Losing a part of me

There is an episode of The West Wing in which Toby Ziegler (brilliantly portrayed by Richard Schiff) discusses with Tabitha Fortis (the U.S. Poet Laureate, portrayed by guest star Laura Dern) the satisfaction of crossing things off lists. In actuality it is she who discusses it with him; either way it is an episode worth watching not only for this interaction (which we are called back to at the end of the episode) but simply for the pure genius of the writing and the acting.

TOBY: What are you doing?

TABITHA: Crossing off the FDR Memorial, the Atrium, and the Folger Library. I like crossing off lists. It’s very satisfying. You like lists?

TOBY: Yes.

TABITHA: You like crossing things off?

TOBY: I’ll let you know if it happens.

To know the character of Toby is to understand that he is almost always fighting for the losing cause. His dry wit, along with his beard, smoking cigars, and his love of writing and the English language are just some of his qualities that I see in myself. (The Season 6-7 storyline in which his betrays his country by leaking state secrets to the press is where I get off)

As does Tabitha, I too enjoy crossing things off. This morning, after a lot of failures that resulted in an extreme and disgusting seven-pound weight gain over Thanksgiving weekend, I was able to cross off another number on the list on my fridge. This morning’s weight not only takes me solidly into Best-Weight-Everland (as well as crossing off the next two-pound marker on my list), but it also allowed me to cross off another decade milestone… I am under 240 lbs. for the first time. I will keep going!

The weather yesterday cleared up a little bit earlier than expected. When the forecast predicts a 40-50% chance of rain, especially in mid-October, we plan for rain. The rains that were predicted to stop around 5:00pm actually stopped much earlier, and it made for a lovely afternoon. I was hungry earlier than usual, so I prepared my lunch for noon instead of my usual 1:00-2:30pm. Following my lunch (the usual chicken with salad) I had a cigar date with my wife. After that my friend Eduardo came over and we enjoyed another cigar together. When he left, I took Her Floofness out for a walk. When I brought her home, I suited up for my walk. I knew it was going to be chilly, so a long shirt (and layers) and long training pants were the uniform of the day. I was sure that the extra weight and bulkiness of them would slow my stride somewhat.

Boy was I wrong.

I do not know if it was because of the chill in the air, or because I had pre-set expectations that the outfit might slow me down, or if I was just in better form than usual… but my pace (walking the whole way) was 8m37s per kilometre over the entire 12.65km of my outing! It is by far the best pace that I have ever recorded for a walk. There have been a few others under 9min/km, but those all involved at least some jogging along the way. I am chalking this up as a huge win, as well as a contributing factor to my remarkable two-pound drop from yesterday.

This afternoon I am taking my son for lunch, and I have been on the fence about whether I will eat or not. I have asked my ex-wife to try to convince him that we should go for Greek food instead of his usual favourite, but I have not heard back yet. If he does agree to that then I can order a salad and be comfortable with it. If not, then I will not eat anything, and will come home to have a meal replacement afterwards.

In the late afternoon and evening I am meeting with some people in Toronto, and I suspect there will be food involved. I will do my best to eat well and in moderation, but what will be available is an unknown to me. I will bring a meal replacement with me in the event that there is nothing that I can eat, but if there is something then I will stick to the moderation plan. At least I know that any food offered will be kosher.

When Eduardo was here yesterday, I put on my Army uniform so that he could take a picture for me. It amazes me that not only does it fit, but it probably fits slightly better than it did the day I last took it off… nearly twenty-seven years ago. My last few months in the Army I let myself go a little, and was probably already starting to get pudgy. Aside from that, the only think that I noticed was that the buttons needed reinforcing… and that the IDF uniform (at least those from my era) were nowhere near the high quality cloth that the US uniforms are.

As I have dropped below 240 lbs., my goal for this week is to drop a few more pounds to get below 235 lbs., so that when I fly to Dallas a week from today my wife will be able to see me at my absolute best. Of course, if I do not drop another ounce from right now then she will still see me at that – I have no recollection of weighing anything close to this low in the last twenty-five years. Nonetheless I still want to drop another few pounds for her.

Okay, I am going to call my wife. Have a great day folks!