The Coffee Is Brewing...

...its aroma fills the air of the chilly kitchen while the English muffins turn a golden brown in the toaster. I can already taste them covered in melted butter and washed down with a good swig of OJ or coffee. A petite breakfast to be sure, but breakfast nonetheless. It is something of which I do not normally partake but I should because the pounds have started to work there way back under my belt. I lost about 18 pounds (had it up to 20 off but oh well) while in Tucson and I mean to make sure I do not gain em all back.

So, I had better start eating like I was when I was in Tucson. That means a fair to large breakfast usually with lots of bacon and eggs (and my lipid profile was excellent when doing it), some fruit, OJ and coffee and one piece of bread. Even if I go overboard and have two pieces of bread it will be okay so long as I make sure to eat breakfast. Then a snack at about 11 - consisting of an apple or two - Granny Smith please or a pear or orange or banana. Then a light lunch for me - maybe a McDonald's hamburger and fries with a diet soda (don't laugh - this is really how I lost 18 pounds and kept about 15 of it off over 6 months). Then maybe a snack of some Macadamia nuts in the afternoon. This will all be followed by a dinner fairly low in, but not lacking a decent amount of, carbs. Dinner might be a can of ravioli (yechhh) or a nice steak, or a hamburger (homemade this time) or meatloaf, or 1/2 a broiled chicken, or a Tuna Fish sandwich or some pizza. Any of them (except maybe the pizza) go okay with a salad and a potato (baked and plain or with butter), or a nice German potato salad (homemade of course) and some veggies. Maybe some more Macadamia nuts for desert. I do go lightly on the amount I am eating.

So how do I lose pounds on a diet like that? Well I simply, for the most part, cut out the junk food I eat. By junk food, mind you, I do not mean things like McDonald's' or pizza. I do mean pretzels, potato chips, corn chips, chocolate cake, Klondike Bars, chocolate chip cookies, any other cookies and cakes, a midnight bagel slathered with butter, candy of all sorts and so on. You will see one similarity among them all - very high carbs. Mine is not the Atkins diet but I suppose I take some hints from him in lowering carbs. The toughest thing is getting started for the first week. After that I am used to it and it will be easy to stick to; that first week though is a diet killer. So starting my actual diet may take several weeks until I get the true first week of my diet complete. As I said though, once I go a week without junk, I should be good to go for at least several months. Once I get it going again, I'll also cut out virtually all milk products. Me and milk don't get along even though I love dairy.

Maybe I'll lose some more than what I gained back, that would be great. Whatever I lose though it will a benefit to me though. I also plan to start hiking again if even only on the pavement or treadmill. I have not been working out at all since I came home. While in Tucson I was hiking from 6 to 10 miles per week or more. That translates into two trips per week up into the mountains. It is a lot more of a drive here on Long Island to get to some nice hiking spots in the mountains so I'll just have to find some nice urban places for walks while wearing a 25 pound pack on my back and my shooting iron on my hip.

All the best,
Glenn B

The New Me...

...or is it the old me coming out of its shell. I mean after all this is the new me at 15 pounds lighter, 15 pounds of excess blob I had carried around for years. I still have a long way to go but I imagine that hikes like the one I took yesterday - 9 miles in all - will help me to keep shedding off the pounds. That and not snacking more than once a week on junk food snacks. Now some may think it Narcissistic of me to post pics of myself here as I lose weight, and maybe it is just that, at least a little bit, but I don't care what they think anyhow. Yes I am feeling good about myself, and yes I am sharing that sentiment, and so what do I care if some think it self centered. You see, it is self centered, and I am quite pleased with myself but no enough to think I am the end all - be all. I am just happy and feeling better about shedding some flab. I am also pretty happy about having hiked 9 miles yesterday with a 25 pound pack on my back, that and the several pounds added by my sidearm and extra ammo and my walking stick. I would love to live here in or near Tucson; I'd hike like that at least weekly on average. By the way, I hiked the Madera Canyon area on the Super Trail to Josephine Saddle, then took a side trip to McBeth Spring, then back to the parking lot - 9 miles in all.

All the best,

GB

Tucson Is GOOD For Me

So far, while out here in the beautiful southwest, I have lost 6 pounds. Well actually about 5 3/4 pounds but who is splitting hairs (by the en of this week it should hit at least minus 6 pounds - therefore about 2 pounds a week so far). The only thing I have done differently so far is to have cut out virtually all of my snacking on junk food. The only snacks i have had have been nuts and fresh fruit. I have stayed totally away from things like: potato chips, corn chips, tortilla chips, pretzels, cakes, cookies, candies, dried/sweetened fruit snacks, granola bars, soda (had one or two with sugar, otherwise they have been artificially sweetened). If I keep the weight loss up at this rate, and really stay here until the third week of June, well I figure I will lose at least another 20 pounds. That would be great but I also plan to start exercising regularly with the coming weekend. I figure at least 45 minutes to one hour of running/walking on the tread mill 3 days per week, and at least one hike in the mountains per week. That should trim me down even faster although I am not really concerned about losing weight swiftly. I would rather take it off slowly, and really get used to the new diet, the new exercise routine, and the new me so as to be better able to keep it going long term. This time around do not not to gain the weight back like I did several years ago when dropped about 40 pounds. I kept it off for 1 1/2 years that time, I intend to keep it off for my forever this time.

If I do keep the diet going, and do start exercising then, before I leave Tucson to return home, I suppose I will be below the 200 pound mark for the first time in years. I am hoping to get to 190 by then and think it possible with the diet and regular exercise. I will be satisfied with 200 though or anything below that. Then when I get home the real test will start, to see if i can continue the diet when back in the old grind with the old routines and habits (hopefully not the snacking and couch potato habits). Wish me luck.

All the best,
Glenn B

Fate, Karma, Providence - call it what you will

There is an old saying that goes: No Good Deed Goes Unpunished.

Well yesterday I did what I thought was a good deed. Yesterday, I went out of my way to the old neighborhood, to a bakery to pick up a treat that my wife loves. I wanted to surprise her, and when she wakes up later this morning she will have a tasty treat waiting for her.

Before I headed home from the bakery, I figured I would stop to see a friend. As soon as we met, he told me that another dear friend’s father had passed, and the son of that same friend and his ex-wife, who is also a dear friend of mine, had also passed. Both departing this world within the last two weeks, about a week apart from one another.

So I went to see my other friend, his ex, and all the others who were gathered to grieve. And I grieved with his family and loved ones. As fate would have it I wound up there right after the funeral for the lost son.

Now you may look at this, and then may agree that indeed no good deed goes unpunished; and that my good deed was outweighed by bad fortune. Yet, I have to tell you without a shadow of a doubt, I was not punished but was a lucky man. By chance of something I tried to do for another, I was there where I could help when dear friends needed comfort, and when the comfort of my presence was all I could offer. Call it fate, karma, luck, providence. Call it what you will; but my doing a nice thing put me in the right place, at the right time, to do what little I could to comfort some friends.

I am one heck of a lucky man, and I guess I’ll have to admit, at least in this case, my good deed did not go unrewarded. My reward was being there, and comforting my friends, doing what little I could do for them at this sad time, that was more than I deserved, and it meant more to me than you could imagine. You see they had lost my phone number, and no one had called me to let me know what had happened. It is funny how things sometimes play out, how you are sometimes faced with totally unexpected consequences of your actions, and how sometimes things just turn out for the best, even when you are suddenly faced with worst, all because of something seemingly unrelated that you did. It s exactly how my day went, and it was about as far from what I had planned as I could have imagined; but I have to admit, it was good to be there for my friends in their time of need, certainly more than I expected and more than I deserved.

All the best,
Glenn B

Personal Health Obligations...

...are often not as easy to carry out are some of our other obligations. For example I have let myself balloon up to the highest I have ever weighed in my life over the past few months. Actually I should say I allowed that to happen over the course of 2 or 3 weeks (at most) wherein I gained 10-12 pounds. I was not feeling well, and surprisingly one of my symptoms was an increased appetite especially at night. So there I sat as usual in front of the tube with some snacks, just more snacks than usual. I shot up from about 214 to 226, then leveled off at my present and portly 225 pounds. I figure it is time for me to do something, in fact long past time for me to get started.

With that in mind I have once again started an exercise program. My problem with exercise programs is that I always seem to go at them for a few to several months at most, then I slack off altogether for another few months before I start in again. This time though it is going to have to be more long term. Losing the poundage I just gained will be no easy task for me, especially in light of the fact that even when I exercised fairly regularly I was not shedding pounds all that much. Of course I'll probably diet too, and in that regard I have already cut back on snacks. I am hopeful I will be able to cut out all junk snacks soon. Note I did not say junk food. Several years ago I lost about 30 pounds in a few to 6 months. I kept it off for a year and a half. (Why I gained it back is for another story.) I did that with moderate exercise on the treadmill, and with weights, and with a diet wherein I stopped eating snacks. I kept eating everything else though and that includes junk food meals. I ate Big Macs, pizza, gyros, and all that stuff to my heart's content. I also made sure to eat a large salad as a meal at least once or twice a week, and that will start again soon - maybe even today. I usually do not start two things at once such as working out for cardio, working out on weights, a diet and so forth. I try to start them one at a time, go with whatever I started with (such as cardio this time) for a few weeks before moving into weights also, and then doing both of them for a few weeks before staring a diet. That way I do not shock my system all that much at once. I find this helps get rid of some stress associated with a change in my daily regimen; and man oh man can exercise and diet add stress to a life. Yes I know they are supposed to reduce stress, and eventually they help to do so, but at first - when you have not been at it in a while, or ever - they add lots of stress to one's life as I see it.

So far I have been out walking the new dog, but not as often as I should. I have also been trying to get more regular sleep. I try to pass out by midnight at the latest, earlier is better. Then I try to wake up around the same time each day. This seems to have helped me to get a better nights sleep. Seems if I wake up at the same time each day, I am tired at the same time each night. makes sense I guess. I have also started working out on a treadmill. I did 4 miles two days ago, and 4.5 yesterday. In only one day I improved my pace markedly. I am not trying to do anything for speed, just to hit my desired distance of at least 3 miles per workout, with anything more being better; but I do keep track of the time it takes me to do it. I start with a run of 1.5 miles, then walk at least 1/4 to 1/2 of a mile, then run a 1/4 or half mile, then walk then run, until I hit the point at which I feel I need to stop. As time goes by, and as I become more fit, I'll increase the running portion of the workout. I figure getting to a straight 3 mile run with another mile or two of walking should be a decent workout at least three days per week once I am more fit. Right now I am shooting for 5 days per week with less running and more walking.

Amazingly, even with slightly high, but under control blood pressure, and a so-so diet, and a poor exercise regimen, I have been told my heart and cardio system are in great shape. I hope to keep them that way now that I am getting older. So wish me luck please! Not so much to lose weight at any astounding rate, but rather wish me luck in sticking with it. I realize I am the one who has to do that, to stick with it that is, but I can use all the support I can get. Who knows, maybe if I lose a few pounds the wife will go for walks with me again! One can hope.

All the best,
Glenn B

Working Out Again

Several months ago I stopped working out. Stopping and starting to workout is nothing new for me. I will often start a new workout program, go at it a few months, then stop for a month or two, then start again for awhile, then stop again. This last time though I stopped back in August; and considering the fact that I had just started back then after taking about 3 months off, I did not get much working out done, maybe a few sessions before I became ill and had to quite. I was sick on and off much of the summer (noting lasting), got better and never got back into working out. That is until today.

I hit the treadmill at work for 5.25 miles today of running and walking. I am sort of hopeful that I can repeat something I did about 7 or 8 years back, and that is lose a bunch of weight. I weighed in at 217 today (not bad considering all the junk I have eaten over the holidays), but I want to get back to a trimmer me and lose about 40 pounds. When I did this several years ago, I kept the weight off for about 1.5 years. This time I'd like to make it permanent, and I think I think I have ore incentive to make it stick than I did last time around. No it is not a New Year's resolution thing, despite the proximity to new Year's Day, but rather it is the fact that in just over one year I plan to retire. When I retire I would like to be around to collect my pension for at least 40 years, which would mean up until I am 93 years old. Yikes the thought of hitting that age ever so scary for me; but not as scary if I think I might be in fairly good shape, and still collecting my pension. I am pretty sure that once I retire I will not have the incentive to trim down if I have not started well on the way toward that goal prior to retirement, therefore I am starting now - more or less one year ahead of time. I hope to burn off about 40 pounds in the next year.

I am one who has a lot of good intentions but little or no staying power when it comes to plans like this, but I am kind of betting I can do it. I will be asking some friends and coworkers to harass my behind into gear to make sure I am hitting the gym on a regular basis, and am pretty sure that will be a big help. Most of all though, I have to get my mind into the right state to keep it going. That will be, after all, up to me. Wish me luck - please.

All the best,
Glenn B