The Secret Gym

I'm currently living in Kenmore, WA. It's a nice little area. However, the whole of King and surrounding counties suffer from a common American ailment: urban sprawl. You need a car to get around because everything is spread far and thin, be prepared for traffic. If you don't own a car, be prepared to spend most of your life on buses.

I'm close to two Bally's gyms. "Close" in a galactic sense. One is in Bellevue, which at 2 AM is a 20 minute drive, the rest of the day it's 45 minutes to an hour. One is in Lynnwood, about 15 minutes away off peak, about 25 minutes away in heavy traffic. Lynnwood is the better choice, no? Not according to Bally's website. Bally's told me there was no swimming pool, and when I first started looking for a gym, I wanted a pool. So, I struggled with the traffic to Bellevue.

About two weeks ago, I decided to go to Lynnwood because I wanted to see the place and I was planning to just do just cardio and lifting. The gym is hidden behind a couple of older strip malls in an area that is best described as ... distressed. The burned out apartment building across the street sets the tone. However, when I arrived I found a welcome treat - a HUGE parking lot with few cars. Nice!

The gym itself is less polished than Bellevue. For those of you that don't know, Bellevue is a kinda ritzy suburb of Seattle. It sits between Seattle and Redmond, home of Microsoft. There is some money floating around there, so, the gym had better be nice. The Lynnwood location was apparently not burdened by this fact. The place could use some cosmetic work, but it was serviceable. The staff were friendly, if not not model quality as they were in Bellevue. The machines were older but well maintained. Over all, the place felt lived in and less scary.

And, there were some hidden surprises. One of my complaints about Bally's is the lockers. I'm sure the pressboard things looked good in the early 90s when they were installed, but the years of being in close proximity to all that moisture and years of abuse have made them less "lockers" and more "things you can close and hope no one can just pull open if they want your stuff." Lynnwood has old, blue, metal lockers. Sure, there is some rust and damage, but it's way better than melting pressboard.

As I looked around the locker room my first time, I saw a sign that said "Anyone entering the pool must take a shower first." Why would they have that sign? The web site said they didn't have a pool. I walked through the door to discover not just a pool, but a pool that appeared as large if not larger than the one in Bellevue - and nearly empty. The hot tub didn't have a timer on the Jacuzzi feature, it just runs and runs and it's about twice the size of Bellevue's and, it too, was nearly empty. Nice!

Now, granted, there aren't as many hot chicks at this place as there are in Bellevue, the video screens are smaller and not flat and in general the whole place is less posh, but for getting my workout on - it's doing the trick. I went Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday. I plan to go today. I'm proud of myself.

I'm trying to do about a half hour or more on the treadmill, then lift a bunch of heavy things. Sometimes, when I have time, I treat myself to a soak in the hot tub. You're noticing a lack of the word "pool" in that sentence, aren't you? Yeah, all the concern about pools and I am barely using them. That may change. The treadmill is fine, but I have days, like yesterday, where I am walking fine and then something starts to hurt, so I stop. The treadmill is going to do damage. The pool isn't deep enough for me to do any walking with resistance, but I could swim as cardio. I have other cardio options as well. Lynnwood has this device called a Windjammer (see picture) - it simulates the action of cranking sails on a racing sailboat. In other words, it uses the arms to do cardio. I'm up to seven minutes with no resistance, and, yeah, I can feel it. Eventually I'll add resistance, maybe after I hit 10 minutes. I'm going to get guns yet!

Speaking of which, I am so enjoying my weight training. I never liked it before, I mean, it was okay, but for whatever reason I'm really liking it now. Maybe I'm just doing it right or something. I don't have much structure, I just go from machine to machine, device to device. I'm getting a lot of variety and that feels good. I try to add a new machine every time. I'm trying to add more reps. Mostly, I try to not interfere with what others are doing. I've moved away from the free weights to the machines, same work out and you don't get stepped on by the roid-heads. I'm working mostly on my pecs, bi-cepts and back - I want some visible results so I'm going for the big three. I'm sure the other muscles are getting some work along the way.

If I could only get more structure to my diet. I feel like I'm wrestling a bear. I think I'm doing okay, but it feels odd. I'm intaking more carbs than when I normally diet, but less than when I am off my diet. I'm eating out a lot, but I'm making good choices. The scale says I'm down, but only a bit, and that's the scale at home, the scale at the gym adds ten pounds, I don't know what to believe. I think I'm just going to attempt to keep up going to the gym, try to keep making good food choices and ride the bear until it throws me off. This is all new territory for me and I need to get used to it before I try to saddle it with a routine.

My mantras are "Slow, Steady, Repeat." and "Less Flab, More Fab!" - we'll see if they work.

What Aqua Aerobics?

I woke up yesterday with my legs really hurting. After like three minutes on the elliptical machine the day before, my legs were more than just a little strained. As soon as I can walk again - I'm gonna kick that elliptical machine's ass!

So, I got up at like 7, got breakfast and was on the road by 8. The Aqua Aerobics class was at 9. I forgot just how bad morning traffic in this town can be - I got to the gym at 9:02. Lesson learned. So, I poked my head in just to see what the class looked like: the class looked like 3 old ladies on pool noodles. I don't know if the class was late or what but I didn't see any aerobics.

To counter this, I jumped on the treadmill for 30 minutes. I didn't go hard or fast. I just hoped that walking would ease the pain in my thighs. And, it did. For a while.

I then lifted some heavy things. I love lifting heavy things. I want to lift many more heavy things. I want pecs and guns and and and elbows and ... ?

By the time I was done lifting, my legs were starting to tighten up. I kept getting up and walking between sets of lifting, but that didn't seem to help much.

I jumped in the shower and headed to the pool. The lanes were open. I haven't swam laps in a couple of decades. When I was a kid, I was chubby, but I could swim like a fish. Yesterday, I swam more like a buffalo. Actually, my swimming more resembled water-boarding. I need a lot more work. I made two laps in about 25 minutes. I had octogenarians lapping me on both sides. I will work to get better.

I moved to the hot tub and that finally loosened up my thighs. I stayed there until I raisined up. Showered and went to lunch - Indian Buffet, yum! I controlled my portions, but it wasn't easy. By the time lunch was done, I was gimping along. By the time I went to bed, I was using the cane. I'm surprised I got any sleep.

My legs are better this morning, but they still hurt. I'm taking the day off. I think I'll go back tomorrow. I think I just did too much too fast. The scary part is that I felt at the time I wasn't doing enough. I guess going from 0 to 25 with flat tires will do more damage than intended. Thankfully I didn't try to go 0 to 60!

Just keep swimming ...

A few weeks ago my doc told me to find a swimming pool. I have to exercise. My knees and ankles have taken a big hit from the gout (btw - I'm 30 days into the 60 day treatment that should cure the gout permanently and haven't had a problem since I started!) With the damage I've gotten from the gout, normal exercise is really tough. The doc suggested water aerobics, swimming or even just walking in the water - there's resistance there with less impact.

I started looking around. Most area public pools (Socialism at its finest!) have been closed. Great. The few that are open are scary expensive. One in Seattle charged $5 for a hour session and $4 for a shower! Even at $5 a session, three times a week, that's $60 a month. The YMCA is nearly that expensive and they, too, have fewer facilities and most of them in Seattle - I'm a suburbanite. After looking at that, I decided to look at Bally's - my ex-wife and I had memberships for years. We paid our dues long after we stopped going, but we had memberships! Bally's had a web special. The high end was $30 a month and I can go to any location nationwide - not that I'll be going to gym's all over the country, but the option is there. (The low end, one location only, was $21 a month - not bad compared to the public pool above.)

I joined. I'm out of work, sitting on my ass - I might as well go to the gym. I might cancel my WoW subscription to cost justify half the gym membership. But, $30 a month seems like a pittance to pay for better health. My meds cost me $180 for 3 months and that's after insurance. I get the weight off, I can drop the meds, too.

Today was the first day. I got a free session with a trainer, who proceeded to kick my ass! In all seriousness, he ran me through a reasonable routine that I will likely adopt, with the exception that I want to do most of my cardio in the pool. He put me on an elliptical machine for three minutes and my knees are still wobbly. The cardio made me want to die - the weight training, conversely, felt awesome! I can see how someone could get addicted to that. Also, even though I was there at a less busy time, that gym had one amenity the last Bally's I used did not: lotsa hot chicks! Yow! I wanna lose weight just so one of them will look at me!

After the death march through sexy momma town (I kid!) we went back to the trainer's area and I jumped on their scale. They actually had a scale that could weigh someone my size - impressive! It was bad. 461 is the number. I knew I was back up to 450, but that extra 11 hurts. The edema on my legs is really bad. But, I'm doing something about it, so, hopefully that number, and the edema, won't be around for long.

As a treat, I showered and jumped in the jacuzzi! Oh man! That's worth $30 a month right there. I might go now and then just for that. I think the group of old Asian women in the tub thought I was Godzilla - they left at speed - but once in the water I just could not think of a reason to care about what they thought!

For breakfast I had my diet standard: bananas & soy milk, today with some raisins and a little Splenda. Yeeeeah - that work out burned through that jazz. By the time I left I couldn't send a text message because my hands were shaking. I went to a local favorite Chinese restaurant and had Chicken and Snow Peas. The lunch size portion was perfect! I didn't eat the rice but I ate the soup - egg drop. The price was right, too. In all, a good first day on the diet.

Dinner tonight is BBQ chicken, light on the sauce and salad. Breakfast tomorrow will be the same bananas & soy milk - but I think I will add a Slim Fast bar on the way to class; my first aqua aerobics - at 9 AM! Wish me luck!

The Problem is Kidney Shaped

The good news is that I've lost another pound, down to 418. That's after eating whatever I've wanted this week - just not caring. The doc called me this morning with the blood test results from last week; my blood sugar was at 72 (!) and my A1C was 6.0. These are pretty incredible numbers.

However, there is bad news. The doc says my gout has gotten really bad. She thought last week that the gout might be getting to my other joints and this would explain why I've been having trouble with my feet, ankles and knees. The blood tests show my gout is worse than that. It's gotten so bad it's hitting my kidneys. The doc says she thinks it's reversible, we got it early. But, it's my kidneys so it's serious. Apparently I also have some type of infection - no shock with my kidneys taking a hit.

So, the doc is giving my an antibiotic and some gout meds and she wants to see me next week. I'll keep you all up to date.

Worried

The good news, I guess, is that I just hit 419. I wanted to be more excited about this - getting beyond 425 has been a big psychological barrier for me.

However, losing 14 pounds in one week seems unhealthy.

It's possible that it's all fluid. I have indeed spent another week with my feet up because my left ankle is killing me. But, that's a lot of weight. If it is just fluid, it's likely to come back. So this number, while an incredible thing, is likely to be a short term victory. Or, if I have lost a lot of muscle mass from doing nothing for weeks on end, it could be the beginning of a whole other set of problems.

I'm going to try to see the doctor sometime this week. Maybe we can sort this out. Why must my body fight me so?

Edema-B-Baaa-aack

Yeah, 433. The edema is pumping back up on my legs. I also have not been the best recently on my diet. And, with my feet still bothering me there has been nothing resembling exercise.

I'm not giving up. I'm just watching hopes of breaking 425 before seeing my doctor vanish on the horizon. Too bad.

On the bright side, even when not sticking to my diet, my portion control has been on, on, on! (Frankly, my portion control has come down to "Wow! I feel full!" after comparatively little food.) Little victories.

As I suspected ...

The edema on my legs has re-inflated a bit. I think that will account for the extra pound this week. I expected it, frankly, I expected more. But, one pound of additional fluid is more than enough, thankyouverymuch.

My big fear is that the edema will continue to inflate and the pounds will come back more and more, hiding any real progress I might have made. We'll see.

My feet and ankles are finally back to the point of being able to walk short distances with no discomfort. However, medium distances are still problematic. On Saturday, I went a bit carb crazy - but I also did a bit of walking and driving. Nothing outlandish - walking from the car to the movie theater kind of thing. Just that little walking made me want to go home and put my feet up.

Nothing about my weight loss journey is going to be fast or pretty. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming ....

Edema-B-Gone

Whoa. 430 - wow ...

I used to think that large weight drops were a required and desired part of the dieting process. Now I fear them. I know that the likelihood is that I will go back up. So, I'm trying not to get too happy about this number.

I think the majority of the weight loss over the last two weeks has been in edema. Since I've been laying around with my feet up - my feet and ankles look great! My calves used to be hard, now they are spongy. I think I've lost a lot of fluid.

My ankles and feet are still hurting. But, not nearly as much. I still hate my feet and ankles.

On the real weight loss front, I had a fun discovery. I sat in my car, something I hadn't done for a while, and I noticed something different. My tummy wasn't brushing against the steering wheel. In fact, I could put my hand between the wheel and my tummy without touching. That was impressive to me!

So, we are making some progress. I'm just worried that I won't be able to hold onto this number. We'll see.

Hate my Ankles

So, a week ago Monday, that evening, my left ankle started bothering me.

From there, I have basically spent most of the following week in bed. Once the one ankle kicked in to killing me, the other one followed. At one point, my new housemate handed me a cane and looked at me like I was an idiot. The cane did indeed help. But, yeah, I really didn't leave my bed for a week.

I know what it is, it's my tendinitis. It just sucks. Okay, I know that I have gone well and above the designed weight for my ankles, but I'm losing the weight! If my body keeps putting me on the couch, I'm never going to be able to lose the weight!

I rarely ate this week. When I did, I ate whatever I could get. This shit really damages my health.

No weigh in this week. We'll see if I can get back on my diet and try to weigh in this coming Monday.

Fifty! Fifty! Fifty!

Woot!

I weighed in at 448 this morning. This makes me quite happy! As a certain vice president of the US recently said, this is a big fucking deal!

I'm still scary fat, so why does this number matter? Well, nearly six years ago, I started the Adkins diet. Just about four months later, I was down 50 pounds. By December of 2004, I was off the diet and really never successfully got back on. In September of 2006, I started having heart issues and from there lots of other issues showed up. My diabetes got worse and I got heavier and heavier. At my worst, I weighed 517, I had regained all I had lost and added nearly 50 more.

After the heart issues showed up, I started kicking myself for ending my diet. If I could have stayed on the diet, I may have prevented the heart issues altogether. When I started my current round of dieting at the beginning of 2009, which this site tracks, I had magically managed to get back down to 500, actually 490. Then it fluctuated all over the place, including back up to nearly 500 pounds.

In the last year and a half, I have lost my job of eight years, gotten divorced and moved twice - nothing stressful there, right? However, I've also gotten my meds changed to a combo that, when I watch what I'm doing, allows me to lose weight. Some mixed blessings there.

So, here I am, fifty pounds down. I have made the same accomplishment I made nearly six years ago. I have overcome all the crap and stress and U-turns I've made in that time. This is a big psychological deal to me. Next number is 425, which is the number I got to six years ago - also a big psychological goal for me. Then, at 400, I will finally make the goal I thought I was going to reach nearly six years ago, not to mention being 100 pounds down. Hope to be there by the end of the year.

Fifty pounds. I just like saying the words. I've been fat most of my life. I think I am finally in a place where I can get the weight off. One week at a time. One weigh-in at a time. You guys have helped me out a ton here. Thanks and wish me luck!

Off to eat some fruit salad and barbecue some chicken!

Too Chicken

I did okay last week.

I blew it this weekend - whoo-boy! Chinese food Friday night. Saturday night was the buffet at a casino and I ate the WHOLE buffet. It was so bad I woke up with a carb-hangover Sunday morning. (I had a head ache, body aches, dehydration and a sour stomach - what would you call it?) Sunday was hair-of-the-dog - more sugar. I ended the stupidity with a scary large Midnight run to McD's. It was not pretty.

I'm too chicken to get on the scale. I'll check it next week if I behave. I did check my blood sugar - 125. Thank goodness for Januvia!

I'm back on today - whatever that means. I've got bruises on my ass from falling off the wagon. We addicts are gluttons for punishment.

Wow. Okay. Time to get serious ...

The last few months have been kinda crazy for me.

As you can see from my last entry in February, I'm a bit stressed. The lack of a job thing is messing with my head a lot. We have now crossed the one year jobless mark.

To celebrate that year - I moved. That wouldn't stress me out further, would it? Of course it did! I hate moving! But, my apartment was kinda expensive. So, I moved in with a friend. Now all my stuff occupies a small bedroom and a Public Storage unit. It was hard. Moving is bad enough but deciding what to take, what to store and what to just throw away was really tough. Plus, in order to save money, I had to spend money - I had to buy a new bed because mine was too big and then I had to pay movers. In the end, it will be worth it, but it was stressful.

To top it all, I battled my feet and ankles for nearly a month. There were days I hobbled and days I couldn't even get off the couch. When you have to move your life but your body is preventing it, well, let's just say the stress got higher.

The bad news is that no, I didn't diet. I ate like crap. Had to at times - I couldn't drive to even go get Micky D's much less full groceries. Lots of delivery pizza was consumed. So, yeah, I'm sure I put my body on a serious diabetic roller coaster. I know I certainly didn't feel terribly well at times.

The good news is, well, kinda shocking and somehow not shocking. I got moved, magically, through all the stress and my feet healed up just enough, right on time. It was a scramble, but I'm in a new place and a storage space and I'm saving money.

That's not the shocking part. The shocking part is that my right foot, a.k.a. "The Football," has shrunk - it looks like a normal, albeit large (I wear a size 16 shoe) foot. The edema has drastically retreated. Why? Well, I guess I got some exercise while moving. All the up and down the six stairs in front of my place. All the lifting and toting. The foot has a bunch of loose skin, but the edema has vanished. Now, I still have it on my ankles and calves, but both of my feet look pretty good.

This was encouraging to me. It showed me I needed to get serious. So, last week, I got back on the horse. It's been a rough week. My housemate has no problem with carbs and the house is full of them. But, I managed to resist - today marks the beginning of week two. I didn't weigh in last week, but I weighed in today: 453. That is the lowest I have weighed, by two pounds, since I began this diet in 2009. It's the lowest I've weighed in years.

So, I am determined to continue. I want the weight off. I want to see 400 by the end of the year. It's a pound and a half a week. It means staying on the diet for more than three weeks at a time. It means getting some exercise. Luckily, I moved into a house and there is plenty of yard work to do. Did I just say luckily? Oh boy ...

I blew it.

No exercise.

Major cheating.

A month of progress gone.

I'm back on today. We'll see if that means anything.

No Pizza - but some Cheats ...

I didn't order the pizza. TeresaLynn was correct: had I ordered the pizza, I would have felt terrible the next day. I call it a carb-hangover - something no one needs.

I was good all week. No exercise to really speak of. However, I did have a VERY busy weekend. This resulted in some delayed meals and two trips to McDonalds. So, yeah, it was a cheat. If there is good news, it's the fact that both trips to Micky D's were portion control wins. When off my diet, a trip to the Golden Arches is a bag of full of food. Usually two big sandwiches or one big sandwich and two to four small sandwiches, plus fries & pies and a big soda. $12 to $17 dollars for one meal is no shocker. The last two meals were each under $9. A single sandwich (a quarter-pounder and a double quarter-pounder respectively,) large fries and a large drink. And, I was very full! Next trip to McD's I will try to get a smaller fries and a diet drink. Someday I would like to get to one of their Mini-Meals. But, for the moment, we will call it a cheat-win!

So, I took off another 2 pounds. I plan to get some exercise this week and keep chugging along! Woo-woo!!

Holy Crap I want Pizza!

I have wanted pizza for like three days. I don't know why - I just do. And it's like a crazy obsession thing. I remember getting this way about donuts a while back. I don't know what the deal is - I want a large pepperoni, mushroom and meatball pizza from a great local pizza place. It's an excellent pizza and I'd have it in about 20 minutes.

Twenty minutes, about the time it's going to take to make the chicken I currently have cooking in the kitchen.

I've had some portion control wins recently. Had a good one last night. Made just enough chicken and veggies for one bowl. I was perfectly full afterward.

But I have been hungry all day. Eating whatever comes into reach. Luckily I hit the store yesterday and most of the stuff in the house isn't too bad - in moderation. The portions I've eaten today ..... not so much.

At least I haven't ordered the pizza. And the 2 liter of Coke. And the bread-sticks. And the tiramisu!

PIZZA!!!

As the Gout Turns ...

It seems the "acute attack" of gout is lessening. I can almost bend the toe fully and it doesn't look like a small, purple balloon anymore. I can walk almost like a normal person again, so the resume of exercise is around the corner. I am also down two more pounds without exercise, powered mostly by some portion control wins.

All in all, good news.

I had french fries yesterday - it was a British-pub themed restaurant, so they were actually "chips." And onion rings. But, I kept them to a minimum and I didn't go buy any cake afterward on the theory that "Well, I've already violated my diet ..." - that kind of thinking usually gets me in trouble. Not yesterday. I'm getting stronger.

I'm not excited about it taking the better part of a year, at my current rate, to hit 400. Two pounds a week seems slow compared to previous 14, 10 & 5 pound weeks. But, once we resume exercise we should see some faster results. I'm not complaining, I just want to reach my goals. They seem so far out there.

They're coming. I'll get there. It's only January.

In the win category, I got into a couple of tee-shirts this week that I thought were going to be too small. My big problem with shirts is my belly. It hangs low and is apron-like. I wear a size 6X tee-shirt to get a long enough shirt to come in below the line of my belly. Also, a larger shirt flows around my belly instead of stretching around and making me look like a sausage! I noticed that a couple of my shirts were flowing better than average. I tried on a couple of older 6Xs that had shrunk with time - they fit pretty good. I tried on a 6X made by a different manufacturer that had been WAY too sausagey when I bought it. It was indeed better, but still too tight. That's okay, it will be a good indicator as I go down. The best thing about that last shirt is that it's even longer than the others. I worry as I lose weight that the skin of my belly will droop - I know it's not a pretty thought, but I can't afford surgery just yet and I hate to tuck! Talk about making me look like a sausage! Tucking is the worst!

I live in Gout.

So, the left big toe issue is not tendinitis. It's gout.

That's right, gout. That would be a disease we usually only associate with old people ... from the 16th century! Benjamin Franklin had gout - probably from all the beer! Turns out, even dinosaurs suffered this lovely disease! Meat-eaters - go fig!

Anyway, my toe started hurting Sunday - out of the blue. (Which, unknown to me, is a symptom.) It got worse Monday. Tuesday the toe turned purple - not scary bruised purple, but swollen, shiny and not normal colored purple. I left a voicemail for the doc and I saw her yesterday.

She took blood samples to confirm, but she was pretty sure and since the meds she put me on are already lessening the pain - I think she got it right. The funny thing is that I have been blaming big toe pain on tendinitis for quite a while now - it was probably gout all along. If there is any good news, it's that I now have an excuse to add some cherries and blueberries to my diet - apparently they ward off the formation or uric acid.

Never a boring day with my body. But, once the meds do their job I can get back to the business of exercising and get more of the weight off. The doc says gout has nothing to do with the weight, Wikipedia says different. I say my body just hates me.

Hmmm ... I see.

Well, the scale says I'm down.

Don't get me wrong, that's good. But, after a double digit loss last week, two pounds is kinda a let down.

But, I'm not complaining!

Further, I know the culprit. I got on the treadmill Tuesday, but that was it. The rest of the week I have been fighting tendinitis in my ankles ... and my left big toe! You don't realize how much you rely on your toes to walk, until one hurts. *Sigh!*

I spent several months off my diet and did my ankles or toes bother me? No way. Of course they didn't! I'm trying to do something about my weight and my body throws up any roadblock it can to keep me fat!

Well, I was certainly hoping for a bigger number. But, two without exercise is nothing to sneeze at. I'll take it.

Hands up! Wheeeeee!

The Yo-Yo Roller Coaster has begun!

Yup. Here's the deal. I weighed in on the 1st at 484. Today's weight? 470! That's Fourteen pounds in like ten or eleven days.

Now, it's true, I have been a pretty good boy. The first weekend I was not great about watching what I ate, but since last Monday I have been cracking the whip on myself. Got some treadmill time in on Monday and Tuesday, played Wii for a couple of hours Friday. In all - not a bad deal.

But, more than a pound a day? Yeah, this is all edema and fluid loss. And what have we learned about this? Well, either next Monday, or the following Monday, I will likely put on weight. I'm due for a bad weigh in.

So, today we are down the slope on the roller coaster - but, we all know there is an upward hill coming!

Still, 470 feels better than 484! :)

Just checking in ...

This has, so far, been a STUPID week. But, as far as my diet goes, it hasn't been too bad.

The whole "talk of a contest" thing? Yeah, just talk. My fellow dieters abandoned me. No problem - it was going to be a lot of extra work for me. Now, I just need to keep track of myself.

I still need to work on my portion control. But, Monday and Tuesday I got on the treadmill. I'm about to go get on again. Then I'll do a bunch of house cleaning - I have a date tonight!

Monday, I ran myself through a gauntlet. I started off the day, much as I am now, checking stuff on the computer. I then checked my Sugga just to see, it was 140. I ate a Slim Fast bar, all of 200 or so calories. This was roughly 10 AM. I did some wall-ups, then did my treadmill for a half hour. Jumped in the shower. Went off to grocery shop as I hadn't bought groceries in three months! I got a phone call about a job while shopping, so, there I was, talking on the phone for 20-25 minutes while standing in the Kool Aid aisle. By the time I got home and brought in $250 in groceries and sundries, it was 5 PM. I was feeling a bit woozy. Checked my Sugga - 80! I probably shouldn't do that to myself!

Alright, time for breakfast. You all stay warm out there. Weigh in on Monday!

2010 is here like 2009 didn't even happen.

So, here we are. It's Twenty Ten. However, my scale says it's February 2009.

I've put on 30 pounds in three months, the scale this morning said 484.

I'm not shocked by this number. I have been WAY off my diet and living as if I don't care.

But, I'm vowing to pick up the pieces and try to get back on the plan. Let the Yo-Yo Roller Coaster commence!

I might have some buddies along with me this time. There is talk of a "contest" - we'll see where that goes.

It's an inauspicious start. Ugly. Hopefully it will get prettier as we go.

Wish me luck.