Losing a part of me

Category: Non-Scale Victories

  • Day 181

    I mentioned yesterday that I love it when the numbers on the bathroom scale are kind to me. This morning’s drop of 2.2 lbs is a result of several things that I did yesterday, including mostly good eating, a really strong walk, and drinking a lot of water. It might also be partially a correction for whatever seems to happen to my weight when I travel, whether by plane or by automobile. Either way, it was a good step in the right direction!

    It was brought to my attention recently that, with regard to my weight management program, I tend to be hard on myself… I accentuate the bad while minimizing the good. As I am currently on a journey of self-improvement, I am going to try to end that.

    I had two huge non-scale victories over the last few days, and I am quite thrilled with them. The first:

    I am a Microsoft Certified Trainer, and have been for sixteen years. After ten years, the program sends you a polo shirt every year… or at least, they did when I asked for them. After fifteen years, they send you a jacket. I know there are 20- and 25-year gifts as well, but I do not know what they are. While the polo shirts always fit well (and over the years I had XL through XXXL), the jacket (I have two) sizes are ridiculous… way too small, and for the past two years I have not been able to wear either of them.

    I was cleaning out my car this afternoon after my week-long travel debacle and I found it in the trunk. I had brought it to Leslie to wear in case she was cold at one point, and I forgot to take it out of the car. It made its way into my trunk, and has probably been there for five months. I tried it on… it is tight, but it fits, and I can zip it closed! Don’t get me wrong, it is far too warm this month to wear it… but come autumn, I will be happy to wear it… especially as I continue to lose weight so it will fit even better!

    The second non-scale victory: Yesterday I drove from Long Island, New York to Burlington, Ontario – a nine-hour drive, if you count the border and the stop for petrol – with three dozen Montreal bagel in the car. I knew they were there, and I did not eat even a bite of one! For those of you who have never eaten a Montreal bagel let me tell you… this is a huge accomplishment, and one that I did not expect to do. I knew they were there; they were in easy reach from the driver’s seat, and I did not touch them. I wanted to… but I did not.

    I should mention that I started my nine-hour journey without a cigar in the cabin, so when it was safe (Madison Avenue near 72nd Street in Manhattan) I pulled over in a bus-lane (try finding parking in Manhattan… I dare you), put my blinkers on, and ran to my trunk to grab a couple of cigars. Yes folks, rather than eating my feelings and anxiety, I smoked them away.

    (Spoiler alert: my feelings and anxiety are still with me… but I did not go off my weight management program in a big way because of them these last few days)

    As I wrote yesterday afternoon, I went for an epic walk. I also spent a lot of time thinking about things I need to do to be a better person and a better husband. Some of those things are obvious, some of them are harder for me to comprehend. That does not mean that I do not accept them, just that I have a lot of work ahead of me. I truly hope I am up to the task.

    Let’s cover what I ate… Around 9am I had a meal replacement shake, and another one after my walk (and after I wrote my article, so that puts it around 3:30pm). I had two pieces of chicken and a garden salad for dinner, followed by one Japanese biscuit and a very small amount of Smartfood White Cheddar popcorn. Yes, it was left over from the trip; I ate some on my way to Long Island from Montreal, and we all ate some in the hotel. After eating a bit of it (and truly I did not overindulge) I decided that as good as it is, it is not smart for me to have it in the house. I took it to the garbage room and poured it all out into the bin. Lead me not to temptation… I know exactly where to find it!

    While cleaning out the car, I brought the rest of the bagels upstairs, and I put them all into the fridge. I had given my neighbour Sue about a dozen and a half of them… she took care of Princess Sophie, and asked for nothing. I was happy to share! The rest went into my freezer, and I told my son that I have Montreal bagels waiting for him. When he comes to get them, they will be gone. In the event that he does not take all of them, I will bring what’s left to Lyle and Dorothy because I know they appreciate them too.

    Aside from that, I do not much feel like socializing. I am in a pretty bad way, so I might just drop the bagels off at my son’s and at Lyle’s when nobody is home so that I do not have to socialize. I really am not in the mood. We’ll see.

    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 108

    Yesterday was a long and tired day. As I mentioned, I drove overnight from Burlington to Ottawa. I finished my presentation at 10:00pm, packed, and got into the car. I actually enjoy driving at night, and split the time between talking with my girlfriend and listening to an audio book… and smoking cigars of course. I pulled over at 2:30am to close my eyes for an hour and a half, and finally arrived at my office at 5:00am, where I slept another couple of hours before my friend showed up. I was under no delusion that at my age and size that sleeping in the car would be overly comfortable, but it was not too bad.

    Yesterday’s breakfast was an omelet with cheese and onions, and lunch was a hamburger – no bun. Dinner was a mixed shawarma plate with salad but no rice or potatoes or bread. I actually did pretty well getting through the day! Really, the only cheating I did was the number of peanuts I snacked on. I will work on that today, but today won’t be a difficult day… I will not be spending a lot of time in the car. Yes, I will be eating a couple of meals, but I can be smart about them.

    It felt really good when my buddy looked at me yesterday and said ‘Wow, you’ve lost weight!’ I look at myself every day and do not see the progress in leaps, only in minor increments. When friends who have not seen my in several weeks see huge improvement, and point it out, it makes me feel wonderful. Yay non-scale victory!

    It’s a beautiful day in Montreal, and I am going to take it easy… after seeing my dad’s widow for lunch, I will just spend the day with friends. Have a great day folks!

  • Walk #4

    I do not understand how the GPS app on my phone can tell me within 90 seconds how long it will take me to drive from Burlington to Montreal, yet it was off by nearly six hundred metres with how far it is from here to the bank. If you look at my previous article, as I was writing it I checked, and the distance from here to there was 2.4km. Yeah, try exactly three kilometres from here to there. Okay, no problem. My planned 5km walk was all of a sudden a minimum of 6km… and I decided to have a little fun and extended it to a seven-kilometre jaunt. With the stop at the bank of course, so if we go by the logic I put forth in a previous article, this was either a single 7km walk, or two walks of 3km and 4km respectively. Either way, I am extremely proud of the walk, because not only was the distance a full 2km longer than my previous bests, but my pace was also better than I have done as well… by a long shot!

    • Distance: 7.00 km (5.00 km)
    • Duration: 1:15:57 minutes (55:59 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:51 (11.11)
    • Steps: 8.7k (6.4k)
    • Calories burned: 402 (285)
    • Elevation gain: 22.1m (19m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 114 (114)

    By the way, my pace for the first 5km was 10:41, which makes it a full 30 seconds better than my pace for my previous 5km walks! The only kilometre which measured over eleven minutes was the last one, and there are several reasons for that… Aside from the fact that it was the tail, I took a phone call, and spent most of that last kilometre chatting with Leslie. No, that is not a complaint! I am happy she called, but the timing worked out perfect too, as I suspect that talking would have slowed my pace at any point in the walk.

    I started getting hungry around the 5km mark, which had more to do with the time of day than the walking. When I arrived home, I put my lunch into the air fryer and prepared my salad. As soon as the ding signals that the meal is ready, I am chowing down!

    I don’t know about you, but I think I have truly earned my afternoon cigar today!

  • Day 94

    Today’s article could just as easily be titled ‘Perception of Progress: Do not trust your memory!’ I suspect I will have a lot of people who know exactly what I am talking about.

    I am in the phase where I feel like I have lost a lot of weight, and that I haven’t lost anything.

    Anyone who has ever had a huge belly will know that you can put your hands under it and lift it and see just how fat you are. The same goes for man-boobs. You lift them and bam, they are huge. I will not discuss the obesity of a woman’s chest for two reasons. First, having no first-hand experience having them, I cannot speak to it, and secondly, I expect that this is the one area where many women do not necessarily wish to shrink.

    I put my hands under my belly this morning and lifted, and it is truly large. It is easy to get discouraged by the sheer size of my belly. It is hard to remember that three months ago it was that much bigger… and while it is easy to say, ‘I’ve gotten nowhere,’ in truth I know that is it much smaller than it was.

    In fact, when Leslie was here a couple of weeks ago, I remember saying that I noticed that my man-boobs were much smaller than they had once been.

    With regard to weight loss and the shrinking of our body, perception is not in fact reality. That is why we need to measure ourselves. While I weigh myself on a daily basis, I only measure myself very occasionally, and I mark those numbers down even less frequently. My reasoning is simple: Every time I measure myself, I am disappointed. It disheartens me to see that I have only lost half an inch, or whatever it might be, after a month or two or three. It is interesting that I get excited by a 2kg weight loss over a fortnight, but not over losing 2” around my belly in eight weeks.

    After I wrote that last paragraph, I decided to measure myself. I have actually lost about 3” around my belly and a little over 3” around my chest. That is pretty huge, even if I have so far to go. What I have to remember though is that three months ago, my Size-44 pants were all tight, and there wasn’t a single size-42 pair that I could hope to wear. I had shirts that would not even come close to buttoning up, and I had to buy a larger winter jacket because neither my ski jacket nor my spring/fall jacket came close to doing up. Today, some of my size-44 pants are too loose to wear, and the ones that are not are getting there. I am wearing size-42 blue jeans. Most (but certainly not all) of my larger shirts fit or are close to fitting. Both of the jackets that I had set aside are a little tight, but certainly wearable.

    Okay, all of that is great, and hugely meaningful. Some of the other things I have to remember though are that it is not strictly about size. As I walked HRF Princess Sophie this morning, I realized how much more comfortable I am walking her, and how much easier it is to bend down to pick up after her. I am not even referring to the fact that earlier in the week I was able to go for a five-kilometer walk, which is huge… but the everyday things that need to get done are easier to do than they were. I am finding it easier to put on my socks and my shoes. I am not having the same difficulties walking. My knees still hurt when I walk up or down stairs, but that is in part due to injuries. I have an easier time getting out of bed, standing up (either from a chair or from the porcelain throne). I still do not find my low couch to be very comfortable, but I have no problem sitting or lying on it, because I can much more easily stand up from it. All of the activities that were (and still might be) more difficult with all of the weight are getting easier. It is a gradual process, but it is progress.

    A month or so ago, my doctor asked me what exercise I am doing. I told him that I am walking HRF a couple of times per day. He told me that unless I had a larger and more energetic dog, it was unlikely that the start-stop pace of dog-walking was going to get my cardio going. He was right, but now I can go out for those much longer walks when I want to. I will try to do it more often as the weather gets nicer. I know that in a couple of weeks I will be in Cuba, and I will try to get some good walks in there (no excuses on the weather, other than some might find it to be too hot).

    I have a long way to go; in truth, I am probably under one third of the way to the total weight loss I want to achieve. Every journey starts with a single step, and every diet starts with a single day. Today is the ninety-fourth day of my journey, and while there have been bumps and even severe bumps along the way, I am confident that I can continue to lose weight so that in time, hopefully within a year, I can have the slamming body that I always wished I could have.

  • Brains!

    Okay, the honest title of this article should be Breads! But then I would have to explain that it had to be spoken in the voice of the zombies from an episode of The Simpsons… and I hate having to spend three sentences prior to writing my article trying to explain the title. I hope you enjoyed this daily helping of irony.

    I do not remember during which of her visits Leslie made a large bread pudding, but it was likely either October or November. This was well before my diet, and I indulged… and I did not regret a single tasty morsel!

    To put into perspective how much she made: Despite her having frozen more than half of what was left after the second night of our enjoying it, I still indulged nightly for a week. There was a lot of bread pudding.

    For better or for worse, I forgot that it was there. As will happen so often in freezers around the world, the container made its way to the back, and was forgotten for months. If it had not been frozen in a Corning ware pot, it might have stayed there until I moved.

    I have a collection of Corning pots and pans, and all the square(ish) ones have lids. Last week I cleaned the kitchen in preparation for Passover, and I decided to relocate these pots and pans. As I did, I noticed I had an extra lid… strange.

    I spent a few days trying to figure out where it came from? Did my friends who gifted me the set give me an extra lid? I think I would have noticed that when I put everything away the first time. Did I (or someone else) break one? I could not think that would have happened… Had it been Leslie or my cleaning lady, they would have told me. The only other people who have been in my kitchen since I moved in are Lyle (who has never cooked for me in my kitchen) and Eduardo (who I’m not sure has ever cooked for me anywhere), and my kids… Aaron did make me a meal when I was laid up with my broken ankle, but I was in the kitchen with him the whole time and I would have noticed. The only thing Gilad ever makes in my kitchen is microwave popcorn. Not them.

    Friday was the first night of Passover, and while I did not have a Seder to go to, I was going to do my best to make it as well as I could. Unfortunately, the stores were closed that day, so I had to make do with what I had in the house. I reached into the freezer for the homemade chicken stock that Lyle had given me a few months ago and I saw it… right next to the frozen chicken stock was a Corning ware pot covered not with the iconic glass lid, but with aluminum foil.

    imageThe mystery of the extra lid was solved.

    Yesterday afternoon I pulled the dish out of the freezer so that I could throw out the contents and reclaim the pot. Aside from it being Passover, bread pudding is seriously not on my diet. It had to go! The only problem is that it was frozen solid.

    Lyle and Dorothy had Leslie and I over one day and they told us that someone was going to buy some of their Corning ware, but decided not to, citing that it was not microwave friendly. That has become a recurring inside joke. All joking aside, I did not want to microwave it for two reasons:

    1. Doing so would render my microwave treyf (no longer Kosher for Passover); and
    2. The magnificent aromas of the defrosting desert would make my mouth water and would likely be too great a temptation to resist taking even a little taste.

    I decided to let the pot sit on the counter overnight. Sometime today it would be sufficiently defrosted to throw out.

    In the meantime, for nearly fifteen hours, there was a very delicious, very naughty, very inviting desert just sitting there on the counter, ready for anyone to just dive into. It need not be a dive… just a taste of the sweet syrupy goodness would be sufficient, right?

    Let us ignore for the moment that from mast evening through early this afternoon, I was very much in the doghouse, and worried that I might never be allowed out again. The emotions in me – the wholly negative emotions that coursed through my veins – were saying ‘WHO CARES? Why bother dieting? Everything put together sooner or later falls apart, and you only live once so indulge and enjoy!’ Had I given in, I would have been done for.

    There is a quote from the television show The West Wing where Leo McGarry (brilliantly portrayed by the late John Spencer) says ‘I’m an alcoholic. I don’t need a good reason to <drink>.’ (Season 2, Episode 7) He also says, in an earlier episode (Season 1 Episode 13), in response to ‘You can’t have a drink?’ he replies: ‘The problem is, I don’t want a drink, I want ten drinks.’

    When I am at my best, when I am focused, when everything is well in the world, then I might (and only might) be able to take a taste and leave the rest. Last night and this morning I was nowhere near my best, and my focus was shot. Had I taken a taste of the pudding, I would have taken another taste… and after a few ‘who are we kidding?’ tastes, I would have abandoned all pretext and I would have taken a very large serving… or two.

    Have you ever had a battle of wits with a recently discovered Corning ware pot full of homemade treats? If you have, then you might be a food addict. I know I am.

    Shortly before 1:00pm, I got the call that made my heart soar. Leslie had forgiven me. It is much more complicated than just that, but the details are nobody’s business but ours.

    As I started cleaning up my dishes from lunch, I held open the kitchen garbage bag and emptied the tempting, sweet, gooey contents of the pot into it. HRF Princess Sophie helped me to tidy up the tiny bit that fell onto the floor. I immediately filled the pot with hot water and soap, and then sealed the garbage bag and walked it to the garbage room.

    It does not take much to defeat us. It is easy to give up. That is why we must celebrate and share our victories, so that others who might one day be in the doghouse with a pot full of bread pudding sitting on the counter can draw strength and courage to do the right thing… when the alternative would be so easy.

    There are days when I falter, fall, and fail. Today will not be one of those days. We have to remember that as a mantra for every day.

    Mitch and his diet: 1

    Temptation: 0

    Final Score… for now.

  • Day 91

    I am not buying huge quantities of chicken or fish and freezing them, mostly because I need to go to the supermarket every few days to get fresh vegetables. Otherwise, it would make a lot of sense to buy a freezer full of protein. I am not doing that… but with the prices going up up up, I suppose if I see a really good sale, I just might do that.

    This morning I am not only getting weighed at the doctor’s office, I am also going to the optometrist to get my eyes checked. It has been about a year, and I might need new glasses. Either way, when I get home, I will write it up. For now, my bathroom scale is once again being stubborn and uncooperative; despite its new location near the retaining wall, I got readings eight pounds apart. I hate the floors here.

    I am taking my coffee with me, but I am not going to have my morning meal replacement until after I’ve been weighed.

    —

    I was hoping to continue my recent pace of losing 2.5kg per fortnight, but it was not to be. I lost 2kg and was able to get weighed on the normal scale. I suppose that combines to be a non-scale victory about a scale!

    After my weigh-in, I drove to the optometrist. As I approached the door, a man holding his cell phone told me ‘I’m calling to let them know I am here.’ To which I replied that I was going inside to achieve the same results. Some people do not understand all of the new Covid procedures, and I understand that… but I am not going to wait outside while he figures them out.

    Sitting inside and waiting to be called in, the technician walked up to me and greeted me as Vince. I assured her that is not my name. She replied ‘Well, that is what your file says.’ I replied that if we could just make things up, I would at least be Hir Royal Majesty, King Vincent I. We all got a good laugh over this, and I was treated like royalty… or at least as well as anyone needs to be while having his eyes checked.

    Okay, jokes and anecdotes aside. I had promised myself that on the day that I was able to be weighed on the regular scale at the doctor’s office, I would reward myself with a steak dinner. I certainly did indulge, but I decided to make it a steak lunch. I went to the supermarket and selected a gorgeous rib steak. I also picked up chicken for the rest of the week, which has been properly separated and put into the freezer.

    Lunch was fabulous. The steak, accompanied by a bowl of lightly steamed cauliflower and carrots, was truly fabulous. It was also far too big, and I am glad that I decided to make it my early meal, which will give my body some time to digest it throughout the day. HRF Princess Sophie enjoyed the fat, but I went to town on the steak – which was far too big, but which I finished anyways. I will not be having another until I am below 300 lbs… and that might not be for several months yet.

    While I have some work to do, I might just go for a (slightly shorter) walk to try to burn off some of that steak before my evening class. I have also not yet decided, after the indulgence that was lunch, whether I will have another salad for dinner, or if I will stick to meal replacements instead. The way I am feeling now, I think that might be the prudent way to go.

    My eyes are still straining as I look at the screen… the solution the optometrist uses to dilate the pupils has not completely worn off yet. I think going for a walk, possibly with a cigar, might just be the order of the day.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 82

    While my weight yesterday morning did go up from the previous day’s, it was only by half a pound. Today it is back to where it was on Saturday, which means that for the third day in a row I have remained below 350 lbs.

    The last few days I have been sharing an omelet with Leslie; I am relieved that these have not pushed my weight up at all. That is not to say that I will continue to make them for myself when she goes home, but I am happy that I it has not hurt my progress. I am relieved that Lyle and Dorothy did not want us to stay for dinner yesterday, and so before we left the house, Leslie marinated a couple of pieces of chicken, which we ate with her yummy rice. I succumbed to the temptation of a couple of pieces of her dried mango, but aside from that I was good.

    Another huge non-scale victory is that I noticed a significant drop in the size of my belly and of my (groan!) man-boobs. It is not something that I have been paying ongoing attention to, but I know that they were GIGANTIC and now they are significantly less so. I think I will take this opportunity to measure my chest… okay, I am back… and I have lost about 2 inches on each of the three measurements. Woohoo… but I still have a long way to go.

    I am going to pick up fish for dinner again, and while I am out shopping, I will have to remember to pick up Kleenex and vegetables… as well as eggs for tomorrow morning’s breakfast. If I can find a pack of 6 eggs that would be great, but I am not holding my breath.

    I have been told to hold off on working on my customer until they figure out their budget for Q2. That means I have some reading to do, which I will do on the balcony with a cigar. I also have to go shopping, which I will do when Leslie gets onto her next call. She just told me that she has never tasted a bagel that she liked, so I am going to see if Fortino’s has a good Montreal bagel for her to try. They would not be authentic, but they would still be better than any bagel that has ever set foot in the State of Texas. That is not to say that I will buy one for myself… but I will buy one for her to try.

    Later this afternoon, Leslie and I have to drive out to Etobicoke to run an errand, which will be a couple of hours of our lives that we will never get back. Don’t get me wrong, we will be happy to be together in the car… but we would be equally happy being together not in the car.

    I have made another decision. If next week, when I get weighed at the doctor’s office, my weight in my clothes is still below 350 lbs, then I am going to treat myself to a steak. I have not prepared any beef for myself since January, and although I have had beef a couple of times (such as at Ryan’s house the other night), it has not been a juicy homemade steak. That will be my one guilty treat to commemorate my accomplishment.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 81

    On Day 12, I wrote that I sorted all of my clothes into five storage bins. This afternoon, with Leslie by my side, I opened the one that read “Pants and Shorts, Size 42.” There were several pair of shorts and pants. The first pair that I tried on fit fine, but they are an ugly pair of black pants, and I decided to put them into the pile marked ‘Donate to Cuba.’ That they fit was only a minor victory, because they were a pair of stretch pants from Walmart.

    The next pair that I tried on did not fit… nor did one pair of shorts. Everything else in the bin fit! This was a huge non-scale victory… and the piece de resistance was the pair of Levi’s 501 button-fly jeans, which are usually the last pair in a size that will fit. Guess what I wore the rest of the day? You guessed it… My Levi’s! I always saw Levi’s as a real indicator of progress. The first time I lost a lot of weight was when I was testing for my Black Belt; I remember we (the family) were down in Buffalo, and the mall had a Levi’s outlet store. I decided to try on a pair to see… mostly because I remembered one time going into a similar store and being told that Levi’s did not make pants in my size. When they fit, I was elated.

    I was elated yesterday too… and probably more so. The fact that Leslie was here to celebrate a huge milestone was so wonderful for me. Over the next few months there will be many more milestones, and whether she is here with me in person, or if we share them over the phone, I am so happy to have her in my life and as my weight-loss (and improved-health) cheerleader!

    There were three pair of shorts that either fit or nearly fit… which means that in a month when we fly to Cuba they will fit perfectly. If I have three pair of Size-42 shorts that fit, then I will be donating all of my Size-44 shorts. I have made the decision that this is it… once I have three pair of Size-42 pants that fit I am done… after that, I will never wear a Size-44 again.

    We drove out to Cambridge, where we spent the afternoon and evening with Ryan, Glenn, Lindsay and her boyfriend. As always, a good time was had by all. We watched the last bit of The Masters on TV, and I played a few rounds of darts against Glenn. It is great playing against someone who has been drinking all afternoon… not matter how poorly I might throw, there is very little chance of my actually losing a game.

    Yesterday and today, we shared an omelet. I made it with three eggs, cauliflower, onion, mushrooms, and a little bit of cheese (although yesterday I skipped the cheese). Leslie calls it the Omelet of Justice and Power and Might… we love being silly together, and I love that we can be serious but also fun and silly. I just might have to do something drastic…

    Today we will head on over to Lyle and Dorothy’s house for a few hours, and then we will come home for dinner. While it is nice to see our friends, we also have too little time together, so spending time together alone is hugely important.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 78

    Another day in the books, and another day that my bathroom scale is not being nice to me. Yes, I had a small package of peanuts yesterday… but I had skipped my morning shake in my rush to go to the doctor, so I really should have been pretty on track. It is the uneven floors in my bathroom that are the real culprit, and I have no good solution for that.

    Speaking of the doctor, he gave me a prescription for the medicine that will prevent gout attacks. If I recall, my father was on that pill every day for thirty years. If it helped him, I hope it will help me too. I am taking the first one this morning… I thought about starting last night when I picked them up, but I prefer taking pills in the morning so better to start today.

    Leslie arrived last night, and her plane landed nearly an hour early. I asked her if the pilot had an important date or something, but I am sure the tailwinds were just extremely favourable. Our reunion was as magical as it always is, with big hugs and kisses before I put her cases in the trunk of the car. I decided that when I picked her up, I would be playing music that she loved. To be clear, there is plenty of music that we both enjoy, but Taylor Swift is her jam. She noticed immediately, and as happy as she had been, I am sure that gave her at least one more scintilla of happiness.

    The drive home from the airport was extremely difficult – the visibility was really low and focusing on the road for that length of time really tired my eyes (and the rest of me) out. No matter, we arrived home safe and sound. Once we got her settled, Leslie pointed out a couple more non-scale victories… ones that might be inappropriate to mention here.

    It is wonderful to have Leslie here, but we both have our days to go about. She has meetings, I have work, and this evening I will teach (for the last time in this session). I will mostly stick to the program today, although I am looking forward to one sweet which Leslie brought for me.

    I noticed one vital bit of information regarding the bathroom scale. Despite the fact that it does not seem to be cooperating, my doctor’s office weigh-ins are consistently down over the last three visits, and yet my bathroom scale has not been following the same trend consistently. Yesterday it had me down 2 lbs (under 1 kg) from my previous weigh-in at the doctor… not nearly the 2.5 kg (5.5 lbs) that I was down from the doctor’s office. I am glad that I have been using that for my records, and not the bathroom. Accuracy is important… and if I have to use my semi-weekly doctor’s office visits as my benchmark, then so be it.

    The weather is gorgeous, so there might be a cigar in my future this afternoon. I have some reading to do to prepare for a course that I have to create for the end of the month, but that can easily be done while sitting outside if the weather is agreeable… and it is.

    Have a great day folks! You do what makes you happy!