Losing a part of me

Category: Wife

  • Day 581

    While yesterday did not go as well as planned (there were a number of impediments to my well planned timing of my meal replacements), the bathroom scale did once again show a lower number than yesterday. It was not a severe drop, but it was a drop. Speaking of drops, I am now on my third day of not moving my bowels on the current streak. Sigh.

    It is so wonderful to have my wife here; she is only here for a short visit, but I am so thrilled to see her. As soon as she texted me that she was through Customs I left the Cell Phone Waiting Lot and zipped over to the terminal… and twenty minutes later she was in the car. It is truly amazing how badly people drive at and around the airport. We then hit the highway and were on a beeline to get home quickly when we the highway, clear as one would expect at 11:30pm, came to a stop. We are not 100% certain of what the incident on the road was, but we sat there for at least half an hour before we were turned around and forced to get onto the toll road. If I think of it I will try to figure out what happened… when they close a 400-series highway in Toronto/Mississauga there must be something on the news about it.

    Over the last few days I have realized that I want to start wearing my pants differently. In 1998 I acted in a play, and I remember a conversation with the costumer who told me, as I secured my belt beneath my stomach, that normal people secure their belt right around their bellybutton while fat people wore it under their fat. That is where I have worn my belt for decades; yesterday and today I realized that I was having trouble with that, but I still cannot secure it properly higher up… at least, not consistently. I am able to do it for a bit, then find myself having to pull my pants up.

    I stand corrected. During my class’s morning break I was able to take care of business in the restroom… and very productively and to great relief. I feel much better! I only wish I had been able to do it prior to weighing myself this morning. Oh well… that’s life!

    I will be in class all day but that in the afternoon there will be a section that I need to pay less attention to so that Leslie and I can enjoy a cigar together on the balcony. I do not mind listening to the class with half an ear, but I do not get nearly enough time with my wife as I would like, so hopefully we will be able to bask in each others’ company for a few extra hours. While the wind will be picking up this afternoon, there is no rain in the forecast until the middle of the night. Hopefully the wind is not too bad…

    It is great to have my wife here, and that makes my day better! It also gives me a much better chance of being successful with my modified weight loss program. I am extremely unlikely to cheat on my program while my wife is here; she is not responsible for keeping me accountable… but as she is on a similar program to mine (the American program, unmodified) then the least I can do is to not try to not entice her by breaking my stride. Yes, I made my omelette this morning… but that is my modified program, and I will not be eating anything else other than my meal replacements.

    I decided that with the minor slide that I had these last few days I am going to re-cross and re-date the 258 lbs. threshold on my sheet again when I drop below it, which will almost certainly be tomorrow morning. I did not do the same when I dropped back below 260 lbs., but I was only above that threshold for two days. I spent over a week above that last best threshold that I had previously reached, and I am happy to re-date it to show my progress forward from here, and not from last week.

    Okay, I am going to start focusing on my class.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 580

    Just a few days ago I was counselling Leslie about how to handle something; I told her that one of the dangers of cheating is getting onto the scale the next morning and realizing that cheating did not impede your progress. Seeing that it becomes easy to justify those little cheats in your mind… and little cheats have a tendency to morph into large cheats. I was reminded of the conversation this morning when I stepped onto the bathroom scale. I know that I cheated yesterday, eating more peanuts than even my regular cheats might have allowed for. I was disgusted with myself all evening and was resigned to the fact that my weight would be up this morning. In fact it was down nearly a full pound. I am not going to let this become a habit of indulging in large cheats. I am going to take it as a reprieve only.

    I reached out to someone I have not spoken to in a few years this morning. During the conversation he told me that he is a regular reader of my weight loss blog and congratulated me on my hard work and success. I was shocked. I did not realize that anyone read it on a regular basis. It warmed my heart and brought a tear to my eye. Hopefully one day I can inspire others on the same path.

    Leslie is flying in this evening! I am so excited, but I have to get through the class I am sitting through during the day, and the class I am teaching this evening. Once that is done, I can head out to the airport. Yay! We are both so excited! This will be our least expensive visit to date only because we are both on our very strict diet programs and so we will not be eating out. That is not a concern of mine, it is just something I thought about.

    While the forecast this morning called for rain only until 9:00am it is still raining outside my window. That forecast has been amended predicting rain through 1:00pm or so. Of course I am not sure how accurate that is as meteorologists were put on this earth to make psychics look good. Still and all, if it is not windy, I might take my afternoon class on the balcony, nonetheless. The definite advantage is that the sun will not make it difficult to see the screen. We will see how I feel after the lunch break, which is now. On that subject, I am going to try to make it through to 12:30pm before preparing my meal replacement, which would then position me well to have my next one at 5:00pm and then at 9:15pm – one before my class, and the other after my class and before I drive to the airport to pick up my wife. The best laid plans of mice, right?

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 579

    After several days of sliding (which I suppose is a nice word for cheating) I finally had a day of sticking to the program on Monday. I did go to bed slightly hungry, but not terribly so. I woke up this morning after not sleeping very well (which had nothing to do with hunger which was forgotten very quickly) I was once again not successful in the restroom (which does get frustrating after a while) I was happy to see a significant drop on the bathroom scale. I lost nearly two pounds, putting me back to where I was a couple of days ago. I am still 1.4 lbs. from my best recent weight (it was six days ago when I crossed off the number 258.0 on the side of my fridge), so I am at least going in the right direction.

    It was not a very difficult day for me. I was sitting in a class throughout the day, and I taught in the evening. I took Her Royal Floofness for a walk in the morning and then another one in the evening – even though she spent the day playing with her friends Charlie (doggo) and Sue (human). They likely went out for a few walks, but when she asks so nicely to go outside, and the weather is agreeable then it is not at all a hardship for me.

    I did get a little hungry in the afternoon yesterday, and decided the best way to address that hunger was not to give in to it, rather to find a way to put it out of my mind. I decided to take my mobile office onto the balcony and sit through the last couple of hours of my class with a cigar. It worked, and I was able to get through the rest of the day by having a shake at 5:15pm and then another when I came in from Sophie’s walk at 9:45pm.

    My plan for today is to stay on track and do exactly what I did yesterday. I am not teaching in the evening, but I will make sure I can stay busy and keep my mind occupied. I suspect there might be a cigar or two in that plan. I just want to get back to my best recent weight so that when I pick Leslie up from the airport I will look as good as I can, in addition to feeling as good about myself as I can. I never feel good in the knowledge that I have failed in something.

    I have had this text open for a while and have been half writing, half listening to my class for the last hour. I am going to try to do my best today as I can… I did it yesterday so I can do it today, right?

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 576

    I cannot seem to get back on track. At least it is not as bad as it could be, but I am still unable to get through the afternoon without preparing a second omelette for myself. I will try to do better today, but it is Saturday… weekends tend to be challenging because I do not have a lot going on. I am going to try even harder. In fact, I do have something going on today… my buddy invited me over for a cigar in the afternoon. It is a lovely day outside and I am looking forward to seeing him and his wife. I saw him earlier in the week, but I have not seen her since June.

    My wife surprised me last night. She is coming to see me this coming week! It was a surprise, but a very welcome one. I had not been doing a lot of smiling the previous few days; since she told me I have hardly stopped smiling! We had a great chat last night, and while I was concerned that I might not be able to sleep from the excitement I was truly exhausted and got six hours of very deep sleep. Yes, only six hours… My eyes popped open early, and I was not getting back to sleep no matter how I tried.

    While I had a second omelette yesterday, my weight was still down slightly this morning. Hopefully I can continue to lose weight over the next few days. I had said just a few days ago how exciting it would be if I could be at my best weight ever when I next saw Leslie. There is no good way for me to lose nine pounds in five days but at least I have not completely fallen off the program. Indeed, if my weight stays exactly where it was this morning then I will be ten pounds lighter than the last time she saw me!

    I got up early this morning and so while I have spent a bit of time futzing about, I am nevertheless ready to go… and it is only 10:45am. I invited the neighbour doggo for a playdate with her Royal Floofness, and they are having a grand old time. I am not going to head out to my friends’ place until 1:00pm or so I think I will sit on the balcony with a breakfast cigar and the last of my coffee. It will be a relaxing morning. I have no plans to veer from the program today… but then, I never do. I just have to stay strong and get through it without anything extra.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 571

    Today will be better than yesterday.

    I wrote last night that I was having a very difficult time of it. I was down and depressed with no motivation to do anything other than binge-watch reruns of old television programs. It was weird though; I was not completely out of sorts, I was just… blah. I enjoyed my cigars, but I was just not enjoying life. I thought perhaps it was because I was angry with myself over my failures of the previous day.

    They say that therapists need therapy and that attorneys should never represent themselves. I spend so much time writing about positive attitudes and stratagem that it might make one think that I am some sort of fifties television father who never gets cross, or at least never too much and never for too long. I try to be as positive and upbeat as I can be, even in the face of sadness, disappointment, and failure. Most of the time it works. There are also days like yesterday when it really does not.

    There is a quote from one of my favourite TV shows: “Act as if ye have faith and faith shall be given to you. Put it another way, fake it till you make it.” I sometimes put on a brave and happy face even when I am not feeling brave or happy. I do so in the hope that if I do it enough, the maskirovka will become reality. Last night during our chat Leslie wrote: “If only it was as easy as you giving me some patience and me giving you some of my self discipline…” The funny thing about that is that while I do my best to demonstrate the greatest patience at all times, it is not my normal state. My inner nature is one of instant gratification. That impatience has never served me well and I do my best to suppress it, but I do my best to always maintain that outer calmness… even when my interiors are bursting with ‘I want it now!’

    I think of all of this, and I think of how I fell completely off the wagon on Saturday, and how rather than letting myself go I forced myself to be better yesterday. I think of how it is when I am alone and down when food would really make me feel better… if only for a little while. I think of days like yesterday and how, despite being emotionally miserable, I stayed true to the program. It is because I was able to do this, because I was able to tell myself that my depression was rooted in the higher numbers on the bathroom scale that were caused by the cheating of the previous day that I was able to say to myself: ‘It does not matter that food will make me feel better now… I want to feel better tomorrow, which is exactly why I cannot eat now. Leslie reminded me that however the food might make me feel in the present, it is only a temporary high. In that way it is exactly like an addiction to narcotics, which is a comparison I have often made… although I am not sure I have ever framed it in the context of a food-high. It is nevertheless quite apt a comparison. Foods – and especially unhealthy foods – give us an emotional high that makes us feel better now… even while it is making us fat and unhealthy. I suppose I do not need a twelve-step program; I only need to chat with my wife and then think about what she said as I write in my journal. Wisdom achieved.

    While I did not do so on purpose, I woke up and got ready earlier today than I usually do. I needed a shower – I just felt dingy – and then I took the Floof for her walk. I had my omelette, and as I sit here typing the end of today’s journal entry it is not yet 9:30am. Having had too many days when, knowing I am not working, I might procrastinate and check Facebook and whatever else until I realize that it is time for my midday meal replacement, and then wonder where the day went. Not today. By 9:45am I will be outside on the balcony with my coffee and cigar with my computer in front of me, noise-cancelling earplugs in to block out the distractions, and I will be studying until it actually is time for my midday meal replacement. In the afternoon I am getting together with friends (either one or two, depending on who shows up), and at 5:00pm I will send them on their merry way so that I can enjoy my late-afternoon meal replacement before I begin my class. Following my class I hope my wife will be free to talk, but I understand that when her son (my stepson) is with her she is not always able to do so. I might enjoy another cigar on the patio and, if Leslie is not available, I might watch television for an hour, comfortable in the knowledge that it is a short distraction after a full and productive day. I will try to be asleep at a reasonable hour.

    Okay, so right there was my first distraction. I went to check my calendar to see if I had forgotten anything I need to do today and ended up also checking a few other things. I lost maybe fifteen minutes on it and will still be out and getting things done in the next twenty minutes or so. I would give my ADHD meds credit for my not getting so easily distracted, and for not going down the rabbit hole for quite so long… but then why did I do so several days over the last week? No, I think this morning I am just focused and determined to be productive.

    Before I close, I do want to write a bit about the timing of my meal replacements. I mentioned last week that I suspected one of the reasons I failed a couple of times was that I was pushing my meal replacements too far, and in so doing I was letting my hunger get past the point of being satisfied by a 225-calorie meal replacement. Yesterday I realized at a certain point that I was due (or overdue) for my midday meal replacement, but I wanted to finish my cigar, so I waited even longer. I decided then to be cognizant of that and fight any urges that I might feel. I did feel somewhat peckish in the afternoon, but not so bad that I needed to cheat. The excellent cigar I was smoking (and the glass of iced tea) might have helped. I then forced myself to have my second meal replacement at 5:30pm, even though it was only three hours since my previous one. That way I was well positioned to prepare my final meal replacement at 8:45pm… at the tail end of the worst of my glumness, and early enough that I would feel accomplished in not eating any later in the evening (which is never good on any weight loss program).

    The timing of meal replacements on a program as extreme as this is so important to plan. Begin too early in the day and you can find yourself near the end of the day with no more allotment of calories, but still hungry. Begin too late in the day and you might find yourself eating or drinking the last one way too late to promote good sleep and healthy weight loss. When I was on the extreme program – remember, I am having my morning omelette so it is a modified program – I remember each time I began doing the math to see how far apart I should space them, as well as what time I should have the first one. There are other factors at play here… if you are commuting or taking care of a child or in meetings then it might be necessary to plan around those. That is why each person’s program will look a little bit different… but the stratagem are equally important to all of us.

    After an extremely good one yesterday I was hoping that I would be able to successfully move my bowels again today, but despite adding fibre to at least one and often two shakes every day, it seems the dry spell was only briefly interrupted by one good storm, and my efforts today have again thus far been to no avail. I would have thought that following the cheat day I would have at least gotten a couple of days of crap out of it, but so far that is not to be. The weird things we think of when dieting and trying to change our bodies. In any event, while my efforts in the W.C. provided none, I did get good news from the bathroom scale: I dropped the weight I had gained from Saturday’s cheat and my weight is once again below 260 lbs.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 570

    Wow did I fail miserably last night. I also paid the price this morning on the bathroom scale. I do not know what it is that makes me think that I can just have one chip…

    It was not just a chip. I arrived at the get together as I had planned, having just finished my second meal replacement shake of the day. The popcorn and chips that were sitting out were hardly a temptation to me, and I knew I was going to be fine. I guess I let my guard down.

    ‘Hey Mitch, I’m preparing half of this steak for Larry… do you want the other half?’ Sure, why not? After all, it’s just protein, right? Well, if I could have the steak, I might as well have the fresh in-season corn on the cob, right? There was pareve margarine on the table, so I could put that on the corn. Oh, then there are blueberries with ice cream and cake with liqueurs for dessert, but if I only have the blueberries that will be fine. I rationalized that by foregoing the potato, and the really bad desserts then would a couple of potato chips really hurt? And a handful of popcorn? I’d be fine. Twenty chips over the next little while, five handfuls of popcorn… I was feeling horrible about what I had done to myself. I texted Leslie and told her, and she reminded me that I can pick myself up and get back on track.

    I made matters worse when I stopped for gas as I left, and realizing I was 45 minutes from home (I had neglected to bring a second meal replacement), I decided to buy a bag of chips.

    Fall down seven times. Stand up eight. As I said to Leslie, I just wish that it was not factors of seven and eight. I am back on track today and am going to redouble my efforts again. I paid the price for yesterday’s failures when I stepped onto the bathroom scale to discover I had gained back a pound. This cannot happen again.

    I hope that I am back on track today. I prepared the exact same omelette for myself today as I have every day for the last week (or two). At 12:30pm, 4:30pm, and 8:30pm I will prepare my meal replacements. I will consume nothing else… save for water, my coffee, and possibly a glass of the lovely iced tea that Leslie gave me… it is sugar free, and I can sweeten it with artificial sweetener if I like. We will see how I am feeling, and what the weather is like.

    It is a beautiful day and I plan to spend most of it on the balcony. There will be several cigars, and I will divide the day between reading, watching TV, and doing some studying. What I will not be doing is cheating on my modified program. I am going to do everything I can to make sure that yesterday was a blip on the screen, and not the end of one trend and beginning of another. That slippery slope is one I am all too familiar with, and I hate knowing that I live every day knowing that the edge of that precipice is right there… behind every ‘it’s just one chip’ and so on.

    I do have one positive to write now… which I did not have when I sat down to write this entry. This morning started as Day Five on the no bowel-movements trend. Partway through the writing I finally felt the urge, and hard as it was, I was able to ‘go’ successfully. It was not painful, just strenuous. I am not sure if there is any science to this, but I feel like there was just one very solid obstruction in the way, and over the next few days or even hours I will have to go a few more times. We will see. The funny part is that as I took Her Royal Floofness on her walk this morning she had two extremely large poops; I told her that I was jealous and wished I could do the same. I do not think she is a genie who grants me wishes… but three hours later that wish did come true.

    I mentioned that Leslie is on the program now, and she has been doing extremely well with it. She did tell me yesterday that she now has a much better appreciation of how hard I have tried, and apologized to me for any time she might have inadvertently made it harder for me. I told her that I was proud of her and appreciated her apology. I told her that it is impossible to understand all of the challenges of the program without having gone through it. She then told later that I did not have to go through the program with her. When I told her how terrible I felt for having cheated she told me that I did not have to do the program just to support her through it. I told her that I want to do the program for me and having her doing it at the same time made it easier for us to support each other.

    I did not think of this yesterday, but I remember over the course of my journey there have been a few times when she essentially told me that I seemed to obsess about it and wouldn’t shut up about it. I think she now understands better why I did so. I am so happy that she is talking about it with me openly and frankly. There are so many emotional obstacles in our way, and being able to talk makes it a little easier to get through. I love her and am really happy she is succeeding. Of course, as I have been reminded all too often, the one obstacle that can ruin everything is hiding everywhere so she has to get through one day at a time. I will hold her hand (figuratively while we are separated by distance, literally when we are together) through it all, and will try to help her to succeed.

    We also discussed that it will be easier for us to support each other when we are living together full-time. It is easier to make the right choices when you are not alone… and when your partner understands your hardships and weaknesses.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 564

    My streak of checking my food intake and eating smart continues, and my weight loss streak continues, albeit with a lower drop than I have enjoyed these last few days. I am satisfied that down is better than up… and even better than staying the same. I am encouraged that I am able to get back on the horse… at least for these last few days. I will do everything I can to continue that streak into today… and into the rest of the week!

    Another unfortunate streak that is also continuing is my inability to have a bowel movement. I do not recall if today is Day 2 or Day 3, but I am hoping that whatever the number, it goes no further. It would be nice to feel the urge, and to go before the day is out. We will see. If not, then tomorrow morning at the latest. I can only hope! Well, that is not entirely true… I also added a teaspoon of fibre in one of my meal replacement shakes yesterday and will do the same today. Hope is not a strategy, and when there Is action that can be taken then one would be foolish to not do so.

    After Eduardo left yesterday afternoon I went for a walk. I suspect I broke a couple of personal records during the 12.3km outing. I was extremely pleased with my pace throughout, and while I did feel like my legs were made of jelly when I got up in the night, I am satisfied that when I suit up and go out, I am not wasting my time. Even better, when I came back in, I had a meal replacement shake (after I got out of the shower), and that was it for the evening. The combination of sticking to the plan with regard to food and ramping up my exercise… the results are going to come.

    I mentioned that my wife decided to start the American version of the meal replacement program that I have used (not always religiously) to get to where I am. She is certainly competitive but at the same time realistic. With that said, I am suspicious that when she challenged me that she could drop forty pounds before I could, she might have been doing it with the ulterior motive of encouraging me to get back onto the program religiously, and to blast out of the plateau in which I have been. My wife is no dummy! She knows that while I might not be as competitive as she, I am not one to back down from a challenge. We discussed last night some stratagem she could use to monitor and celebrate her progress, which gave me an idea that I had not tried before. I printed out a table with today’s weight and date at the top of it, and under it numbers descending in increments of two. Every time I drop below the weight on the chart, I will cross it off and write the date on the line next to it. The last is printed in red and has the stakes of the bet at the end of it. I do not know which of us will reach our goal first; I do know that this is a very good way to motivate me to get back on track.

    This evening is my final presentation for my Habanos Sommelier class, and I am going to spend some time today working on it. I have translated it into Spanish so it will not be nearly as easy for me to get through as it would be in English, so not only am I going to edit it down some, but I also plan to practice to make sure I am not going to trip over any of the harder words. I am excited about it but also nervous. Once it is behind me, I will be a Habanos Sommelier! I had a dream last night that I had a phone call with the Master and told him that I wanted to start delivering the classes in English. This is likely because someone over the last few days asked me if I might do that someday, and I told them my Spanish was not good enough. It is something I will think about.

    The only necessary aberration from my food plan for today is what I will pair with my cigars during my presentation. I will have a sip of each of the whiskies, and I might or might not open the bottle of wine… but it is unlikely, as the presentation is about ten minutes, and were I doing the actual pairing I would not be going to the wine before forty-five minutes into the cigar. Because of that I will not need to indulge in the dark chocolate either… which is probably a good thing, even though I would love it!

    Yesterday I finished the last of the lettuce that I had in the house, and starting today I am dropping to one solid meal per day (breakfast). I have eggs left for three more days which means that Thursday afternoon I will either go shopping, or I will decide to drop down to the full meal replacement program for however long I decide to do it. I have not thought that far ahead, but I know that if I go back to the full program, I will have an advantage in my bet with Leslie. It is not that she is not sticking to the program, but it is a known fact that men lose weight faster than women. So who knows how much closer I could be to my ultimate goal when Leslie and I meet in California in September if I do that? How amazing would it be if I could drop 25 lbs. between now and the end of September? It is absolutely doable… as long as I stay focused, mindful, and redouble my efforts to succeed.

    Alright, I have some work to get to so I will close today’s entry here. I have to work on my presentation, which is easier to do in English than it is in English and Spanish.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 561

    I was horrified last night when, before getting into bed, I stepped onto the bathroom scale. I was three pounds heavier than I had been in the morning. It is not uncommon for me to be a bit over my morning weight late at night. It is usually a safe bet that by morning I will weigh 2-3 pounds less than my nighttime weight. Unless something drastic happened, I would weigh over (or near) 270 pounds in the morning. It was not fair! I had a normal breakfast and lunch, but I finished the day with a meal replacement shake around 5pm, and then another one around 10:30. How could I actually gain weight after a day like that?

    What I had not taken into account was that the water I had drunk, combined with the fact that I suspect the shakes are a diuretic. I was up to pee three times before my morning rituals; combined with the very successful bowel movement, I ended up down from last night an incredible 5.4 lbs., and 2.4 lbs. from yesterday morning. All is well, I did not have to get disheartened that when I work at it I really can continue to lose weight.

    My wife has decided to use the meal replacement program to lose weight. While I do not care if she loses weight or not, I am happy to support her through it. Over the last few days we have discussed it a great deal. Today is her second full day on the program, and she is experiencing a lot of the side effects that are so normal for anyone who has started the program as often as I have. She seems relieved that I am able to reassure her that the headache, the weakness, the thirst, and all are all perfectly normal. I will continue to be her support system, and her biggest cheerleader.

    I had actually thought to start the full program with her but realized that I had quite a few dollars worth of perishable groceries in the refrigerator and did not want to throw it all out. I have, however, decided to go back onto the partial program. Today I had my breakfast, and after my jog/walk I will prepare my lunch. In the late afternoon/evening I will have a meal replacement shake (or two). The chicken I have in the fridge will then be done, and I will go down to one meal (breakfast) in the morning, and then three meal replacements. I will do that for another week or so, and then I will decide if I want to stick with that program, or if I might be ready to try another month or so on the full program.

    I am not making this decision solely to do it with my wife. I know that I might never get back down below 200 lbs., I know that I still have a substantial amount of weight I would like to lose. In my post-Army life I have never weighed less than 250 pounds. When I reached that milestone on May 27, I was thrilled… and then I started to lose ground. I know I can get back there, and then I can go further. If I can get down to 220 lbs., for example, then I will be completely clear of the Obese Class I category, and I can think about being normal. As I wrote sometime over the last few days, if I can get to a good place then I can make sure that I stay within a range… and not letting myself go again. If I realize that 250 is as good as I can do, then maybe that’s where I will be… but I am not giving up on getting lower unless I really try. If I have done everything I can but still cannot get below that then I will accept it. I will not settle unless I know that I have tried my best.

    This morning Leslie and I had a lovely cigar date on the balcony. I lost track of time, so here I sit writing my daily entry at 12:30pm. It is time for me to suit up and head out. Realizing I was hungry (and that jogging hungry is not the smartest thing to do) I had a yogurt. I should be showered and ready for lunch by 2:15pm or so. That is, unless I keep procrastinating… which I will not do.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 551

    It would have been nice to see a bit more of a drop in weight on the bathroom scale this morning, but I really should be grateful for the .4 lb. loss considering the factors: 1) I had two slices of Chicago-style pizza for lunch, and 2) I did not have a successful bowel movement this morning. Even so, it would have been nice to see something more drastic. It is nice to have dropped below 265 lbs., and while it is only by a hair, I am also at the same weight I was last Wednesday, the day my weight was lowest during this trip, before the disastrous Chinese meal of MSG with a side of General Tao chicken added three pounds in a single day.

    My alarm went off promptly at 7:00am, and I went about my morning routine. I then suited up and went for a walk. I was hoping to either meet or just slightly surpass yesterday’s 9km walk. I actually tried, for the first 200m out of the apartment complex, to jog; I realized quickly that my ankle was not up to it, so I slowed to a walk. I was doing just fine on a new route that I had not taken before, but it was mostly familiar territory. The roads around here are not straight, and it is easy to get a bit turned around if you are not careful; it was a simple mistake – a right turn instead of a left turn (right after nearly getting hit by a car who was more concerned with getting to her destination than in looking where she was driving) that added 3 miles onto the outing, which ended up being a pretty impressive 13.15 km… a little over 8.1 miles. When I walked into the apartment I was dripping, with the thermostat reading 89°. There had not been a cloud in the sky from the time I stepped out of the apartment… two hours and ten minutes earlier.

    I should mention at this point that I left the house without eating, so Leslie and I enjoyed an early lunch which I picked up from our favourite drive-thru salad joint. Still peckish, I supplemented my salad with two pieces of bread with peanut butter. I hope that will hold me until dinner.

    Whether or not I am going to walk tomorrow is still up in the air. I want to see how my feet feel after today’s outing before I make a decision.

    This evening is our last night alone together before her son comes back tomorrow, and I am going to prepare a nice piece of fish, and Leslie will prepare rice. We have a bottle of champagne that we will likely share with a nice cigar after dark… or maybe we will go down to the pool and relax in the water as we smoke. We can do what we want, as long as we are together.

    Have a great day folks!

  • Day 548

    I was mostly good with my eating yesterday, so I was a little disappointed to discover that my weight this morning had not dropped from yesterday. I also know that there will always be days like that, and not to worry or get down about it. Leslie prepared dim sum for dinner last night which was delicious, but I suspect the wrapper is high in carbohydrates; that, combined with the bottle of wine that we shared, might have been a factor. Other than that I ate pretty well.

    This morning Leslie served me breakfast of overnight oats with blueberries. It was delicious! We are going to a movie in the early afternoon so I suspect that we will forego lunch for popcorn. For dinner I will prepare a chicken breast with Corn Flakes breadcrumbs, and a side dish of rice. It should be delicious… and not unhealthy.

    It is a lovely day and we are enjoying the start to our weekend together. We had a very interesting discussion about weight loss attitudes which I will write about… but not today.

    Have a great day folks!