Losing a part of me

Author: Mitch Garvis

  • Day 171

    I do not like gaining weight. I really do not like gaining a pound and a half overnight. I really did like the piece of chocolate birthday cake that my godson’s parents gave me and devoured every last bite of. Sometimes it is had to see the cause of the effect. This is not one of those cases.

    Leslie and I had a lovely omelet for breakfast this morning. Sautéed onions, dill, and cheese make for a good eggy breakfast. We also had some fresh blueberries to compliment the meal.

    In a couple of hours, we will drive to Cambridge for my birthday party. It will be good to see my friends, but I know Leslie is reticent about meeting a bunch of new people. The last few days have taken a bit of a toll, and I understand that. I hope today will be fun though… and that I do not go too crazy off my diet.

    I made a conscious decision to take a couple of days off of my power walking. I know that my leg muscles needed a bit of a break! I will try to go for another walk on Monday, and then Tuesday I am driving to Montreal… where yes, I can still walk!

    Thursday I will be driving to Long Island, where I will meet Leslie and her son on Friday. I am really excited about that! I have not met him yet, but we have spoken, and I cannot wait to get to know him. I am also excited for my buddy who is getting married, but that is of course secondary to my meeting the boy.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 170

    It is not fair that when you have a great diet day, you wake up the following morning and your weight is not down (or is even a little up). However, as Leslie keeps telling me, the chart of a diet’s progress is never a straight downward line, rather it is a squiggly snaking line trending downward; as long as it is trending down, I am on track. Also, after a few days of tremendous drops, it is normal for the progress to level out for a few days. I know that I am doing well on my program, and Leslie continues to point out the progress that she is seeing in me. Yay!

    I ate mostly well yesterday, although if I were to add up my cheats, they would include a Japanese biscuit, a quarter of Leslie’s tuna sandwich at lunch, and four boneless chicken nuggets at dinner (Leslie ordered ten, and knowing how much I love wings, she gave me what she did not finish). Even put together, those three things would not amount to an egregious weight gain. Yes, I am up a little bit this morning… but since a week ago today, I am down a lot. That is the trend, and that is what matters!

    My walk was a good one, and I have to remember that not every measure of success is numeric. Yes, my pace was slower than it was the previous day, but that does not take into account the fact that I went for the walk despite my legs still feeling the previous day’s walk. It also does not account for the higher temperatures. Additionally, my thighs are still chaffed because for my first walk of the week I did not wear the proper shorts. It was a longer walk than I have done, and I am very happy with it.

    • Distance: 7.5 km (7.25 km)
    • Duration: 1:22:42 (1:17:03 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 11:01 (10:37)
    • Steps: 9.3k (8.8k)
    • Calories burned: 429 (419)
    • Elevation gain: 28m (27m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 112 (114)

    I made a scrumptious omelet for breakfast this morning. To change it up a bit, I decided to cook an all-beef hotdog into it, which of course meant no cheese. While the hotdog was good, Leslie and I agree that it is not nearly as good as the all-beef salami I used to buy. The difference is that I had the hotdog in the house, and I do not need to go buying a kilo of salami for one meal… because of course we know that it will turn into several meals over not nearly a long enough time.

    For lunch I plan to make a chicken salad. I have been marinating two chicken breasts in Mojo for the last day and a half. I plan to bake them in the air fryer, and then chop it up and then blend it with some onions and dill, and then mix it with mayonnaise. In a few minutes Leslie and I are going to the supermarket, and I will pick a couple of very nice and fresh buns to make sandwiches.

    We are driving to Strathroy for dinner; Leslie is going to meet my god children! Today is Douglas’ birthday, and we have some very exciting presents for him… and of course for Cynthia as well. I haven’t seen them (or their parents) since April, and it will be wonderful to spend time with them. Amanda is aware of my dietary requirements with regard to religion, but with regard to the weight loss plan, the best I can hope for is to be able to exercise moderation. Cam will try to ply me with scotch… I will try to be good though.

    Tomorrow is the ‘big’ birthday party that my friends are throwing for me. Leslie and I will start the day with a reasonable breakfast (or brunch), and then we will drive out to Cambridge for the festivities. I do not plan to be good, but I also do not intend to gorge myself.

    It feels good to be able to close the week knowing that I am tremendously down from a week ago… especially with the travel, the birthday celebrations, the stress and anxiety of so many things. I do not expect to lose seven pounds most weeks… but if I can lose two to three pounds per week, I will be a very happy man.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 169

    What a great day yesterday was! I got amazing news from my doctor (huge weight loss), I spent a lot of the day with my loving wife (who had to work, but she was still here); I went for an amazing power walk with these tremendous stats!

    • Distance: 7.25 km (5.00 km)
    • Duration: 1:17:03 (54:41 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:37 (10:54)
    • Steps: 8.8k (6.1k)
    • Calories burned: 419 (288)
    • Elevation gain: 27m (16m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 114 (112)

    Being able to cut 17 seconds off my per-kilometre pace felt great. Yes, I was pushing myself… but I should always be pushing myself! The encouragement comes at one-kilometre intervals when my phone reads off my time for the last kilometre… and how far I have gone. My fourth kilometre yesterday was my best per-km yet… 10m12s. By the seventh kilometre I was back down to 10m42s, but that is still an amazing pace.

    I should mention that at the end of the fourth kilometre, I stopped for a few minutes. I forgot to bring a bottle of water with me, and so I stopped at the gas station on the corner and bought one. Unfortunately, their computers were down, and so everything was slow. I did not intend for it to be a seven- or eight-minute break, but I am not too upset by it.

    I came home and took a shower (obviously). Leslie and I then got dressed up and she took me out for a birthday dinner at The Keg, which was delicious! I did not go crazy; I started with a Caesar salad, and then had the 12-ounce New York Strip Steak with mashed cauliflower instead of potatoes. It was a very nice treat! For dessert, the waitress (who is not a collectible!) brought a complimentary piece of Billy Miner Pie, which was absolutely sinful. Leslie and I shared it, and I appreciated the help because… yeah, had I eaten it alone I could imagine the number on the scale this morning would not have been a good one.

    Yes, after all that, the number on the scale was down! Not by much, but down is better than up, right? I will take it happily!

    This evening Leslie and I are going to meet my ex-wife and sons for dinner. She has met my son the elder, but this will be the first time she meets my son the younger and Theresa. It feels awkward to say the least. We will get through it, but to make it more palatable for my son, we are going to a restaurant which he loves… and where there will be a lot of temptation to eat poorly. I remember taking my son to Buffalo Wild Wings a couple of times while on diet, and I have been able to resist the temptation to splurge. This evening the temptation will be greater because of the stress of the meeting.

    Because I know that I cannot go nuts, and I cannot let my guard down, I decided to plan ahead. I went to their website and decided that I will order the grilled chicken salad. It has 640 calories and is pretty high in fat, but it is still a smarter choice than… well, anything else on the menu. Planning ahead is often a key success factor with dieting, and I think this was a smart choice. Leslie told me that she woke up in the middle of the night and had the thought that our choice of venue would be dangerous to my diet. I told her that I was planning to eat well and surprised her when I told her I was going to order a salad. As I always say… Lead me not to temptation! I know exactly where to find it.

    It is nearly 2:00pm and we are not leaving until 5:15pm. Leslie still has to work, so I am going to go out for another walk. I really want to keep that habit going. One thing I learned last night is that of the several pair of athletic shoes that I own, the ones I wore yesterday are not conducive to power-walking. Indeed, shortly after the 5km mark my feet started to complain about them. I will switch them out for a different pair for today. As well, Leslie just ordered a new pair of shoes for me which look like they will be much more comfortable.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 168

    Today is my fiftieth birthday. A lot of water under the bridge. I have been through a lot, and I have survived it all. I am grateful for what I have and for who I am, and for where I am. Could it be better? In some respects, yes. Could it be worse? In many respects, absolutely.

    I started the morning at the doctor’s office, with some amazing news. I had said yesterday that I was hoping to have lost at least four kilos. I lost nearly five kilos since my last weigh in! Over 10.5lbs in the month which included so many opportunities to cheat and to fall off the program. Yay!

    The doctor also gave me other good news, most of which I will not share. Suffice it to say that I came back from the appointment happy, and I even brought the love of my life a pink drink from Starbucks, which cost me nothing because they give you a drink for free on your birthday!

    It was one year ago today that I was asked if I was daft. A year later I am married. Hopefully I am less daft than I was, but I know I will still do stupid things.

    So many people rue birthdays. Getting older is not fun, but it is better than the alternative. In my original chosen career path, I had a few friends who did not get to grow old, and I think it would be an insult to their memory for me to treat my birthday as anything but a celebration… and a memorial to them. This evening, Leslie and I will go for a lovely steak dinner. I will have a piece of birthday cake because… yes, I can. Afterwards we will come home and sit on the patio, and I will smoke an absolutely incredible cigar from my Unicorns Collection… the cigars that are over twenty years old, and each one is extra special not only because of its age, but because of the story behind it.

    I am so blessed to have my wife here to celebrate with me, and this evening will be just us. Saturday afternoon some of my friends are throwing a bit of a party for me, and that will be delightful. For today, Leslie and I will celebrate quietly… if indulgently!

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 167

    I got onto the bathroom scale this morning and got a huge shock. After my 2.4lbs drop yesterday, this morning I was down another 3.8lbs from yesterday. I still say that every small increment helps, but these occasional huge drops are always nice too! The real tell will be tomorrow morning. I will be seeing the doctor for my official weigh-in. I have not been to his office for an official weigh-in since Day 139, so it is nearly a month. Unless something goes very wrong between now and then, I am expecting to see a huge drop – at least four kilos down from my last weigh-in, conservatively. I am crossing my fingers. At the same time, I know that hope is not a strategy, and so I will also be eating well today.

    Speaking of that, we started with a very nice omelet this morning. I sautéed some mushrooms and onions on one burner, while preparing the six-egg omelet in the other. I have been playing with blending the eggs rather than beating them by hand; yesterday it was too… something. I had them in the blender for seven seconds. This morning I kept it to three seconds, and according to my lovely wife, I got the consistency perfect today. Yay! Of course, I also added some cheese and dill to the mix, and it was quite lovely. Add to that my morning coffee, which is quite important. For nearly three weeks in Dallas, I made do with an inferior coffee blend (which was nobody’s fault but my own). It is wonderful to be home to my Pane Fresca blend of French Roast mixed with Belgian Chocolate.

    It was raining this morning when I took Her Royal Floofness for her walk. Not a big deal, but we did get wet. Fortunately, I have hats to keep me partially protected. We did not go as far as we often do, but she was able to accomplish what she needed to, and that was the important part.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 166

    The day started earlier than needed when a Princess Sophie decided she wanted to go out earlier than usual. Okay, 7am is not really a stretch, so Leslie and I took her for a walk. When we came back, I resumed my normal morning routine. The bathroom scale showed a great number… 2.4lbs down! I’ll take that any day of the week!

    Because of jet lag, a late night, and an early morning we took a mid-morning nap. Afterwards, we took our showers, and I made us lunch. Oh, and I trimmed my beard down and shocked my wife (and not in a very positive way). I’ll remember to not do that without consulting her in the future!

    Leslie asked me for a tuna sandwich for lunch. She says I make the best tuna sandwich she has ever tasted, and I love giving her what she wants. Last night we bought a challah roll for that purpose, and she loved it. I had leftover chicken… and the last inch of her sandwich 🙂

    We spent the afternoon in Niagara. We bought fresh strawberries and cherries from the farmers, and that is really the best way to get them. We snacked on some of them in the car, and they were scrumptious! We also stopped at a couple of lookout spots to look out at nature. It really is gorgeous down there.

    We stopped at a place that has a giant moose sculpture for a bit, and bought some goodies: we bought maple syrup for her to take home to friends, we bought a t-shirt for her son, and we adopted a bunny moose who has tremendous emotional significance for us both, for reasons I will not go into here. He still doesn’t have a name, but I suspect Leslie will love that buddy forever!

    For dinner we had pickerel with dill which was delicious, and a salad of course. We are about to sit down for desert… berries and cherries!

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 165

    Leslie and I are at the airport on our way home to Toronto. Getting through checking in and Security was a breeze… even though the TSA agent at Security was a bit of a prick.

    One of the advantages of flying business class is that when all of that rigamarole is behind us, we can relax in the business class lounge – in the case of American Airlines, the Admiral Club. It is the first time in year I’ve flown American, but the lounge is similar to the ones I am used to. I have a cup of coffee, Leslie has a sofa, and we have ninety minutes before boarding starts.

    This morning my weight was down another pound, which puts me exactly where I was before I got onto the airplane nearly three weeks ago. To be on vacation and not gain weight is a success, even though I was way down for a few days. Damn those tasty treats!

    One thing I am happy about is that my weight stayed stable, but I did not deprive myself. For example, yesterday for lunch we had a wonderful hamburger and fries. I only had beef twice during my stay here… well, three times if you count the pho.

    I will see the doctor on Wednesday, and I am hoping to be at least one but maybe as much as two kilos down. I am crossing my fingers. I have not walked since Thursday, but tomorrow is a holiday for Leslie (and the entire USA) so we will probably go down to Niagara Falls for the day. Tuesday morning I will resume my walking routine.

    Have a great day folks… and I’ll see you in Toronto!

  • Day 164

    Better day. Leslie and I had a great time!

  • Day 163

    Bad day.

  • Day 162

    It felt great to get onto the scale this morning and be back down below the last threshold I was under, then popped back above briefly. Of course, the Chinese food I had for lunch today probably won’t do me any favours, but every once in a while, you gotta splurge.

    My fifth walk in Texas went very well, albeit different than I originally planned it. My intention, as I mentioned yesterday, was to walk eight kilometres today. That did not happen. However, I picked up the pace! With the exception of the first, each kilometre was at or below 11 minutes. The best one was my fourth kilometre, which I clocked at 10m41s! I knocked out five kilometres in under fifty-five minutes, and that is nothing to sneeze at. Yes, three of my Canadian walks had a slightly better cadence, but there was only one walk that I have done with a better average pace.

    • Distance: 5.00 km (7.00 km)
    • Duration: 54:41 (1:19:42 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:54 (11:23)
    • Steps: 6.1k (8.7k)
    • Calories burned: 288 (396)
    • Elevation gain: 16m (31m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 112 (110)

    Leslie’s friend and I are going to the movies in the evening, but before that I am going to head down to my new cigar lounge for a couple of hours. I am looking forward to getting to know the people there, and that will take time… especially since I am not going to be in town very much until mid-September.

    By the way, there are some things that I do not really discuss in these entries, but suffice it to say that Leslie has noticed a difference in my body this last week. Yay!

    Have a great day folks!