Losing a part of me

Category: Walking

  • Day 193

    It was a very hard night last night. I suppose it started in the afternoon though.

    First things first, I had breakfast with my boys. I followed my original plan and ordered the Peggy’s Poached with a second egg. It was only when my son the younger could not finish his meal that I strayed from the plan. I had another piece of toast with his eggs. He tried to give me his sausage link as well, but fortunately my son the older intervened, reminding him that I do not eat pork. Indeed, I would not have eaten that. There is a difference between eating too much of something that I am allowed to eat (both for my diet and for my religion) and eating something that is completely against one or the other of them.

    When I left the restaurant, I had nearly 90-minutes before my scheduled haircut. I knew that if I went home, I would have to take Princess Sophie out… and then leave her again. Most of the time, she is saddest when I leave, but once I am gone, she spends her time relaxing. We have seen it in action… she lounges about quietly and comfortably, often for hours… but as soon as she sees my car pull in, it is showtime. She puts on an act as if she had been desperately crying the whole time I was gone. It was easier to just go straight to the barber and have a cigar outside while I waited patiently.

    As it happens, yesterday was the day that I should have come home. For the first time since she came to Canada, and only the third time ever, Princess Sophie had an accident in the house. With dogs it is always difficult to tell if they are having soft stool because they are sick, or because they ate something that disagreed with them. I took her out immediately, and then came home to clean up the mess. For those of you who are wondering, this is where the hard night would begin… even though I did not know it at the time.

    We went to bed at a reasonable hour, after a nice video date with the missus. She had been out a couple of times in the afternoon which is usually plenty for her… but she is a good girl who is very good about telling me when she really needs to go out, and so at 12:10am I threw on a pair of shorts and a t-shirt and took her out. There was more soft stool, but I would not really have qualified it as diarrhea.

    When we came in, we went right back to bed. Only Her Floofness did not stay in bed. She jumped down within the next hour and did a lot of walking about the apartment. Twice I got out of bed to check on her, and to try to bring her back into bed. Both times she stayed for a few minutes, and then jumped back down. While she does this from time to time, I only really settle in when I know that she just decided to sleep on the couch, or in her bed. When she is walking about, I listen intently for signs of distress, and I cannot turn that off.

    It was a little before 4:30am when she actually came into the bedroom to tell me she needed to go out again. If you want to know what an excellent communicator she is, she knows how to do this soundlessly. There is no barking about, but she makes herself clear… and I try to listen every time. As I was getting ready to take her out, I noticed she had another accident in the kitchen. I would clean that up when we got home again.

    After that trip outside, we slept for three whole hours – the first sleep I got – before she told me once again at 7:30am that she needed to go out again. I was just hoping that when we came back in, I would be able to get a little more sleep. Once again, there was diarrhea, but when she was done, she saw her friend Charlie and was playful and frolicking like normal. This is usually a sign that yes, she is under the weather, but she is not sick… she just ate something she shouldn’t have. Charlie’s mom and I thought it might have been some of his puppy food, but apparently, she did not eat any yesterday. That she was not caught eating it does not mean that she did not, so we won’t know.

    I did get nearly one more hour of sleep before she told me that she needed to go out once more. I suspect that this time, which produced only a miniscule amount of waste, would be the last time… unless she really is sick, at which point it will likely resume once she eats again. I am hoping that is not the case.

    I did not try to go back to sleep again. By now it was 9:15am, and I am resigned to the fact that I had to get up and do my thing. I will try to get to bed early this evening so that I am not a complete zombie during class tomorrow. With that said, I will be keeping a close eye on my girl, and if she shows any signs of distress, I will take care of her.

    The number on the scale this morning was extremely positive; it took five days to recover from that unfortunate spike, but my weight is back firmly into new-best territory, after a 1.6-pound drop from yesterday. I am not discounting the possibility that my interrupted sleep skewed the real numbers (that is a real thing), and I have to remember that the individual numbers are not as telling as the trend. With that said, down is down, and it always feels good. Knowing that I am now below the weight that I was the day my father passed away (which is essentially the day I stopped trying to lose weight on my last attempt) is nice. Knowing that I am still 20-pounds heavier than I was the day that I first heard the name of my wife gives me another goal to strive for.

    The blister on my foot is worse than it was yesterday. Last night I removed the bandage and did not replace it. Had I known that between the time I did that, and the time I would sit down writing this with my second cup of coffee, that I would have put my sandals on four times to walk 2500 steps (with the leather strap of my sandal rubbing against the healing blister) then I would have replaced it immediately. I did replace it this morning of course, and I hope that I will feel fit enough to go for a good long walk this evening – my first in three days – without any discomfort. I might beat myself up for not taking care of myself, but I also have to remember that when I removed the dressing last night, I thought I had eight hours to let it breathe and heal. No.

    It is looking like another beautiful day in Burlington, Ontario. The forecast reads sunny with a high of 33°C, which means it will be a perfect day to sit with a friend smoking a cigar. It has been more than two weeks since I have socialized with anyone. While I have enjoyed the solitude (and really needed it because of things that were going on), I am by nature a social being who enjoys seeing my friends. After lunch, Princess Sophie and I will head to Hamilton to spend the afternoon with Lyle and Dorothy. I am on the fence about taking her with me, but I would really like to keep an eye on her to make sure she really is feeling better.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 192

    Bumps in the weight loss road are easier to accept when you did something to veer into the bump. ‘Hey, I had a cheat meal, and then I ended up losing three days of progress.’ Easy to understand. When there was no such cheat, it is harder to come to terms with.

    From Tuesday to Wednesday, I gained 2.6 pounds. I do not know what I did to deserve that, but that does not make it any less real. Since then, while sticking to the plan, I have lost .4, .8, and .6 pounds each day, and I am still nearly a full pound up from what I weighed on Tuesday. I would like to scream at the world that it is not fair, but nobody would listen. Also, it is my experience that when you scream at the world, people tend to look at you like you are a mad man.

    I am happy that I am back down below my milestone. I am just frustrated that were it not for that one giant adjustment, I would be nearly at 325 lbs, and I would not be lamenting to my wife that by our next visit, I might not be able to reach the goal I was hoping for. I am still going to try of course… but only part of the success is in trying, while most of it is in actually succeeding.

    I am meeting my boys for breakfast this morning, and I am excited to see them. Owing to a combination of travel and despair, I have not seen Gilad since the first week of the month; I have not seen Aaron since the second week of June. it will be great to see them both today. Aaron asked if we could go somewhere different for breakfast, and we agreed on Cora’s, a chain of breakfast restaurants that originated in Montreal, and is known for their fanciful breakfasts.

    I decided, rather than going there and having to figure out what I can safely eat, to go on-line and decide in advance. As I am waiting until we get there to eat (rather than having a breakfast meal-replacement shake first), I know that the menu will have all sorts of temptations that in a moment of weakness I might succumb to. It took a bit of investigating, but I have settled on a breakfast called Peggy’s Poached. Off the menu, it comes with one poached egg on toast, a small dish of cottage cheese, and half a plate of fruit, and is listed at 411 calories. I will ask for a second poached egg, bringing the total to about 485 calories. I briefly considered the Yogurt and Harvest Crunch, but I could not easily find the nutritional information online. I cannot remember the last time I had cottage cheese, and I do not remember if I like it or not. If I do, then I can add it to my occasional list of foods.

    I will be taking off some weight this afternoon, as I am getting my hair cut. I have not had it cut in nearly two months, and it is really looking shaggy… especially when combined with the beard that I am trying to grow, which nearly two weeks into growth is still looking scraggly. I suspect there will be one more week before it looks like an actual beard, and not shrapnel from explosive Brillow pads. By the time I get to Dallas to see Leslie in three weeks, it should be looking pretty good.

    As expected, I did not walk yesterday, opting to give my feet a day to heal after the disastrous walk that was Thursday. Following my haircut, I will lace up my runners and head out for a good walk. I am planning for an 8-10km walk, but I will be careful, centering the first few kilometres close to home, just in case the damage to my heels cannot take the distance. I will not be proud, and if needed I will abort the walk. I do not want to be out of commission any longer than needed… and letting my heels heal is critical to getting back on track.

    Before I close, I would like to call out a non-scale victory. This morning I grabbed a golf shirt that has not fit me in 18-months, and it fits!

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 191

    I made a huge mistake while preparing for my walk yesterday. I compounded it by not listening to my body. Those mistakes will take time to recover from.

    A year and a half ago, I bought a pair of running shoes that I thought were really cool. I wore them once, and never again. I could go into the reasons behind that, but suffice it to say that they are a very different pair of shoes, and I do not remember them being uncomfortable so much as they were weird.

    I decided to try them again yesterday. I laced them up and headed out. I should mention that I was exhausted, and really wanted to go to sleep, not for a walk. If I am going to do this, if I am going to train my brain to exercise daily, then sometimes I will have to force myself to go out, even when I do not want to. Yesterday was one of those days, and I decided I would do a quick eight kilometres and be done with it. Leslie will attest that when I started, I told her that these nearly-new shoes looked and felt like they were going to be really fast.

    I started my walk, and was trying to figure out if the soles were just tight, or what else was going on. I do not think my feet actually started to hurt until after the first kilometre, but I do remember thinking that if I turned back to change shoes I would likely not go back out. I kept going.

    After two kilometres I sat down for a couple of minutes, mostly to loosen the laces on the shoes. I hoped that would make things better. At the end of the third kilometre I sat down and realized that my heels were blistered and probably worse, and that going further would likely cause an injury. I sat down for a respite before turning back. While I continued to measure progress on my app, I knew that my return journey would not be a fast one… Indeed, I needed to stop a couple of times again.

    This morning my heels are indeed blistered. I will go to Shopper’s Drug Mart on my lunch to pick up larger square bandages that I can hope to heel them with while still walking. Still and all, I might have to take today off my walking routine. If I can protect the heels then great, but if I cannot then I do not want to damage them further, exacerbating whatever time off I need to take.

    It is a beautiful day, and I am excited to have the weekend ahead of me. This evening my wife and I have a date to light the Sabbath candles and then have a drink and a cigar on the patio, and I am looking forward to that. I miss her more than I can say, and if I cannot hold her then at least I can see her and talk to her.

    It is late morning, and I am already looking forward to my lunch. I have prepared the salad, and there are two pieces of chicken that are seasoned and sitting in my air fryer, just waiting for me to turn it on at 12:05. I feel like a goldfish. When I am hungry, it feels like I will always be hungry. I forget that when I have a big lunch, I will be sated until the end of the day’s meal replacements. Instead, I am thinking that I should be planning what to prepare for dinner, because I know I will be hungry again. These are just some of the bad attitudes that I am talking about when I say I need to break my unhealthy relationship with food. Stop thinking to the next meal before you have eaten this meal!

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 190

    While my weight was down this morning, it was only a slight drop, and nothing to counteract the huge jump from yesterday. Nonetheless, I am going to keep on track. I still weighed in above 330-pounds, which is a huge psychological bump for me. I hope that by the weekend I have gotten back below that milestone, which I had thought was behind me.

    When I finished my class last night, I realized I was exhausted. I love teaching, but it does take a lot out of me… especially when I have not been sleeping well, as has been the case. Nonetheless, and despite predictions of rain, I embarked upon a fitness walk. Because I selected footwear that would have been appropriate for the rain, I was not going to be setting any records. The fact that I got out there at all was a victory. That I walked 8km was really huge. Yes, that distance has become my base distance, and I am going to try to do that every day; that does not change the fact that three minutes before I went out, I was trying to decide between walking and going to sleep.

    In the end, it did not rain… although when I took Princess Sophie for her walk this morning it started to rain, and from what I see out the window the rain has not stopped. The forecast predicts rain all day, although that prediction is then clarified as a 20% chance of rain most of the day. Sometimes I think that meteorologists were put on this planet to make psychics look credible.

    • Distance: 8.05 km (10 km)
    • Duration: 1:27:37 (1:41:26 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:49 (10:08)
    • Best Split-Pace Kilometre: 10m35s
    • Steps: 10.3k (12.4k)
    • Calories burned: 466 (582)
    • Elevation gain: 36m (39.6m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 118 (122)

    I had a great talk with Leslie last night. I really miss her, and know that when I am with her, I am not only happier, I sleep better. We discussed my fitness walking and weight management program. I told her that while she is not the only reason I am losing weight and getting into shape, she is certainly one of them. Among the other reasons are that I would like to look good, and that when I weigh less and am in better shape, I feel better. She reminded me that she loves me for me, and has been attracted to me all along… but she appreciates that I am dedicated to losing weight for myself and for us.

    After a great deal of frustration and aggravation, I was able to book my next trip to see her. The American Airlines website does not seem to like the fact that my credit card is American, even though I am Canadian. There is an option to change countries for the credit card, and when you select it, you are kicked back to the main menu. When you call, they offer to call you back… sometime between two and six hours from now, which when it is already 10pm does not bode well. Leslie was able to log on and do it from her end, and so the day after my classes are done, I am flying off to see her. Yay!

    Today is another fish day. The last ten days I have been buying fresh chicken and fish from the supermarket, forgetting that I had a large bag of Norwegian salmon from Costco. I enjoyed it yesterday, and will do the same for today. Yesterday I had to make myself a second salad with lunch, possibly because the salmon is fewer calories than the chicken. I’m not sure, but I think it was better to have more salad than a cookie.

    I start teaching in fifteen minutes, and I am having trouble keeping my eyes open. Yes, I am that tired. I have not been sleeping well, but I still feel better working and exercising than I would sitting around lazily. I will go through my pot of coffee this morning, and I will make it through the day. I will go for a fitness walk this evening, even if it is raining. On that note, I found a great use for a hat that was gifted to me a couple of weeks ago! Leslie and I (as well as a number of other people I asked) are on the fence about the fashion of the hat… but it will certainly keep my head dry in the rain, and it folds into my walking satchel quite nicely!

    My trip to Dallas is booked for August 24. My goal is to lose at least fifteen pounds by then. That will require a strict regimen of no cheating on the diet, and sticking to my exercise plan. If I do that, then I should be able to get there… let’s see.

    Have a great day folks!

  • My Perfect Ten

    When I set out on this evening’s walk, I did not expect to be breaking any records. By the time I arrived home, I had broken every one of my records.

    Despite my resetting all of my apps, it was still reporting my progress every 620 metres or so, which was throwing me off… but what was worse, the first report told me that I was clocking nearly eleven minutes per kilometre, which made no sense to me.

    I decided to pick up the pace. After two kilometres (and then again after three), it was reporting split-pace times well under 9m50s. Remember, prior to today, my best per-kilometre time was ten minutes even. I know I had kicked it into gear, but I was surprised that I was so far ahead of my previous best. I kept going, deciding I was going to leave it all out on the trail, as we say. Looking at the following table, I am proud to say that every measure is in bold, because every single one is a personal best.

    • Distance: 10 km (8 km)
    • Duration: 1:41:27 (1:27 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:08 (10:52)
    • Best Split-Pace Kilometre: 9m37s
    • Steps: 12.4k (10.1k)
    • Calories burned: 582 (460)
    • Elevation gain: 39.6m (36m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 122 (116)

    While I was aware of my blisters, neither they nor anything else was causing me pain. By the end of eight kilometres, I suspected my times were dropping… but nowhere near the kind of decline I have experienced near the end of my previous walks.

    I will not be walking ten kilometres every night; I will also not be pushing myself to even approach any of these records any time soon. I am thrilled to have achieved them though… and tomorrow is another day.

    Have a great evening folks!

  • Day 187

    Yesterday was more successful than I had planned… and my weight was still up this morning. I was up more than half a pound from yesterday… but as I have said, it is the trend and not the individual points on the graph that are important.

    I suspect that one of the reasons that my weight was up because this morning I did not have a successful bowel movement today. I know, that is not a pleasant topic of conversation, but it is an important one when discussing weight loss. I hope tomorrow will be more successful.

    How can I be more successful than planned? I had my morning meal replacement, I had my mid-day meal (around 2pm really), and after my nap and fitness walk (which was done by about 8:15pm) I had another meal replacement. I could have had a third one, but I decided not to. One fewer meal replacement makes my weight management program more successful, right? Wrong. The nutrition in that shake, both proteins and others, are important for my weight loss. It would have been a bad idea for me to have two meal replacements between the end of my walk and bedtime. What I should have done was have my second one before the walk. Lesson learned.

    Today has gone well so far… I had my breakfast shake, I had lunch at 1:00pm, and when my class is over (around 5:30pm) I will have my second meal replacement, before taking Princess Sophie for her walk. I expect that once she comes back in, I will be able to go for my fitness walk. It might not be the same 7-9 kilometres I did every day last week, but I will try for at least 6-7km. I am not going to map it out, but I will do what I can without hurting myself.

    I mention hurting myself because I drained two blisters on the bottom of my feet this morning, so both feet were feeling it when I took Sophie for her walk. I am sure that as long I choose the proper footwear, I should be okay.

    I hope to get more sleep tonight than I did last night… I had a lot of trouble falling asleep, and there is no reason that I can think of other than my class. Hopefully this evening will be better.

    Have a great day folks!

  • The First 47.5

    I was not feeling energetic today. I had my support call at 11:00am, and then I went shopping. My intention was to come home from shopping, make lunch, and then after lunch I would get dressed and go for my walk. That is not quite how it worked out, because after lunch I sat around like a lazy slob until I finally lay down for a nap.

    I was not going to let today go to waste, but it is my last day before I start teaching again. I also knew that I had walked my tail off all week, and if I decided to take the day off, it would not be a crime.

    NO! I do not know how my schedule is going to work starting tomorrow. I hope I will be able to do my fitness walking in the evenings, but how can I be sure that after a long day of lecturing that I will have the koach in me? Tomorrow will be telling… but today is today.

    I got out of bed, ready to go for a fitness walk… only to be thwarted by a cute little princess who wanted to go for a walk too… only she does not fitness walk, she saunters, sniffs, and pees. Nevertheless, her walking is much more of a priority than my own, so even though I was dressed to work out, I collected her leash and…

    One of my earbuds was gone. I have written a few times about my Jaybird Vista earbuds, and how I have twice lost one, to have the company replace it for me each time. Aside from the fact that I have had them a year and a half and the warranty is long expired, I suspect I have pushed my luck with them as far as I can get away with. I looked everywhere, but it was nowhere to be found. I must have lost it along my walk with Princess Sophie this morning, or on my way in from shopping… which means that in all likelihood, were I to find it, it would be rain drenched and useless. I sighed, resigned to the fact that I would have to invest in a new pair soon enough.

    We walked down through the lobby and … what was sitting on the floor, inside the dry lobby, but an ear bud!? I was thrilled to find it. I am sure that soon enough I will need to invest in a new pair, but I am glad that is not today.

    I took Her Royal Floofness for her walk, and when we came back in, I gave her a treat, and set out again. I was not sure how far I would comfortably walk today, considering a couple of blisters on my feet, and the fact that there were severe thunderstorm warnings for the next couple of hours. The sun was still blue, so I put on my shoes with the thickest soles, along with my thick gym socks, and I headed out.

    While the shoes that I selected are likely the best for walking with blisters, and are likely the only ones that fit with the thick socks, I have never had a good split-pace time wearing them. Today was no different, with an average pace of 10m52s per kilometre.

    • Distance: 8 km (8.06 km)
    • Duration: 1:27 (1:24:05 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:52 (10:26)
    • Steps: 10.1k (9.9k)
    • Calories burned: 460 (467)
    • Elevation gain: 36m (23m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 116 (118)

    One thing I should mention is that when I adjust the units of measure on my online apps, I should make sure to reset the apps on my phone. The MayMyWalk app decided to let me know my split pace times at intervals of 625 metres, which was really disconcerting. For those who are curious, the best I could come up with is that there are 6.25 miles in 10 kilometres, so when I switched the app units of measure from Imperial to Metric, something weird happened. I’ll reset it now that I am home.

    So why the title, The First 47.5? It is of course a play on words of the title of the television show The First 48; From Monday to Sunday, I walked 47.5 kilometres.

    • Monday: 9.03 km
    • Wednesday: 8.0 km
    • Thursday: 8.0 km
    • Friday: 6.5 km
    • Saturday: 8.06 km
    • Sunday: 8.0 km

    The drive from my apartment to Toronto Pearson International Airport is 46.5km. In the (for Canada) blistering heat, I could have walked to the airport this week… and right to my gate. I am calling this a very successful week, but likely an anomalous one… I do not suspect that the next four weeks, when if I can walk it will be in the evenings after a long day of work, I will be able to walk nearly as far. Not a problem though… as long as I do not quit!

    Tomorrow morning, I will wake up and do my morning routing, and then after I walk Princess Sophie, I will sit down to teach. I am looking forward to being back in front of a class. I do not know if I will be fitness walking tomorrow, both because of the class but also because of the even more blisters on my feet now than I had earlier today. We will have to see.

    Have a great evening folks!

  • Saturday’s Shpatzir

    I discovered today that my fitness watch, and the fitness tracker app on my phone, do a pretty good job of staying in synch… except the fitness watch tells me I burn a lot more calories than does the app. I suspect that is because the app wants me to pay for the premium subscription in order to take the weather into account, whereas I paid the fitness watch, so it is not trying to upsell me. Either way, it was another good walk. I was, once again, pretty much done after the seventh kilometre… but even so, my pace for the last (eighth) kilometre was not too bad.

    Once again, I took the hiking trail for a couple of kilometres, and it was good to be away from the traffic. My pace throughout was excellent and constant – I was not breaking records, but with the exception of the final two kilometres all split-times were between 10m11 (5th kilometre) and 10m20 (1st kilometre). Consistency is never a bad thing… especially when you are performing consistently well.

    At the very beginning, or rather before my walk started, I did throw a bit of a fit. I have a fanny pack that I think I bought when I was married to my first wife. It has holders for two small bottles of water, in addition to the main compartment. I decided to wear it today, substituting the two small bottles with one slightly larger one. I was only a few metres out of my apartment building when I realized that Leslie is right… I have absolutely no butt, which means that the fanny pack was not going to stay up. I was quite annoyed by this realization, and after slamming it the ground in frustration, I picked it up and went back into my apartment to get the pack I have been using for the past two years. Remind me to find a new sling, as this one is designed to sling over the left shoulder, and has been known to cause aches when I am not careful.

    • Distance: 8.06 km (6.5 km)
    • Duration: 1:24:05 (1:10:13 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:26 (10:47)
    • Steps: 9.9k (8k)
    • Calories burned: 467 (375)
    • Elevation gain: 23m (19m)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 118 (114)

    I am happy that every statistic is an improvement on yesterday’s walk. I am also very happy that my average pace per kilometre today was the second best since I started tracking (and indeed since I started fitness walking). 10m26s, averaged out over the entire walk, is actually better than any single kilometre I walked in my first ten outings! I am excited to see if I can keep up this pace.

    Speaking of paces, I have walked 39.5 kilometres since Monday (today is Saturday). I am only counting in that the actual fitness walking (and jogging) I have done, not the total steps or distance counted on my fitness watch. That means that tomorrow I could plan an easy 5.5km outing, and have forty-five kilometres in a seven-day period. Not bad, all things being equal. I am likely going to try to do another 7-8kms tomorrow, but we will see. A lot will depend on a lot of factors, not the least being the weather.

    I have been very lucky so far… while there has been rain this week, it has never interfered with my workouts. Looking at tomorrow’s forecast, there is a 50-90% chance or rain all day long. That is not to say that I will not go out walking… only that if it is raining, I will have to make some adjustments. I will have to dress for it, and I am almost certainly going to limit the walking to 5km if it is raining. If that is the case, I think I would walk up Walker’s Line to Dundas, and then turn around and walk right back. According to Google Maps, that is exactly 5km. Hopefully I will be able to get it in and stay dry… but I am not holding out hope.

    I should mention as well that if it is rainy that will affect my selection of footwear. I do not want to get my good running shoes soaked. I have figured out that the shoes do affect my pace, so if it is raining, my statistics will be at an immediate disadvantage. No matter, what is most important is the exercise, and not the numbers. Those are just for my knowledge and enjoyment.

    Have a great afternoon folks! I am going to try to take a nap… and if not, I will just lie down for thirty minutes before continuing on with my day.

  • Day 185

    How appropriate is it that the morning after getting a kick in the teeth message, I wake up to find I have gained weight? Okay, I know… I have lost 11.5-pounds in twelve days, and it is not only unreasonable, but also unrealistic to believe that my weight will be down every single day. The weight gain was only .4 lbs, but the psychological effect of being back above (well… at) the decade I cleared yesterday is real.

    With regard to the message, it was about Taekwondo. The Master told me he is going on vacation for a couple of weeks, so I will not be able to go back to the school until the second week of August. Yes, there was a lot more to it than that, otherwise it would not have been so painful. I am just not going into details here.

    Leslie gave me good advice. She advised that I could get down about that, or I could continue to focus on what has been working very well for me – the walking routine. She also suggested that I start working on my Taekwondo patterns on my own, which is a very good suggestion, and something that someone at my level should have no issues with. Yes, I will have to find some videos to remind myself of them; fortunately, my muscle memory will kick in. It would not take me too long to remember all of the patterns that I need…

    So yes, that last paragraph sent me down a rabbit hole on web surfing, culminating in my renewing my web account for the Kukkiwon, the World Taekwondo Headquarters. It is not always easy to find (or confirm what the testing requirements are for a mid-level Black Belt, and I wanted to see if I could get a list of every poomsae (pattern) that I have had to learn so far. The list as stated is not actually available online, owing to the different testing requirements of different organizations. So I went back into my own files and found this list of poomsae that I have learned for testing over the years:

    · Taegeuk 1-8

    · Dae Mang 1-8

    · Koryo

    · Chulgi 1 & 2

    · Balsek

    · Keum Ga

    · Pal Ban Moo

    · San Gook Kwan

    · Ship Su

    Most, but not all of these are official Kukkiwon poomsae, but I know I will never be called upon to perform Dae Mang or Pal Ban Moo again… unless I decide to rejoin OMAC (Oriental Martial Arts College) again, which I do not expect will happen.

    When I was living in California, I studied at a school called JK Lim, where I learned Taebaek, which is the pattern that I will be required to perform to test for my next belt. Additionally, I will have to be able to perform Taegeuk 1-8, Koryo, and Geumgang. All in all, I will need to re-learn eleven poomsae, all of which I used to know like the back of my hand. Those are the patterns requirements for testing for my 4th Dan. Additionally, I will have to write an essay on Taekwondo, which is not something new to me. On, and I will also have to break four slabs of concrete with my bare hands. Anyone who doubts the level of intimidation contained in the previous statement might have never tried to break a 1.5” slab of concrete with their bare hands before… let alone four of them.

    First things first! I am not ready to test; following a promotion, a Black Belt must wait a certain time to test again. I am not sure whether the wait to test from Third Dan to Fourth Dan is a three-year or a four-year wait, but the date on my current promotion certificate is September 7, 2019… which means that if the wait is three years, I would be eligible in about six weeks. There is a huge difference between eligible and ready, and I am not going to play fast and loose with the second one. I will test when I am ready to wow myself… not simply when I think I can adequately meet the minimum requirements for testing. That includes getting into shape. Yes, I am currently sixty pounds lighter than I was in January; that does not mean that I am in shape.

    Getting into shape starts with losing weight, and I am really working on that. Once again, I followed the program perfectly yesterday. I was tempted to have a bag of popcorn, but I abstained. I later realized that I do not have popcorn in the house, so that would have been a non-issue. I then thought about having a Japanese biscuit… a little something sweet to welcome in the Sabbath. I did not do that either. While it was not reflected on the bathroom scale this morning, I stuck to the program again. That is my plan for today as well.

    By the time I click ‘Save’ on this entry, it will be nearly noon. Princess Sophie is on a play-date, and I am going to go for my walk. I do not know how long it will be, but if my legs don’t ache too bad in the first ten minutes, I would like to aim for 7-8km. I am going to wear the socks I have been used to wearing instead of those extra-thick socks I wore yesterday. I want to wear the Adidas shoes that are currently my favourites, and they simply did not fit over the thicker socks.

    For when I am back (and showered), I am marinating a piece of salmon for my main meal. I do not know where I got the calorie count for the fish I ate the other day (which I wrote in my journal as nearly 600 calories, but when I look now seems to be closer to 1000 calories!) but it looks like I was wrong, so I will have to be more cognizant of the size of the pieces I buy going forward. The piece I bought for today is 400g, which depending on the site you look at is between 600 and 850 calories. Yes, I am going to enjoy it today, but yes, I am going to start buying smaller portions of fish.

    My emotions are still doing terrible, but I am forcing myself to stay on track with my diet and exercise. If I can get through it all, I might come out the other side… and when things are better in my life, the work that I am putting in now might by then be habits that I will be able to continue. I am crossing my fingers (not really a Jewish thing…) that will be the case.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Two Birds, One Stone

    I had two errands that needed to get done today. I had a prescription to pick up from the pharmacy, and I wanted to buy some tomatoes for my salad. I mentioned earlier that I was planning a shorter walk, so I decided to combine the two. I planned out a route that had both my pharmacy and a supermarket along it, and set out.

    One thing I should mention is that I never realized what a difference a pair of socks can make. I put on a pair of gym socks that I dug up (and which looked like they had never been worn), and put them on. I then went to put on my new Adidas running shoes, only to realize that they do not fit! Yes, I have worn them comfortably a couple of times already, so either my feet are very badly swollen, or the socks make that much of a difference. Rather than switching out the socks, I picked a different pair of shoes that I know are a bit looser.

    • Distance: 6.5 km (8.0 km)
    • Duration: 1:10:13 (1:26:40 minutes)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 10:47 (10:50)
    • Steps: 8k (9.8k)
    • Calories burned: 375 (460)
    • Elevation gain: 19m (29.8)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 114 (114)

    I did find the walking/biking trail I was looking for, and it was nice to have a couple of kilometres without the hustle and bustle of traffic around me.

    Okay… now it is time for me to take a really nice shower, and then start preparing my lunch