Category: Optimism

  • 2026 Day 27

    I woke up this morning well rested, refreshed, and ready to start the day. It is now 11:30am and I have not accomplished anything that I had originally set out to do today, but it has been a productive morning nonetheless, which included a ninety minute conversation with my son the elder.

    Wow did I sleep well! Here is what my fitness watch tracked:

    • Sleep score: 96 (Excellent)
    • Duration: 7h22m (Excellent)
    • Stress: 11 avg (Excellent)
    • Deep: 1h31m (Excellent)
    • Light: 3h53m (Excellent)
    • REM: 1h59m (Excellent)
    • Awake/Restlessness: 5m, 32 Restless Moments (Excellent)

    Since I started looking at the details this is only the second morning that every single measurement is rated Excellent. I’ll take it! I had set my alarm for 7:15am, and my eyes popped open at 7:13am. That is how to play it!

    My weight is down two pounds from the last two days. I am super happy about that, not only because that means I am now officially down 10kg from the day of my November doctor appointment, but also because it might mean that I am back on track.

    I have a lot of work to do today, including a lot of studying for an exam that I need to schedule for either later this week or early next. I cannot procrastinate any further. Have a great day folks!

  • Day 563

    I have now dropped 6.2 lbs. in three days, and I am feeling more confident that I am starting – ever so slowly, mind you – to get back on track. I am now back to what I weighed toward the end of Leslie’s trip to Canada, although I am still six pounds heavier than I was just a few days prior to that. While it is nice to see how I am doing compared to different points during my plateau, my current short-term goal is to get back down to my best weight ever; on May 27 (Day 492) I weighed 250 lbs., and that is when my plateau and slipping began.

    I went to bed hungry last night. I had eaten my salad for dinner around 8:00pm, and then I had a lovely cigar date with my wife on the balcony. I considered having a meal replacement when I came in, but I decided against it. I will say that I have been drinking a lot of water these last few days, and that is probably helping with my appetite somewhat.

    My plans for the day are all close to home. I have my presentation to work on, and when Leslie is ready, we will have another video date. After lunch (around 2:00pm) my friend Eduardo is coming for a visit, and it will be nice to catch up with him. I cannot remember the last time we got together, but that does not matter. He will come over and it will be as if no time has passed.

    My food plans are simple. I had my omelette this morning. I will have a salad for lunch. In the late afternoon or early evening I will make a meal replacement shake. Whether I have a second one later in the evening will depend on what time I have my earlier one. I am not going to allow myself to eat late at night… even if it is a protein shake.

    My next doctor’s appointment is at the end of the month, and I am really hoping that by then I am really back on track so that I can show my new doctor that I am serious. When I was there last week she asked if I wanted the nurse to weigh me and I declined, knowing how bad I had been. That was a mistake; I always advocate facing up to those embarrassing weight jumps because when you do get back on track you will see what you recovered from. I weigh myself on the bathroom scale ever day, so I know that I weighed an embarrassing 271.2 lbs. (123kg) that morning. I know that this morning (6 days later) I am eight pounds down from that morning. My next appointment is in 2.5 weeks and by then I would really love to be back down below my best weight ever… and according to the medical records that is 116kg, which means I only need to lose another 3.4kg from what I weigh this morning… about 7.5 lbs. I want to do much better than that though. If I can lose 13-14 lbs in that time, then I will break right through that 250 lbs. mental barrier that I have no recollection of ever weighing… at least not since the Army. It is an ambitious goal to be sure… now that I do the math that would mean I need to lose about 5 lbs. per week. While that is not unheard of, I think it happened a lot more when I had much more weight to shed. Okay, I will be happy to get down to 255 lbs., which will still be slightly under my previous best medical weigh-in.

    Okay, it is time for me to stop procrastinating. Let’s get some work done.

    Have a great day folks!