Losing a part of me

After returning home from the doctor’s office yesterday I had a relaxing day. I made an omelette (with onion and shredded cheese) for breakfast, chicken for lunch (with a side salad and sweet potato fries), and that was all I ate. I was certain that the potatoes would do me in – especially when I stepped onto the scale before bed and saw how much I weighed then – but in fact this morning my weight was down. I told Leslie that I had a late lunch, so I was going to try the strategy that others have told me about – I do not consider what I did to be intermittent fasting, but it is along the same lines. I will try to continue that this week… although I will not be having the sweet potato fries every day!

It was nice to have a day to relax and not really do anything yesterday. It was originally my intention to be productive most of the day, and in fact I did achieve a few of the items on my to-do list (I spent a few hours in the afternoon trying to fight with the Cisco switch that my buddy gave me, but I will have to return to that at some point when I have more time). I also made a point of printing out the course syllabus and recommended timings for the class that I am teaching this morning, which I found to be quite helpful with the class I taught for the same organization a few weeks ago.

This four-day week will not be quite as busy as last week was, but it will still be long days. I am teaching from 8:30am until 2:00pm, and then again from 5:30pm until 9:00pm. The three-hour break will give me plenty of time to take Her Floofness for a walk (and today we will be joined by Charlie), make and eat a nice lunch, and relax for a little bit. I will also likely have to spend a lot of that time answering emails and doing paperwork, but that does not bother me. I know that after the long day I can look forward to a lovely evening video date with my wife, which I will be able to take on the balcony with a cigar. While we will continue to chat in the evenings, tonight’s will be our last cigar date for a week, as her son will be with her, and she does not smoke when he is around.

My goal for the day is to accomplish exactly what I did yesterday: Eat in moderation and stop eating by about 3:00pm. It was originally my intention to prepare an omelette for breakfast, but then thought better of it because the timing might have been tight. I opted for a meal replacement shake instead, and there is no danger of cheating with that. If all goes well it would be nice to see another slight drop on the bathroom scale tomorrow morning. I am three pounds heavier than my best weight ever (from Saturday), but I am not at all upset about it. I am making the transition from meal replacements to eating mostly solid foods, and I had a few slip-ups on the first couple of days of that attempted transition. I think I have found my footing and will be able to proceed without stumbling for the next few weeks. That does not mean that I will lose weight at the same pace that I was able to when on the full-fast, but as I am not drastically overweight, I no longer need the drastic weight loss progress. This is a turtle race… slow and steady, and never stop. I will maintain my focus and my mindfulness, and I will not give in to temptation.

Have a great day folks!