Losing a part of me

Category: Weather

  • Day 587

    We are down to eight. There were days between May 22-30 that I weighed less than I do this morning. It is exciting to realize that I am less than 3 lbs. from my best weight ever! This despite the fact that I was weak yesterday and I stopped into the store to buy a handful of peanuts. I will try to do better today.

    This morning was the first time in a few weeks when I was able to move my bowels before weighing myself rather than after breakfast. I know that it is a weird thing to get excited about, but it is real. I met with a diet buddy for coffee yesterday (and to buy more meal replacements). He is not on the same program as I am (he tried it and it was not for him) but he is doing a keto diet, which is what I suspect I will end up doing once I transition off my program. He spent a bit of time discussing the differences in his bowel movements since switching his diet (in a little too much detail, but that’s easily forgiven). If you think about it, what comes out of our body (and how it comes out) is directly related to what goes into it; that being the case, it would therefore be impossible to make a severe switch your diet without seeing a severe change in that. While I am not comfortable discussing poop it is nonetheless relevant to the point of this journal.

    I did something to my knee last night, and I am going to have to pay attention to it these next few days to make sure it is not something I need to have checked out. I do not know what I did, but when I came into the house from the balcony, I realized there was something going on. I got up in the night to put Her Floofness onto the bed and realized that it was still an issue. Before I got out of bed this morning, I was conscious of it and told myself to be careful… and there was no problem. That is, until I took the Floof for her walk. Oh the walk was fine… it was the stairs leading to the walk that reminded me that I am not 100% right now. If there was a chance that I was going to resume my exercise regimen today it is my knee that is telling me that I am better off resuming my studying today. I took the day off from studying yesterday and will resume today.

    I was sitting on the balcony yesterday evening enjoying my pipe when the weather turned. It had been a bit breezy all evening, but suddenly I was getting wet, and the ashes from my ashtray were blowing in my face. I scrambled to get into the house and am relieved that none of my technology got wet – I had both my phone and my iPad in places they could have gotten damaged.

    Okay, it is time for me to get moving. I will stay on track today. I will not cheat. Tomorrow morning I am going to the doctor, and I plan to be much lighter than I was at my last weigh-in… hopefully seven kilos lighter. I cannot hope for that if I do not stay on track today.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 572

    Yesterday was a better day than the previous day. I only hope that I can keep up my spirits today. For some reason I am not feeling confident of that as I sit here writing my peace. I am going to try to stay productive today and stay focused on my goal of not eating.

    I was able to stay true to the program yesterday and was rewarded with another drop in weight from the bathroom scale. It was not quite enough to enable me to cross off another number on my refrigerator, but down is always better than up… at least when it comes to weight loss. If I can stay on track today, then any further drop tomorrow morning will give me that short-term success.

    It seems that following a single success earlier this week I am in a new bathroom dry spell. To say that it is frustrating is putting it mildly because I know that excreting solid waste would help with my weight loss. I increased the amount of fibre I add to my meal replacements yesterday and I hope that will eventually lead to success. In the meantime, all of those who have over the years accused me of being full of it… well, for the moment they are correct.

    My son the elder just sent me marvelous news. Out of respect for his sensitivities I do not discuss him in this journal, but I love him and only want the best for him. He has been working hard and I am proud of his accomplishment. I wonder though if it is our relationship that has been bringing me down these last few days. I will discuss that with Leslie when we talk, and I will try to gain some insight into my feelings.

    Today is the fifteenth of August, and it is the first time since May that I put on long pants this morning for my day off. Temperature is forecast to peak at 22° which if it were sunny then shorts would be fine, but a cloudy day at that calls for long pants. That is not to say that I will not try to spend a lot of my day on the balcony studying, only that I will not need my sunglasses to do so.

    I have to stay focused and mindful today. I do not have the benefit of teaching this evening, so I have an extra four hours of potential time to fall off. I will not do so. I want to lose this weight and I want to be slim and trim and sexy for my wife. I also want to be happy in my own clothes… which I hope will soon hang too loose on me, necessitating another trip to the tailors!

    My friends were not able to come by yesterday and we rescheduled for tomorrow afternoon. That should give me a full day to study. How about that!?

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 569

    Yesterday was the third day that I stuck to the plan, and this morning was the second day in a row that I dropped 1.4 lbs. from the previous day. For the second time in just three days I have been able to walk to my fridge and cross a number off my list. I am quite elated by that!

    It took a few days, but I suspect I am now used to having breakfast, and then three meal replacements spaced out properly throughout the day. I would not say that I am not a bit peckish when it comes time for the next shake, but I have also not been so ravenous that I have waited eagerly watching the clock, and I have not once felt the need to move my shake up an hour because of hunger. In fact, yesterday Leslie and I were having a video cigar date and I was happy to put off my meal replacement until I was finished with my cigar, which meant it was probably 30 minutes later than usual.

    I am back on track. I am on a mission to lose enough weight by the High Holidays that I will need to get my suit altered in order to wear it comfortably to synagogue. Rosh Hashana starts in 35 days, but I do not have a shul to go to in Canada. Yom Kippur starts in 43 days, and if I can lose 30 pounds in that time then I will be absolutely over the moon. It is an ambitious goal, but if I try my best then what would be the result? I will have tried to lose 30 pounds and only lost 22 pounds; I can live with that as a failure! As they say, shoot for the stars… if you miss then you will hit the moon.

    There is a flash storm going through Burlington right now with thunder and lightning as the rain pours down. It is predicted to last less than an hour, after which the sky will clear up for the rest of the day (save a 50% chance of rain for another 30-60 minutes later in the afternoon). As such I am going to bide my time and stay inside, and when the rain abates, I will go out for a cigar. This evening I am invited to a cigar party in Georgetown which should be fun. I am amused that it is a pool party only because of what I see happening outside my window right now but knowing that it is forecast to clear up shortly I am excited to see the gang of friends.

    My plan for the day is to stay on track! The event this evening is including a barbecue and I told the host that I will not be eating. I am planning to time my meal replacements very strategically: I am going to delay my midday shake to about 1:00 or even 1:30pm, which means I would then be ready for my next one at 5:30pm, and I will literally drink it right before going into the event. I will stay for 3-4 hours maximum and will be ready to have my last shake either on my way home, or at worst when I arrive home… hopefully before 10:00pm. I am going to make sure that I have what I need to make my last shake in the car so that if it turns out that I am having so good a time that I want to stay later then I will just excuse myself to the car for a few minutes and then return to the festivities, cigar in hand.

    I know… today’s plan will require tremendous willpower on my part. I have to remind myself that I had been on a break from weight loss for 2.5 months, and to quote the pilot episode of The West Wing: Break’s over. No, today is not going to be just another excuse to cheat. If I want to come close to my goal of losing 30 lbs. by Yom Kippur, then I cannot falter… today or tomorrow or next week. I have to be mindful, and I need to stay on the program. That’s my goal for today.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 557

    I was distressed that my travel day took such a bad toll on my weight this morning. I am back above 270 lbs. and to blame it all on the airplane is wrong. I let myself go last night, and I paid for it this morning. The worst part of it is that I had an appointment to see my doctor today which I forgot about until my phone reminded me fifteen minutes prior to the appointment. I called to say that I would be late, but I actually made it on time, and it was the doctor who made me wait.

    My blood pressure was up (but not unhealthy), and when the nurse neglected to weigh me, I did not object. I deserved the lecture that I avoided, but I know what she would have told me. I have to get back on track. Fortunately I know that with regard to exercise I have… with all of the walking that I did last week, as long as I can stay on track with that then bringing my food intake back into line would be what I need to do to get back on track.

    I came home and suited up to exercise. The temperature was nowhere near as hot as it was in Dallas (despite three people stopping me during my walk with Her Floofness this morning to comment on the heat), and I had a feeling I would be able to give it my all. I jogged three kilometres and then walked another 9km… a respectable outing by any measure. I walked into the apartment dripping with sweat, but feeling great about what I did. I have started another week off on the right foot. I even wore my new running shoes which arrived the day I flew to Dallas, and they felt great.

    I came in and put a couple of pieces of chicken on to cook before I got into the shower. I thought I had vegetables for a salad, but when I realized I only had onion I decided to put some frozen French fries into the air fryer as well. It was an unhealthy touch, but not the worst thing I could have eaten. My plan for this evening is to only have a couple of meal replacement shakes – one before my class, and one afterwards. If I am able to stick to that then I will have no reason to feel bad about what I ate today… and should expect to see at least a slight decrease on the bathroom scale tomorrow morning.

    It started to rain shortly after I got in from my exercise, but I do not think it is too bad. My plan is to enjoy a cigar on the balcony before class, and then likely one after class as well. We’ll see how I am feeling later tonight.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 552

    It happened again. I realized yesterday after I posted my article online that I had flubbed my days. It was only a couple of days since it happened, and it only took me three minutes to go back and fix it all. We are back on track, and today is really day 552.

    I must be spoiled. I was disappointed this morning that I only lost .2 lb. from yesterday. I have to keep reminding myself that the medical community agrees that a healthy rate of weight loss should only be 2-3 lbs. per week, and not the tremendous losses I like to see when I am following my program… or even my modified program. I also have to remember that I once wrote that one pound lost is three pounds of progress.

    I prepared a lovely dinner of breaded salmon last night, and Leslie took care of the side dishes (steamed vegetables with a cheesy sauce and basmati rice). It was delicious and quite satisfying. It was still stifling hot outside, so we waited an hour or so before we took up our positions on the balcony with our cigars. I love that ritual, and love that even though we cannot live together yet, we can be together for these brief visits and enjoy them. When we are in our respective countries we still enjoy the ritual, but over video conference… it is much more enjoyable when I can reach out and touch her than when I have to look at her through the rectangle of my phone.

    I decided to refrain from walking this morning for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I overdid it yesterday. That is not to say that I am in pain or discomfort, but one should always be aware of one’s own body. I am not a young man anymore, and while I want to push myself like the soldier I once was, I know that I cannot do that. I have been doing great this year, don’t get me wrong. I am in better shape now than I have been in a few years, and I am satisfied that I am doing what I can to change myself for the better. The second reason I took this morning off is because I told Leslie that I would make shakshuka for breakfast! It is my first kick at this particular can, and I am looking forward to eating the results. It is ready, and I am just waiting for Leslie’s meeting to finish before we eat. If it came out well, then I do not see why I cannot make it for us (or for myself when I am in Canada) from time to time… there is nothing unhealthy or fattening about it. If it did not come out well, then I will not give up… I will just find a different recipe. I always enjoyed it, and when the rabbi’s wife made it for our wedding reception Leslie really loved it. It will definitely be the most complicated food in my repertoire, but that does not mean it is terribly complex… only that most of my recipes are pretty simple.

    It is a lovely day, and the forecast is for another hot and sunny one. I am sitting on the balcony with my coffee writing my article, and right now it is gorgeous – 85° Fahrenheit with a bit of a breeze. The forecast high is 104°, which for us Canadians translates to holy crap it’s hot degrees out! Seriously, it is 40° Celsius, which is the absolute (pre-humidex) temperature. When I read yesterday’s temperature of 105° Fahrenheit, it said ‘Feels like 110°’. Unless you are boiling water that is hot no matter how you slice it. I will try to remember these hot days in the dead of winter when I am bundled up in sixteen layers to take Her Floofness for her walks.

    Leslie’s son is coming home today for the week, which is wonderful… except it means that our food will be somewhat dependent on the likes and pickiness of an eight-year-old boy. I have to maintain my mindfulness and not indulge in bad (but enjoyable) foods, or at least be careful with portion sizes. I am sure there will be a fast-food meal or at least something like that. I’ll try to keep at the front of my mind that I have worked too hard and come too far to let myself go; I have also done too much of that these last few months, and now that I am starting to get back on track, it would be a travesty to fall off so quickly.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 545

    I did end up sitting in the pool for a couple of hours yesterday afternoon. It made the mercurial heat (109° Fahrenheit) quite palatable. My only mistake was not bringing a large bottle of water down with me. By the time I got out of the pool a little before 3:00pm I was drained of all energy, and it took me nearly twenty minutes to gather my strength to walk back to the apartment.

    Once again, I fell off the program yesterday. Either soaking in the pool under the sun baked a few extra pounds off of me, or else the cheating I did was not too bad. I was actually doing quite well until Leslie and her son asked if I wanted them to pick dinner up for me while they were at Wendy’s. The double burger, fries, and chili that I ordered amount to 1,410 calories, 114g of carbohydrates, 72g of fat, and a whopping 2,740mg of sodium. All of those exceed what my daily allowance should be for each measure, and yet it was all in one single meal. There is a compromise that we make for the convenience of fast food, and I was not about to either argue with them about where to pick dinner up from, nor ask them to make an extra stop for me. It has been months since I have had a fast food hamburger and doing it twice or three times in a year will not kill me.

    Other than that, I was good for the day. I had my omelette for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and somewhere in there I snuck a few slices of dried mango in. I had some iced tea, and… I think that’s it. I do not think I cheated at all other than that. The result: I dropped nearly another 2 lbs., putting me below the 265 lbs. mark for the first time in two weeks. Considering eight days ago my weight was just under 275 lbs., I am happy to be back under the 265 lbs. threshold. I would like to continue to lose weight for the duration of my visit with Leslie, but if I can at least return home under that mark, I will consider it a great victory.

    Today is transition day. Leslie’s son is going back to his father’s house, which means that from this evening and for a week we will be alone. On the one hand, I love being alone with her. There are myriad activities and foods and conversations that we cannot enjoy while he is around. On the other hand, we love having him here, and many of the activities that we can and do share with him. I suspect any divorced parent with shared custody will understand how we feel. The mixed emotions are hard, and we will miss him. I am really enjoying getting to know him, which is hard to do because of the infrequency of my visits while he is with us. I am also learning a lot about being a stepfather… a lot of lessons I wish I would have learned before poisoning the relationship between myself and my older son. Frankie, if you’ve had too few regrets to mention then boy have I got you beat. I could spend a lifetime enumerating them and still not reach the bottom.

    Okay, enough of that. What’s going on today? Leslie’s son will be with us most of the day, although they are at an appointment right now. When they get back, I am sure at some point we will discuss lunch. Tomorrow would have been his grandfather’s (Leslie’s father) birthday, and so we are going to have cupcakes to honour that. Last night we lit a memorial (yahrtzeit) candle that will burn for twenty-six hours, and they shed a few tears because they miss him. It is really nice to see them honour their previous generations, partly with a tradition that I introduced to them.

    I am teaching this evening, so I will relax and do some writing during the day, and then from 4:30pm-8:00pm I will deliver my class, the last class I will deliver to a group that I have been with the last two months. It is sad to see them go, but next week they are moving on to begin another class with another instructor. I will wish them luck at the end of this evening’s class, and I will log off to take my wife for dinner. We have discussed trying a new Chinese restaurant that is not too far from here, and I am sure we will both enjoy that. Because I know that is a possibility for the evening, I am going to be extra careful to be good during the day. I will suspect I will pick up salads for Leslie and I, and her son will have something much tastier but also more fattening. He is lucky… and I am lucky that I have developed a taste for salads… even though I still crave those wonderfully fattening and greasy foods!

    I plan to continue writing in my other project today. A few nights ago Leslie suggested I start writing down (really typing) some of my cigar stories and anecdotes, and that it might one day make for an interesting book. I dove into the project and have written a little bit every day. There is so far no order to the stories that I write, other than that I am writing them as I think about them. I bought a notebook for writing down story ideas as they come to me because I really do have a lot of these stories in my repertoire, and while I remember all of them when I am telling them as if they happened yesterday, when I sit down at my computer to start writing I often forget what I want to write, so I stare at the keyboard. That will not happen now that I have a notebook, right? Well, it is nice to be optimistic.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 544

    As I sat on the balcony waiting for my wife to join me last night I thought back on my day, what I had eaten, and a John Lennon quote: Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Most of what I had planned for yesterday did not really happen. I did not get to CVS so I did not pick up meal replacements; I had a salad for lunch (which was planned), and then before class I ate a bowl of cereal (partly planned… I had planned to eat a meal replacement or a small meal). After class I was hungry and so I went to pick up another salad (not bad and not really a cheat, but still not planned). Somewhere in there (spread throughout the day) I enjoyed a reasonable portion of dried mango, a Takoyaki (a ball-shaped Japanese snack made of a wheat flour-based batter and cooked in a special molded pan… usually filled with seafood, but this one was filled with red bean paste), and two Timbits (yes, I brought a box of them from Canada, and have now had four of them). All of that on top of the omelette I had for breakfast. There was too much snacking in there, but I still did not really go overboard. If I had been concerned then the bathroom scale this morning put my mind at ease… I am back down to what I weighed Friday morning (the day before I flew) and have fully shed the three pounds I gained on Saturday (mostly from gorging at the airport, but also on our fried chicken dinner). If I can eat reasonably well today then I will be happy that I am back on track.

    To refer to the weather today as hot would not do it justice. The forecast calls for temperatures approaching 110° Fahrenheit, with no sign of clouds anywhere in the vicinity. I would love to try to get some exercise today, but walking outdoors would be a monumentally bad idea. My body is simply not used to this level of heat as it once was… when I was young and stupid. I might spend a couple of hours at the pool and would do some swimming but would also sit there passively for a while with a cigar. We’ll see. It was originally my intention to take my stepson to the pool for a while, but he has not been feeling well these last couple of days so unless his mother says something then I am not going to even bring the subject up.

    I had my usual omelette for breakfast today and will likely pick salads up for Leslie and myself… and possibly something else for the boy. I am not worrying about that right now. When I do go out I will stop in at CVS and see if there are any meal replacements that work for me. If they do then I will grab those and should be able to stay on track for the day. I am teaching again this evening, so if I have a meal replacement before class, and either another one, or else a salad afterward, then I will be able to call this a very successful day… and the numbers on the bathroom scale tomorrow morning should reflect that.

    I spent a couple of hours at the cigar lounge yesterday, but that Is not in my plans for today. I do need to go back one day this week to discuss a couple of things with the owner, but that is not going to be today. I love it there… but I do not feel like venturing out more than I need to today.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 531

    It’s a beautiful morning and Southern Ontario is in the middle of the most dangerous heatwave in memory. At least, that’s the undertones of the message from a couple of people Her Floofness and I met while out for our walk this morning. We happen to love the heat and the sun and have no complaints whatsoever about either. We also know that at some point (hopefully soon) we will be moving to Texas where it will be much hotter and much sunnier much more often. In truth it is going up to 30° Celsius by noon, which is hot, but it is not, to quote the movie Biloxi Blues, Africa Hot.

    Yesterday went mostly as planned. I spent a few hours helping my rabbi with his computer (which took a bit longer than I had expected but worked out alright in the end). Following that I went shopping (and spent more than I usually do, owing to purchasing some sauces and flavourings that I only need to buy occasionally) and came home to prepare a lovely dinner of teriyaki glazed salmon with a side of sweet potato fries (yes, I bought more). I had been thinking about trying a teriyaki glaze for weeks but every time I thought of it I realized I do not have the sauce. I finally bought it yesterday and the result was quite enjoyable.

    As I so often do, I stepped onto the scale last night to try to get a sense of what my weight this morning would be. I was shocked to be up a full five pounds during the day, and felt it was unlikely that I would drop all of that weight overnight. I should trust the process; when I stepped onto the bathroom scale this morning I had dropped ever-so-slightly from yesterday morning. It may not be a lot, but one pound lost is three pounds of progress, right?

    I slept marginally better last night than the previous nights; it was the first night in a few that I had to get out of bed multiple times to pee, which is really the only thing that stopped me sleeping through the night. Well, that and Princess Sophie deciding at 5am that she needed to get into bed with me. She knows that she has to go to sleep in her own doggie bed and she is quite good about that, but there are nights (occasional ones fortunately) where she wakes up and cannot calm down unless I bring her into my bed. Once I picked her up (on my second trip to the loo) she and I both slept like a baby the rest of the night. It was a great relief! I was exhausted yesterday afternoon and evening, even though I could not fall asleep.

    My plan for today is to relax, smoke a couple of cigars while reading on the balcony, and minding my limits of what I eat. I am teaching from 6-9pm so I will have lunch early and then dinner early and will then spend the evening in front of the computer. I do not mind working – frankly, I really do enjoy teaching. What bothers me though is that I have three weeks of review classes, and my students are not asking too many questions. That means that I can either assign labs only, or we can do practice exams together. I finally got them to give me a list of topics that they want me to cover, and I will start on those this evening. I was going to start Monday, but with half the class absent (this class does not normally meet on Mondays, and it was moved because of the holiday yesterday) I decided to give them lab work, as well as a demonstration of something on my personal router. Tonight I will actually do a bit of lecturing, a bit of practice exams, and then I will give them a lab to do.

    Because the class I had to teach was switched to Monday I was not able to attend my sommelier class; I am hoping that I will be able to catch up if someone shares the link to where it was saved with me. If not, then I will be smoking and reading something else on the balcony today. There will be a few more classes that I might need to miss, owing to the new class I start teaching next week. Oh, that reminds me that I have an orientation meeting for that at 1:00pm today, so I suppose I should get moving to prepare my lunch. I want to be done with everything cleaned up in time to join.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 471

    Wow was it hot yesterday! My weather app said that it would be in the mid-70s when I was jogging, It was 81° when I walked downstairs, and closer to 86° when I pulled up after just past the 5km point to walk the rest of the way. Still and all, I was happy that I got out, and while I did pause a couple of times, I finished the full 5km and then some.

    Jogging

    · Distance: 5.10km (10.29km)

    · Duration: 36:01 (1:13:33)

    · Average Pace (Min/km): 7m03s (7m08s)

    · Steps: 5,800 (11,768)

    · Calories burned: 600 (1,300)

    · Average cadence (steps per minute): 159 (160)

    While I did not break any records, I got back into the swing of things easy enough. As I predicted, I likely will not jog today or tomorrow, but will resume in Canada on Monday, where the forecast for the week is much cooler than it is for Dallas, while still dry until next Sunday. Of course, that could change in a heartbeat, at which point I will end up on the treadmill.

    My eating yesterday was better than the previous day, but still not perfect. I had a bowl of cereal for breakfast, and one with dinner because I had eaten a couple slices of pizza and was still hungry but did not want to eat more pizza. For lunch I had leftover chicken, which was quite good, and not at all a cheat. The pizza and the cereal did me though, so even with the jogging I gained .2 lb. … a statistical nothing. I did not drink at all yesterday, but I did have a big glass of iced tea in the evening (which is also replete with sugar) that kept me up a couple of hours later than I would have liked. I have to remember that as much as I love caffeinated drinks, drinking them at night when I have been having trouble sleeping is just a bad idea. For today, I had my coffee this morning, and I will try to abstain from caffeine after noon.

    Today is my last full day in Dallas and I am going to spend it with my wife and stepson. I hate knowing that I have to check in for my flight in a few hours, which means that I am leaving her once again. The next trip will see her coming to Canada to visit me for a couple of weeks, and when the countdown clock begins (when I get to the airport tomorrow) it will be set at just over thirty-one days. That is a very long time to spend in the rectangle zone, and neither of us is looking forward to it. I thought about planning a trip in between, but with the cost of the wedding, as well as my hectic teaching schedule the next month, it is just not a reasonable idea. We will endure, but man are these separations difficult for both of us.

    I have a couple of calls to make for work, and then I am going to spend the rest of the day with the family. I will stay mindful, but I will also remember that I do not get to spend nearly as much time with them as I would like. If I fall off because the boy wants ice cream, then that’s what we are going to do. If he wants fried chicken for dinner, then I suppose that is what we will eat. I will just try to keep my portions in check. I know that Monday morning I am going to try to get back onto my full-fast program, but if I cannot then I will at least be on my modified program… and I will be jogging.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 454

    Today is Yom HaShoah. It is the day every year that Jews set aside to remember the Holocaust. Perhaps it would be more accurate to write commemorate, as for most of us – at least those of my generation – seldom does a day pass when we do not remember it. There are reminders everywhere if you know what to look for. If that makes it sound like we are all wallowing in misery, let me clarify; it is vital that we remember because if we do not, and if we do not teach our children about it, then it is bound to happen again. I have stories that I will not share here of encounters with survivors. I remember meeting them as a child, as a soldier. So many encounters with so many incredible people who, when I was lucky enough, would share their stories with me. More than one of those stories changed my life. It has been seventy-eight years since the camps were liberated; the survivors who are still with us are octogenarians (and nonagenarians). They have seen so much, but one day they will all be gone, and it will be my generation’s responsibility to continue to share their stories. We must never forget.

    Sometimes you fall off the wagon, and getting back on track is painful and grueling. I spent three days off my program (although still jogging), and I was determined to get back onto it yesterday. As I said I would, I walked the kilometre to the post office to ship my package. I also bought a bundle of pocket tissues because it was raining, and I could already feel my nose dripping. As I walked out of the pharmacy, I started my run. I honestly did not know how far I would be able to go and did not set out with any particular course in mind. I wanted to extend my current streak of hitting my steps goal, and the fact that it was raining a little would not stop me. That I felt a weird and nagging ache in my hip would not stop me, as long as I stayed true to my self-promise that I would listen to my body. I had almost arrived at Guelph Line, but rather than crossing the shopping centre parking lot and then the thoroughfare, I turned down onto the walking/biking path (which would take me to that same street in a few moments anyways). I crossed Guelph Line, staying with the off-road paved path. I knew there were several streets onto which I could turn up when I realized I was running out of steam. I was not entirely sure where the path ultimately led, but I was sure I would not find out on this outing.

    Something strange happened on my run yesterday. I have jogged over 5km something like 30 times in the last couple of months, whether on the streets or treadmill. Every time I do, I pull up for a break for just a minute or two every couple of kilometres, sometimes every kilometre. At a certain point I realized the walking/biking path was coming to an end. I saw Costco in the distance, and tried to reconcile where exactly that was. Oh, right… North Service Road near the corner of Brant Street, which means the path had curved down a bit. Okay, should I stop? No, not yet. It’s still raining a bit… maybe I’ll pop into a store and get dry for a moment? I know I don’t have my Costco membership card with me, and anyways if I turn up Brant then maybe I will stop into one of the stores at the corner of Mount Royal. What happens if I stop, and my hip locks up? I would have to take an Uber home, and that is not what I want to do. Maybe I’ll just keep going for another kilometre. We’ll see.

    The only time I paused my trackers during the entire outing yesterday was when I was stopped at a red light at the corner of Guelph Line (on the return trip). I peaked down and I was 7.5km into my run. I was stopped for fifteen seconds. I realized at a certain point that it might have been my first jog over 5km during which I did not stop to rest. If I can keep that up, then who knows? Maybe there is hope for me yet!

    Jogging

    • Distance: 10.08km (5.18km)
    • Duration: 1:18:17 (39:58)
    • Average Pace (Min/km): 7m46s (7m43s)
    • Steps: 12,150 (6,120)
    • Calories burned: 1,200 (600)
    • Average cadence (steps per minute): 155 (153)

    I should also note that my per-kilometre pace was below 8m0s for every kilometre except one; for reasons likely pertaining to wind and elevation, the seventh kilometre was clocked at 8m03s.

    Where does this leave me in my challenges? When I checked yesterday after coming in I was ranked 22,154 (of 144,259 participants), in the top 15.36%. Oddly enough, in my age and gender bracket I am not even cracking the top 25%… I stand 3,395 of 13,167 participants, only good for the top 25.78%. I do not know who the leaders are, but the leader is averaging nearly 40km per day, which leads me to believe that something might be rotten in the state of Denmark. I honestly don’t care though… If I complete the challenge then I am equally eligible for the prizes as he is, as they are drawn at random from everyone who completed the challenge.

    I have to admit, between the killer jog, my staying true to the program (for the first time since Thursday), and a really good bowel movement this morning, I was a bit disappointed that the numbers on the bathroom scale did not drop a little more than they did. .2 lb. is really just a statistical blip. No matter, it will come… I just have to prove to my body that I am serious about not cheating. My only aberration from the program yesterday was a cup of Japanese milk tea, which I needed because my throat would not have made it through the last hour of my lecture last night.

    We always say that if you don’t like the weather in Canada, just wait a few minutes. As Her Floofness and I walked this morning in the near-freezing temperatures, more than one fellow fur-parent expressed their shock at the drop in temperature. I reminded them that last week was the anomaly, and that this is the norm for mid-April. That does not change the fact that all of us long for a speedy return to the high-20s, but that is not normal for this time of year. With a high temperature forecast as a windy 5°, I decided early that today will be a day to work out in shorts and a t-shirt… at the gym, followed by a hydro massage and a stint in the sauna. After all, what am I paying them for if I am not going to use the facilities, right?

    I cannot lollygag around on the computer for a few hours before finally changing into my workout kit today as I did yesterday. I have to be at my therapist’s office in Oakville for 1:30pm, which means that I will try to remember to bring my meal replacement with me to the gym so that I do not face the same quandary I did three weeks ago when I scrambled to pick up peanuts in my mad dash from the gym to the therapist and then to my barber. If I get to the gym by 10:30am then I should be able to get through a leisurely workout and then post-workout routine in time to leave and drive unrushed to her office. My buddy Eduardo might be coming over for a cigar later, which will be nice despite the unpleasant weather. We have not seen each other in a few weeks, and he just returned from Cuba with some goodies for me. I am unsure of what he brought, but if there is a box worthy of the occasion, I am still undecided on which cigars to hand out to guests at the wedding. He might just have the answer for me when he comes over this afternoon!

    This evening I will be in the dojang. I am so happy to be back at Taekwondo and wish that I had the freedom to do it more than twice per week. We must always be patient, especially when we are studying an art in which the mental aspect of patience and calm are so important. I also know that in mid-May I am starting a new teaching contract that will have me teaching the two evenings when I am usually able to go to the dojang, and that will continue through mid-July. I will be speaking with the Master to ask him if there might be some accommodation that can be made for me to train outside the hours of the adult/Black Belt classes… after all, I should not need anything other than the gym. If that is not possible, then I could also use one of the studios at my gym for the same purpose – after all, didn’t I write just two paragraphs ago that I should be using the facilities as long as I am paying for them? Maybe I will speak with the gym manager today to ask if that would be alright. I cannot imagine it would be an issue.

    I found out this morning that a close friend is in the hospital, and I am worried. I spoke with his wife, and she assured me that it was not a heart attack, but the doctors still need to run some more tests to figure out what is going on. In the meantime, my buddy is nearly thirteen years my junior, but I have thought on several occasions that he is working himself into an early grave. I have one more person to pray for today. Four, actually… I will pray for his wife and my godchildren as well (although I always do, but not with the specificity I will today). This is just one more reason why I am glad that I am getting myself into better shape and taking care of my health. I do not want Leslie to have to call an ambulance for me because I am on the floor clutching my chest.

    Okay, it is time to get moving. Today will be my second day true to the program, although if I need to grab something, it will be a very small handful of nuts. With a morning workout and an evening Taekwondo class I would not begrudge myself that if it is needed. Tomorrow through Friday I might be able to jog outside, although Friday through Sunday they are predicting rain. We’ll see. Today is a gym day for sure.

    Have a great day folks!