Friday check in, and some thanks.



Prik King. Spicy! Tasty. Silly name.

 Howdy, peeps. It's Friday, the wind is blowing, and it's pretty gross outside. Nevertheless, I took 3 walks today, since I got here early enough to sneak in a bonus.  I went down to Noppakao thai for lunch to meet Leslie and she promptly told me she did 160 minutes of exercise today.  That woman is kicking ass!

This weekend marks the first fall storm really, and it's looking to be a nasty one. I'm going to have to shift to more indoor exercise myself, so we'll just see what I can figure out.

I'm getting pretty damn close to a milestone in my diet.  Every day is a new challenge for me and I like to look at it that way.  Pretty soon, I am going to move into what I am starting to think of as 'phase 2.5' of my diet, where I will introduce some new exercise activity, etc.  I'm definitely feeling energetic enough for it and it's exciting to be there.

What is most important to me is not looking skinnier, but feeling better, and watching my healthy.  Diabetes runs in my family and I do not have it, and losing the pounds is a pretty good way to help lower the chances I will develop it at some point.  Have to take care of my heart, too, as troubles in that area can come from weight problems too.. already I am looking at pictures even from earlier this year going, "Wow. I can't believe I didn't make a more serious effort to get healthier before this."

So back to my milestone comment. Here's a little picture->

The real start of my uphill struggle was almost 2 years ago at 340 pounds.  I was only down to 321 after over a year and a half of going to the gym halfheartedly and walking occasionally.

At this point - I've lost an amazing (to me) 68 pounds, and 49 has come off just since the end of August, and the start of me taking this seriously.  I'm about to hit my 50 pound milestone, and that makes me feel awesome, and a bit emotional.

Thanks again to anyone who reads this blog, and to my friends and family who have been pretty awesome support so far.  I don't really think I could have done this without you folks.  I've even had support at work, a few compliments here and there, people asking about my diet, and my friend Trudi does 2 walks with me most work days.  She says we'll be jogging in no time. We'll see. ;)

Most importantly thanks to my lovely wife, Dawn, who has been utterly supportive and helped me make good food choices for quite some time now.  You're awesome, honey!

I'm lucky to have such a fantastic bunch of people in my life. :)