Losing a part of me

Day 254

Yesterday I registered my first twenty thousand steps day. I am extremely happy with that, even though I strongly suspect that my attempts to get that Garmin badge will still fall short. I am 21,500 steps shy, and I have fifteen hours to do it. I think I need to hit fifteen kilometres on my walk today to clinch it… and that is not likely to happen, especially since my legs this morning were feeling jelly-like following yesterday’s push. That is not to say that it cannot happen, just that it is not likely. In the month of September, there were seventeen days that I did not go for a fitness walk. The fact that I made a major push this last week does not make up for that.

My weight this morning was the same as it was yesterday. I joked with Leslie that it is too bad that I only count my early morning weight, because when I came in from my walk yesterday, I registered my lowest weight of the year. Nothing doing, because water loss from exercise does not count. Unless, of course, I wanted to get up at 5am and walk before my 7:00am weigh-in! (The fact that we had dim sum for dinner might also contribute to the non-loss…)

I can talk about the dim sum and sushi all day long, but the truth is that I am happy with how I have been managing my eating these last few days. Rosh Hashana was a disaster, but today is the third day in a row that I will only have a single meal, plus my meal replacements. Add to that the fitness walking, and I have a lot to be proud of. No, I am not on the extreme, no-cheating program I was on a couple of years ago… I want to lose weight safely, but more important, I want to be able to maintain my weight loss once I revert to eating normal foods and eschew the meal replacements.

My diet-buddy and I spoke last night (as planned). Her announcement is that she decided to have gastric sleeve surgery in Mexico, which will reduce the size of her stomach, and help her to lose the weight. I am not sure how I feel about this, and it is not my place to judge. I know that when someone has tried over and over again to lose weight, and nothing they have done has succeeded, then they may feel that there is no other choice but the surgical route. The fact that I do not think it is for me does not mean that I do not think there are people who will benefit from it, or for whom there is no other reasonably alternative. My biggest concern is the medical tourism issue. I do not know what the conditions of the hospital are, nor the qualifications of the surgeon. She tells me that the hospital is American owned and that the doctors are American. That scares me even more… the better trained American doctors usually work in the USA. I would probably feel better knowing that the hospital was American owned, but the doctor is a really respected Mexican. None of this is my place to say, of course. Her father is a retired physician and has already told her what he thinks. His credentials far exceed mine, but she has made up her mind. I will support her as a friend, but I will still worry.

My other concern with her decision is whether we are still suited to support each other. While she knows what I am going through, I will have no idea whatsoever how to support her, other than to listen to what she says. Right now, when she tells me about her issues, I can relate to them. I can advise her on how to handle things. If she fails, I can advise her how to try to succeed in the future. Once she has the surgery, I don’t know anything about that. Will I be able to continue to advise and support her? I don’t know, but I will give her that insight, and let her decide. She might just appreciate having someone who can listen to her.

Today I do not have much planned. Leslie and I are going to run an errand at lunch, after which I will probably go for my last walk of the month. I will not do it to break records or to get challenge badges, I will do it because fitness walking is good for me and is helping me to lose weight and to get into shape. I also do not know what the weekend has in store, and if I will be able to get out to walk or not. I will try, but with Leslie’s son here, I know I will be at the mercy of his schedule, and that is fine. Leslie is making tamales for dinner, and I will stick to my meal replacements aside from that. I confess that I did not know what a tamale was until I looked them up. They look tasty!

Not only did I order my shaker bottle to take to California yesterday, I also ordered meal replacement shakes and bars. The shakes are the same ones that I have been used to. The bars are not. There are usually three flavours of bars available, and I like to alternate between the apple-cinnamon and the chocolate bars. While the apple cinnamon bars are available on eBay, the chocolate bars have not been available for some time. However, there is another company that makes bars with similar nutritional values, which come in many different flavours. I ordered three boxes each of s’mores and chocolate-almond. Either I will like them, and I will stick with them, or I will not, and I will revert to the tried-and-true original brand. Either way, by the time I am ready to go back to Canada, I will need plenty of stock. This should hold me over for a while.

The weather today is similar to yesterday. It is sunny and pleasant, with a projected high of 82° Fahrenheit. I can definitely work with that on my walk this afternoon! Tonight the sabbath begins, and I will light the candles, say the prayers, and remember the day as holy.

Have a great day folks!