Losing a part of me

It is Sunday morning. I am packed, I have a cup of coffee and I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast. Leslie is across the table from me enjoying her breakfast, and her son is on the floor watching his tablet. In less than an hour we will pack into the car for the dreaded trip to the airport. The countdown until she comes to Canada is thirty-one very long and lonely days. I hate leaving here. I hate packing my suitcase here. I hate getting out of the car at DFW knowing that I will walk into the terminal while Leslie drives home.

Yesterday I cheated (as I knew I would), and I paid the price for it, but not terribly. We took the boy to our favourite sushi restaurant (which we would normally have done together on my first night here, but that won’t be happening anymore). The boy and I went shopping for his mom’s birthday present, after which we went to an amazing Japanese ice cream and taiyaki shop, where I indulged in a soft serve ice cream with a pastry fish stuffed with red bean paste. Assuming everything else I ate yesterday was perfect (it was not), I was going to gain weight based solely on that. For dinner we had tamales that Leslie’s grandmother in Guatemala made (and that Leslie smuggled back into the US) with a Mexican rice dish. Everything was delicious. Despite not having dessert or drinks after dinner, My weight this morning was up 1.8 lbs., which means my grand total for the trip (since the morning I left Canada) is a loss of 1.2 lbs. While I always cheat on travel days, tomorrow I will be back on track, and hopefully by the time I go to see the doctor Wednesday afternoon I will be no more than 1-2 lbs. up from where I was my last visit. I am nearly six pounds heavier today than I was when I last weighed in nearly a month ago. Yes, there has been a lot of mitigating stress; I still know that I need to get back on track. My goal is to now lose at least fifteen pounds between now and Leslie’s visit, which is ambitious but doable. That would take me under the 250 lbs. milestone which I have no recollection of being since the Army.

The thunderstorms last night were gorgeous and calming. Leslie and I sat on the balcony as I smoked and we had a great conversation. I am going to miss being able to do that this next month. We’ll be back in the Rectangle Zone this evening, which really sucks. In the meantime I will be back on track, and I will focus on teaching… and next week on the course that I am starting to take Monday nights.

Have a great day folks!