Losing a part of me

Category: Milestones

  • Day 1292

    30.4. The bathroom scale this morning confirmed that it took me twenty-six days to drop 30.4 lbs., and I nearly wooted out loud. I suspect it would have scared Her Floofness so early in the morning, but I quietly smiled.

    Yesterday was the second day in a row that I moved my bowels twice. I suppose the fibre is finally doing its job! Aside from dropping another half pound, I was also happy to see my sleep score of 84 this morning. Even though I wish I could have slept another 30-60 minutes, and my fitness watch categorized it as: ‘shorter than ideal, plenty of deep.’ That means that four of the last seven nights I had a sleep score of seventy-five or better. I think it is a combination of the melatonin and going to bed a little earlier that is helping. Of course, that ends Wednesday… I am teaching another class in Europe Wednesday through Friday, which means my sleep cycle will be completely upside down again. To make things even more interesting (sic), I should be receiving confirmation today or tomorrow that I am also teaching a class in Europe the next two weeks straight. Financially that is a relief. Sleep wise? Not so much.

    The class I should be teaching the next two weeks is for a certification that I do not currently hold, so I am preparing to sit the exam Wednesday… although I will be deciding sometime today whether or not to move that up to tomorrow… or even this evening. We’ll see. It is another high-level cybersecurity exam, and while it is slightly different from the CISSP, it is not significantly different. Going through a lot of the material I realized that there is a huge overlap in material, which is why I am thinking of moving it up. Practically speaking, that also would give me more time to reschedule it for the weekend if I do happen to fail… which is unlikely, but always a possibility.

    Yesterday I drove out to see my son around 11:00am, and then after about an hour with him I drove to Hagersville for my cigars, just as I had planned. I also take the opportunity when I am out there to fill my gas tank – the difference is at least twenty cents per litre!

    I kept telling myself that I needed to stop off for milk and cheese before I went home, and then I got distracted. The next time I thought of it I had already parked the car. Rather than hop back in, I went into the house, greeted Her Floofness, and took out the garbage before I headed out. I grabbed a reusable bag and walked to the supermarket on the corner. I was surprised that even with that walk I had not hit my steps goal for the day. As low as the goal is, I figured that would have done it. Luckily, despite several earlier outings, Princess Sophie told me she wanted to go out after I came in from my evening cigar, at which point not only did she poop, but I was also able to achieve my daily steps goal. I am hoping that yesterday was Day 1 of a new steps-goal streak. I know that with my crazy work schedule it might be a bit challenging, but let’s see if I can do it.

    Okay, I have rescheduled my exam for tomorrow afternoon. Now I have a bit more prep to do before I am ready. I also have some videos to record today for a contract I have been working on. It should be a fun if harried couple of days.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 1274

    Last night was not a good night. I do not know what happened, but shortly after I got into bed I realized my back was uncomfortable… and then in pain. Between 11:30pm and 2:30am I got up several times to

    1. Take a couple of Aspirin
    2. Rub Votaren on my back
    3. Remake the bed ensuring the bottom sheet was taut (Princess Sophie did not appreciate being interrupted by this)
    4. (only ever a last resort) grab a THC gummy

    In the meantime I tossed and turned and just fought to get comfortable, which was just not happening. The discomfort was not at all pleasant, but nor was knowing that the morning was coming too soon and that I could not handle another lousy night sleep. It was only out of desperation that I took one of the gummies that a friend had given me. I was worried that I would have trouble getting going in the morning (every time I have taken one of these I have spent the night in extreme thirst and woken up dizzy and with a bit of a headache) but that beat waking up without having gone to sleep, so I went for it.

    (I did wake up at 6:15am and decided that I would pee quickly then get right back into bed because despite the light of day shining in through the window I was definitely still… intoxicated.)

    Despite all that, my fitness watch still gave me a sleep score of 72, which honestly makes very little sense to me considering how little sleep I got. It is possible that before I realized I was in pain I did get some sleep, so who knows?

    It happened too late to affect my morning weigh-in, but I was happy to have an amazing bowel movement this morning. It was not painless, but it was well worth the strain. I only wish that it happened first thing in the morning… before coffee and meal replacement, and of course before my weigh-in.

    Today marked the one week milestone of my renewed program. In that week, with my daily pinch of cheese and yesterday’s peanuts, I have dropped an astonishing sixteen pounds. While I certainly have a long way to go, and while 16lbs is only a drop in the bucket compared to what I want to lose, it is still a huge accomplishment for seven days. It is encouraging, and gives me the strength to keep carrying on… despite all of the obstacles that life continues to throw my way.

    I mentioned yesterday that I weighed myself a second time after my second sleep, and that based one whether or not this morning’s weigh-in was higher or lower than that I would decide whether or not to keep it. In fact my weight this morning was slightly higher than yesterday afternoon, but I am still not going to delete that measure from yesterday. Hopefully by tomorrow I will drop below that number again, but either way I am still quite pleased with my progress.

    So let’s see… yesterday I went shopping to pick up coffee, and I also picked up a little cheat of some peanuts. I know, I should not be cheating, especially so early in the program. If after all that happened the last few days the worst thing I did was eating a handful of peanuts then I am going to chalk that up as a big huge win.

    While I did some studying yesterday, I confess it was not a lot. As I wrote in my journal, I got a whole lot of sleep yesterday during the day, and after the stress and anxiety of the previous day I did not need to push myself. I also knew that the new novel in my favourite series was downloaded onto my Kobo and ready to be dived into. I spent quite a few hours reading. I plan to continue reading it until the end, at which point I will resume my deep-dive studying for the exam.

    Before I sit out on the balcony to read, I need to make a trip out to my (not-so-local) cigar shop. While I have as many as a hundred cigars in my humidor, most of them are high-end special, rather than every day cigars. I do not want to sit outside smoking a $100 cigar… especially when I have so few of those left. I will prepare my meal replacement to enjoy before I head out because I do not want to find myself hungry and tempted to cheat along the way. I need to stay on track and so I need to minimize my exposure to any temptations, which are everywhere despite my best attempts.

    I am hoping that my body does not repeat last night’s debacle so that I can get some good rest. I plan to proactively strip my bed and do laundry – a freshly made bed is usually my best chance for good sleep, or at least of the physical factors within my control.

    Have a great day folks.

  • Day 945

    I was on the phone with an old friend last night discussing life, the universe, and everything when he mentioned something that let on that he reads my daily weight loss blog. I am always surprised to hear that people read it because unlike my other two blogs (which have been dreadfully dormant for months) I do not advertise this journal anywhere. Hey buddy! 

    This morning was another disappointment with regard to the bowels, despite my adding a teaspoon of fibre to one of my meal replacements yesterday. I will double down on that today, adding a teaspoon to two meal replacements. Remembering how much I did not enjoy having diarrhea for nearly two weeks a few months ago, I will do that only one day. I know… that affliction was more likely connected to my stopping the anti-depressants, but I am not taking any chances. 

    Speaking of coming off the meds, today will be the last day I take an anti-inflammatory. I have one pill left, and then tomorrow my pill intake will drop to four pills of three meds per day. I know that I am getting on in age because of that number, but four is better than five. 

    I told Leslie last night that I decided that this morning my weight would finally drop to or below the 290 lbs. mark. Even with two days of clogged bowels I am happy to say that I did just get to that number this morning. Just imagine what I would be at if I were regular!? The way I am feeling this week it is likely I would weigh ten pounds less… but realistically at least half a pound. I am still feeling bloated and my jackets are still tight on me, and I suspect that a good de-clogging might relieve that. 

    It is a lovely day out, and Princess Sophie and I had a nice and easy walk around the park this morning. I do not think I have any errands to run, so after class I will take Her Floofness out again, and then I will relax on the balcony. Tomorrow morning I am planning on driving down to Niagara Falls to run an important errand, so it will be a busier day (with a lot more kilometres than I’ve done in some time. While I am there, I might consider going into New York State for lunch, but more likely I’ll just run my errands and then head back. We’ll see. It should be a lovely day for a drive, and hopefully I’ll be able to drive with the sunroof open and a cigar between my lips. We’ll see. 

    Have a great day folks! 

  • Day 900

    Can you all believe that today is the 900th day of my weight loss journey? With all of its ups and downs, I am happy that I am many clothes sizes and over a hundred pounds. I have lost some ground since my best weight ever, but I will be working to get back there. My weight will be a lifelong struggle, and to forget that would be disastrous.

    Despite enjoying a delicious dinner at The Keg (after which we shared the Billy Miner Pie… look it up if you don’t know), my weight was down significantly this morning from yesterday. While I did not drop all of the 2.6 lbs. that I added from the backyard birthday party, a significant portion did melt away. It was a relief that my weight did not go up!

    I love having my wife here with me for so many reasons. One of those reasons is that she helps me to make better food choices. That is not to say that she tells me ‘Oh don’t eat that!’ but rather knowing that she is here, I have fewer emotional and psychological reasons to overeat. Yes, I had chips at the birthday party… but I only had a few bites of the cake. It could easily have gone much worse than it did. Birthdays are birthdays, and we have to make some exceptions sometimes.

    My plan for the next couple of days is to enjoy as much time with her as I can. We both hate that she has to return to Texas Wednesday. Our visits are too short, but until I get my Green Card processed, that’s how we have to make our relationship work. We are almost always happy when we are together, but the parting is always extremely sad.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 730–Two Years In

    It was two years ago today that I started on this journey. I have had a lot of ups and downs, both in my weight and in life. In a couple of hours I will be meeting with my weight loss pal with whom I started the journey. In the meantime, I am preparing lunch and catching up on my email.

    My weight was down significantly this morning. It was nice to see. I am at a three-week low, but that means I am still 23.5 pounds heavier than my best weight ever. I have had a lot of very stressful issues these past ten weeks, most of which I am not going into here. Suffice it to say that my life has not been great; I am aware from the readers who have reached out to me that this has been clear in my writings. I hope they will get better, but I have no idea what my life will look like when the smoke has cleared.

    I have a lot of preparation to do for work today and tomorrow, and will be teaching days this week. I…

    …The phone rang, my lunch was ready, and then I had my meeting with my diet buddy. We celebrated our two-year anniversary, and we talked about all manner of things. I spoke with her as I enjoyed a cigar on the balcony, and told her that when we were done, I was finally going to get back onto the treadmill… and that is exactly what I did. I jogged half a kilometre and then walked (at a very brisk pace) for the next 4.5km. I felt great and got into the shower to clean off. It is now 6:30pm, and I am going to get dressed and go out to run a quick errand – I do not know how much propane is left in the tank that I am using, and I want to exchange the empty one so that I am not at risk of running out. When I get back home I will have dinner, take Her Floofness for her walk, and will then settle down to do some reading that I need to prepare for my class this week. I would like to go to see friends tomorrow afternoon. If I do not get my work done then that will not be possible.

    I’ll see you tomorrow. 

  • Day 633

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

    TOBY: What are you doing?

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

    TOBY: Yes.

    TABITHA: You like crossing things off?

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

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

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

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

    Boy was I wrong.

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

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

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

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

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

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

  • Day 620

    It couldn’t be. Could it? I stepped off the bathroom scale last night before bed and saw a number that was lower than it had been when I weighed myself in the morning. Even taking into account numerous factors such as another great walk/jog, eating peanuts but using them to replace two meal replacements, and a very substantial bowel movement (my first in a few days) it was still unlikely that I would have two huge weight loss days in a row. It made me a little excited to wake up to see what I would weigh after a good night sleep!

    The good night sleep was not to happen. I tossed and turned for hours before finally getting a few fitful hours of shuteye. I had too much on my mind and all that came together to fend off Mr. Sandman most of the night. When my alarm sounded I pressed the snooze button hopefully… but getting back to sleep was unlikely.

    Before I took Her Floofness out for her walk I stepped onto that bathroom scale which is so often finicky and cruel, but these last few days has been generous and kind. I was thrilled to see another two-pound day-over-day drop… my second in as many days! Unlike yesterday I did not wait to return from walking The Princess to walk over to the fridge so that I could cross off another number (also my second time in as many days). Another day in Best Weight Everland feels just right for me!

    I have a recollection from when I lived on the kibbutz (before I was conscripted) that I stepped onto the scale and weighed precisely 100kg. I am sure I stepped onto scales for the Army and all that, but I have no recollection of any other weigh-in while living in Israel. It was just that number that stuck in my mind. A few months ago I remember writing that in 2005 my weight had dropped to 255 lbs. which converts to 115.6 lbs. This morning, for the first time in my adult life, my weight dropped below 110kg. I still have a long way to go before I drop to that pre-Army weight, but I am on the right track. I have not lost quite 70kg yet… but I am right there! 69.66kg does not have the same ring as 153 lbs., but it is a huge number and one that I am proud of. Now let’s see if I can beat that tomorrow or Wednesday, okay?

    There is more to celebrate today… or at least to recognize:

    • My BMI has dropped below 31. According to the calculators when I lose another 8 lbs. I will no longer be classified as obese.
    • I have crossed the 99% threshold in the MapMyFitness.com challenge for 2023… assuming I go for a walk/jog today, and assuming that outing surpasses 7.7km, I will officially earn a The Finish Line badge for hitting 1,023km in 2023. As of 10:55am this morning there are 18,951 participants who have accomplished that. I am currently sitting at 19,227th place. Assuming I am not going to be the only participant who is on the cusp of it who will surpass that threshold today I do not know how much higher I will climb… but I’m going to do it today!

    Speaking of things I need to do today: I am going for a haircut shortly, following same I will come home and do some prep-work for tomorrow’s class. I am teaching this evening, but it is not a class that I have to prepare for as I have taught it many times, and it is with the same group I have been teaching since July. After a couple of hours of prep I will go for my walk/jog, which may well be the only one I do until the weekend (I am teaching tomorrow through Friday).

    I should get going though because I have to stop at a bank to get cash to pay the barber, or else I will have to look sheepish and walk to the bank after the haircut. No thank you, it is easier to just be prepared.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 619

    Yesterday was a very frustrating day with regard to technology. I am not going to go into the details but suffice it to say that what I had hoped to have three days to accomplish I have to try to start from scratch again today and only have two days to go. Wait… while I was walking Her Floofness this morning I thought of one more thing that I wanted to try before giving up and starting over. I’ll be right back. (Three minutes later) OH MY G-D IT WORKED! I did not waste an entire day yesterday and I might be able to get everything done what I need done before Tuesday morning! Woohoo!

    Because of that frustration (and the causes of it) I had time to go for a walk/jog. I did two stints jogging (the first 500m and the 4th) at a faster pace than I think I have run since I was in the Army. I was never a fast runner, but my pace was at or under 5m50s for the two running stints. It felt great, and I will try to push myself to go a little farther at that pace on my next outing.

    I am not sure what prompted it but near the end of my walk I stopped at Fortinos. Instead of just buying water or Gatorade I bought a handful of peanuts. I do not know why I did it, but I walked out of the store with $1 worth of Virginia peanuts. I got home, showered, and prepared my second meal replacement shake. I sat down at the computer to fight with my tech problem. When I finished my meal replacement I moved on to the peanut portion of the meal. Hey Mitch! What part of MEAL REPLACEMENT was unclear to you? You are not meant to have the meal replacement… and desert! Fortunately I was sated to the point where I did not need my final meal replacement of the day, so the peanuts were in fact just that.

    I have this habit of stepping onto the bathroom scale before I get into bed at night. Sometimes I even step onto it when I come in from a long exercise outing. Whatever numbers I may see are not accurate for my tracking, but the pre-bedtime number is usually a good indication of what my weight will be the following morning. Most mornings I will weigh 1-2 lbs. less than I did before bed, although this is not a scientific guarantee, and it has often been as low as .5 lb. and as much as 4.5 lbs. difference.

    When I stepped onto the scale after my exercise yesterday, I was happy to see that I weighed .2 lb. less than my best weight ever… but that is a meaningless number as I have said before. You cannot walk and jog 10km and immediately step onto the scale expecting it to be in line with your daily morning weigh-ins, right? Before I got into bed, I was pleased to see that the number was lower than it had been that morning. I know, I did not have my evening meal replacement so it was probably skewed because of that; nevertheless, I was optimistic that I would see a big drop the next morning. I went to sleep disappointed by my peanuts but glad that I had used them as a meal replacement rather than as an additional snack.

    I have of late stopped wasting my time by sitting on the potty in the mornings in hope that my previous regularity might somehow return, so my morning bathroom ritual is much shorter than it was… especially on days after a long walk/jog which means I would have showered in the afternoon. I walked to the bedroom (where my ‘bathroom’ scale has been for over a year) without any of these thoughts on my mind, only hoping that the numbers would be at least slightly down from yesterday.

    “Mr. Garvis? Yes, your table is ready. Welcome back to Best Weight Ever. Please relax and try to not rest on your laurels.”

    The day-over-day drop was not insubstantial. Not only was my weight lower than yesterday, but it was also a full pound lower than what it was the morning that I flew to California… the day when I dropped below 245 lbs. and for the first time could honestly say I had lost one hundred and fifty pounds! It was an amazing feeling. It would be another hour before I would walk to my fridge to cross off the next number on my countdown chart, but once Her Floofness was walked and fed that is exactly what I did. In the nearly two months since Leslie and I made our little wager to urge each other’s success I have lost just under 20 lbs., and that includes a week in California which did not help my progress at all.

    My original plan for the day (and tomorrow) was to sequester myself at the computer working on my labs, and indeed I do intend to do a lot of work on them today. However, knowing now that I do not have to start from scratch (as I thought until that break in the first paragraph of this journal entry) I will not deprive myself. I will still work most of the day, but I will do so on the balcony with a cigar. It is a beautiful day outside with forecast high temperatures of 25° and sunny. Knowing now that the problem I was up against was caused by Microsoft and not by my not paying close attention because of my cigar I am more comfortable that I can continue to work outside. Depending on how far I get into my labs I might go out for another walk/jog this afternoon… but that will depend on the progress I make.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 607

    I cannot decide if it means anything or not. After all, I know that when I weigh myself at 3:15am the readout will be completely different from when I weigh myself when I normally wake up. I was absolutely not planning to even step onto the bathroom scale this morning… I packed my suitcase last night and the scale was in it. As fate would have it I packed all of my golf shirts, so I needed to take one out to wear today. I opened it up and decided to see what the dreaded machine would say… even though I was sure to be disappointed.

    244.4 lbs.

    Two hundred and forty-four pounds.

    I did not see any chance that it would happen after the crap I had gone through these last ten days or so, but I achieved that goal. This morning, in time to fly to California, I have lost 150 lbs. 150.6, to be specific.

    For the first time since I set the goal in that app that came with my bathroom scale, I have less than fifty pounds to go to to my ultimate (and unrealistic) weight goal!

    I am currently on the plane on the first leg of my flight to LAX. I drove to the airport (a first – when the trip is short enough it is cheaper to pay for off-airport parking than it is to pay for the Uber to and from), I got through Security and Customs and I had my breakfast wrap (minus the bacon). As I promised myself I would, I swapped out the potatoes for slices of tomato. All in all I am not disappointed by what I ate. I did not bring snacks for the airplane but I will likely try to buy some nuts at the connecting airport. I do not want to be stuck on the second airplane hungry.

    Speaking of food and planning: I brought two meal replacements for every day I will be in California. I will still be eating smart, but I am not going to go completely off the program… just a little off the program. I will not be disappointed if I come back to Canada 2-3 lbs. heavier than I was this morning. I will be extremely upset with myself if it is worse than that. I brought the bathroom scale with me to try to keep me honest… to remind me every morning that I am not going to let myself go.

    It was a brisk morning in the Greater Toronto Area but the forecast for Los Angeles is sunny and mid-70s. It will be a lovely week, and I am looking forward to seeing my wife tomorrow… and all of my friends while I am there.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 606

    I wrote yesterday that it had taken nine days from crossing off 250 lbs. to crossing off the next number (248.0) on the sheet on my fridge. Even with the amazing exercise I did yesterday I did not expect that I would be taking another triumphant walk to that sheet again before I returned from California. Knowing that I did not stick to the program yesterday I was doubtful I would see any progress on the bathroom scale… although thanks to the exercise I did not expect to lose any ground either. How thrilled was I then to step onto that appliance with which I have a longstanding love/hate relationship and see a drop? It was no minor drop either… I weigh 2.2 lbs. less this morning than I did yesterday! While it will be impossible to know for sure, another half-decent (and not even extreme) drop from today to tomorrow will mean that I am actually going to fly to California below 245 lbs… and I will have officially lost one hundred and fifty pounds.

    Why impossible, you might ask? With my flight scheduled for 7:00am I will be leaving the house at 3:30am to drive to the airport. Even if I was not planning to pack the bathroom scale to take with me, a 3:00am weigh-in is meaningless. I will step onto the scale Wednesday morning in the hotel room when I know my weight will be up a pound or two because of the travel day, but I will still be in good stead compared to where I was a week ago. During the trip to California having the scale there will help me (as I have discussed), but I do not expect to return from the trip weighing less than I did this morning. My goal is to not weigh over 250 lbs.

    I went for my longest walk in months yesterday and I felt amazing for it. I will go for another outing this afternoon, although I will consciously not exert myself to the extent that I did yesterday. The 15km that I walked yesterday was amazing and it felt great, but I did not have to spend the following day on airplanes. I will plan for a 10-12 kilometre walk today, and no more.

    The timing of yesterday’s walk screwed with my meal replacements. I had intended to prepare a meal replacement before going out, but something distracted me. When I returned it was after 4:00pm. While this was not my plan at the time what I ended up doing was this: I had a meal replacement immediately after my shower, and then at 9:30pm (way too late, I know!) I made an omelette. The omelette was not only an aberration from the program, but it was also way too late, which is why I was fully expecting to not lose weight today. I should mention that while both of these facts are true, I was still allowed (according to my modified program) 450 calories on the day; the omelette I prepared accounts for about 350 calories, with 27g of protein and only 14g of carbohydrates. As far as cheating goes, this was not much of one!

    I have to pack my suitcase today! I am very excited about that. No, I do not enjoy packing. When packing means that I will be seeing my wife shortly then it is a happy chore indeed! Speaking of my wife, I am going to take a bit of time this morning to have a video cigar date with her. After today our next cigar date will be together. Yay!

    The next journal entry I write will be from the airport tomorrow morning. I know that I will be eating my breakfast in the airport, and I will be careful to not indulge. I must not allow myself those breakfast potatoes which I do not love but never seem able to resist. I will do so tomorrow. Wish me luck!

    Have a great day folks!