlights of My Week in Frisco, Texas

For the Week of  March 1, 2010

Working Hard, Getting Fit: This week has just FLOWN. I worked out 3 times with Ken of Old School Fitness in Frisco and my personal “high point” was doing about 80 walking squats with a weight bar. Then today I had a great upper body workout and really rocked the triceps-rope-thingy (how’s that for a technical term?) I know the whole “no pain, no gain” thing. But let me tell you – I’ve been walking like Shamus from Family Guy – both arms and legs! (For those of you who don’t know, he’s a tough fisherman with wood for arms and legs.)

Today, I tried some awesome naturally caffeinated herbal peach tea that I bought from Ken and I felt great!  Here is his Herbalife Site. I blogged about getting started working with Ken last week – check it out.

Patriarch’s Opens in Frisco Square: Matt and I were invited to the sneak peak of the new Patriarch’s Sanctuary Bar in Frisco Square,  just north of the Courthouse and liked it so much that we went back this week. Matt’s office is literally right above it which makes for convenient 4pm work meetings with his colleagues! The ambiance is great – the lighting reflects relaxation in an intimate, mellow setting. Their tagline really describes the mood -“Fine Unwinding.” There’s Cigar Humidor adjacent to Patriarch’s as well, and I hear they will be selling annual memberships to store patrons’ cigars and spirits. Make sure you go by and say hi to manager Paul at Sanctuary Bar (who used to be, in my and Matt’s opinion, THE very best server at the IHOP off the Tollway/Main.) We’re glad to see Paul serving our favorite wine instead of pancakes!  He makes a great cranberry martini, too.   

Catching up with Friends: Had a fun “just the two of us” happy hour over at my dear friend Jennifer Hayden’s house this week. Her kiddos are so adorable and getting SO big!

Jennifer & I at the Mrs. US 2009 finals in Vegas supporting our Texas winner!

I got to hear about all the cool things going on in her life, including her work with imageLIFT Consulting. Jennifer is a former Mrs. Texas US who, after she gave up her title, became the official Image Consultant for the pageant which I produced for 5 years. imageLIFT Consulting has worked with not just pageant contestants, but celebrities, recent college graduates, television personalities, models and prospective job applicants to to help their client achieve great success in all areas of their lives. It’s a pretty cool concept! If this sounds like something you want to know more about, you can call her at 972-523-5366 and she’ll take good care of you!

Arts of Collin County Project – “To Be or Not To Be…That is the Question”: Another item that was buzzing around town this week was talk on whether to continue Frisco’s support of the Arts of Collin County project – see my blog  right under this one. The fact that the project was to be 4 cities (Plano, Allen, Frisco and McKinney) and became 3 since McKinney dropped out changes things considerably. I don’t know about you, but I am not interested in my taxes going up again.

Matt and I LOVE the arts – don’t get us wrong – but we don’t feel like it’s not necessary to drive to Allen to enjoy it. We can drive to Dallas to their new performing arts center if we desired. Frisco has a growing art following right here in our own backyard. The bonds were approved by voters in 2002 when most of us (including me – I moved here a few weeks after the vote!) weren’t even Frisco citizens yet. Had the terms not changed so dramatically then it might be different. Besides – and more importantly – what Frisco voters approved was only Phase 1 of the project and did not include operating expenses – which would come from from the City’s operating budget based on our population. In my opinion, there were a lot of future items not disclosed to the voting public when being a part of the ACC project was put on the ballot in 2002.

So, many of us encouraged our Council Members to give the thumbs up to let the VOTERS decide on whether to keep Frisco “in” the project – they were supposed to vote on it this past Tuesday at the regular council meeting but have since delayed that until this coming Monday at 2pm. Hopefully Council will agree to allow those of us who voted them into office decide the fate of Frisco’s involvement – not 6 Council Members (and potentially the very pro-ACC project Mayor who gets to vote if there’s a 3-3 tie.)  He never did respond to my email’s question on Monday wanting to know why continuing this project is good for us as Frisco taxpayers. He was more interested in questioning my husband’s stance during the process and when Matt decided that the project was no longer good for Frisco taxpayers – this was more than 2 1/2 years ago and was a major issue during the Mayoral campaign which he seems to have forgotten. Matt was very much in favor of not continuing Frisco’s participation for a myriad of reasons that were not apparent until later.

Primary Election: I am a “vote-day-of” kind of girl and Matt and I exercised that right on Tuesday. Did you? There were record turnouts this year. If you aren’t registered to vote, get it done so you don’t miss out on the next election.  No excuses!

 Texas Tornado Host Family Gathering and Pink in the Rink: We were a host family for the Texas Tornado Junior Hockey team (young men ages 16-20) up until last month when our player was released from the team. We got to be so close to our player Johnny from New York. We’ve also gotten to know a lot of the other players and host families since August when the players arrived from all over the country to play for well-respected Coach Tony Curtale’s NAHL team. So we were excited to attend a host family potluck this past weekend and catch up with everyone. Thanks to the Costello family for holding it at their beautiful home! We had a great time. Don’t forget – the Tornado are home this weekend for a 3 game series that started tonight and goes through Sunday. It’s great family entertainment and one heck of a value! Plus the they’ve teamed with the American Cancer Society Relay for Life Frisco for what will be an amazing event, “Pink in the Rink” this weekend.

Texas Tornado's Pink in the Rink is This Weekend

Special Pink in the Rink T-Shirts, wristbands, necklaces, hats, and keychains will be sold with 20% of all proceeds benefitting the American Cancer Society!
 
The one-of-a-kind pink jerseys worn by the players throughout the weekend will feature the Texas Tornado logo in pink and a silent auction for the jerseys will begin on Friday, March 5 and conclude at Sunday’s game on March 7, 2010. Last season the pink game-worn jerseys alone raised almost $10,000. Tickets are available here. 
            
 
The Frisco Community Newsletter latest edition: Make sure you check out our 9 year-old grass-roots e-publication that goes out to 41,000 in Frisco each week, The Frisco Community Newsletter for more going on in and around Frisco, Texas! It’s the oldest and only one of its kind in our city keeping you “in the know about all things Frisco”. It’s definitely your key to community! After the newsletter goes out to our readers we post it online in our Archives. You can also easily Subscribe or Unsubscribe via our website.
Have a good weekend everyone!
 

If at First You Don’t Succeed…

Social media is truly a phenomenal concept. It’s how I met Ken Karnack who owns a personal training business called Old School Fitness in Frisco.

We found each other a’Twitterin’ around one day online and realized we could both help each other out – me with our weekly e-publication and our 41,000 readers who get our email blast of The Frisco Community Newsletter, and him helping me get back into shape. Having just turned 38 this year, I realize that I *really* need to get with the program if I want to live a long, happy life – everyone needs some form of exercise so I figured there is no better time than the present. You see, from September 2008-April 2009 I lost about 35 pounds from simply eating better. I learned some new things about nutrition by attending a few group meetings led by Matt Schultz who holds the Frisco Weight Loss Challenge (where you can YES, even win money for losing weight!) I rarely worked out. Then I started a job (right after a very hectic event I annually produced) which required a FABULOUS commute to the Oaklawn area in Dallas and the stress just got to me – one fabulous pasta dish and wine at a time!

So I met with Ken in person and after telling him my goals for doing this and the reality check of measurements and body fat (oh that caliper!), we now meet a few times a week for weight training. Cardio is on my own – and like he says, do what I want but the scale won’t fib when the time comes!

What I like about Ken is that he isn’t trying to reinvent the fitness wheel with the “latest and greatest” products or exercises. No, you won’t find him touting an innovative piece of equipment. And he’s not a “mean” trainer whose M.O. is to degrade his client into shape.

Ken, who moved here a few years ago from Pittsburgh, is all about getting back to basics. “It’s the ‘old school’ method,” he told me, explaining the story behind his business name.

There aren’t any quick fixes to getting in shape and he isn’t going to tell you otherwise. To me, he checks his ego at the door and is very client focused. When I meet with him, I am not intimidated or surrounded by a bunch of muscle men more interested in socializing and comparing biceps than doing an effective workout. So far, it’s been just the two of us and another trainer and his/her client at the fitness studio on Main Street across from (hello irony!) the iconic Double Dip in Frisco.

Next week in The Frisco Community Newsletter our readers will get to know Ken a little better, as he’ll be the feature interview subject of our weekly Spotlight.

I know it’s going to take a while but I’m not going to beat myself up over the damage I’ve done by not being more active the last 8 years. The great thing is that one can always start anew. I’ll get there – one very painful walking squat at a time. 😀