219.8

I gained poundages and I deserve it. I broke into a bag of Robins Eggs yesterday while on my day off. For the uninitiated, Robins Eggs are malt balls with a hard candy coating. They are only available at Easter and I have been stocking up. I have eight bags stashed. Well, I have se7en and a quarter bags stashed.

So I knew my weight would go up. I feel properly ashamed of myself but I must say that they were REALLY good.

Staying Home

My weight got as low as 215 yesterday. I'm at 217 today. Other than a walk around the park, we weren't very active. And we didn't eat a lot either.

We are well into this "Stay at Home" phase of the Covid-19 pandemic. There is a headline in this mornings paper that says they project 1,400 people will be dead in Washington State by July First. That means the Stay Home order will definitely last beyond the original two weeks. 

Whether or not it will become stricter is yet to be seen. People are doing a pretty good job. You can park anywhere you want downtown at any time of day. There's just nothing to do once you park.

I see lots of people walking around the park, but they are all keeping their distance. Traffic is dramatically reduced also.

Oh, and gun sales are up.

The grocery store remains the one spot of human gathering. There is no authority driving around asking why you are out. At least here in Spokane. Other areas, such as California and New York are a little more battened down.

I have always thought that what we need for our church is another 9-11 event. That brought lots of people back to churches. Of course, I do not want anything like that to happen again and this event is far different. All the churches are closed.

We have decided we might as well get to work on the house. If we are stuck here at home, we might as well make the best of it.

218.0

Hallelujah! I have broken the very difficult 220 barrier. That of course means I need to be vigilant and not eat the wrong stuff today. 

I gotta tell ya, I am Jonesing for something sweet. I have already started hoarding my favorite Easter candy, Robins Eggs. I have four bags and I will be buying more.

So we are well into the season of Covid-19 mania. I haven't seen a stocked toilet paper aisle in weeks. Cold and Flu remedy aisles are also looking sparce but you can get stuff. I bought some Nyquil last night just to make sure we've got it. Most everything else seems to be available. 

The Governor has decreed a "Stay at Home" order which goes into effect tonight at 6:00PM. Both Susan and I are able to still work because our businesses have been deemed "essential". 

I'm not sure that is true but I'm happy to keep working. 

Fortunately, we have our saving to dip into and a good size tax return coming so we are not feeling too anxious about the next few weeks.

It seems to be a good time to be trying to lose weight. It's a bad time to be craving sweets.

220.4

I continue to stumble along the slow road to weight loss. I'm down a pound today after being up a pound. I would really like to break that 220 mark...replace that middle two with a one.

The one thing I have noticed that gives me any indication that I'm losing weight is that the tool belt I wear at work seems to be sliding down my waist. I'm not quite ready to make an adjustment to it, but a couple more pounds and I think I will be.

Now, all I need to do is lose a couple more pounds.

221.6

I seem to have plateaued. It's discouraging to know I did a bunch of yard work and didn't eat anything until dinner yesterday and still have gained a pound. It makes me want a candy bar really bad. 

But I shall persevere in the face of this minor setback and continue with the struggle, because that is what it's all about. Not the goal, but the journey. And hopefully, a little character building in the process.

The only encouraging thing is that after weighing myself this morning, I stepped on the old scale and immediately lost five pounds. I love that old scale.

Winter & Lent

Winter is like Lent. When it's over , you really have something to celebrate. Today was a great day to celebrate the return of Spring weather-wise. We have just returned from three laps around the park on our bikes.

Today's weight is 220.8 pounds. That means I've lost almost 12 pounds in 25 days. I bounced back up to 225 earlier this week and slowly made it back down to 220. I hope I can continue.

221.0

I seems as though I'm past the easy part of weight loss and now I'm at a point where I have to work harder at it. The problem is, I don't know what that means. 

The only thing I can do to work harder is to exercise more. I admit that is something I'm not doing enough of. So I'll up my efforts in that area.

However, everything I've read tells me that weight loss (or gain) is effected more by what you eat than by the amount of exercise you do.

I've been eating lots of meats, lean cuts of steaks and beef jerky. I'm also eating a lot of nuts. Pistachios and cashews.

I might need to lay off the wine, which I started drinking again on Friday.

But wine makes me so happy.

220.8

I am now a good two weeks into this diet and I'm down 11 pounds.

Last night was the first time I was able to drink wine since I started the diet. That of course did not include last weekend when we went off the diet during our ski weekend.

The CoronaVirus pandemic is top of mind for everyone now. All large concerts, sporting events and gathering have been canceled for the foreseeable future. Our church has canceled services for tomorrow and I guess we'll see from there.

So far, there are no confirmed cases of it here in Spokane but it's only a matter of time. Hopefully, all these precautions being taken will help to ameliorate the spread.

We plan to stay in today and watch the snow that fell overnight start to melt.

223.2

I seem to have bottomed out. I'm stuck at 223.2 pounds. I should give it a couple of days before I start complaining.

I went on a bike ride today and ran into the same issues I experienced on the ski hill. I have terrible stamina. I'm going to continue riding the bike after work every day and see if this is something I can get back.

Results from Decadence

We have just returned from a decadent ski weekend where Susan and I went off our diets. We ate forbidden food, we drank beer and we swore a lot. 

We returned last night, weary and ragged.

This morning, to my surprise, I weighed 223.2...the same weight I was on Friday when we left. I am pleased by this result but surprised as well.

One thing that skiing on Saturday brought to light, I am waaaaay out of shape. We only skied 5 runs. We started at 11. We were done by 2PM. 

Usually, the worst part of skiing for me is getting from the car to the lodge. Once I'm on the hill, it's all gravity and life is good.

This time, I felt the burn in my legs after just a couple of turns.

I have to get out and walk more and start riding my bike.

225.4

I am se7en days into my Lenten Diet and I'm down se7en pounds. That pleases me greatly. I think the main factor in my weight loss is not drinking beer. I take in a lot of carbs with my beer drinking.

The other portion of my diet is going well, I think. I'm not starving but I am craving sweets. I'm trying to be tough about it. I haven't fallen off the diet at all except I had some low fat yogurt that might have had too much sugar in it. The fact that it had any sugar is the bad part. After all, the diet is no sugar, no grains.

My goal for this diet is to get down to 210 pounds. I will settle for 215 but if I can get to 210, I will eat my face off with joy.