Losing a part of me

I looked at yesterday’s post online and had to laugh. As I sat on my balcony with my morning coffee and cigar, I tried to use voice to text to write it, and the Jetpack app (which replaced the WordPress app) kept deleting what I wrote. I finally gave up and started typing the article out… which was not going any better. In the end, I opened a Word Document and typed it out, and then copied and pasted the text into the app. Nevertheless, parts of the remnants of my app frustration remained. I decided to leave it in to remind me of the humour… and how frustrating technology can be sometimes. (I copied the article into my journal but did not include the repeated text and the aborted paragraphs. Sorry reader, you might have to go searching online for my blunders!)

Yesterday was Canada Day. As a proud Canadian I was happy to celebrate. My first act of celebration was to sit on the balcony with a cigar, chat with my diet buddy, and then enjoy my coffee and cigar with a book. At one point a parade of vehicles turned into the street flying the Maple Leaf, with one of them blasting O Canada on repeat. I stood and waved (especially to the police and firemen, but to everyone really) and then went back to my book. In the afternoon I would drive to Strathroy to see my god kids and their parents, and it was a truly lovely afternoon and evening.

I was worried that the scale would not be kind to me this morning. After all, I had a couple of fruit on my way there, I ate a hamburger and a hotdog for dinner (in addition to the salad and potatoes), and for dessert I had a decadent chocolate plus two much less decadent Oreo cookies. Add to that a bag of chips and then a protein bar (late at night), and I was not hopeful. I was not expecting, after nine straight days of weight gains, to see it drop by 1.4 lbs., but it did. I was relieved because I was flirting with the dreaded 270 lbs. If I can drop just a few more pounds this week then I can get to 265 lbs., and I can see my birthday weekend celebration as one last opportunity to be guardedly free with eating… before I revert the next week to a much stricter meal program.

I am hoping that a couple of friends will come over for cigars this afternoon. We have discussed it briefly but until Sam says ‘Yes I am coming’ I never hold my breath. This is not due to unreliability, rather a busy schedule with family responsibilities and such. I left a message for him and would love to see him. If not, then I will spend a lot of the day on the balcony smoking and reading. The muscles in my legs are still sore from Friday’s outing; combine that with the light rain that is predicted all day and I think I am going to give them another day to recover. The forecast for tomorrow is also rainy, but as far as I can tell it will not be heavy and I might still be able to get out. Tuesday through the weekend promises to be much more agreeable, and I will walk if I do not jog.

I started writing this article hours ago and have been distracted by all sorts of things since. I have come back to it six or seven times, which is quite embarrassing owing to the brief length of it. I have two dogs playing who have insisted on attention or treats, or who have just been a loud and cute mess the last half hour. They will join me on the balcony for my cigars.

My food plan for today is to make chicken for lunch, and then for dinner I will enjoy the leftover salmon from Friday evening. With lunch I will likely make a salad, while dinner will be accompanied by rice. If I can stick it out and not cheat, then tomorrow morning I might just see another successful number on the bathroom scale.

Have a great day folks!