Stress. Anxiety. Sadness. I have to get past this all. Tomorrow I am going to get onto the treadmill and am going to try to walk or jog my blues away. Today I will be out and about helping friends.
Author: Mitch Garvis
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Day 1128
I have eaten better today than I did yesterday which is good because the numbers on the bathroom scale have gone up the last few days and I am not happy about it. Hoping tomorrow will be a different story.
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Day 1127
I did not eat very well yesterday, and I paid for it. Yes, I woke up at a ridiculously early hour, and yes I had breakfast before the sun was up… but I also took the opportunity to clean out (read: eat) all of the leftovers from the fridge.
At least I slept well last night.
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Day 1126
I am tired. It has been a long day which was supposed to begin with a 3:00am alarm to drive Leslie to the airport… but my eyes popped open at 2:00am and were not shutting. She is home safe… although there is an issue with her luggage which I will not address here.
This afternoon she and I had a frank discussion about both my finances and getting back on track with my weight, which necessarily will include exercise. Yes, the last couple of months the stress and anxiety have nearly killed me, but even though not all of my issues are resolved, it is time to start up again. That will be this week.
Have a great day folks… I have to teach which means I cannot sleep until after my class ends at 10:00pm… but I doubt I will be awake by 10:15.
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Day 1125
I took Leslie for breakfast yesterday as planned. I ordered the French Toast with strawberries and bananas and drizzled it with maple syrup. It was delicious! Before driving her to the airport we then went to the pub, and I enjoyed a plate of fish and chips. I was tempted to change that up but decided that many of the other options were somewhat less healthy for me. We drove to the airport and were so early that we decided to stop off at another restaurant to share a dessert. I dropped her off at the exact time we had planned for our tearful goodbye, and I drove back to Burlington.
I was already back in Burlington when my phone rang. Leslie told me that the airport was shut down, and that she needed for me to come back to pick her up. I had already completed my (safe and calculated) U-turn before I asked her what had happened, and was back there in precisely the least amount of time one can safely drive from Burlington to Pearson International Airport. A plane crash on an active runway (which you have probably already heard about by now) had the entire airport shut down until… nobody knew. My wife, ever the smart one, had already rebooked her return flight for Wednesday morning when she called me. The reasons may be terrible, but I have another full day with her, and I am not complaining about that.
My original plans for dinner last night were complicated by this, and I left the leftover shawarma for my wife to eat. After all, it was her leftovers! I prepared a couple of meatless cheeseburgers for myself – one with a bun, the second without. I had some mini crisps on the side. I had to be finished with my meal by 6:15pm so that I could be online to teach my class, and so I had plenty of time to digest before bed. While I do not think my food intake was the healthiest yesterday, it could have been much worse.
My weight dropped this morning by over a pound. I actually weigh less than I have since the beginning of February – I have vacillated between this morning’s 305.6 lbs. and Friday’s high of 311.2 lbs., which tells me that while I have not made any progress, I have also not lost ground. In truth, expanding that date range back to December 20 and I have been as low as 299.8 lbs. twice (December 22 and January 19), which means that I have not changed a lot since before Chanukah. With all of the stress and anxiety and problems I have endured in that time it is no small success that I have not done worse.
My food plans for the day today are currently up in the air. I decided to wait until Leslie is awake to discuss breakfast, as I would normally just make myself an omelette and she would make whatever she had planned (usually instant oatmeal), but I know she had planned her oatmeal down to the packet for her original Monday departure, so she has none left. She is not a fan of my omelettes. I will give her the option of taking her out for breakfast again, and if she agrees then we will probably do something similar to yesterday. I will skip the desserts, as I will also take her out for a nice dinner. I had planned to do so Saturday evening, but those plans were thwarted by the inclement weather. Where we will eat is up in the air, but it will most likely be either sushi or steaks. I have not discussed this with her yet, and she might not want to eat out because of her very early flight tomorrow morning. We will see.
I usually only discuss my sleep score when it is really good or really bad, and even then, I often forget. Last night it was down to a 77, which is still on the high end of fair. The fact that it was down from two nights in the 80s (88 Saturday night and 82 Sunday night) means that I have actually been sleeping pretty well. I am quite pleased by this, because good sleep is so important to good health.
Leslie is now awake, and she has told me that she does not want to go out for breakfast. That is good for my eating, and I will shortly make my omelette. Lunch and dinner are still unknowns – I will discuss them with her once she has had her caffeine and some food.
Have a great day folks!
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Day 1124
As planned, Leslie and I had a lazy and relaxing day at home. The only exception was when mid-afternoon I suggested we go down to dig out the car. I was actually joking when I suggested she come to help, but she was happy to. After receiving over 14” of snow (35cm) of snow, the car was literally unrecognizable as anything more than a heap. We trudged through the snowbanks that were up to my mid-thigh to brush off the entire car. We then pulled the car out of the spot for a couple of reasons: I wanted to pull out and pull back in so that some of the driven snow would be tamped down, but there was also something that I wanted to get out of the trunk, which would not have been easily doable without much better snow boots had I not done so.
Leslie and I were just finishing up our dinner last night when I got a call from a cousin that I do not hear from very often. While we had a great conversation, and it was wonderful catching up with him, the reason for the call was sad. He told me that an uncle of ours (who is really our first cousin once removed, but he was my mother’s generation, so we called him uncle) passed away. While I had not spoken with that uncle in several years, there was a time when we were very close, and it was sad news indeed. Partly to remember him, but also partly because it was Leslie’s last night here, I went out to the supermarket and bought us a half pie for dessert. I have to assume that this pie, coupled with my not successfully moving my bowels this morning, is why my weight stayed the same as it was yesterday morning.
Although the trip to the supermarket was unplanned, it was indeed a fortuitous decision. As I drove back into our parking lot, my upstairs neighbour (whose parking spot is next to mine) had pulled his car out, and the snowplow was clearing our three spots so that the snowbanks were gone, and the spots were once again flat. For those of you who have never lived in snowy climes you may not fully understand how advantageous this is but trust me… when you get 14” of snowfall then the banks between parked cars is often as high as 4’ high. Thank you, Mr. Plow, and thank you neighbour who thought of asking him!
Leslie and I are going out for breakfast shortly, and then we will likely come home to relax for a few hours before I sadly have to drive her to the airport. This visit was too short, but I think we made the most of it. We did not do any socializing (which is too bad because some of my friends would have liked to see her), but we really just wanted to spend the time alone. It is so important with us living apart and only seeing each other every couple of months… and who knows when the next visit will be? It is hard, but I am so grateful for the time we do get to spend together.
Have a great day folks!
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Day 1123
All the weight that I gained since last Sunday is now gone. Phew! I also slept very well, with a sleep score of 88. Things are looking up!
Leslie and I went to the supermarket yesterday to make sure we had the necessary provisions to make it through the worst snowstorm of the year (and probably the worst since I moved back to Canada). We then ordered a pizza for lunch and came home. We spent the rest of the day relaxing, which included a cigar on the balcony, a lovely dinner, and then we got into bed and watched a movie. We have so little time together, and we are trying to make the most of it.
Last night’s dinner was a veal chop, and at the last minute I decided to try my hand at making garlic bread. I did not have a lot of what I would normally use, but I gave it a shot. It was a total failure, but at least it is something that we can joke about.
Her Royal Floofness was not impressed by the snow this morning, and our walk was as short as it has been these last couple of weeks. Leslie and I then enjoyed our breakfast together. I got some work done, and in a little while I am going to choose a book and then go lie down next to my wife to read. It will be a nice relaxing day… all that we are missing is the fireplace!
Our lunch will be meatless cheeseburgers. For dinner I am going to try my hand at a new recipe that I have not tried before. I take comfort in knowing that if I screw it up completely (like the garlic bread cum croutons) then we have the raw ingredients to make an entire new meal. I hope that it does not come to that.
Have a great day folks!
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Day 1122
I was completely shocked yesterday morning by the 2.2 lbs. gain over the previous day. It was the first time in a very long time that my weight was over 310, and I hated myself for it. I knew the reasons and I made the excuses, but I was devastated. This morning, as I prepared to step onto the bathroom scale, I girded myself, hoping that the number would be lower. It was… and significantly so. Yesterday’s 2.2 lbs. gain was more than wiped out by this morning’s 2.8 lbs. drop. Phew. I am still way too far over the terrible mark for comfort, but at least I dropped back below terrible plus ten.
Because of all of the snow, I am not taking Her Floofness for the same long walks I usually would. It is not my decision – she looks at the snow and says ‘Nope! I’m going to do my business and then we can go back inside, and you can make me a cup of hot tea.’ No, she does not actually drink tea… but that’s the attitude she has! I went out twice besides the walks yesterday; once I picked up lunch for Leslie and me, and the other Leslie and I went out shopping. How it is that I amassed nearly 6,500 steps is beyond me. I do not anticipate doing much more than that today.
We are going to head back to the supermarket today. The forecast is predicting 10cm of snow today, which is quite reasonable; tomorrow we are expecting another 30cm, which is not. For those of you who do not understand the metric system, that comes to nearly 4” of snow today… and nearly 12” tomorrow. While we are hoping that these predictions are exaggerated, we are nevertheless going to purchase whatever provisions we might need to be stuck in the house tomorrow. I want to make sure we have everything we might need.
Aside from that, Leslie and I are going to spend a couple of quiet days together. We only have five days, and we are trying to make the most of them. I am praying that sometime soon we will be able to live together and, as so many other couples do, take for granted that ‘sure, I have to work tonight, and she is working during the day… but we’ll have tomorrow or the weekend to make up for it.’ We have these five days together, our first since the beginning of November, and our last until… we don’t know. We are really trying to make the most of it. That does not mean going out to fancy restaurants or socializing with others… we are just happy to be together for what little time we have.
Have a great day folks!
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Day 1121
I could not believe how thirsty I was last night! We had shawarma for dinner which was probably way too salty and a contributing factor, but there was more to it than that. I drained four litres of water between the time Leslie and I started watching our first movie and when we got up in the morning. My output was not even close to keeping up with my intake. This would be one of the reasons my weight ballooned up this morning. I hated seeing that number.
Today will be a bit more reasonable. While yes, we are having fried chicken for lunch, it will be a much more reasonable portion size than the shawarma plate that I ate last night. It will also be earlier in the day. We will then have dinner around 5:30pm so that I can be online and ready to teach my class.
My cold seems to be getting a little better over time, which is the usually and expected progression of a head cold. It was really bad for a couple of days, then yesterday it was a little better, and today it is a little better again. I do not know how much of my thirst and dry mouth/nose were from the cold, but I have set up a humidifier in the bedroom in case that happens again.
Have a great day.
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Day 1120
My weight was up again this morning, but I should mention that right before I ate I had a much better bowel movement than before I got dressed. I did not sleep very long, but I slept next to my wife which makes up for a whole lot. My cold is slightly better today than yesterday.
I taught all day today, and I believe my students were happy with the class… despite my cold changing my voice somewhat.
Have a great day folks!
