Pound for pound, 2021 was a very good year for the Stay family
Sara and me at the Sticks and Biscuits 5K on Thanksgiving morning.
We came a long way from those cold, dark days in January 2021 when COVID-19 found my wife, Sara, and me, sending us into isolation and idling our bathroom renovation at the Stay compound in Hershey.
In the months ahead, Stay introduced eight new shirt designs or styles, added a curated selection of U.S.-made gift and household items, and participated in more shows than ever.
By Christmas, a strong holiday season had provided a perfect antidote to the way 2021 started and helped make it the best year in our company’s short history.
We are grateful for our customers, vendors, show organizers and fellow makers for your support and friendship.
We have much to celebrate as a business, but I’m also thankful for the gift of personal resolve that 2021 brought me.
Ditching donuts
Even though Sara and I have been alternating daily runs and walks for most of the past two years, which corresponds with our family’s move into downtown Hershey, pandemic pounds were piling up thanks to too much indulgence of craft beer, ice cream, salted snacks.
The tipping point came in July, first when I saw the York Flea promotional video for which I was interviewed. I was sitting in a chair, and there was no hiding my gut.
Later in the month, Sara and I took a one-night trip to Buffalo.
We sat through a doubleheader at Sahlen Field, a minor-league baseball stadium that had been transformed into the temporary home of the Toronto Blue Jays because of COVID restrictions in Canada. There’s nothing like a warm, humid day to bring me discomfort.
From there, we walked to Big Ditch, a favorite craft brewery, where I had several beers and a burger. The next day, on the way home, we stopped at Paula’s Donuts, another local fave. It was a great trip, albeit too short and too fattening. I vowed to Sara, as I’d done too many times before, that I was going to change my evil ways by eating better and exercising more.
I’m really not sure why it clicked in 2021 en route to my dropping 25 pounds. Was it a response to the pandemic and taking less for granted? A desire to renovate myself just as we’re rehabbing our 1931 bungalow?
Regardless, I feel more fit and more confident.
I am able to run farther and faster. On Thanksgiving morning, I ran the Sticks and Biscuits 5K in Palmyra at an average pace below nine minutes per mile. It wasn’t a blistering speed, but I think it was my best in the nine times I have participated in the race.
I don’t mean to sound boastful. It’s really just a feeling of incredulity that I found the willpower to achieve my weight-loss goal. Weird times, indeed.
I held my own during the holidays, too, continuing to exercise around the heightened consumption of Christmas cookies and milk chocolate, potato chips and beer. I’m not returning to the bad old days, for sure.
I intend to drop another five to 10 pounds in the new year. I’m thankful that 2021, despite its obvious external challenges, showed me what’s within my power to control.