Shana Tova uMevurechet! A Blessed Happy New Year to all my Jewish friends and readers!
As expected, my weight rebounded this morning. I am not going to worry about it – the holidays are the holidays. I am not going to go overboard, but I am not going to deprive myself. I will, however, try to go for a walk this afternoon.
Have a great day!
For those of you who have been reading this blog for a long time, you will know that I have days when I expect to be down, and days when I expect to be up. There are days when I expect to be down, but disappointingly I am not, and there are days when I expect to be up, but I am pleasantly surprised that I am not. While I did not go terribly overboard yesterday, I did not follow the plan, and I expected my weight to be up… but was hoping that I might get lucky and either stay the same, or maybe even lose a couple of ounces.
When I stepped on the scale this morning, I was so pleasantly shocked by a three-pound weight loss from yesterday morning! I was overjoyed, and even if it regulates back a little bit tomorrow, I feel that I got a reprieve for some bad behaviour. Who knows, maybe I was right, and that being in Leslie’s presence is conducive to weight loss!
Yesterday’s cheating was not completely terrible, but there were a few things I did wrong. The first of which is that I ate far too much dim sum at lunch. It is not something that I do often, but dim sum is one of my favourites. Of course, I had just come in from an extremely good workout walk, so my metabolism would have taken care of the calories much better than if I had not walked.
After a glorious early-afternoon nap, Leslie and I decided to spend a couple of hours in the pool. It was glorious to be able to sit in the water under the hot sun with my beautiful wife, smoking cigars and just being in love. It was not until we started discussing dinner ideas that I realized that it was our three-month anniversary! A date night was indeed in order, and the restaurant we decided on was called Whiskey Cake. She had told me about it before, and that she wanted to take me there for at least a scotch… to thank me for something I did a long time ago. We got dressed up and went.
Our reservations were for 8:45pm, and we walked in perfectly on time, thanks to her skillful driving. We sat on the patio, and the waiter brought us the whiskey menu, which included American, Canadian, Scottish, Irish, and Japanese whiskies. I opted for a flight of four Japanese expressions called the Kampai Flight. It included the Yamazaki 12, the Hakushu 12, the Nikka Coffey, and the Nikka Barrel. Each one was quite delicious… and from the first named to the last, the got better in that order.
We shared an appetizer of hummus with vegetables and a few pieces of pita, which was quite delicious. It is rare that a restaurant in North America has a dish seasoned with za’atar, and it tasted delicious. For our main course, Leslie ordered a mushroom meatball sandwich, which was simply out of this world. The waitress told us later that it was a staff member who opted to become vegetarian who was playing around with ideas at home and landed on the recipe. Kudos to that staff member! Knowing what I was drinking, I was tempted by the rib eye steak, but decided to be good and ordered the salmon. I decided to be bad and ordered the French fries with it. While that was a monumentally silly decision for someone on a diet, I decided to splurge. My wife and I were celebrating, and I wanted to enjoy myself.
The celebration continued when we got home, with a bottle of champagne – one of my wife’s favourites – which we enjoyed in her new and very lovely painted champagne flutes. The evening was a lot of fun… and the weight loss program could start anew on Rosh Hashana, the Jewish New Year, Monday morning (after our festive Erev Rosh Hashana meal on Sunday evening.
You can see from this how I was expecting my weight to be up this morning. Not only was it down, but it is also back at the 315lbs mark… for the first time in nearly three weeks. I have only registered one day below that weight, and I am looking forward to continuing down… hopefully tomorrow, but not likely. As I mentioned, dramatic one- and two-day weight drops tend to adjust up on the third day; I am down six-pounds since Friday, which we can all agree falls into the dramatic range. Who knows? Tonight is Rosh Hashana… maybe the Lord will be merciful and grant me another drop tomorrow! I know, it does not work that way. Does it?
This afternoon we are going to see the Immersive Van Gogh Experience. It should be interesting. I have heard from several friends who have seen it in other cities that it is fabulous. I have never been the art museum type, but this looks like something completely different. I am going into it excited and with an open mind. It will also be only the second time that I am going into Dallas proper, despite this being my third trip here. Dallas is a huge city, and Leslie lives in a suburb. Suburban life is so rich that truly, one scarcely needs to go into the city itself. If you need any more proof, I do not think I have been in downtown Toronto since moving back to the Greater Toronto Area thirteen months ago!
I usually close my daily piece with the simple phrase, ‘Have a great day folks!’ Tonight, Jews around the world celebrate the New Year, and so I feel I should close by wishing all of my Jewish readers a happy, healthy, and sweet New Year, le’Shana Tova uMetukah. May the coming year (5783) bring blessings, health, and joy to you and to your family.
It is important, whatever one’s state of mind, to be prepared. When one is not prepared, bad things can happen. Fortunately, sometimes those bad things can be mitigated, and no harm is actually done.
I was not in a great frame of mind when I left the house this morning to go for my walk. A misunderstanding led to a miscommunication, which led to my mind being elsewhere as I prepared to embark on my fitness walk. The consequences were that I left the house wearing my wedding band (my fingers swell when I walk, making it extremely tight) and my chain (no big deal) … and I left without water. Even if the thermometer was not tipping over 90° Fahrenheit, that is never a smart move.
In fact, I left without my satchel, which is strange because I seldom go on a fitness walk without it. I even went looking for it (and found it) before going out… and then left it right where it was. When I say my mid was elsewhere, you can believe it truly was.
I never walk with my wallet. I keep a few dollars in both Canadian and American in a pocket of my satchel, in case I need to buy a drink along the way. Without the satchel, I did not even have that. Fortunately, I do have a payment method set up on my phone, so halfway through my 7km trek I was able to stop at a convenience store and pick up a bottle of Gatorade.
I broke no records today. Well, I think it is my longest walk in Texas thus far, but that is not really important. It was a good walk. Not only did I get a lot of exercise, I had the opportunity to clear my head and to think. Unlike the last several walks (during which I have been listening to audio books), today I listened to my music. I did not have to focus on anything other than putting one foot in front of the other, and to not walking into traffic. I was able to think about things and come back home with a clear head.
I suspect that after lunch, Leslie and I might grab a couple of cigars and head down to the pool. It is a mighty hot day out there, and Leslie found a new cigar that she loves at the event last night. I will be happy taking a couple of decent sticks (also most likely purchased at the event last night) and spending a lovely few hours soaking and smoking with my gorgeous bride.
Leslie is preparing chicken dim sum for lunch. I am excited about that, and think that I earned it, what with my foray into the heat this morning.
It was a relief this morning to see that I dropped back under the 320lbs threshold. The number on the scale yesterday really freaked me out. I am glad to be back under that mark. It is all thanks to Leslie – her aura is conducive to weight loss. Yes, that is an inside joke! Seriously though, I had a couple of opportunities to go off track, and she helped me to stay the course.
We had a lovely day yesterday. We had some errands to run in the morning, and when we came home, I made Leslie her salmon melt (as I wrote about yesterday). When Leslie finished work, we got ready for our fun evening at the cigar event. On the way, we stopped to have passport photos taken. We need that for some paperwork we are filing.
For dinner, we decided on Portuguese chicken. Leslie loves a particular place, and I can see why – the food was fabulous! While we ate later than I normally would, the meal itself fit right into my regular meal plan – chicken with vegetables. It was absolutely delicious, and I look forward to going back there soon.
Despite the late dinner, it turned into an early night. We were both tired, and I had no problem being in bed by 10pm. I obviously needed the sleep, as despite a couple of pitstops, I did sleep through to morning.
Today we have very little planned, but we will have a great day together I am sure. I might go for a walk, we might spend some time at the pool. Who knows? It is a beautiful day in Dallas, and we will enjoy it together.
Have a great day folks!
The bad news: I fell completely off the wagon yesterday, from the time I got to the airport until the time my flight landed. My weight this morning is back above 320lbs… although not by as much as I expected it would be.
The good news: I am in Dallas with my baby, and all is right in the world. We went for Shawarma last night for dinner, and then we sat by the pool smoking cigars. It is so good to be back with her. Life is just better when we are together.
After running some errands, I made us lunch today. The base was a salmon salad with light mayo and onions. For Leslie, I made a salmon melt on a challah roll with aged sharp cheddar. For me, I mixed it with vegetables and poured olive oil and balsamic vinegar on it. Not my best work, only because I was lazy. Had I done it properly, I would have made and dressed the veggie salad separately, and then put the salmon salad on top. Oh well, it still wasn’t bad.
This evening, we are heading to the Cigars International lounge for an event. Of the three events that we are planning to go to there in the next month, tonight’s is the one I am least excited about. It will be a great event for sure, but the other two are really exciting. After the event, we will grab dinner, and then come home to light the Shabbat candles. All in all, it should be a good day. Why? Because I am back with my baby!
Have a great day folks!
Princess Sophie has gone to spend the next few weeks with her friend Susan, who will take very good care of her. My bags have been packed and near the door since yesterday, although each of them has made at least one trip back to the bedroom for repacking. I decided to alter my plans somewhat and am heading to the airport in 20 minutes.
The Uber is ordered for 9:30, I am going to publish and then wash out my coffee cup and then go downstairs.
Have a great day folks!
A couple of years ago, while I was doing very well on my program (and before my total collapse and backward slide into total failure) I came up with this logo – the Weight Loss Success/Failure Star. Please believe me that I did not design it to look like the Star of David with the Palestinian colours, but yes, that is what it looks like. Ooops.
I still think the message behind the star is correct. There are many ways to fail, but three main keys to success are solid: Caloric/Nutritional Intake, Water Intake, and Physical Activity. Without these three, success is unlikely.
The three ways to fail that I enumerated are absolutely true, with Attitude, Stress/Lifestyle, and Work being three big factors to failure. Of course, there are plenty others… but these three are key.
As I looked at the star today, with its two interlocking triangles, I had a bit of an epiphany. By inverting the red triangle, we would be left with only a triangle. If that sounds simplistic and obvious, let me explain why I felt this important:
Attitude: The wrong attitude is a surefire way to fail, in weight loss as in so many aspects of life. By flipping our attitude, we can turn it to green, and make it a success factor. Attitude.
Stress/Lifestyle: There are so many different ways to deal with stress. Most people who have obesity issues often deal with stress by turning to food, and bad foods at that. When we look at the habits of myriad people who stay in shape, we learn that a lot of them deal with stress by integrating physical activity into their life. I have met many people who look at exercise as a way to destress. In fact, any medical professional will tell you that exercise is an antidepressant. By changing our habit of turning to food into turning to exercise, we can turn our stresses and lifestyles into another success factor. Stress/Lifestyle.
Work: It is easier for people with jobs requiring physical labour to be healthy, but those of us who work in office environments – sitting at desks staring at computer screens – are prone to the ill-effects of eight to ten hours of sitting on our bums. Every company is different, every office. If you go into an office or you work from home, or if you are on the road visiting different sites, every work environment and schedule will have different requirements. With that said, if you are able to find a time – either during your lunch or during your breaks, or whenever it will be, it is possible to integrate physical activity into your routine. I have worked at companies with great gym facilities, which allowed employees to work out during their breaks, and even shower before returning to their desks. Others have simply had staircases that employees could use to exercise – up three floors, down three floors, repeat. Some have nothing but leaving the building during the day to go for a walk is always an option.
A lot of companies provide snacks to their employees, and these can be a real stopper. Yes, many of the unhealthy snacks are a good way to test your willpower, but you only have to falter occasionally to fail at your diet. A friend on a similar journey as mine cried to me this week that one of her coworkers has been bringing in cookies from Tim Hortons every day. I told her how proud I was that she did not succumb to the temptation, but on one of these days she might. The good side of this is that a lot of companies recognize the value of healthy snacks, ranging from fresh fruit and granola bars to yogurts and salads. Even if you only make the decision to stick to water in lieu of diet soda (which is deceivingly un-weight-loss-friendly, you have chosen positive over negative. There are choices that we can all make to turn the negative work experience green and make it a success factor. Work.
All of a sudden, we see that all of our points are green, and failure, while still present, is a lot lighter than our success factors. If we are able to flip our downward (red) triangle, our star (upward and downward) now looks more like two forward-facing arrows. If we are able to take control over all of these points, then we can move in that direction (forward) to losing weight, and to better health.
These are simple concepts that are not easy to implement. If they were, all of us would be slim and in great shape. The psychology behind all of this is far beyond my basic understanding, but I know that every time I have failed at losing weight and keeping it off, it has always come down to psychological factors. With that said, we can all benefit from getting help. I don’t mean speaking to a psychologist on a regular basis, but a weight loss buddy – either someone who has gone through the sort of weight loss you are working toward, or someone who is currently on the same journey.
The advantages of someone who has been there before are that they know the pitfalls, they know what you are going through, and they have been there… and succeeded. The advantage of someone who is on the same journey is that there is no judgement, only encouragement. Of course, the downside is that if they fall off, you are left alone.
Asking for help is hard, but the benefits of the help are tremendous. If you think you don’t know anyone, then let me assure you that social media is replete with support groups for anyone who looks. You may have to look, but you likely won’t have to look too far.
Do not rush it, but do not dawdle. If you follow the arrows, pretty soon you will be the star of your new, slimmer life.
It was 1:30pm yesterday when I sent my wife a text reading: Player 1 Achievement Unlocked: Airport Pickup. Yes, I did my walk. While I did not extend the walk down to Mainway, I did make it my longest walk (but only by 50 metres). I am also happy that not only am I able to keep my average pace under 10m00s, but aside from my first kilometre and the final half kilometre, every kilometre was below that time. I am happy that I am able to turn on my jets… and keep them lit.
· Distance: 10.5km (9.35km)
· Duration: 1:42:06 (1:31:03)
· Average Pace (Min/km): 9:43 (9:44)
· Best Split-Pace Kilometre: 9.26s (9m17)
· Steps: 13k (11.2k)
· Calories burned: 1,261 (1,147)
· Elevation gain: 31.7 (46.2)
· Average cadence (steps per minute): 126 (124)
I continue to be disappointed by my weight loss. Yes, down is better than up… but I wanted to get back below the 315 mark before I flew to Dallas (tomorrow), and that is looking extremely unlikely. It is so easy to gain the weight, and exponentially harder to lose it.
Yesterday, I was pretty good on the food. Instead of three meal replacements in the afternoon/evening, I had another single piece of chicken with a salad. I was really hoping that, coupled with the excellent fitness walk that I did, would have shown better than a .4-lbs loss this morning. No, that’s it. Thank you for playing!
The weather today is pretty nice, and I thought I might go for a walk this afternoon. Then I ran into my neighbour this morning, and she asked if I could look after Charlie for a few hours in the afternoon. It is my absolute pleasure to take care of him, firstly because he is really easy to take care of, but also because he and Princess Sophie are such good friends and companions, and they play so well together. When he is here, I do not have to do anything, other than to take them for a walk if it’s been too long. I might take them for a walk, but a fitness walk is unlikely. This is not only because of the puppies, but also because my legs are definitely feeling the residual effects of yesterday’s walk.
I miscalculated with my shopping and have no more chicken for today’s lunch. Rather than going to the store to pick more up, I decided to defrost a steak for lunch. I have plenty of veggies for my salad, which I am going to start preparing shortly after publishing this entry.
Tomorrow is the big day. I am so looking forward to seeing my wife, it is almost painful. Barring unforeseen events at the airport, I will be seeing her tomorrow afternoon. I am jumping out of my skin with excitement! I know it has only been three weeks since I was there last, but we are married and are supposed to be together… always. Fortunately, I received the certified divorce certificate from the Quebec Ministère de la justice yesterday, which means that the only thing left to do is for us to get passport pictures taken (which we will do Friday), and for me to review the application… which at this point is just about dotting the I’s and crossing the T’s. At that point, we submit the application, and wait… too long, but at least it will finally be in motion.
At this point, I am going to go about my day. I have laundry to fold, a suitcase to pack, and a puppy to snuggle with. I don’t have a lot more planned for the day – I cannot think of anything I need to buy or anywhere I need to go during the day. There is a chance that in the evening I will be meeting up with Eduardo and Sam for a cigar, but that is not yet confirmed. We’ll see. In the meantime…
…have a great day folks!
I thought I did pretty well yesterday, although I did have some goldfish crackers – the last of them. Unless I go shopping for treats, I have no more temptations in the pantry that I can think of. I have no further need to shop – I went to the supermarket last night to pick up an onion and to collect my dry cleaning. I want to be able to wear those suits in a month; unless I stay on track, that is unlikely to happen. So, I will stay on track.
Yesterday, I bought my ticket for Disneyland. There are not a lot of options for getting discounts, and rather than spending excessing time on this, I decided to just pay full boat. I am disappointed that my friend will be out of town – his wife works for the company, and they could have signed me in for free. I am really looking forward to it though – Leslie and her son are worth it!
There is no rain in the forecast for today, and that means I will head out for a good walk. There are a few reasons for this, not the least of which are the consequences I mentioned a day or two ago. In truth, I am still trying to make fitness walking habitual. I am long past the stage when I worried if I was able to walk well, and most of the time when I embark on a fitness walk, I am going to try for a certain distance (almost always in excess of 8km). However, I have still not become addicted to it. I still have to say to myself on any given day, ‘Okay, I should go for a walk. This is what time I am going, and this is the route that I will take.’
I really want fitness to be part of my nature that I just go. I want it to be an addiction. Of course, it will never be that simple… as it will never be as simple for me to lose and keep off all of my excess weight. I think, really I know that I will always have to work at these things. I have to admit that I was never a fitness junkie, which probably would have made a lot of things in my life much easier. If I had been, I likely never would have gotten to where I am. It is a sad realization maybe, but it is an honest one. Guys in my unit would wake up, roll out of their bunks, and be doing pushups before they even peed. I would always grumble something about coffee, even though I was in just as good shape as they were. I have never loved it… I just always knew it was good for me, and important to do. For far too many years, I ignored it. Wisdom comes with age, and at fifty years old I know that I can never ignore fitness, just like I will never be able to eat without thinking. That is a very certain recipe for failure, and I do not want that.
Aside from my walking, I will likely stay pretty close to home today. If he were around, I might invite my son the elder for a drink; he is on the west coast with friends, so that’s a non-starter. I might reach out to a friend to see if they want to sit and chat, but I suspect that Lyle is busy preparing for his aunt’s visit. We’ll see.
Speaking of my son (and his absence), I am going to have to get an Uber to take me to the airport on Thursday. That’s usually an opportunity to see my boy, but with his not being in town, I am deprived of that option.
As it turns out, Lyle is free for a cigar. After my walk I’ll have lunch around 1:00pm, and then drive over there for a couple of hours. I do not plan to make it a late night – or even evening – because I am going to do laundry this evening, so that tomorrow afternoon everything that I want to take to Dallas (and of course to California) will be clean. I won’t pack tonight, but I will try to fold and organize everything.
I was speaking with Leslie this week, and I told her that I am going to bring a lot of my summer clothes and just leave them there. After all, by the time I am back (October 16) it is a safe bet that the short-pants weather will be behind us for the season. When she asked if I won’t need them in the spring, my initial response was that I could bring them home in time for that. When I gave it some thought, I was happy to tell her that if all goes according to plan, all of the shorts that I am wearing now will be too big for me by the spring, and I will need new ones anyways. Despite the bumps along the road (like this past couple of weeks), my goal is to be down another fifty pounds by next spring… if not more. Leslie agrees that if I am able to accomplish that, it will be a pleasure to have to buy new shorts!
I have procrastinated enough. It is time for me to hit the trails. I am not sure now steady my knees feel, so I am going to plan for an 8km walk, with the option to extend it if I am feeling up to it. I will walk through the park to Appleby Line, up to Dundas Street, then back down. If I am feeling ambitious at that point, I can continue down to Mainway for the extra couple of kilometres. We’ll see. For now, I am going to start by suiting up and heading out.
Have a great day!
My plan for this morning was to go to the courthouse in Milton to get a copy of the divorce certificate from my marriage to Theresa. Last night I started to worry that I might have a problem… today is the funeral for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, and it is a federal day of mourning, with all federal and many provincial offices closed. I did not know whether the courthouse, a joint provincial and county building, would be affected. I decided to call ahead in the morning.
Before I wrote my article I did just that, and it’s a good thing that I did. Yes, the courthouse would be open… but counter services were only offered until 11am, which meant that if I dawdled at my computer, I might miss the window. I went, I got it, I am home. The day goes on.
I rather expected to be at the courthouse for hours. In fact, I was out within fifteen minutes. While I was in Milton, I went to visit a couple of friends for a few minutes each, but I am now home. In a couple of minutes, I will start preparing lunch. This afternoon, I am getting my haircut, as well as hopefully selling an end table that I have been trying to offload for months. If the person does come to pick it up, I will be quite pleased.
I don’t have much else planned for the day. I originally thought the day was going to be really busy, but the short time at the courthouse essentially ended that notion. I will probably do some reading, but if the weather cooperates, I might go for a nice walk. We’ll see how it goes. It rained for a bit this morning, but as of right now, the forecast is quite nice.
There are two dogs playing behind me. Charlie (Princess Sophie’s very good friend) is over for a visit, and they are play-fighting on the couch. It is so nice to have them playing. Happy dogs are such a joy!
I will also print a return label for Amazon, which I nearly forgot about. I bought a hard drive for my friend’s computer, but now that he is buying a new computer, I can return it. So often in the US, Amazon returns do not require a box or a return label. I forget that in Canada it is never so simple. I’ll print it and drive down to Purolator on my way back from the barber. It is only a $50 hard drive… but it is my $50!
As I hoped, the bathroom scale was going the right direction this morning. I am now only 2.5 lbs from my best weight, which means that if I keep up the routine, I might hit that again by Thursday. Eating well, walking a lot… not tough, right? Sure…
Have a great day folks!
