Baker's heartbeat

  Steve, Kirstin and chubby me, before the North Scott High School Homecoming event in October, 2007.      This week marks an important anniversary: It was 15 years ago when I decided -- during one of the biggest weeks of my life -- that I would work out five days a week, without fail, and eat right.     We are talking about a frustrated, chubby almost-50 year-old newspaper journalist who had just been assigned the Health beat. If I were going to be a health journalist, I thought, I better get in shape.     I made my way to the Scott Family Y in Davenport, and joined up. I was at about 165 pounds -- 25 pounds overweight. The goal was to drop 25 pounds and try to weigh something between 130 and 140 pounds.     It took a while, and several strategies (such as portion control), but I did eventually reach the goal weight.     In the meantime, husband Steve, who had retired in 2007, was busy walking about 2-3 miles most days of the week. He'd take our dog and mostly do this in the morni

     Steve and I at the Iowa State/Baylor game, Sept. 24 in Ames .      Folks who meet me know rather quickly that I'm a big Iowa State University fan.           That's been the case ever since I chose to go to college in Ames, back in 1975.     That first year I bought student Iowa State football tickets. That practice continued for several years as I went to games in Ames with my dad, Emery Cox Jr.     It's evolved rather recently that many college football games are televised.     Take the Big 10 Conference as a prime example:  I actually once believed that conference was silly to launch the Big 10 Network.     That was wrong and short-sighted.       The Big Ten Network works in partnership with the Fox Networks, as explained online , and has been picked up all over the country. It's relatively easy to find Big 10 games of interest.     That's not currently the case with the Big 12.       Right now, the conference is debating an agreement with Fox, ESPN and ESPN+