Losing a part of me

Category: Friends

  • 2026 Day 25

    I was not as good at breakfast as I should have been. No, I did not order my usual French Toast. No, I did not forego the toast and hashbrowns that came with my omelette. I also spread peanut butter and strawberry jam onto the toast. Bad Mitch.

    It got worse… I think. When I arrived home I was tired and sluggish, and decided that the remaining chicken (which I had intentionally frozen) and rice (the last scoop of it) would be a nice second meal of the day. This meal was eaten around dinner time. I do not recall if I had a meal replacement between breakfast and dinner, but that was all I ended up eating for the evening.

    It was my expectation that, owing mostly to the carbs in the bread and starch in the rice, that my weight would be up once again this morning. In fact it was down… nearly a pound from yesterday. I am not going to look that gift horse in the mouth; I am going to try my very hardest to stick to the program today. Aside from the fact that I want to get back on track and stick with it… I am seeing my doctor tomorrow morning, and I would love to be as close to the 10kg down that I promised her as I can be. I believe that as of this morning I am 9.1kg down. Is it possible that I will drop nearly a full kilo overnight? Yes… but not very likely. How about half a kilo? That’s more likely… but one thing is certain: My weight will drop a little bit when I am finally able to move my bowels, which I have been unable to do these last two or three days.

    My sleep was, in a word, a disaster. When I fell asleep at 11:30pm I was excited that I should be able to get eight hours of sleep, interrupted only by possibly one trip to the restroom. When my eyes popped open at 2:45am I was sure I would be able to fall back into dreamworld; to be fair, I did. The problem is that I fell asleep at 5:35am, and was fully awake and out of bed at 7:00am. That was not how I wanted to start my Sunday, but the stresses and anxieties going through my head are sometimes stronger than my need to sleep… no matter what I might take to try to help me with it.

    It is no surprise, knowing how little sleep I am working on, that I am meandering through this article, and I am getting distracted easily by every beep. With that said, since I wrote that paragraph some forty-five minutes ago, I was finally able to have a good bowel movement. It was not easy, and I can tell that the fact that I had not added fibre to my diet yesterday (I did not have a shake, hence that fell by the wayside) had a serious effect on me – it was not an easy time – but it was absolutely successful. Phew! Now all I need to do is stick to my program today, and lose another kilogram tomorrow morning! Lol!

    I have work to do today, and I am going to try to get as much done as possible. I also have a very close friend (and Lodge brother) coming over this afternoon. I really need to speak with him, and even if I had other plans, I would have worked them around his visit. I really need to speak with him. Hopefully I will then be able to get a good night sleep tonight… but I am not going to bet on it.

    It was so wonderful to sit with my old diet buddy yesterday for a few hours. We caught up (it had been over a year since we had really talked) and planned how we are going to get through a few possible hurdles we are both going to face. I also got to meet her dog, whom I have heard of for years (and even saw on FaceTime many times) but I had never met him. He was so wonderful and gentle… and I am curious to see how well he and Princess Sophie might get along 😉

    I am going to try to get my work done now. My buddy should be here in a couple of hours, and I might be able to get some of it done before he gets here. I am hoping.

    Have a great day folks!

  • 2026 Day 10

    I fell off the wagon today.

    This weekend was supposed to be a quiet one, relaxing at home and such. When a Lodge brother texted me yesterday afternoon asking if I would be able to come to help his sister with her computer, I said I would be delighted to. This morning I took that opportunity to book a haircut as I really needed it, and my barber is near his sister.

    The list of things that I did wrong is long, but it all started with my bathroom scale. I was good yesterday, following the program as I should. How then, please tell me, could I have gained five pounds from yesterday morning? I swore, I cursed, and the fact that a couple of my attempts had be only about two pounds up from yesterday did not change that my weight is so severely up from yesterday. I know, it is a bad idea to weigh myself every day; I also know that weight loss is about the overall trend, and not about individual plots on the graph. None of that changed the fact that I was in a shitty mood and ready to throw it all in and dive into a plate of chicken wings.

    After leaving my buddy’s sister’s house (with an appreciation bottle of scotch in hand) I realized how hungry I was. I had my morning meal replacement around 8:30am, and it was now… 3:00pm. Had it been a normal day I would have stopped and picked up some peanuts. As I weighed as much as an elephant this morning despite my best efforts, I also picked up four slices of dried mango. I only ate three of them (more on that in a minute). I was really in a bad mood, and I was close to giving up.

    As I walked from Bulk Barn to Dollarama (to buy sugar free chewing gum) I had a loud altercation with a driver. After I yelled at him he rolled down his window and said ‘Didn’t you see me enter the intersection? Why did you continue crossing?’ I replied: ‘Do you mean did I see you blow through the stop sign ignoring everyone else’s right of way because you think you are more important than the rest of us?’ He replied with a comment that I will not repeat here… and as he pulled away he found himself slapped on the cheek by a flying slice of dried mango. Four slices became three.

    I am still down about the weight, even though I know that tomorrow things will be back to normal… or at least I hope they will be, but the mango and peanuts might impede that. I might be going out with someone this evening, and if I do then I will try to not eat… and if I do, it will be a very light cheat. Tomorrow, rain or shine, up or down, I will be back on track with my program.

    Have a great day.

  • Day 1324

    I did not get nearly enough of it, but I think I got more sleep yesterday and last night than on any other night this week. I probably slept three hours in the afternoon, and then when I got back from my Lodge meeting I got another two hours. It is funny that I feel so well rested after five hours of disconnected and interrupted sleep… but that is so much more than I have had recently so my body is grateful for it.

    For those of you who are wondering, especially since this is meant to be a weight loss blog, I have stayed about the same all week… except that I have been again weighing myself at 1:00am so I might be a little better than I was at the beginning.

    Today is Friday, and I am excited for several reasons. Today is the last day of my class, tonight I should be able to get a good night sleep, and I am going to see someone this evening to play board games and enjoy their company. It should be fun. Yes, I will be home at a reasonable hour.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 1308

    We are half way through the week. This morning I woke up at 12:45am and said to myself that there are only two more ridiculously early mornings left before I can resume a normal schedule. I am truly looking forward to that. Once again, I got a bit of sleep in the afternoon yesterday, and then I got four hours of sleep at night. I would have slept much better in the afternoon had I put my phone onto ‘silent’ mode. I do not ever ignore phone calls from my sons, and I was happy to hear from my son the elder. After he gave me a not-so-brief rundown of what was happening in his life I told him I wanted to go back to sleep and he understood. As inconvenient as if initially felt to be awakened, it was fortunate that I was because there was a message from a friend that he was coming over… I had completely forgotten that I had invited him! Aside from wanting to catch up, he also had a portable hard drive that I had loaned him. When I thought to back up my computer over the weekend I realized I did not have it and knew exactly where it was.

    The friend who came over is one who was on the same program that I am on. He was even under the care of the same doctor that I originally did it with. As such, I felt comfortable discussing the frustration I am feeling over the company’s supply chain issues. We discussed possible alternatives, and he had some good insight for me. In the meantime, the replacement meal replacements did arrive yesterday, and I had my first one just a few minutes ago. It was palatable if not delicious. I just have to remember that it will be six per day rather than my usual four. With that said, I will not be resuming the full program today; I have food in the house for two more days, and I do not want to waste it. I also do not want my class to suffer for my Day One Syndrome.

    My weight had shot up terribly over the previous week, and I am relieved that after a peak a few days ago I am back on a downward trend, even though I am not back on the program, and my circadian rhythm (sleep cycle) is shot to smithereens. I have dropped three pounds from my peak (not Day One)

    I am tired as I type this, but I am sure I will be able to make it through the day. I only have 8.5 hours left of teaching. How fun.

    Have a great day folks.

  • Day 1290

    I was in bed and asleep at a reasonable hour last night… but when I woke up to pee around 1:10am I got into my head. My worries over both of my children (who are of very different ages and who have very different problems right now) kept me awake for a couple of hours. My sleep before and after that was good, which is how I ended up with a sleep score of 67… but yeah, I had it pretty accurate – looking at the data from my fitness watch, I was awake from 1:06am to 3:06am. I likely would have slept another 30-60 minutes were it not from a phone call from my son the elder at 8:30am. I have heard from him more this past week than likely any time in the past decade, and I am so grateful for it! I will also not be upset with him for a phone call at 8:30am, even if it did wake me up. Sorry society, but that is not an unreasonable hour for a call!

    My weight dropped a full pound from yesterday! That brings my current weight loss to 28.2 lbs. in 24 days. That is certainly nothing to sneeze at! I did cheat with peanuts again yesterday, but I find that if I replace one meal replacement with a reasonable amount of unsalted peanuts then it does not harm my progress. It is when I have the peanuts in addition to my complement of meal replacements that I get into trouble. That, and the day of my exam when I ate salted peanuts (because that was what was available).

    Today will be a challenge because I am taking my son the younger for lunch. I know that I will be tempted, but I will do my best to stay strong. I cannot give in to temptation! I will also then take him grocery shopping, and the instructions from his mother are to let him buy what he wants. The only item I need for myself is coffee, and I hope I do not forget. If I do, then I will be scrambling tomorrow morning!

    It is another beautiful day, and my friend Eduardo is coming over this afternoon. He needs help with his computer, and I am always happy to see him. I doubt that his issues will take me more than a few minutes to solve, after which we will sit and enjoy a cigar on the balcony.

    I scheduled another certification exam for Wednesday because I have been asked to teach the class the following week. While it is certainly a topic I will not have any issues with, they want me to be certified so I will take the exam. I will also spend some time studying over the next few days – while I am not worried, I still want to be prepared. I spent more time studying for the CISSP exam than for any I have ever taken… and it felt good to know that pass or fail, I gave it my all. Seeing as I have work I need to do on Monday and Tuesday, I will spend some time this afternoon (after Eduardo leaves) and tomorrow with my head in the books.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 1284

    In my usual manner, I woke up this morning to the same morning routine as always. Impatient as I am with my weight loss progress, I was still satisfied with the same-old .8 lbs. drop from yesterday. I say same-old because following the initial tremendous drop the first few days, the most common day-over-day drop has been that. I got dressed, took Her Floofness for her walk, and then returned home to feed her, make coffee, and prepare my meal replacement.

    Between preparing all of that and actually starting to ingest it I felt the urge, and went to the water closet to try… and indeed succeeded. Yay! I decided that since I had not already eaten that I would get nekkid and re-weigh myself. Dropping another .6 lbs. from my initial attempt, it brought me to a great milestone: since Day 1 (today is Day 18) I have officially dropped twenty-five pounds!! That is no small feat, and is certainly worthy of recognition.

    Wonder of wonders, my sleep score this morning was good for the third day straight… and the second night in three was a 90+. Okay, it was 90 on the dot, but that is still considered excellent. I cannot think of too many times since I started wearing this watch that my sleep score was ninety or better. I am going to do my best to make sure I am in bed and with the lights out by 11:00pm as often as I can. That seems to be making a difference.

    As planned, I spent the afternoon yesterday in St. Catharines with a couple of masonic brothers – one of which I have known and been friends with since before I was initiated, the other one who I have only known on Facebook. He and I hit it off like gangbusters. There is a saying that in Freemasonry there are no strangers, only friends you haven’t met yet. I don’t know about that; I do know that this gentleman and I absolutely hit it off in our love of History, our first-hand knowledge of the Middle East, and our understanding of and respect for each other’s culture. I am so glad that I drove down there, and it was worth the nearly 2.5 hours I sat in traffic on the QEW.

    Unfortunately, I was weak… I stopped along the way to pee and decided while I was there to pick up some peanuts. At least they were the unsalted kind. While all cheating is cheating, there are better and worse cheats. It turns out though that it was a good thing that I cheated. When I arrived at his house he offered me an alcoholic beverage (I politely declined, explaining to him that my current diet forbids it), and there were bowls of snacks – party mix, nuts (the salted kind), and chips freely available and within arm’s reach. Had I not eaten the unsalted peanuts en route there is a very good chance that I would have succumbed to these temptations. He also offered up that his wife makes the most amazing zaatar pita that I have tasted outside of Lebanon, and would gladly make some for us. I asked for a rain cheque for when I was not on my diet. This was probably the hardest offer I have had yet to refuse. If you know, you know.

    My son the elder is coming over this afternoon for a drink. Next weekend his mother is driving him down to North Carolina to begin his Master program at university, and this will be the last time we sit down before that. He and I have had a complicated relationship, and while he has freely admitted over the past decade or so that I have made huge positive changes, it still took him a long time to fully trust and accept ‘the new me.’ Over the last few months he has reached out to connect with me a handful of times; I suspect he thinks me a good sounding board for some of his thoughts and ideas, and when I do offer advice (which I try to do sparingly and only when asked) it is reasonable and wise… and from a very different perspective from what his mother and the other adults in his life might offer. He does from time to time like to try to shock me as well; while he knows about some of my past, I suspect he knows but the tip of the iceberg of what my true experience is. He has on a few occasions mildly surprised me, but thus far has not come close to shock. I hope he does not push the boundaries in his attempts, because his health and safety are too important to me!

    He is bit of a feinshmecker in many respects, especially with respect to alcohol. He has been working these last couple of years at the largest LCBO (Liquor Control Board of Ontario – the official alcohol retailer in Ontario, and the largest single purchaser of alcoholic beverages in the world), and so for me to have a bottle that he has never seen is always a treat for him. Last month a friend was in British Colombia and sent me a picture of a bottle he came across that was so completely different and that is not available in Ontario. If he does want to try it then yes, I will open the bottle and yes, I will have a dram which will definitely be a diet cheat. It is not every day that my son comes over to celebrate starting a master of law program at a top U.S. school!

    Other than that, I expect today will be a quiet day for me. I will try to get some work done, and might have to spend some time on the balcony reading. While I have been listening to the audio book Moby Dick, I think I am going to revisit one of the early Dan Brown novels that I have sitting on my shelf. He has a new book in the Robert Langdon series coming out in September and I will definitely read it, but I confess I think all of his subsequent novels have paled in comparison to Angels and Demons and the Davinci code. So be it, I will still read the new one. Hope springs eternal.

    Since writing that paragraph I decided to completely organize my bookshelves, organizing them by category. It is amazing how many religious texts I have, in addition to the myriad books on Jewish thinking, on Israel, and on Israel’s wars. Most of these non-religious books in those categories I was given by my father’s widow, a friend of our family for most of my life, when she sold her house and moved into a retirement complex. There are two shelves of cigar books, and a very small one for fiction. I love fiction and read it all the time… I just do not usually keep them when I am done with them.

    Also since writing that paragraph, a buddy of mine texted me and asked if he could come over for a cigar. He is driving here from Grimsby, and while he says he is just passing through and thought it would be great to see me, I know that I saw him yesterday, and he might have something that he needs to talk about. My door is always open for my friends.

    Aside from a wee dram with my son, my plan for today is to stick to the program. I hope I can succeed… I know that I promised that one week from tomorrow I will be recording videos, and I want to look as good as I can. That will not be very good… but at least I can try to drop another five pounds this week.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 1273

    I slept two nights since yesterday. I’ll explain.

    After the debacle that was yesterday I knew that I would not be going to the Grand Lodge event in Toronto today, but I had promised someone that I would give him something there. I arranged for a brother to drop by to pick them up on his way. I did not fall asleep until nearly 1am, so when my doorbell rang before 6:00am I was not nearly well rested, but I got up and dressed and did my thing… which is to say that I took Her Floofness for her walk, and when we came home I fed her, brewed a half pot of coffee (I realized I did not have sufficient coffee to brew a full pot) and mixed my meal replacement shake. I sat down at the computer and did my email thing and even opened up my blog page to write… but did not write a word. My sleep score was 56 – plenty of deep but not nearly enough overall.

    At 8:30am I realized how exhausted I was and decided to lie down for a bit. Princess Sophie jumped at the opportunity to join me. I am not sure that it was as deep as the overnight inadequate sleep, but it was actually longer – I woke up around 2:30pm! I prepared my meal replacement shake, I actually had a bowel movement (only my second one in nearly a week), and brushed my teeth again. While I would normally never do this, I weighed myself again, and was pleased to see that I had dropped another pound and a half since this morning. With that said, I have not decided if I will keep it… weighing myself at 7am versus 3pm? Yeah… it will depend on what the bathroom scale says tomorrow morning. If it is down from this afternoon then I will keep it, but if it is up then I will wipe it. Anyhow, I then sat down at my computer to pay some bills.

    I am trying to think more positively today than I did yesterday afternoon. Yes, the exam cancellation completely screwed me for the next several weeks, but nobody is shooting at me. I will try to be patient and wait to hear back about rescheduling the exam. In the meantime, I am going to drive to the supermarket – I am out of coffee, and I have some dry cleaning to drop off. Once that is done, if the rain has abated then I will take Her Floofness for another walk before sitting on the balcony with my book – an author that I love releases a new book in his series every July 15, and I downloaded it that day planning to read it after my exam. Since that did not happen I will try to read it today.

    Have a great day folks.

  • Day 1271

    I do not remember at what point I stopped updating my offline journal – that is, the one large document that included all of the posts from my online blog – but it occurs to me that I should seriously think about going back and updating it. I do not really want to see a lot of the worst of my entries from the deepest times of despair, but I suppose I can just copy-and-paste without reading them. We will see. That will not happen before Thursday – today is my last complete day to study for my exam which is at 1:00pm tomorrow afternoon, so my main focus until after the exam will be that. Wednesday I will be at a provincial Grand Lodge event, which takes us to Thursday.

    I should mention that I did resume updating my weight tracking spreadsheet from my bathroom scale. That is much easier to do, and does not involve going to each individual day to cop-paste. All I needed to do was to expert all data from the scale since the beginning of April and then copy-paste that into my spreadsheet.

    The new shirts and jacket that I ordered are out for delivery according to FedEx, and I will have them in time for my event on Wednesday. That is a relief. While I do have a suit that I can wear, it is tight and I will feel more comfortable wearing something that is tailored to my size. The disturbing truth is that from the day the tailor measured me for these new clothes I gained over ten pounds… that is just over a month ago. Fortunately I have these last five days lost all of that. Phew! As terrible as I feel that I needed to have bigger clothes made, that would have been amplified had they now been tight.

    Yes, today is Day 5, and according to the bathroom scale I have dropped a little over ten pounds. I am pleased but far from satisfied. I have a long way to go, as I said yesterday, until I am anywhere near satisfied. Maybe ‘satisfied with my progress so far’ is a better way to write that.

    I need to start exercising in order to make sure I continue to not only lose weight, but also to ensure I get back into shape. My doctor will tell you that I am in great shape for a man a fucking overweight as I am (she would not use those exact words), but that is not good enough for me. I would like to run a marathon next year. Before I do that, I need to start walking again before I can start jogging again. I am going to wait a couple of weeks before jogging for a number of reasons, but as for walking I might start as early as Thursday, depending on the weather. Yes, I have a treadmill… but if the weather is nice I would much rather begin my journey again in the fresh air.

    My sleep score last night was equal to the previous night. I suspect that if I was not drinking what amounts to a small swimming pool every day it might be a bit higher… but alas, I am going to continue to drink as much water as I can. Water is great for the body, but it is also a big contributor to weight loss… even if it did not help to fill my occasionally hungry stomach. I only woke up three times to pee in the night last night which is a 25% improvement over the two previous nights.

    I did finally move my bowels yesterday which was a relief (no pun intended). I neglected to add fibre to my morning meal replacement, but will make a point of doing so this afternoon.

    Owing to something I needed to get done for a buddy yesterday, I was not as productive as I would have liked to be. I did get some studying done… but not as much as I hoped to. Today there will be no disturbances, and that is what I am going to do.

    There are so many things I probably should do with regard to tracking my renewed weight loss efforts, but I am not ready to do that yet. I know that my Body Mass Index (BMI) is a disgusting 42.6, up twelve points from my best ever in October 2023. I have to assume that means that I would again be classified as morbidly obese, but looking to see at what point I would drop out of that… I am not ready for that. I know that I need to set short, medium, and long-term goals for myself, but for the time being I just want to follow the program like an automaton. I will drink my meal replacements and do nothing more other than journal about my emotions.

    The friend who came over yesterday is one of two who has gone through the same medically supervised program that I did. He understands a lot of what I am going through. He and his wife went through it and they lost a lot of weight. It is good to have people that I can speak with who have been there.

    My only plans to go out today are to go to the store to pick up milk for my coffee. Other than that, I expect I will migrate between my desk and my balcony, studying either inside or outside. I will continue to try stabilizing the timing of my meal replacements, which might be easier today at home than tomorrow (when I have my exam) and Wednesday (when I will likely be in Toronto for the day). Speaking of which, I had better remember to bring my meal replacements with me if I go to Toronto… I do not want to be caught having to break the program as I am still trying to make it a habit… and while I am doing so well.

    While I have felt hunger at times, I suspect that yesterday was the first day that I did not consider the program (which is by any measure extreme) a hardship. I was able to get through it without a great deal of difficulty. There have been times these last few days when cigars have helped to distract me from my hunger, and I will continue to use them as a tool. I was going to use the word crutch but no, it is not a crutch. I am not leaning on them, rather I am using them to bridge the hunger meal replacements, much as a snack might bridge the hunger between meals.

    I have said before that forcing a happy face when one is down can be a way to actually induce the happiness eventually. I am trying to put on that positive and happy air these days, and I hope that after tomorrow’s exam I might start to feel it. Until then? The exam and its implications are all consuming.

    Have a great day folks.

  • Day 1270

    As I had the previous day, I stuck to my program religiously yesterday… with the (again) pinch of grated cheese that I nibbled as I was giving Princess Sophie hers. In fact, owing to a weird schedule and a possibly failing memory, it is possible that I ingested even less than I am supposed to – I might have only had three meal replacements rather than the four that are medically recommended. I have made a note to try to do better both with remembering and with the consistency of timing so that I make sure I do get all of the vitamins and nutrients that I need to be healthy.

    In addition to those, I had my coffee (as usual) and, as I was sitting on the balcony studying (and because it was 36° and sunny) I decided to pour myself a cold iced tea. I sweetened it with aspartame rather than the raw sugar that I use for my coffee, and I do not think that would be considered a cheat.

    I also drank my water. Folks, it is much easier to remember to drink copious amounts of water when the weather is scorching than it is in the winter. I am easily going through at least four litres of water a day, and probably more than that.

    Remember my plan from yesterday morning? I had gotten up to pee however many times the previous night, and so I was going to try to make a note to stop drinking after 8pm? That did not happen… I studied on the balcony until nearly 9:30pm, and then sat there watching TV on my iPad. It was still hot, so I kept drinking water to stay hydrated. When I went into the house to get ready for bed I counted the empty water bottles next to the sink… between the time I finished my evening meal replacement (around 7:30pm) and the time I went to bed I drank a little over 1.5l (54oz) of water. The result? I peed three times between coming into the house and going to sleep, and I got up from sleep another four times. Will I never learn?

    Despite that, my sleep was much better than the previous night. My sleep score was 79, up from 58. I’ll take it.

    Yesterday afternoon I was asked by a couple of friends to go out to a bar for the evening. I politely declined, telling them that I need to study… and in fact that is what I did. What I did not tell them is that I was on Day 3 of my program and I was not ready to spend a night at a bar surrounded by all of the temptations of food and drink. It is much easier for me to keep my resolve if I stay home alone.

    Today is Day 4, and I am remembering some of what I was going through on Day 4 on my previous attempts. It has now been two days since my last bowel movement, and so I added fibre to my meal replacement this morning. I was very sluggish on Day 1 & 2, but I think that is behind me. I remember that I was very cold from within, owing to the sheer volume of water I was drinking. Wouldn’t it be nice for that to happen while it is this hot? It hasn’t kicked in yet if it is going to… I’ll keep waiting.

    My weight has dropped drastically these last three days but that is not unusual for the first few days of the program. Wouldn’t it be nice to see that trend continue? It is unlikely. Yes, if I stick to the program, then my weight will continue to drop… but not at the tremendous rate it has fallen these three days. As it is, I have already dropped all of the weight that I gained this last month.

    This year has been a dumpster fire for so many reasons. My weight dipped below ‘that horrible mark’ only one day this year – back in January. Since then it has skyrocketed and I do not even want to say how bad it got. Suffice it to say, I want to get back below that horrible mark, and if I can do so by the end of September then I will be a happy man. No, that is not entirely true… I will be a relieved man. I will only be truly happy when I have lost every single pound that I gained back since falling off the wagon two years ago.

    Is it a coincidence that I fell off the wagon when my heart was shattered in November of 2023, and then again when it was shattered in April of 2025? I doubt it. I am the only one to blame, but it does not take a genius to recognize that the actions of others is the root cause of these falls.

    A good friend of mine has been asking for help with his computer for a couple of months, but every time we have scheduled to meet he has been called away for work at the last minute. As of this minute he is supposed to come after work today, and unless there is an incident that necessitates his working overtime then I will see him then. He is one of my friends who has gone through the medically supervised program that I did, so he will understand that no, I will not let him take me out to dinner as a thank-you, but we will be able to sit on the balcony with a cigar to chat and catch up. It will be great to talk with him because he knows what I am going through and if he cannot advise me then he can at least listen with a sympathetic ear.

    Other than the visit from my buddy, my plan is to once again study until I cannot read the words on the page for one more minute. My exam is scheduled for precisely 49.75 hours from this minute as I type, and I am nowhere near confident that I will pass. I will do everything in my power to do so, and if nothing else I will walk into the exam room confident that I have done all that I can to prepare.

    Have a great day folks.

  • Day 1260

    I have a plan.

    My birthday is this coming Sunday. I have a close friend who is also a professional chef who wants to prepare a birthday meal for me. Unfortunately (only in this context) I will be spending the weekend (starting tomorrow) in Strathroy taking care of my godchildren. As such, he asked if we could do dinner the evening of July 9th (Wednesday). I agreed, and told him that evening would be the swan song – the last meal before the diet begins.

    I have said it before. I hope I can stick to it now.