Princess Sophie has gone to spend the next few weeks with her friend Susan, who will take very good care of her. My bags have been packed and near the door since yesterday, although each of them has made at least one trip back to the bedroom for repacking. I decided to alter my plans somewhat and am heading to the airport in 20 minutes.
The Uber is ordered for 9:30, I am going to publish and then wash out my coffee cup and then go downstairs.
Have a great day folks!
Phew.
I suppose I should start with an explanation for that… as well as yesterday’s one-line post. Yesterday morning, after five days in Montreal, I stepped onto the scale. To my horror, I had gained 8.2lbs since Tuesday morning. I was heartbroken. I know that I ate poorly in Montreal, making more poor choices than I ought to, but over eight pounds in less than a week? Especially a week in which I went on three monster walks (8-10km each)? That was harsh.
There are a few things I should mention about weighing myself on a regular basis:
Yes, I made a lot of bad decisions in Montreal, culminating in a series of bad decisions at the cigar garden party I went to on Saturday, and then more on the drive home. All of that, combined with the long car ride, the very late night, the very late morning, and weighing myself two hours later than I usually do… well, I was over eight pounds up from my previous weigh-in on Tuesday. I was really not happy… but Leslie reminded me that the travel day will affect me, and that I am usually so good, from time to time I am allowed to fall off the wagon… as long as I can pick myself up and get back onto it.
Since I woke up late yesterday, I decided to not have my morning meal replacement. That decision was partly due to the fact that I felt like a fat pig from the weight gain, but mostly due to the fact that it was nearing 11:30am by the time I was ready to go, and I simply made myself lunch. I did end up taking a nap for a bit in the afternoon… I had so missed having my Princess Sophie cuddling in with me that it lasted longer than expected. We then went out for our walk before I settled onto the balcony for a cigar and a video date with my wife.
As I prepared to step onto the scale this morning, I was hoping beyond hope that I would see a 3-lbs drop. It was all that I could hope for. Seeing the numbers on the scale announce a six-pound drop was just euphoric. I was so thrilled to not only be back below the 320lbs mark, but significantly so, was amazing.
Knowing that at least part of my weight gain was not owing to the travel and timing, but to poor food choices, I doubt that the remaining 2.4 lbs will fall off tomorrow morning, but if I can lose them by the end of the week then I will be happy. Remember, next Thursday I am flying back to Dallas to be with my gorgeous wife, and I want to be looking my best for her. Yes, I am losing the weight for myself… but I think she deserves the best me that I can offer to her.
It is going to be raining off and on today, and so I do not know if I will be able to take a walk. According to the hourly forecast, the rain should abate by 4pm, which means that I can hit the trails anytime after that. Not having walked since Friday, I would like to get in a good walk to start the week off. Also, there is a challenge on the Garmin Connect app to hit 100,000 steps between September 1-14. I am just over 14,000 steps shy of that goal, which means that a good showing today (even 10,000 steps) will guarantee that I hit it tomorrow, as any day that I do not fitness walk still hits 4,000 steps.
I have to go shopping now so that I have food for lunch. I need chicken as well as vegetables, and we will see what else I might be missing.
Have a great day folks!
Okay, so I did not write about my walk yesterday. That is in no way meant as commentary that I did not walk, or did not have a good walk. I got back and realized that if I did not get ready and leave immediately, I would be late for my lunch engagement.
I did not break any records on my walk yesterday, but it was a good and respectable outing. I did not break the ten-minute mark for any kilometre, let alone my average. I was walking on a knee that I was worried about, and did not want to aggravate it.
Hearing at lunch that Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II passed away was devastating for me. Many people do not realize that she was the Queen of Canada, as well as of the United Kingdom. She has been a constant presence in my life, with her face on the coins that I played with as a very young child. While I am sure it was not unanimous, I believe that her style and class made her universally loved and respected around the world. Long live King Charles III, but his mother will be missed.
I have no plans for today. Yes, I will go for my walk shortly, after which I will come back to the house, shower, and then I will drive to the cemetery, where I will spend a couple of hours talking with my father. I will probably take a cigar to smoke with him, but we will see. I will probably have Lebanese food for lunch, which I think he would appreciate. Of course, he would be calling it Israeli food, which is just fine by me.
In the evening, I might go to one of the cigar lounges I used to hang out at here… either Dreamcatcher (on the Kahnawake native territory), or Stogies downtown. More likely, I will sit on the patio here, reading my book, and quietly smoking a cigar alone. I am sure there are more friends in Montreal that I would like to see, but I cannot think of anyone right now.
Tomorrow, as long as my knee is still cooperating, I plan to go for a walk on Mount Royal in the morning. At the end of my walk, I will go back to Esti’s house, shower, and then buy her lunch. She had laser eye surgery yesterday, otherwise I might have done all of that today. There is a difference between getting into the car all sweaty and driving five minutes to her house versus driving nearly an hour to get here. I suspect that if I do that too often, my car will begin to smell like a gym locker… and we cannot have that, especially not ahead of my five-plus hour drive back to Burlington.
As I sit here writing, I decided to be somewhat luxuriant. I poured myself a second cup of coffee, which is absolutely normal (as indeed would be the third cup) back home, but has not been my habit since arriving in Quebec. I think it has been mainly the timing issue that has prevented it, and I am wondering if that might be one of the reasons I have been having trouble sticking to the parameters of my weight management program since Tuesday. I know that some people think coffee is only coffee, but it is actually a drug that affects your body and attitude throughout the day. I know that yesterday afternoon I met my friend Jess for coffee (at a very nice café in the Plateau de Montreal area), and I had a pastry with it. I do not blame the pastry on my coffee imbalance, rather on my mourning the passing of the monarch. With that said, I have made a few wrong decisions these last few days, and I wonder… and I hope that my daily walks will at least keep my weight from slipping too badly on this trip.
I should mention that while I was not great on my weight management plan yesterday, I could have done worse. My father’s friend Arnie and I met for lunch at the Snowdon Delicatessen; rather than ordering the large Montreal smoked meat platter with fries, I ordered a bowl of chicken soup with a matza ball and a salmon salad sandwich. Arnie ordered a plate of French fries which he encouraged me to share, so I had a few… and I only did that because he doused them with vinegar. Really good fries with vinegar are one of my kryptonites! Even so, I ate much better there than I could have… and normally would have.
Okay, I have used my writing to procrastinate enough. I just sipped the last sip of my coffee, and I should hit the pavement. I will grab my sunglasses and my water bottle, and I will turn on my music. As is my habit, I will first listen to the CBC news, but I think I can guess what that broadcast will be focused on. I miss her too.
See you soon folks!
I had a nice day yesterday after my walk, even though a lot of things got turned around. I had a very decent lunch at a Lebanese restaurant, after which I went to see my friends Caryl and Lawrence. They have a fourteen-week-old puppy named Miss Lucy who is absolutely adorable, and filled with all of the puppy energy and love that puppies of that age will have. She and I got along just fine!
I was on my way to Stephane’s house for the evening when he texted and suggested I come over at 9:00pm – it was currently 6:00pm. I rerouted and came back to my friends’ house, where I had a meal replacement soup (which I have not done in a long time), and had a great conversation with my wife before heading over there.
The plan for today involves a meal that I have to be careful with. I am meeting my late father’s best friend for lunch at Snowdon Delicatessen, which has Potential For Weight Management Disaster written all over the menu. I will not be ordering a large smoked meat platter with French fries. While I do not know what my options are there, I do know that they do have healthier choices on the menu. They may not be healthy, but they are healthier.
After that, I am meeting my friend Jess on Mount Royal Avenue for a coffee. It will be nice to see her, save for two things: She is going to give me grief for not bringing Princess Sophie, and she is going to try to press me to tell her why I went dark over the summer. She will not be the first to do that, and I hope I am able to gently convince her that I am not discussing it.
My evening plans are up in the air, but one of the cigar boys from last night suggested he might invite me over for a coffee. We will see. I understand he makes a truly world class cup of coffee, and I am looking forward to trying it… but doing so in the evening may prove counterproductive to my ability to sleep tonight.
Everyone in my local cigar clique is excited about the herf this weekend, which is the original reason I planned this trip to Montreal. It will be nice to see everyone, but when Mark asked me yesterday if I was excited about it, my honest answer was that I am not. I know I will enjoy it, but excited? No. I am excited that in two weeks I will be with my wife. This is just another gathering of friends (and several people I do not know) to smoke cigars and enjoy a barbecue. As I cannot really partake in the food part of the festivities, that leaves the friends and the cigars. Most of the people who will be there that I am actually friends with (and not just people that I know) were at Stephane’s house last night… and we smoked cigars. Yes, I will go. Yes, I know I will have a great time when I am there. Excited? No.
I am kitted out to go for my walk. I am going to pay attention to my right knee, which I noticed last night has what feels like a bruise right in the middle of it. As I do not remember smashing it on anything, I have to assume that it is something else. Knees are funny things, and I do not want to mess around with this. I will remember the two things that I forgot yesterday though… I will take my water and my sunglasses, which will combine for a more comfortable walk than yesterday’s.
I will write about it upon my return!
It is funny what we do not pay attention to when we are driving. Of course, I am always aware of pedestrians and bicycles; I have probably spent more than one hundred nights at my friends’ house in Notre-Dame-de-l’Île-Perrot (just off the island of Montreal), and it never occurred to me, as I tried to think where to walk around here, that there is a walking path right outside the house. This quaint town is actually replete with them, and I will be exploring them more as my stay progresses.
My walk this morning ended at 8.5 km, and I could have done more if I felt like it. If I am feeling this good tomorrow, I will try for ten kilometres. However, I will do it without forgetting one important item… Despite having prepared it, I left my water bottle at home, and so I did not drink until I got home (at which point I drained my bottle, and another). It was a sunny day, and the temperature was around 22° Celsius, which is not prohibitive by any measure. If I had been uncomfortably thirsty, I would have stopped to buy a bottle at any of the convenience stores that I passed along the way.
I only broke the record for elevation today because most of the time I am walking around Burlington or Dallas, two very flat cities. In contrast, Montreal and the surrounding areas are anything but. Because of that, I am thinking that tomorrow or Friday I might end up at Mount Royal, and go for a walk on the mountain trails. That would be a nice walk, and one that I used to do quite a bit when I was living here, and when I was living in Toronto but visiting here a lot.
I am going to get my lunch, and then go visit my friends Caryl and Lawrence. They adopted a new puppy, and I am looking forward to meeting her. This evening I will spend a few hours smoking cigars with Stephane, which is always a good time.
Have a great day folks!
Wow did I fall off the wagon yesterday. Driving days are usually hard for me, but yesterday went off the rails when my buddy called and told me that his wife was sick and that I should not come over in the evening. It was sitting with my friends who offered me all sorts of delicacies that things went south. I have to do better today. I will do better today.
I slept really well last night. The drive was long, and by the time bedtime came around I was out like a light. This I still woke up to pee a couple of times, but that was not the worst thing in the world. When I finally checked my watch, it was 9:00am, which is nearly unheard of for me… especially when there is a floof who wants to go for a walk at a reasonable hour.
I got dressed in my walking kit this morning, and that is what I am going to do. I do not know what the route will be, but if I get somewhere between five and eight kilometres in then I will consider it a successful walk. I did not bring as many workout kits as I thought, so I will have to do laundry if I plan to work out more than 2-3 times. I’m okay with that… as are my friends with whom I am staying.
In the afternoon, I will see Stephane for a cigar, and then I will visit with Caryl and Lawrence for a couple of hours. After that, who knows? I only know I have to avoid bad foods. I will likely have Lebanese food for dinner, which is not very healthy, but is reasonably safe.
Have a great day folks!
Happy Labour Day to all! It is ironic that on the Canadian civil holiday in August, I was teaching for an American company, so I did not get the day off. Today is an international holiday, but I am not on a contract so my day is no different than any other day, other than that the stores are closed, and I cannot go shopping… which is a good thing, I suppose.
Yesterday in the late afternoon I had a panic/stress/anxiety episode. I wanted to cheat. I texted my wife that my defenses were failing me, and that I wanted to go out to eat, splurge, and indulge. Within minutes, my phone rang, and she talked me down from it. Actually, she reminded me that I had homemade baba ghanoush in the fridge, as well as a container of cherry tomatoes. I sat talking with her as I dipped my tomatoes into the eggplant, and when the tomatoes were finished, so was my desire to jump off the weight loss wagon.
Later in the evening, Leslie asked me how my cravings were. I told her that I intentionally smoked a second cigar in the evening to help distract me from them, and my plan must have worked because not only did I not eat as I smoked (which I seldom do), I also did not have another meal replacement. My food intake for the day consisted of my morning meal replacement shake, my regular chicken and salad for lunch, a handful of peanuts, and a small box of cherry tomatoes with baba ghanoush. All in all, a reasonably health day’s food intake for a man on a weight loss regimen.
I should mention that it really paid off, putting a huge smile on my face when I stepped onto the scale this morning. I mentioned yesterday that I was not surprised to have gained a pound following Saturday’s intake. This morning, I had not only recovered that pound, but was an incredible 2.4-pound drop from yesterday morning, taking me into lowest-weight territory once again. I assure you that this morning I did not try to step off the scale, and then re-weigh myself hoping for a better result!
I have not been for a fitness walk since I am back from Dallas, owing partly to the weather, but mostly to a turned ankle. I am going to give it a go today, right after lunch. The forecast calls for cloudy and a high of 20° Celsius (68° Fahrenheit), which will be comfortable enough to wear shorts, even though I wore jeans and a long sleeve shirt to take Her Floofness on her walk this morning.
Speaking of Princess Sophie, this evening I am going to take her to my neighbour’s for a few days. Tomorrow I am going to drive to Montreal for a few days, and while I would normally drop her off in the morning, Sue is leaving for her office early tomorrow, so it is just easier for me to drop her off tonight. I am going to miss her, but I know she will be in good hands… and will get plenty of walks, and treats, and love… and lots of play time with her best friend Charlie!
I had thought for a bit that I would not be sticking to my meal replacement program while I am in Montreal. I thought that it would be a good opportunity to cheat. I do not know what made me think that, but I will not be indulging in Montreal bagels, smoked meat, and other local delicacies while I am there. I do not even know what made me think about it, but I know that it would be a terrible idea.
I sometimes feel like I really do have an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, like you see in old movies. For a couple of days, the devil was whispering how nice it would be to have those foods that I love so much, and that I will only be in Montreal for a few days, so what’s the harm? Look how well I have been doing! Don’t I deserve it?
On my other shoulder, the harp-playing angel is saying ‘Yes, exactly! Look how well I have been doing! Why would I want to spoil it by indulging in so many of those foods that made me fat in the first place? Don’t I deserve to feel healthy, to fit into smaller and nicer clothes, to look better? Don’t I deserve to feel better, to be healthier, and to probably live longer? What’s more, doesn’t Leslie deserve all of those things mentioned of me?
I do not know if this is the first time ever that my better angels are shouting down the devils… and winning. I also do not know how long that will last… but I am going to do my best to always nurture those angels and muting the devils. It will not always work, but I am going to try to continue to succeed, and I can only succeed by listening to those angels.
I realized just now that I have been all excited to get back to Taekwondo this week, and then remembered that I am going to be in Montreal from tomorrow through Sunday. I completely forgot that I need to extend my trip so that I can take care of a couple of errands. I do not relish the idea of having to visit the courthouse, but I need a document from there, and expect there will be bureaucratic delays in getting it, and so I will leave tomorrow and not Thursday or Friday. Oh well.
I have to be cognizant of the fact that five days in Montreal would give me a lot more opportunity to cheat on my diet, and that doing so would hurt nobody but me. I have to be as good as I can be and stay as strong as possible. I recognize that I will be having a few meals with others and will be as diligent as I can be to eat well… or as well as I can. I will pack extra meal replacements, just to be safe.
Have a great day folks!
I did not get nearly as good night’s sleep last night as I had been getting sleeping next to my wife. I do not think it is that the air in Dallas is somehow cleaner, I just suspect that I am more at ease sleeping with her. I suppose for the next three weeks I will have to put up with it. I did not really have trouble falling asleep, but I was up a couple of times in the night. That, before Princess Sophie decided at 6:45am that it was time for us to get out of bed.
She did allow me to complete my bathroom rituals in peace, although I was… unproductive. Yes, it is an unpleasant topic, but when discussing weight management, bowel movements are occasionally something we have to mention. I will not write off the poopless morning to travel, nor to food – I ate yesterday. I just could not. Maybe later today, and if not, then there is always tomorrow.
Speaking of travel and food, let’s review what I ate yesterday. The morning started with a meal replacement shake. At the airport, knowing that they would not be selling food on my flight, I bought a (small) can of Pringles, which I did end up supplementing with two bags of airplane pretzels. When I arrived home (later than anticipated, due to delays on the airplane, followed by my son forgetting to collect me, so I needed to wait for a taxi), I almost immediately went to the supermarket, where I picked up my salad fixings, chicken to prepare for dinner, and milk for my coffee. I also found (to my delight) that they had Salt and Vinegar Goldfish crackers, which have been missing from the store shelves (with no explanation) for eight or nine months. I like them, Leslie loves them. I bought five bags of them.
I prepared my chicken and salad for dinner (while I will be back to my regular timing today, yesterday’s meal was the same old), and then decided to splurge. I opened one of the bags of Goldfish and ate a couple of handfuls. I will, over the next week or so, likely finish that pack… I will not be opening any of the others, which are all going to Texas with me for my beloved. I sat outside with a cigar, and as I prepared for bed, I had one last meal replacement shake to curb my hunger.
With the cheating I did yesterday, I was expecting that my weight would be at least slightly up this morning. Not so, I was actually down 2/10ths of a pound. I do not know if I was truly excited, but I was certainly relieved that after traveling and with my cheating that I did not gain weight.
Today is the first day of September, and while autumn does not start until the 21st, I have always seen the 1st of September as a boundary. We have crossed over from the completely summer month of August into the soon-to-be-fall month of September. As a kid, school would start around now. The weather traditionally starts to turn now… or at least, that is what it always felt like. I checked the weather before dressing to take Her Floofness for her walk, and was surprised to see that it was sunny and 55° Fahrenheit (12.5° Celsius), meaning I not only had to wear long pants (which I was wearing during the day when I was teaching, but I have not worn otherwise in weeks), I would also have to wear some sort of upper ware to reinforce my golf shirt.
I thought about a hoodie, but opted to go into my front closet instead, where without thinking I pulled my Taekwondo vest, pulling it on and zipping it up. As we hit the trail, it occurred to me that the last time I tried the vest on (Day 96) was when Leslie resewed the patch on for me, and it did not come close to fitting me. There was easily over an inch between the zipper sides. While it is a little tight, it zips up without any issues. This is a huge non-scale victory for me!
Speaking of that, I renewed my membership to Taekwondo Ontario today for another year. I also reached out to Taekwondo Canada to find out where I can purchase gear, including new patches. I do not think I want to replace my current patch, only because it has the old name of the organization on it (World Taekwondo Federation has been renamed World Taekwondo – WTF has become WT), and I like having WTF on my uniforms and vest.
I was thinking about sizes as Her Floofness and I walked. I remember more than twenty years ago I starred in an amateur play, and the man in charge of wardrobes made a comment to the effect that ‘fat men do not wear their pants right – you wear it all the way under your belly, when normal people wear them around their navel.’ Judgmental much? Anyhow, the thought was that because I do indeed wear my pants under my belly, which means that I am wearing a Size 40, despite having a waist that is about 56” around the belly. I am thrilled, by the way, to see that I have lost about 7” in the belly… but because I do not wear my pants there, I do not actually know (until I pull out the tape measure) how much I have lost there. It is only when I try on clothes that did not previously fit me that I can really see the difference… and when I do, I am very happy with it.
It is turning into a beautiful day. My friend Eduardo is coming over in the afternoon, both for me to look at his computer, and to have a cigar. It will be good to see him again, especially since I know he has been going through a lot and needs a friend. Also, while I would rather not be working on his computer, I would rather do it here than at his house… my allergies have been kicking my butt today, and I do not want to add his cat’s dander to the pollen.
Have a great day folks! I am going to try to take a nap.
I hate leaving Dallas, only because it usually means I am leaving my Leslie. Fortunately, this time it is only for three weeks. I will be back in twenty-two days, which makes me happy.
Last night, we decided to get dressed up and go out for a nice meal. We went to her favourite sushi restaurant, and with regard to my weight management program, we definitely splurged. It was our last night together, and it was our opportunity to dress up. She looked positively ravishing in a cute and flirty purple dress; when she does her makeup – I mean, when she goes all out – she is completely irresistible. We overate for sure, including a splurge with desserts. As we drove home I told her that even if I gained five pounds from the meal, it was worth it.
As it happens, I did not gain weight. In fact, my weight this morning was back down to match the lowest weight I was at on the third day of my visit. Before I flew out here, I wrote that a victory would be to come back to Canada no heavier than when I left. Barring huge and unexpected somethings, I should weigh less tomorrow morning than I did a week ago today, the last time I weighed myself in Canada.
I did not eat as well as I could have during this trip, but I also did not eat nearly as badly as I could have. I did not make any fancy (and fattening) breakfasts, and when I was not eating my (usually one) daily meal, I was primarily sticking with my meal replacements. I had only one alcoholic beverage during the week, although I did smoke a good number of cigars. While the anti-tobacco lobby may frown on that, there are no implications on my weight… at least, not negative ones. I have said since the beginning that as long as I am not snacking with them, cigars are a great way for me to not eat, often when I really want to eat.
I should also mention that during this visit I also went on two great fitness walks, which likely contributed to my weight loss. I was surprised that I was able to push myself so hard in the heat, but I did… and it paid off!
As I was checking in for my flight last night, I was told that it was overbooked, and I voluntarily placed myself on a list of passengers willing to be bumped to a later flight in exchange for compensation. This is the first time I can think of, with many hundreds of flights behind me, that I want to be bumped. That would not only mean that I might get to spend an extra day or two with my wife, it would also cover the cost of my next trip down here. Here’s hoping.
Barring that, I am now five hours from being at home with my doggie. I love her and miss her, but yes Sophie, I would rather be with my wife. Please forgive me.
Have a great afternoon folks!
It was glorious to wake up this morning because of a lawn mower at 8:30am, and not because of an alarm ringing at 6:30am. Leslie was already up and about because she has to work today, but I do not… and it felt delightful.
The bathroom scale has me down over half a pound from yesterday, which is good progress. Yesterday during the day I was good (although I did eat the leftover Chinese food for lunch, it was not a huge portion), although in the evening I did have a glass of whisky. Not just any glass of whisky… a really good glass, in a crystal tumbler that Leslie bought for me in June. We enjoyed a drink and a cigar on the balcony together, and it was a delightful evening.
This, after a failed supper attempt by me. I had not pre-planned dinner, and although there were chicken breasts that needed to be cooked (they were a day beyond their ‘cook before’ date), I did not know what I was going to do with them. Deciding to experiment, I went the Tempura route. Leslie and I had gone to the Asian market on Sunday, and we bought Tempura breading, as well as the dipping sauce. How bad could this go, right? Pop them into the air fryer and twenty-five minutes later…
First of all, let me advise you one and all that tempura batter likely works better on smaller pieces cut up than it does on whole pieces of… well, anything I would imagine. Also, based on the consistency of what is supposed to be a light and fluffy batter, it is probably one of those things that would really work much better in an actual fryer than in an air fryer. The hard shell of the chicken was neither light nor fluffy, although the few bites of it that I had tasted fine. I should also mention that twenty-five minutes in the air fryer would be fine for a normal sized piece of chicken, but these came out not quite done, and needed to go into the microwave for a few extra minutes.
Bulldog sauce saved the day, and the dinner was not a total loss. Leslie and I now have one more funny incident to laugh about.
Today is supposed to be my last full day here. I am supposed to fly back to Canada tomorrow, although we are seriously discussing pushing my flight by a day or two. We will see… it is always better being with my wife, and spending a day or two with her son would be very nice as well. That decision will be made in the next couple of hours… we will see.
The next few days in Dallas will be cloudy with some rain, but that is definitely not a factor in my decision. If I do stay, I am really excited to make French toast for Leslie’s son, and to spending more time getting to know him. It will be nice. On the flipside, I have my neighbour looking after Princess Sophie, and knowing that in three weeks I am asking her to do so again for three more weeks, is another factor. We will see.
Have a great day folks!
