Losing a part of me

Category: Sleep

  • 2026 Day 17

    I woke up today a whole new man. What a difference a good night sleep makes! According to Garmin:

    • Sleep score: 91 (Excellent)
    • Duration: 8h57m (Excellent)
    • Stress: 15 avg (Good)
    • Deep: 1h21m (Fair)
    • Light: 5h41m (Good)
    • REM: 1h55m (Good)
    • Awake/Restlessness: 4m, 37 Restless Moments (Excellent)

    I suspect that I was probably asleep earlier than that, but I am not going to complain. I woke up at 7:00am to pee, and then rather than staying up (as I usually would at 7:00am) I got back into bed and slept another 95 minutes. Princess Sophie did not mind at all… and after the week I had, I really needed it!

    I did not eat well this week, which started with my Day 13 Chinese Food debacle. The following day I ordered Shawarma… a better choice than General Tao Chicken to be sure, but still a terrible aberration from what anyone who is trying to lose weight should be eating. I weighed myself that afternoon and was five pounds up from the previous day! I thought that with eating the rest of the week (including that shawarma dinner later that evening) my weight would be a little bit up from there this morning, but in fact it was down… albeit by just over one pound. Progress is progress, and what is important is that I get back on track. I have enough chicken left to make one more meal which will be this afternoon, and as of tomorrow I will be back on my meal replacements only for the foreseeable future. I have to continue to lose.

    The one upside to eating this week is that I have had a number of healthy bowel movements. As much of a relief as those may be, I would rather see my relief on the bathroom scale… and eventually in how my clothes fit me.

    Have a great weekend folks!

  • 2026 Day 15

    I lay in bed a few hours ago trying to take a nap before class, and I was thinking about how to open this journal entry. I spent several minutes bandying about the opening sentence of, “I followed some really bad advice yesterday, and because of that I find myself in a bad spot.”

    I was tossing and turning as I thought about that. I do not think I was able to relax and get some sleep until I realized how unfair that statement was. The advice was essentially that with my schedule this week I should not be restricting myself to 900 calories if my body was not reacting well to it, and that I should get some healthy protein to get through the week, and resume on the strict program over the weekend. What I did with that was turn it into ‘Well, I am teaching until after 9:00pm, and then I need to take Sophie for a walk, and the supermarket will already be closed anyways, so I will order food in…and as long as it is somewhat healthier than the Chinese food that I had ordered the night before then I could feel good about myself.’ I knew as I ordered the shawarma plate that it was not as bad for my diet as Chinese food… but there is a gaping chasm between not as bad… and good. That was on me, and not on anyone else.

    By saying that it was bad advice I was trying to pass the blame onto my diet buddy for my not sticking to my program. It was absolutely not her fault, it was mine. Had I followed her advice then I would have gone to the store, picked up a piece of fish or beef or chicken, and cooked it healthily at home. That would have been the smart thing to do, and I will probably do that today. Her advice was good; the way I (mis)interpreted was terrible, and is on me.

    I am definitely having trouble getting through this week, but honestly if I was only working then I would be fine. The fact that I had to take my car to the shop on Tuesday took 2-3 hours of possible sleep away from me (not to mention that Her Floofness got me out of bed early because she needed to go outside). Wednesday afternoon I could have slept right up until it was time for me to start teaching my evening class… except I had to set my alarm to go pick up my car before the shop closed, which deprived me of another 90 minutes of sleep. Between my evening class and my overnight class I should have been able to get three solid hours of sleep… but I had some work I needed to get done for another project before midnight, and I ordered food, and so I ended up getting 45 minutes of sleep. The lesson learned for the next time I have this kind of schedule is to go completely offline for the week except for my teaching.

    I know that I should not be weighing myself at unusual times and expecting good results. I stepped onto the scale at 4:20 (before I went to get my car) and was up by 5 lbs. – partly due to the time of day, but also because I ate extremely salty and fried Chinese food the previous evening. I have nobody to blame but myself.

    It has been a rough week, but I will take the necessary steps today to ease myself back into good habits. I will pick up some healthy proteins so that I do not order in. Saturday I will resume my program and I will get myself back on track.

  • 2026 Day 14

    I fell head-first off the wagon yesterday. To begin with, and as a very minor issue, I finished the peanuts that were in my car as I drove it to the mechanic. I then came home and slept as much as five hours before my gorgeous bedmate woke me up and told me that she needed to go out for a walk. According to my fitness watch I actually slept from 1:45pm until 6:35pm, most of the time quite deeply.

    Even as I was driven home from the mechanic’s (more on that in a minute) I was thinking about cheating on my diet. I would need to order something in though if I did… I would not have a car, and it was far too cold to even walk to the supermarket or pub on the corner. I came into the house and essentially got right into bed… although I would not sleep for another hour or so. With one brief phone call disturbance I slept until I woke up.

    I did not realize I was in trouble until 8:00pm when I stood up from what I was doing; I felt dizzy and light-headed. and nearly fell. I knew I needed sustenance, and I did something really stupid – I ordered Chinese food. What an utterly stupid thing to do. A large soup, a vegetarian egg roll, and General Tao chicken. Deep fried, fattening as hell, and replete with sodium. Ugh. I did not weigh myself before I got dressed to teach, but I will get back on the scale tonight or tomorrow.

    I took my car in yesterday. He had told me that the diagnosis might take 30 or 90 minutes. As soon as I got there I asked the owner if I could leave it there and he could call me with the diagnosis. He drove me home and promised he would call. I was in bed five minutes after getting in. I tried to stay awake because I thought he would call, but I couldn’t stay awake. He called a few hours later, we spoke, and I went back to sleep. Before I go to sleep today, I will call to see if the car will be ready today. I do not need it, and if he wants to keep it until tomorrow that would be fine. If he wants me to pick it up this afternoon, then I will ask if I can come right before he closes. Yes, I would have to contend with traffic… but as I write this paragraph I know I have four more hours of work, and I would love to go to sleep in four hours and five minutes.

    Fall down seven times, get up eight. My goal for today is to make it through the rest of my class without falling asleep… and then getting back on my diet.

    Have a great day folks.

  • 2026 Day 13

    These last four days my weight has been up or down by less than half a pound, but today’s weigh-in was the lowest since my massive weight gain a few days ago. Not by much. With that said, it – and all of my weigh-ins this week – will be mostly irrelevant. My schedule is just completely off.

    Sunday night I hardly slept, and I did not get any sleep in the afternoon before my Monday evening class. After class I set my alarm for midnight and I did get two hours of sleep. Everything in that sentence points to inaccurate weighings – not nearly enough sleep, waking up at midnight, all of it.

    Following my peanuts and dried mango attack yesterday morning I did not have a meal replacement until just before my class started. My next one was before my class started. All in all, on Monday I had one meal replacement, four slices of dried mango, and some peanuts. Had I slept at all and then weighed myself at a normal time, I suspect I would have lost at least some weight this morning. Oh well.

    I took Sophie for her walk at my lunchtime (6:00am). It was holy-fuck-it’s-cold-out degrees outside, with a windchill reading of you-will-probably-die. It was a blessedly short walk.

    It is time to go back to work. Have a great day.

  • 2026 Day 12

    I was obviously in a terrible frame of mind yesterday after I weighed myself. Nonetheless, I did not cheat. I had some celery, a pinch of grated cheese, and three meal replacements. This morning my weight was slightly up from where it was yesterday… although within the margin of error. That does not make me feel any better about it.

    I did something stupid this morning. I had to leave the house around 7:00am to get to an appointment across town. I took the toll road and was extremely early, but even then the traffic could have been bad, and I could not be late for this one. I took Her Floofness for her walk, and then I fed her, prepared a cup of coffee to go, and headed out. I was just pulling out of the parking lot when I realized I had not prepared a meal replacement. For a brief second I thought about turning back, but decided to venture forward. The appointment and my punctuality were too important. There were maybe fifteen peanuts in the car, and that is what I ate before the appointment. When I left there I decided to stop at Bulk Barn. I bought peanuts and four slices of dried mango. It got me home by 11:15am without needing to stop off and eat something else that would necessarily have been a worse choice. Yes, the mangoes were bad. In my current state of mental health (my weight loss is only one thing weighing on me) I accept that, and will continue to try to do better. In the meantime, I decided to forego my second meal replacement of the day (which would have been my first). I will have one before my class starts this evening… and another between my evening class and my overnight class. Yes, it is going to be one of those weeks!

    Despite my terrible state of mind yesterday, or possibly even because of it, I got a lot of work done on a project that I have been quite delinquent on. In fact, I would venture to say that it was the most productive weekend day I’ve had on a work project in years.

    Knowing that it was going to be a very early morning (my alarm was set for 5:15am) I was in bed at a very reasonable hour. I turned off the lights and all devices a few minutes after 10:00pm… and then proceeded to toss and turn until 1:30am. No wonder my sleep score was in the toilet.

    I am going to do a little bit of work on that project now, and then will try to sleep for a few hours. I am crossing my fingers that I can.

    Have a great day folks.

  • 2026 Day 9

    There have been many days that I have disagreed with my fitness watch over the quality of my sleep (based on the reported sleep score). This morning is the first time that I can remember that I disagree on the other side – that is, I thought I slept terribly, but my sleep score was high.

    • Sleep score: 90 (Excellent)
    • Duration: 7h18m (Excellent)
    • Stress: 13 avg (Excellent)
    • Deep: 1h34m (Excellent)
    • Light: 4h41m (Good)
    • REM: 1h4m (Fair)
    • Awake/Restlessness: –, 46 Restless Moments (Excellent)

    There were at least three and as many as five times that I remember waking up thinking that it was probably morning, only to look at the clock and see that it was 1:15am… 3:00am… 4:45am… and so on. Each time I felt like it took me a while to get back to sleep, and each time I remember thinking that there was no way that things would end well for a restful night. Was I dreaming each of those times? I wish I could ask Her Floofness… when I wake up in the night I almost always shift positions slightly, and because I know this disturbs her a bit, I try to reach over and pet her with a few strokes. Alas, she is much wiser than I am, living for the moment and not dwelling on the past. (Excepting for a couple of things that I have done for which she holds a grudge, including moving her from Southern California to the cold climes of Canada, and then later on giving away her couch).

    Depending on which measure we accept, I was anywhere from half a pound up to 2 lbs. down from yesterday. Had I cheated in any significant way, I would have picked a higher reading than I did; as the only ‘cheat’ was a pinch of shredded cheese when I was giving some to Her Floofness. The trade-off for that was that I only had three meal replacements (rather than the proscribed four). I was a bit peckish as I lay in bed at night, but it was not so severe that I needed to sate that hunger.

    On that topic, I am going to give my diet buddy credit for the recommendation about adding celery to my program (as needed). There have been a number of times throughout the past few days that I have felt the need for more, and rather than picking something else (which would be potentially detrimental to my progress), I munched on a couple of pieces of celery. I am at the point where I do not feel the slightest guilt for eating celery, and at the same time I do not feel that I need to gorge myself on it. I do not think I have had more than 2-3 stalks in any day, but if I had then what of it? Five entire stalks (which is double the maximum I have had) would be a whopping 30 calories… nothing to worry about, especially since it adds fibre and no negative nutrients to my intake.

    It is time for me to get to work, or else I would talk about my concerns about my sleep next week, and a few other things I have on my mind. They can wait until tomorrow, when I have no current obligations and will have time to write and relax. Right now I am about to start thirteen hours of teaching, so I’ll close.

    Have a great day folks!

  • 2026 Day 8

    I did not expect to sleep nearly as well last night as I did the previous night. I never sleep as well when I teach into the late evening. The fact that my sleep score was a 66 (Fair) is a minor victory.

    I cheated far too badly yesterday to expect a decent reading on the bathroom scale this morning. My weight edged down ever so slightly (.2 lb.), which kept me just short of the fifteen-pound mark for the week. With that said, I lost 14.8 lbs. in my first week, and I know that I ate far too many peanuts to even expect that. I am satisfied with my weight loss, and will try to cut the peanuts out completely this week.

    Her Royal Floofness had her spa appointment yesterday and she looks absolutely stunning (and everyone agrees). She asked to go out after my class last night, and of course I indulged her. She was not at all pleased by the cold and blowing snow, and she decided it was going to be a very short walk. At one point, she initiated the PDS (Poop-Dance Sequence), but when the wind gusted and howled she looked at me and said ‘Nope… I’ll hold it until the morning.’ We went back inside, and she cozied up into her bed waiting for me to climb in. This morning the weather was equally unpleasant, except seeing as the blowing snow had not let up, there was now nearly a foot of accumulation. She was going to call it off… until she saw her friend Winston, and ran out to play with him (and to show off her new hairdo). She found a section of a neighbour’s lawn that was nearly bare because of the wind, and did her business there… and then said ‘TAKE ME TO SUE’S COUCH NOW!’ It might be a couple of days before she goes out for her complete long walk again.

    I had already told my Lodge that I would not be trekking out to Grimsby for this evening’s meeting; I am not sure if it has been decided officially, but I suspect that we might cancel tonight’s meeting for weather. Whether we do or not, I will not be digging my car out today. I will take Princess Sophie out for another walk this evening, but that is as far as I plan to go. The peanuts that are left in my car will sit there for another day… or two or three, because tomorrow is another very long day for me.

    I suddenly have two classes scheduled for Europe over the next few weeks. Next week, I will be teaching Tuesday through Friday ‘in Germany,’ and the second week of February I will be teaching a week-long class ‘in the United Kingdom.’ As nice as it would be to travel to those places, I will be doing it from home… which means teaching overnight and trying to sleep during the day. How fun. At least I am earning a decent living these days. I know that these contracts will be great, but they will severely affect my sleep schedule. My bigger concern is staying true to my weight loss program, which is harder to do when my schedule is off like that.

    Have a great day folks!

  • 2026 Day 7

    I have been wearing a Garmin fitness watch since 2019, and it has been measuring my sleep the whole time. In nearly seven years I have never seen this!

    On the app it reinforces this as such:

    • Duration: 8h25m (Excellent)
    • Stress: 9 avg (Excellent)
    • Deep: 1h46m (Excellent)
    • Light: 4h36m (Excellent)
    • REM: 2h3m (Excellent)
    • Awake/Restlessness: –, 38 Restless Moments (Excellent)

    I turned off the lights at around 10:15pm, and must have been asleep within fifteen minutes. I did not wake up once, not even to pee! I hit the snooze button a couple of times, so rather than getting out of bed at 6:15am I was down until 6:52am (which led to a bit of a scramble, owing to the fact that I needed to walk Her Floofness and then drive her to her spa appointment). I do not know what else I could have done, but a sleep score of 100 is a completely new experience for me. I hope I can repeat it… although that will not be this evening, as I am teaching until 9:30pm.

    Once again, my weight fluctuated this morning with three pounds separating the lowest and highest registers. I settled on one that was neither the highest nor lowest, and with that I am 14.6 lbs. down from Day 1. Tomorrow morning will be the telling ‘first week’ total loss, but unless I go off the rails, I am doing pretty well.

    I have already cheated this morning. On my way home from driving Princess Sophie to her appointment, I ate some of the peanuts that are in the car. I considered opting to not have my meal replacement because of this, but rejected the idea. I am trying to get used to them as my only stable source of calories. There are more in the car, and my goal is to not eat them when I go to pick her up. Wish me luck.

    Despite the wind, I did enjoy a cigar on the balcony last night. I doubt I will be able to do so again this evening, as I am teaching so late. My next one might not be until the weekend.

    Next week my sleep is going to be a disaster. I am teaching a class in Central Europe Standard Time, which means that my class will be from 1am – 11am local time. I am not looking forward to that, but I am glad that I am earning a decent wage this month.

    Have a great day folks!

  • 2026 Day 5

    After reading my journal entry yesterday, my diet buddy told me that I should trust my scale, and that I should accept the tremendous weight loss as to be expected in the first week – especially for men. When we spoke later in the day, I explained to her that the reason I did not trust it was not because I did not think it possible that I have lost so much weight in four days, but rather because my floor is not as solid as it could be, coupled with the fact that the bathroom scale (which don’t get me wrong, I have been using since 2020 and I love it) is a cheap one. I have noticed over my weight loss ups and downs that when I weigh over a certain weight (not an exact measure, but a general area) it is less consistent than it will be when I am… say, below 280 lbs.

    As if the scale wanted to prove my point this morning: At 8:01:09 this morning I stepped onto it and it registered my weight at .4 lb. heavier than it was yesterday morning. I stepped off, waited for it to clear, and stepped back onto it. At 8:01:39 it registered my weight at 1.4 lbs. lighter than it was yesterday. I did not move it, I did not nudge it, I did not even stand on it any differently. Two measurements thirty seconds apart were nearly two pounds off. For good measure, I did take a third reading, and that one was consistent with the second (the one that was down). Hence the reason I do not trust my bathroom scale. I will be seeing a doctor next week, and I am sure he will weigh me. Whether he does or does not, the following week I will be seeing my regular doctor, and I know that she will be doing so. Their scales should be much more accurate.

    With that said: down is good!

    Yesterday was the first day since I started the program that I consumed my four meal replacements. The only ‘cheating’ that I did was the two stalks of celery that I ate to abate my hunger throughout the day. If that sounds non-specific, it is because yes… I ate two stalks of celery. However, you may recall that I wrote yesterday that I had cut them up and put them into a not-really-Tupperware container. I cut them into thirds; I ate two pieces three times, totaling two stalks.

    I did not end up using the treadmill yesterday, but I did sit my exam (which I passed). I then decided that maybe it was not quite as windy as the forecast had predicted, so I prepared myself to sit outside with a cigar. I cut it but had not even picked up my torch when a gust blew cold, and I realized that sitting outside was not a good idea. I have always said that I do not mind the cold, but the wind makes it unpleasant. That is true in the summer, but that truth is amplified when the wind chill brings the temperatures down to minus double-digits.

    I have noticed (and not only recently) that despite my old habits of staying up late, my sleep score is consistently higher when I go to sleep earlier. It took me a bit of time to fall asleep last night, but according to the fitness watch, I was asleep at 11:07pm. These nights when I teach until 9:00pm will be difficult, but I am going to endeavour to be ready for sleep earlier than my usual. I would like to get into that habit if indeed I sleep better if I go to sleep earlier.

    My sleep score last night was identical to the previous night, which is not a bad thing. I slept 30 minutes less than the previous night, but most of the measurements were similar – some a bit up, some a bit down.

    • Duration: 7h15m (Excellent)
    • Stress: 20 avg (Fair)
    • Deep: 1h17m (Good)
    • Light: 5h08m (Fair)
    • REM: 51m (Fair)
    • Awake/Restlessness: 13m, 34 Restless Moments (Good)

    Two of the ‘good’ measurements from the previous night were now only fair, and one of the ‘fair’ measurements was now good. Hey, as long as I am able to get through the day without falling asleep in class I will be happy.

    Speaking of class, I got my evaluations from last week’s class this morning. The Overall Instructor score was perfect. Yay! I always strive for this, but there is usually one or two students who give me a 4 out of 5. Not last week. Phew! This week I am teaching two classes… one during the day (advanced cybersecurity), and my evening cohort for basic IT skills begins today as well. I will be delivering that over the next four months every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday evening. It is the fifth such cohort that I will have delivered to the same company’s employees since 2023, and while it makes for a lot of long days when I also teach during the day, it is a nice infusion of extra income that will really help.

    Princess Sophie and I went out for our usual walk this morning, and I will not lie… that wind makes it really cold! Someone asked me recently why I would ever have moved back from sunny California to live in this climate. That is a story for another day.

    Have a great day folks!

  • 2026 Day 4

    Over the past month I have not really trusted my bathroom scale. I have had a lot of inconsistent readings, and have often had to adjust it on the floor to get it to register at all. As such, the fact that this morning my weight is eleven pounds down from what it was Thursday morning (Day 1) is dubious. I also recognize that as my weight drops the scale will be more accurate and consistent and trustworthy. Am I excited that the number is eleven pounds down? No. Am I encouraged knowing that I have been doing pretty well, and that however accurate or inaccurate the scale may be, I weigh less than I did four days ago? Yes.

    As I discussed in my article yesterday, I did end up buying celery. That will be a good snack for times that I get hungry between meal replacements. Owing to the fact that I (stupidly) went to the store three hours after my previous meal replacement, I also bought peanuts. I made the conscious decision to leave them in the car, which means that I will not sit around the house eating them. They are there, I will snack on them when I drive, but really they are a break-glass option. Peanuts (unsalted) are very healthy, and while I am not going to try to justify them as an acceptable addition to my program, I know that when I am weak and tempted (as I was Friday evening) they are a better alternative than a lot of other options out there. I also know that after the supermarket closes there are a lot of snacks that I could buy at a convenience store… none of which are nearly as good choices as unsalted peanuts. If I am going to cheat, let it be a minor cheat and not a ‘off the wagon’ cheat.

    I have never figured out (nor done any type of research on) how my fitness watch measures and rates my sleep. I do know that it is usually (not always) pretty accurate. For example, if I think I slept really well one night, but the watch give me a low score and says ‘non-restorative’ then I will doubt its veracity… until I realize by mid-morning that I am ready for a nap. When I woke up this morning I checked my score: 80 (Good). The details:

    • Duration: 7h43m (Excellent)
    • Stress: 22 avg (Fair)
    • Deep: 1h51m (Excellent)
    • Light: 4h35m (Good)
    • REM: 1h17m (Good)
    • Awake/Restlessness: 33m, 34 Restless Moments (Fair)

    While I felt like it must have been 6:00am, it was actually about 12:40am when Her Floofness jumped down off the bed. When she does this in the middle of the night, unless she is sick it means that she is thirsty. Owing to the noise coming from my server farm in the office, I keep the bedroom door closed at night, so I knew I had to get up to let her out. I would have had to get up to bring her back onto the bed anyways, so your suggestion that I bring her water dish into the bedroom would have changed nothing. I took the opportunity to use the washroom (remember I am drinking a lot more water), then brought the Floof back up, and then got back into bed. I lay awake for the next 25 minutes wondering if I would ever get back to sleep. Obviously I did… and I know it was 25 minutes because that’s what my watch tells me it was. I do not know sow it all gets measured, but with a sleep score of 80, I suspect that I will not feel like I need a nap today.

    I do not know if it was because I had peanuts and celery, but I do not think I had my fourth meal replacement yesterday… again. As today is going to be a quiet and lazy day, I do not think that is the worst thing in the world. I suspect that starting tomorrow, when I will be teaching from 10am to 9:00pm, I will definitely need every calorie I am allowed on the program. Before you ask, I did not know how many I had, but I know I did not eat nearly as many peanuts yesterday as I had the previous day. That is a bad habit – I should be measuring my food intake and I should be aware of everything that I eat – that I will try to break… but I have tried many times before with no success.

    I do not think I have anywhere I need to drive to today. I plan to stay close to home for a few reasons. The first reason is that I do not feel like seeing people if I do not have to. I also know that the peanuts are in the car. With all of that, I also have a Check Engine light going on my dashboard, and I have a note on my calendar to call the mechanic tomorrow morning. Until I get it checked, I do not plan to drive anywhere that I do not need to drive to. Hopefully the mechanic will be able to look at it Wednesday morning (by the time I speak with him tomorrow, it will be too late… and Tuesday morning I have to take Her Floofness to the spa for her grooming appointment). I do not expect it is anything too serious… but it is better to be safe than sorry. Also… peanuts.

    I did drink at least my two litres of water yesterday, and am already halfway through my first litre of the day for today. I was thinking that I got a late start to the day, but really I did not – according to the fitness watch, I was out of bed at 7:46am – so I really am on track for most of my day. I suppose my shake was later than it could have been. We came in from our walk around 9:30am, which means that I did not make my shake until 9:45am… much later than I would on a work day. I remember in previous attempts at this program, I would space my shakes out at four hours apart – 8am – 12pm – 4pm – 8pm. That may be a good plan for the week, but for today I would either have to condense that, or bring it down to three meal replacements. We will see how I am feeling.

    I am hoping that over the next few days I will see how adding celery to my program affects me. I cannot imagine there would be any negative effects, but I wonder if eating two or three stalks per day might make me feel less hungry, or if I might not even feel the need for the fourth meal replacement. This week will be an experiment.

    On the same topic, I did something I do not think I have ever done before. When I brought the celery home, I immediately washed it, and then cut the stalks into thirds, placing them in a sealed container in the fridge. I hope that will keep it crispy. We will see, but if that works, then I will continue that regimen when buying celery.

    When I saw my doctor on November 27th I made her three promises. The first was that by the time I see her again on February 1st I will have lost 10kg. The second was that I would check my blood pressure at the pharmacy at least once per week. The third promise was that I would start doing some light exercise. It took me a month to get to where I am (with a number of false starts and ups and downs), but I am about halfway to the 10kg promise. As for my blood pressure? No, I have not measured it once. I have to remember to do that the next time I am there, but I keep forgetting. I will try to go this week, but even if I do not, I have another medical appointment next Monday and I know he will take my bp… and I suspect he will do blood work as well. If he does not, then I know that my doctor will order blood work on the 1st. As for the exercise? That one has also been a fail.

    The sun is shining, and it is a lovely day outside. Unfortunately, the wind is blowing pretty hard, so while the temperature is hovering around 0°, according to the weather report the wind chill is -11°. Even when it is hot outside, sitting out with a cigar when it is really windy is not comfortable. I will see if it dies down throughout the day, but if it does not then I will be inside for the duration. Yes, I took Her Floofness for a good walk this morning, and we will go out again in the evening… but if it is too windy then other than that we will be hibernating.

    Seeing as I will be inside all day, I might take the opportunity to dust off the treadmill and start making good on that third promise I made to the doctor. I do not think I am ready to jog, but what is to say that I cannot walk 5km? It is time I get off my duff and start trying to get back into shape. We’ll see… but I think that is a good plan for the afternoon. I am going to wait until my neighbour gets home from Costco… Princess Sophie will be happy to go over there for a visit!

    Speaking of things I should be doing… I might try to take a certification exam this afternoon for a class that I have been putting off. That is a good idea!

    Have a great day folks!