July 1, 2025.    

Here I am again. Nobody will read this but I've slid the wrong way thanks to a sedentary lifestyle once more.

We'll keep this short and sweet:

7/2/2025 weight 364.4 BMI 48

GOALS:

1. 360

2. 350

3. 320

4. 300

5. 250

6. 200

TACTICS:

Walking - calorie counting - lean meat, veg, fruit, oat bran. Cut fats, salts, sugars, starches.

We'll see.

Time Flies. Or does it crawl? It seems that four years have slid by while I lived my life and didn't think much about this blog.  During those years a lot has happened, as will be true in any life. I am mostly in good healthy and happy.  Currently back in the weight loss world as I prep myself for a minor surgery coming up later in the year.

Nothing much else to say for the moment except that I've gone back to this blog to steal my own recipes and get some reminders and self motivation.

Maybe I'll get back into the good habit of posting here, as it definitely makes for a good motivator. Over 'n out!

2 new critics at my place. Yep.

So I haven't written a post in this blog in about a year.  I'd say it safely mirrors the amount of time in which I haven't thought about this sort of stuff, and that has had consequences for me.  I've put weight back on and slid right back into poor dietary habits, and less exercise.  The time has come for a redirection of things and to get back on track.

I'm planning to cut all the bad habits right off again as I did last time, and in fact, I am re-reading my own blog going.. yeah, I'm bad again, time to take my own advice.  For health, comfort, and emotional reasons I need to shed weight again and use the good tools I learned before to do it.

It's also taught me that I wasn't quite as changed as I thought.  It's a lifelong commitment to become healthier and when life got harder, I went back to the comforts of sitting at home, eating too many snacks, going out to eat vs. cooking, etc.

I think new year resolutions are gimmicky but it is a good time of year to get a clean start on things.

My near-future plans:

• Get some new walking shoes, and new walking-compatible work shoes
• Toss the existing snack food at home
• Budget, eat out rarely, cook more
• Make this a priority, not a "I should do this.."

Fact is I am very healthy apart from the number on my scale, but to stay that way that number and the physical fitness I will develop reducing it are important.

Nothing is certain in life but I know I FELT so much better when I was on the right track.

I doubt anyone is reading this any more and I likely won't push it to people but I am going to write here now and then to keep myself honest and we'll see.

If you DO read this, leave a comment and let me know.

Bye, all. ;)



Adios, 2012.

Our place, Xmas'd up.

We've reached the end of what has been a very tumultuous year for me.  There has been a very even mix of good and bad, and I am ready to move on to 2013 and get back to a more normal pace to things, if possible.

I started the year by heading out to Hawaii for the first time in my life with my Wife and 3 friends, enjoyed a lot of sunshine and sandy beaches while it snowed back home.  It was a fantastic start to the year.  I was down to my goal weight (for the time being) - and very healthy, and things were going amazingly well.

Not too long after we got back from that, we got the unexpected notice that our then-landlords had failed to pay their mortgage for the past several months, and it was quite likely they would foreclose.  It put pressure on us to make a quick decision about where to move - rent, buy?  We'd been living in the same townhouse for a very long time and were quite settled in.

In brief - we went with buy, and our real estate agent, a family friend, helped us patiently find a great house we've been in since May.  The combination of people who came together to help us make that transition between family and friends has been extremely touching, most definitely the highlight of the year for us.  I feel extremely lucky to know so many awesome people.  Extremely lucky.

Unfortunately, not very long after making our big move, we went through a quick-fire series of unhappy events.  We lost both of our cats for varying medical reasons.  My brother had to go to the hospital.  Several friends either let us know they were moving away, or went through troubling problems of their own which separated us for a while.  Our year which started in turmoil just developed more and more.

Things have thankfully calmed down in recent months, and we enjoyed a pretty awesome Christmas at our new house, with friends and family, as is our tradition.  We even attended a neighborhood cookie exchange and got to meet some of the neighbors, it's a good little community we've managed to settle into here.

The confessional part of this blog post is - I've put a few pounds on this year.  Not too many, as I've been pretty good about my diet and I do get out walking on a regular basis still - including numbers trail runs this year and a hike or two.  And oh yeah - a half marathing in the middle of the year!  But, I have gotten back to eating some things I shouldn't, and returned to a few bad habits I ought not have with food as well.

As cliche as it seems, my new year's resolution will of course be a return to good eating and exercising, and hopefully to updating this site on a more regular basis as well. There are a lot of great opportunities in our new area for walking and I plan to explore more of them.

Thanks to anyone who actually reads this stuff, I mostly do this to help keep myself honest and on track.  I hope everyone has a happy new year and that 2013 is a little more stable! The world didn't end in 2012 but it sure got shaken up a bit for us.

Evergreen Trail Runs

My most recent foray into the world of walking has been participating in a series of trail runs.  It started with a 5 mile trail run at Soaring Eagle.  These are held by Evergreen Trail Runs, who do this sort of thing all the time.  I went with Leslie, and we finished up the 5 miles (walking) - in about 90 minutes. Meanwhile, Parul ran the 10 mile version.. the bum. 

Here's a couple of mugshots for ya from the first trail run/walk.





Five miles on a trail isn't like five miles on pavement.  It means much more frequent elevation changes, winding paths, and obstacles like roots, rocks, fallen logs, etc.  This particular course started out on a broad well maintained trail which you can see in the second photo (which was taken as we finished, actually).  About a half mile in, it veered off into the woods though.

I found myself breathing harder, but we kept up a pretty good pace. Our official finishing time was 1 hour 45 minutes, but we started about 15 minutes late, thanks to traffic. It meant we were all alone for most of the course, too.  I peg us at 90 minutes, then, averaging a 18 minute mile. Not bad for tough terrain.

Every time I go on an adventure like this, I learn something. This time it was:

Carbs near the end = turbo boost.

Now - I'm not generally supposed to have carbs while on the Dukan diet at this phase. Then again, Dukan wants you walking 20 minutes a day.. I was above and beyond that a good bit (considering I'd already done 30 minutes earlier in the day before the tail run).

I was feeling pretty tired by the time we hit the aid station at the 4 mile mark.  When we got there, a really nice guy was manning the station with a friend of his. He said they both belong to a blues rock group called Ravenwolf.  I got some water, and then Leslie asked me if I wanted some M&M's.  My first thought was..

Candy, er.. no.  Then I asked, do they always have these? Leslie said yeah - it's quick carbs, it'll give you an energy boost in about 3 minutes. Prior to that, I was feeling worn out - I'd worked all day and then been walking 4 miles in the woods.

Sure enough - about 3 minutes after I had some, I got a definite energy boost. Leslie cracked at me, "Sure, sure, NOW you take the lead." Hey, Leslie - if you read this.. you know how you keep asking me if I want to go faster? You walk at my pace and above. If anything, I'm slowing you down.  As they say in that one place... you go, girl. 

There's also a fellow who goes on these runs all the time who is legally blind - and he completes them mostly without trouble. I really have no excuses for not doing these on a regular basis. :)

Consequently:

I went to the Dash Point 10K (About 8 miles) a little while ago, and completed it in 2 hours.

I am going to the Steilacoom run (See here) - on 10/21, another 10K.

OK, long post, sorry for the potential 'TLDR' here.

Monday Check In

Mornin, world.

Just a very short blog post today to check in and keep on track. After being back on plan for a little while, I'm seeing my weight creep slowly back down a bit, as expected.  Returning to better eating habits means shedding some water weight right off the bat. The trick now is to keep on target again and keep motivated, exercise, walk, etc.

I'm hoping to have some new recipes up online to share soon too, as we have a beautiful new kitchen at the house and I am eager to get into more home cooking again.  We made a fish recipe recently that was good apart from me underestimating the power of the new oven and overcooking it slightly.

I've got a whole new set of walking routes now that we moved too, so I'll have some photos of that to share as well.  I am going to get a post up in the next few days talking about some of the other things I've been up to lately.

Haven't got much else to say today so.. here is a pic of some clouds. Kaybye.



Dukan Reboot!



Click for Ze Big Version



Last week I started the Dukan Diet all over again, from the ground up.  Since ending my strict adherence to the diet in January this year, I put about 10 pounds back on and knew it was time to get back on track.

I didn't weigh in yet this week but expect to see that number dip down lower as I shed water weight, since I am back on a no/low salt diet.  I'm  not worried about putting 10 pounds on, since I know I have all the right tools and motivation to be able to lose it.  I also have the privilege of a lot of support from family and friends, and my very small number of blog readers (thanks for being here, sorry, there's no free beer.)

Putting things back into perspective is a good start for me.  I weighed 340 pounds at one point. Now I'm 260, and slowly falling. I've still managed to shed 80 pounds.  That's nothing to sneeze at.  Let me see.. how to best put that into perspective? The average weight of a thanksgiving turkey from the store is about 15 pounds. Let's call it 20 to be generous. That means.. if I wanted to replicate what it was like to be me at my heaviest right now, I'd need to..



Pick up 4-5 of these at once and lug them about 24/7!!!

Alrighty!

I feel sufficiently motivated now. :)

I have another tool in my arsenal, a new grill we bought after moving. I'm learning my way around it still - it's much better than my trusty ancient one I ditched during the move. Grilling is a fantastic way to cook healthy veggies and meats, no matter the time of year.  This one took about 4 hours to put together, has a nice little side burner. Nothing fancy, but it makes me happy.

We also haven't quite gotten to housewarming yet and a grill is downright necessary for that IMHO.

Over and out - wish me luck in round 2!

Some guy