Losing a part of me

Category: Weight Management

  • Day 137

    I am a little disappointed to be nearly one pound up today over yesterday. Even though I did cheat (I had 100g of peanuts, as well as a kiwi (thanks to my son… long story), and a couple of pieces of dried mango. I do not think that any of those were the reason I was up. I suspect that the chicken wings from Costco are super high in salt, and I am retaining water. Tomorrow, if I am good today, will be better. Of course, this afternoon I will be at Eduardo’s birthday party barbecue, and I have to be careful what I eat there.

    I golfed much better yesterday than the previous two rounds. Some might say that is because I golfed at a slightly easier course; I think it is because I shanked the ball less than I did on my previous two outings. It doesn’t matter how easy or difficult a course is if you keep shanking the ball.

    After the game, I stopped at Bulk Barn (I knew I was not going home) and I picked up my peanuts. We all went back to Ryan’s place for a cigar, and we were joined by his neighbour. He’s a nice enough guy, but he is a salty old, retired cop, and he spent the hour that we were sitting there complaining about absolutely everything that he felt was wrong in the world. I lost count, but if he did not say the word ‘fuck’ over three hundred times then I would be surprised. I finally did something that I cannot remember ever doing. I stood up (in the middle of one of his rants… it would have been hard to wait until the end of one to be polite, because if you blinked, he would have started in on a new one) and excused myself, telling our host that I had to go. I thought about texting him from the car to tell him why I left but decided against it. I do not know what everyone else’s position is on everything, and I did not want to offend him. Later in the afternoon I called Ryan to apologize, and he said ‘Look, Mitch… I knew when you looked at me that you weren’t enjoying it. Sometimes when he goes off, I have to walk away too. No apology needed!’ I was relieved… I never want to offend a friend, but at a certain point I was either going to explode on the guy or walk away. Better to walk away, I think!

    After taking HRF Princess Sophie for a walk, I made lunch. I realized my mistake in freezing the entire load of chicken wings as one, something that I usually would not do. Not only was I eating them for lunch, but that would also be my dinner. With lunch I tossed some vegetables with olive oil and seasoning and roasted them. With dinner I had a salad. After my lunch, I was chatting with Leslie and asked if she would like to have a virtual date night after her son was in bed. She told me that there was no way I was going to stay up that late! I told her I was going to nap so that I could… and so my pup and I got a couple of hours sleep in the late afternoon.

    The virtual date was going really well, until HRF started giving me signals. Usually, she tells me with her eyes that it is time to go inside, and so at 10:30pm or so I did just that. However, she made it clear that she wanted to go outside… and that is a sign that no dog owner should ignore. I told Leslie I would call her back, and the pup and I went for a little walk. Who knew that waking up so early in the morning would throw her schedule off like that? She thanked me for taking her out, and I was able to resume my date with my fiancée.

    It is time for me to start the day. I am taking cigars to the birthday party, so I have to pick what I am bringing. As well, I am gifting him a box of cigars… but those were selected a couple of weeks ago. I am tempted to lie down and rest for another hour, but I will probably just surf the net for a while and then head out.

    It is a beautiful day out, so enjoy it folks… wherever you may be!

  • Day 134

    This should be easy math: Yesterday I did not (really) cheat, and therefore my weight this morning was down. While it is certainly the case today, it frustrates me that it does not always work this way. Yes, my measurement on the bathroom scale was a good one (not quite my lowest weigh-in, but close). I am not unhappy with my progress. I simply wish that every day that I do not cheat, my weight would be down. Such is not the case. Oh well.

    On April 9 I was thrilled to drop below 350 lbs. It is nearly two months on, and I have not dropped below 344 lbs. I am sick of that, and hope that last week’s revelation about peanuts will allow that to change… and no, this past weekend’s terrible cheating did not help one bit, but if I can stay the course for the next few days then hopefully I will drop below 340 lbs. I know that in two weeks I am flying to Dallas, and after that will be my birthday, and after that a quick jaunt to Long Island to celebrate a friend’s wedding. I know that I will likely be back to the 340s for most of those… I just want to get below them to prove to myself that doing things the right way will show results.

    It might seem strange to many that I speak in pounds, and yet my official weigh-ins are in kilograms. Of course, if you are following along on my blog then you will not see that… I do not post my weights there. Yes, I grew up in a household where we were taught pounds and ounces; the 2.5 years I spent in California did not hurt that. Fortunately, my physician’s office is Canadian, and they work in the metric system. While I cannot convert pounds to kilos as seamlessly as I can do miles to kilometres, I do understand both systems. I should eschew the antiquated and senseless imperial system in favour of the completely logical metric. Old habits do die hard though, so I still do both.

    Leslie finally received the right birthday gift yesterday, and I decided to pull the trigger and buy myself the same Ninja dual-zone air fryer that I bought for her. Before I did, I made sure that I was able to return the essentially no-name one that I had bought previously. I still had a few days left to return it, so all is good. I am glad that I saved the box for it… I will pack it up and drop it off at UPS on my way to the golf course later this morning. Amazon asks you to select the reason you are returning something. This, dear reader, is an IQ test. If you answer, “I do not want it anymore,” or something similar, the return shipping cost was $65. If you go back and change your answer to, “It did not perform the way I had hoped,” then the return shipping is free. What can you do, right? The new machine will cost a lot more than the old one… but I really did not like the old one.

    As I alluded to briefly in the last paragraph, I am golfing again today. I must be a sucker for punishment, right? Hopefully today’s round will be slightly better than my last one, which was abysmal. If I had any brains on the subject, I would sign up for golf lessons… or at least spend some time on the driving range before heading out on the course again. At least the weather forecast for the day is not nearly as extreme as it was Monday, with a predicted high temperature of 21°c. I will not be as hot as I was… although heat had never bothered me.

    I was paid for two separate and unrelated payments for work done yesterday, which was a bit of a relief. It is not that I am running out of money, it is simply that I do not like having to chase the companies that I contract to. There are still a couple of outstanding payments owed, but the oldest of those is less than 60 days old, and so I am not entirely concerned. That is also owed to me by a company that a) loves me and wants me to continue to work for them; and b) paid another invoice yesterday. Again, not worried. It is just nice to see money going into my bank account… especially knowing that my actual day job has been stagnant for the past two months. I exchanged emails with them about that yesterday, and there is progress on the horizon… I just wish it was quicker!

    Two weeks from today I am flying down to Dallas to see my baby, and I could not be more excited. Monday afternoon I took delivery of my new threads that I ordered in March. Unfortunately, they all still fit perfectly. Yes, that sounds weird… but I do wish that by now I would have lost enough weight that they would already be loose. No such luck. I am hoping that by the time we get married in November, I will fit into my older suits and shirts. Here’s hoping and praying!

    Have a great day folks… I’ve got a couple of errands to run before hitting the golf course, but that’s what I have planned for the day. Whatever you have going on, try to enjoy it!

  • Day 125

    I went to the doctor’s office this morning without first checking what I weighed three weeks ago, and so it took nearly an hour for me to get home (after running some errands) and to determine that I actually gained an entire kilogram since my last weigh-in. The usual nurse (Mel) was not there either, it was the small Indian girl whose name I do not know, and who does not seem to have much personality beyond doing her job, which she does quite capably from what I have seen. It would have been nice though to have some perspective… Mel would have gone back and said ‘Oh, so you have gained a kilogram from the last weigh-in. That’s probably because of your vacation, but is there anything else going on? Also, did she say yes??’

    Yes Leslie, the doctor and nurse were in on it too.

    I should be happy that after a week on an all-inclusive resort I was not up more than a kilogram, but I also know that it has been a lot of factors here that affected it, not the least of which was the large breakfast with my kids on Sunday, and the late-night meal replacements. Also, I am eating far too many peanuts. I have to cut down on them.

    I miss Leslie and I wish she could be here… or that I could be there. I think we are both done with this long-distance thing and want to be living together already. I did not claim that patience was one of our virtues… although I do try.

    It is a lovely day outside, and I do not have a lot to do today. I should do some studying form an exam I want to take in the next month, but I can do that on the rainy days. Today I am going to relax.

    I should mention that this morning I did not have a meal replacement shake, as I was going to the doctor. On my way home, after stopping in at Pet Smart to pick up treats for the princess, I also stopped at Bulk Barn and bought peanuts. While I bought a larger bag than I needed to, I have not finished them. I snacked on the way home, and I made that my breakfast, rather than eating those and then having a meal replacement when I got in. I will prepare a nice chicken lunch, and will go about the rest of my day.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 98

    We are not yet at next week, but I hope nonetheless that I am in a better frame of mind today than I was yesterday. I know the work that I still have to do today, and while there is a deadline, I am nonetheless back on track to complete the task before the hard deadline. I am at my desk slightly earlier than I might otherwise be, were I not burdened with completing this assignment before day’s end. Otherwise, this morning is similar to most.

    I was surprised, when I checked the temperature and forecast this morning, to see that it was 1°C outside. It is not bitterly cold, but it is certainly cold enough that I pulled my ski jacket out, rather than my spring jacket that I have worn the last week. I decided that I would wear my older ski jacket, and not the one that I purchased at the beginning of this past winter. I wanted to prove to myself that I was not imagining that the smaller jacket fit. It does. I zipped it against the wind, and I was more than comfortable in it… even though it is still snug. That is to be expected, of course… but at the beginning of next season I hope it will not be so.

    I wrote yesterday evening that I was not sated by my smaller meals, and that I indulged in two extra meal-replacement bars throughout the day. I will adjust my portions accordingly today, in hope that I will have no need to do so again. While there may be little difference in calories between the larger meal and the meal replacement bars, the lunchtime meal starts to digest earlier, and… well, we will see.

    The bathroom scale (I am not going to start referring to it as the bedroom scale, despite its recent relocation) gave me three different readings today. Unlike past times, when these might be many pounds different, today’s three readings were all very similar – the three separated by 4/10ths of a pound. In the end, I settled for the middle reading, which has me up 2/10ths of a pound from yesterday. I know, I cannot be impatient. I also have to trust that despite all of these maddening daily ups and downs, I have been consistently down on my fortnightly weigh-ins at the doctor’s office. Those are the ones that really matter, right?

    Two weeks from today I will be waking up next to Leslie in Cuba for the first time. That means, of course, that she is arriving here in under two weeks. I am very excited – I really miss her. I love our long video chats, but it is not the same as being able to hold her in my arms. Friends who know we are going are asking if I am excited to be going back to Cuba after all this time. After all, this has been the longest span of time that I have not been in many years. Yes, I am excited… but I am so much more excited for going with Leslie. I am excited to share with her a gorgeous beach vacation where we can relax and enjoy ourselves… without any stress or aggravation or work.

    While there are days when I look out the window and am tempted to blow off my work to sit outside with a cigar, today is not one of them. It is not raining, but the sounds of the outside world – the wind, with hints of Blue (our upstairs neighbour Siberian Husky) crying will keep me honest today. The forecast high is 4°C, with a 50% chance of snow flurries. While the overnight temps will drop to -2°C, I will be in bed for all of the below-freezing hours. Tomorrow’s high is forecast at 10°, which is lovely… except that I will be inside teaching most of the day… and inside learning for most of the evening. The weekend is looking nice though… and not only because of the weather. I will be quite relieved to have this class behind me.

    Today is the ninety-eighth day of my diet; I have recorded my thoughts in this journal every day since January 20. While there have been bad days (Day 45 was the worst of them), I think I have, for the most part, done pretty well. No, I am not on the strict, one hundred percent meal-replacement program that the weight loss clinics would prescribe. However, most weight loss professionals would likely agree that losing forty-five pounds in 98 days is nothing to sneeze at, and indeed is a healthy pace. They usually tell you that 1-2 lbs per week is a healthy pace, and I am exactly there. The fact that I had previously succeeded in losing 100 lbs in the same time period (in 2017) is not relevant, as I was on the extreme program then with absolutely no solid foods. While some might see my current diet as extreme, I assure you that it is far from it… two meals per day is not bad at all.

    Of course, if I was losing weight faster, I would be happy… but I might also not be able to fit into the clothes that I ordered a month ago, which will be arriving in another month or so. They say 8-10 weeks, and I am eagerly hoping that they arrive sooner rather than later. Either way, they should be here in time for my flight to Dallas, which is June 16. I know, it is going to be extremely hot in Dallas in June… but wouldn’t it be nice one evening to be able to dress up for my girlfriend? Maybe to go out on the town, enjoy a fine meal, or even just a walk in the park. She deserves that!

    Since sitting down the first time this morning, I received an unexpected call that my glasses were ready. I ran down to the optometrist to collect them, as NOW was the only available slot they had for me to come in today. I headed out, and after having the sunglasses fixed (they were my own frames, so they do not guarantee anything… and yes, a piece fell off, but yes, it was repairable) I came home, sat down to work, and promptly had a dog jump up to sit on my desk, preventing any possible work. Okay, so I am now two hours behind on the day… but I should be able to make it through.

    Now that I can get back at my keyboard, it is time to do some work. Have a great day folks!

  • Day 85

    I splurged a little bit and picked up some peanuts when I was at the supermarket yesterday, but that was really my only cheat. Oh, and I had a bunch of lozenges again.

    I am completely fed up with my bathroom scale. This morning I got ten different readings in a six-pound range. You would be fed up too. I decided in the end, after moving the scale into the bedroom and trying again, to keep two measurements in my journal – the one from the bathroom that was about the same as yesterday’s reading, and the one from the bedroom (which has me one pound heavier than yesterday). I am not going to move simply because I live in a nice apartment with absolutely terrible floors… but there are days when I am tempted to.

    My eye has now been bothering me for three days. It was because of that I thought to walk into an optometrist near my barber to make an appointment for a checkup. That will be next week, which is not a problem… or is it?

    It was supposed to be a relaxing day, and when I got back from having my haircut and doing some shopping, I made lunch (the usual), and then decided that I might like to take a little nap. I was not nearly asleep when Leslie called on video chat, and she asked about my eye. She told me that she could tell it was getting worse, and I decided that I would go to the walk-in clinic to see if there was anything seriously wrong with it. Sure enough, it looks like there’s a minor scratch on the eyeball. I have to put drops in twice per day (blech!) for the next five days, and I am wearing an eye patch for a few days to try to rest that eye. Hopefully it will be completely healed in time for my appointment with the optometrist, but I will ask her about it anyways.

    I defrosted chicken for dinner and had the usual chicken leg quarters and a salad. I had a shake for breakfast and another for my evening snack, and so aside from the peanuts, I did exactly what I should be doing. Even though the temperatures were pretty warm (I wore a short sleeve shirt out today, although it was a bit chilly when I walked from the barbershop to the bank and optometrist… in the rain) I did not have time to sit on the patio with a cigar… the surprise trip to the clinic fixed that. Hopefully today I will be able to do that.

    Today is Thursday. I have some reading to do, but aside from that, it is only my class this evening. The forecast predicts rain until around 1:00pm, at which point the sun will come out. I will stay inside until then and will go outside for a cigar and some reading once the weather is a bit nicer. I decided to wear Leslie’s favourite shirt today, and I hope that when the sun comes out it will be warm enough that I can show it off for her. Other than that, the plan is to try to enjoy the day. I hope you enjoy it too!

  • Losing and Gaining and Losing Again

    I wrote earlier about the times I have lost weight, and then gained it back. After I finished that piece, I decided to go back to look and see just how long it takes to fall from grace.

    The first time I lost the weight, I was following a medically supervised intensive program. I lost one hundred pounds in just over twelve weeks. It was great! I was feeling wonderful, I was looking better than I had in years. The Province of Ontario’s medical insurance (Ontario Health Insurance Program, or OHIP) allows you to do the program only once, and only for twelve weeks. After that, they essentially kick you to the kerb. I struggled to stay on track; I even tried to get back on the program. Unfortunately, the discipline required to restart once you have stopped was, at the time, beyond me. In July 2017 I weighed my best, around 265 lbs. By New Years or so I was back up around the 300 lbs mark. A year and a half later, in July 2019, I weighed around 370 lbs.

    My next honest try was in California. It was still supervised by a doctor, but this time I was paying for it out of pocket. I did not stay true to the program for one extended period of time, but over the next fourteen months I dropped down to my absolute best weight, 260.8 lbs on September 28, 2020. It was two months later that I last popped back over the 290 lbs mark, and on December 22 of that year I was back over three hundred pounds. I got back down to just under 285 lbs toward the end of January 2021, but on February 18 I was back above 300 lbs, where I have been ever since. By March 18 I was at 320 lbs, and around the day my father died (April 19) I was over 330 lbs. On the morning I flew back to Canada (July 16, 2021) I weighed in at 348.2 lbs. Over the next six months, during which I did not really weigh myself, I gained another forty-five pounds.

    I was not able to accurately weigh myself then, but on January 20, 2022, I was at my heaviest weight ever, somewhere around 392 lbs.

    Let’s recap: In August 2017 I weighed 262, and twenty-three months later I weighed 370. In September 2020 I weighed 260.8, and seventeen months later I weighed 390.

    If ever there was proof that I cannot let my guard down ever, and that this struggle with my weight is one that I will need to actively fight until the day that I die, it is those numbers right there. It took me less than two years to gain 108 lbs. It took me less than a year and a half to gain nearly 130 lbs.

    All it takes is my letting my guard down, thinking that I can eat the way I used to eat… or more accurately, not thinking about how or what I eat.

    I have lost about forty-five pounds in the last eighty-four days; at this rate, I will be down to my ideal weight in just under a year. It has taken a lot of hard work, willpower, and sacrifice to get this far, and I know it will take even more to get to where I want to be. I cannot throw all of that away again. I’ve already done it twice; this time – the third time has to be the charm. If not, I am eventually going to eat myself into an early grave – in a coffin that will break the backs of six pallbearers.

    The third time is the charm; with dedication and perseverance – and the love of a wonderful woman – I will get to where I want to be, and I will stay there.

  • Day 77

    The nurse weighing me directed me right to the ‘heavy’ scale this morning, but I asked her if we could see if the regular scale would do yet. It was not quite… but within a pound of it. We stepped onto the heavy scale, and I was half a kilo over… so I have lost another 2.5kg since my last weigh-in. A lot of people would poo-poo a 2.5kg drop over a two week period, but if we add it onto all of the other similar losses, and I am down 18kg, or 40 lbs over the past 2.5 months. It is slow progress, but it is significant progress. Add to that, my blood pressure is 112 over 70, making me the healthiest morbidly obese person I know.

    Of course, I cheated a little… but not intentionally, and it couldn’t be helped. I was taking my time this morning, and suddenly realized I had the appointment. I took HRF Princess Sophie for her walk, and then made a quick cup of coffee before I headed out the door. Normally, I would have had my second cup of coffee and a shake before heading out. I do not know what effect that would have, but I am taking the win.

    By my next appointment (in two weeks) they will be weighing me on the regular scale, and I will never look back. The one nurse is usually very nice, but there is another who is quite judgmental, and having to follow her into the other room and then have her standing over the other scale counting how far my weight went over the ‘max’ to calculate my true weight… I could always hear her silently clicking her tongue at me. Yes, I will still be fat… but there will be no more of that, thank you!

    The countdown until I pick Leslie up at the airport is down to hours now, and I am really excited. I hate that we live so far apart, and that we can only see each other every month or every six weeks. I think at some point I am going to have to do something about that. It is just not a tenable situation for me. In the meantime, I can’t wait to see her tonight! HRF is excited too… but I think she will be excited to see her, whereas my anticipation is bursting through now.

    I have some work to do today, but I might find the time for a cigar on the patio before I start teaching my class this evening. We’ll see.

    My goal is to stay the course today… and if I do pick up peanuts. To pick up less. I know that I am going to eat whatever I buy, so maybe if I only buy a small handful (50g has 284 calories!) then I will only eat that small handful.

    Have a great day folks!

  • One Pound Lost is Three Pounds of Progress

    A pound is a pound, right? By any definition of weights and measures, one-pound equals sixteen ounces. It is very simple.

    In a recent conversation with a friend who is on the same weight loss program as I am, she told me that she had been disappointed that she was only losing one pound per week… but she was finally at peace with that, knowing that she was sticking to the program religiously. She would have to settle for what she was doing.

    I disagreed with her, much to her surprise. I told her that she had not lost a single pound, she had actually lost three. She – along with the others who were involved in the conversation – looked at me confused.

    Let’s look at the math: Take the number 150. If you weigh 150lbs and you lose one pound, you now weigh 149lbs, right? 150-1=149. That is one pound actually lost.

    Weight loss is extremely difficult. It would have been just as easy for her to have not lost that pound. She would not be 149lbs, but still 150lbs. 149+1=150. That is one pound potentially not lost.

    My friend stayed the course of the weight loss program… but what if she had cheated just a little during the week? Say, rather than having two poached eggs and a salad for breakfast on Saturday, she had instead had the bacon cheese omelet with a side of buttered toast? All of a sudden, instead of losing a pound she would actually have been up a pound. 150+1=151. That is one pound possibly gained.

    Every pound lost – nay, every ounce lost, is not only one ounce closer to your goal, it is one ounce you might not have lost, and in fact you might have instead gained. So in fact, every pound lost is not one pound, rather it is those three pounds – the one actually lost, the one potentially not lost, and the one possibly gained.

    In 1990 Paula Abdul had a hit song called Opposites Attract… ‘I take two steps forward; you take two steps back. We come together ‘cos opposites attract.’ While we may support each other, but dieting is an individual event. There are no opposites; the forward steps are successes; the backward steps are setbacks. Staying in place is the eternal glass-half-full question… did I fail for not losing, or did I succeed for not gaining? It all depends on the individual perspective, but the optimist looks at it as a success and the pessimist sees it as a failure.

    Who is right? Neither is… and both are. We all have different personality types. Some people will see the stagnation as a reason to redouble their efforts. “I stayed where I was, but I am optimistic that if I keep at it, I will get past this plateau.” Some will see it as a reason to quit. “I worked so hard on my diet and stayed the same… I might as well quit.” It is important for the pessimist’s support system to remind them how far he or she has come, and how a plateau is a temporary body adjustment. The optimist, on the other hand, might need to be reminded that too many plateaus might mean they need to make a change – in my case, they might suggest I stop adding milk and sugar to my coffee. The point is that both the optimist and the pessimist are right… and at the same time, both might need encouragement and adjustment.

    Progress is what you make of it, whether it is forward progress or the occasional backward progress. The difference between seeing the one-pound weight loss as ‘I only lost one pound’ and ‘Wow! I lost a pound!’ Can be the difference in the future between long-term success and the alternative. Keeping a positive attitude is so important and can propel a stagnating dieter to ultimate success.

  • Day 70

    I noticed that while I am teaching, I am going through lozenges like they are candy. I have to wonder if it is because I feel the need (I do speak quite a bit while I am teaching, but not so much that I would need this many of them), or if it is just a habit. I am glad I had the foresight to purchase sugar-free lozenges.

    My weight is down nearly 1.5 lbs. this morning… and I am still nearly two pounds up from what I weighed on Friday. As I said yesterday, the system is just not fair. I know that if I was following the original program to the letter – that is, drinking four shakes per day, no meals, no coffee with milk and sugar – then the weight would be melting off. I would likely be down 75 lbs. by now. I am hoping that by doing the modified program it will allow me to maintain the weight loss long-term, rather than losing a lot of weight quickly, and then gaining it all back.

    I have noticed a couple of non-scale victories in the last few days.

    1. It is easier to stand from a sitting position than it was at my heaviest weight. Whether from my office chair or from the porcelain throne, I am no longer struggling to stand as I did for a few months. If this is not a quantifiable improvement, it is certainly a noticeable one!
    2. While I am definitely not where I want to be, I am thrilled that I can walk and maintain a slightly brisk pace. It makes a world of difference when I walk with Princess Sophie, and when I am able to start walking for exercise, it will mean even more. To be clear, I could start walking for exercise anytime I want; I am waiting for the weather to cooperate. This morning the temperatures are hovering around 0°c and with the rain the sidewalks are quite slippery.
    3. In December/January, my fitness watch band secured to my right wrist on the last hole. It was only this morning that I realized it is now on the fifth hole. That is nearly an inch of improvement… in my wrist! I am looking forward to when my gold watch fits around my left wrist. It has a solid gold band and cannot be resized. The phases to it will be: Cannot close, closes tightly, closes comfortably, closes loosely. Knowing that it was my father’s, and my father was a significantly smaller man than I was, I do not expect it will be too loose. It is the sort of watch one would only wear for fancy occasions. I was thrilled in 2020 when I was able to wear it under my suit for the High Holiday services.

    I made it through Monday with very little cheating. The jar of peanuts I bought for the ride from Montreal is half full, and I took a handful as I got into the car yesterday. I suppose that will happen from time to time until the jar is empty. I will not allow myself to buy another jar. Anyhow, I much prefer the red skinned peanuts I can get at Bulk Barn to the Planters Peanuts… and I can buy much smaller quantities when I want a small treat!

    I have a number of errands to run today so I will be out and about a lot. The first of those is a doctor’s appointment for HRF… it is a routine seasonal visit to prepare her to start with the flea and tick medications. She spent most of her life in sunny Southern California, and this winter was the first season that she did not need those meds. With spring in the air, she will get them again. Hopefully they have the same gummy option that we had in the US. I know she liked those much better than the stuff we used to have to apply to the back of her neck. I suppose we will find out in an hour or so!

    After that I will bring her home, and I have to go back out. I have a few things I want to pick up at the hardware store, and I will do a little grocery shopping as well. I will likely do those errands after lunch.

    I noticed Monday that when I picked up my prescriptions from the pharmacy, there was one that was missing. My doctor had refilled my prescription for colchicine, but he had mentioned that he would be taking me off that, and putting me on a pill called allopurinol, which would help to prevent gout inflammations by keeping the levels of uric acid in my system low. There was none of that, so yesterday I called the doctor’s office, and sure enough the nurses had no record of it. The doctor is on vacation this week, but I will be able to see him next week when I go in to get weighed. As long as the colchicine is working, I am in no rush for it… but I would like to start this new regimen, which if my father’s history is any indication I will be on for the rest of my life.

    I dug up an article I wrote a couple of years ago which I decided to republish today. It is one of those encouragement articles that I felt I needed to reread over the last couple of days, knowing that I am only losing so much per week now… It is called One Pound Lose is Three Pounds of Progress. It will go live on my blog at noon today.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 61

    Welcome to a brand-new week! It is going to be a lovely day today, and so when I am not working (and I do have some work to do during the day) I plan to be sitting outside enjoying the sunshine. I heard good news from the wife of my dad’s friend yesterday that he is recovering nicely, and we are all thankful for that.

    Yesterday was another good-food, questionable quantities day. I had more chicken than I should have, but otherwise I ate well. After dinner, I was still a bit peckish; I thought about having a meal replacement bar, but I decided instead to have a glass of water and a cigar on the balcony. One thing I need to always remember – not only during my weight loss, but forever – is that the message from our stomach that we are full can take 20 minutes to reach our brain, and so we might still think we are hungry long after we are satisfied. Remembering that last night worked. I had a meal replacement shake in the mid-evening, and I finished the day well. Oh, I should also mention that I went to Bulk Barn to pick up a few things, and I added a small handful of red-skinned peanuts (unsalted) to my order to nibble in the car. Some of the other things that I bought or could have bought were much worse than that, and I did not feel bad picking up the 20-or-so peanuts.

    Any day that my bathroom scale registers a steep drop (as it did yesterday morning) I expect that it will even out the following day. This morning I stepped onto the scale expecting to see a slight gain, despite being mostly good yesterday. The fact is that yesterday morning I was down nearly 1.5 pounds, and 4 pounds since Thursday. I was extremely happy that I did not give back any of it this morning… I did not lose any more, but I did not gain either. I’ll take it! If I can keep it up, within the next week to ten days I should be able to weigh myself on the doctor’s scale… even with my clothes on!

    I do quite a bit of shopping on Facebook Marketplace, and yesterday I made what many (including myself) would consider the oddest purchase I have ever made online. I bought a clarinet. If you are wondering, the answer is no, I do not play the clarinet. I do, however, have a girlfriend who plays… but I think she has one. Amanda, on the other hand, does not. A couple of weeks ago when I was at their place for dinner, Amanda was lamenting that Cam did not take the hint to buy her one for Christmas… and so I bought her one for her birthday (which was Friday). Yes, I had sent her flowers, but I thought that she would appreciate it… and the jab at my buddy Cam would be a bit of fun.

    My plans for the day are to stick to the program and try to make it through to the end of the day with no cheats. I bought a beautiful cut of salmon for dinner; I usually buy the tail (which is much cheaper), but the middle cut was on sale, so I decided to splurge. I will marinate it in lemon juice with some salt and black pepper, and when it comes out of the air fryer, I will sprinkle it liberally with fresh dill. It should make for a delicious meal, with a generous salad to accompany it.

    Have a great day folks, and enjoy the weather!