blogging again

I'm online again! My power adapter was on the fritz and I had to buy a new one to power the laptop to post to my blog! So, $89 later, here I am.

I've been eating pretty well, and walking a lot. My friend Allison convinced me to join Weight Watchers with her. I thought having a partner would help, and so far it has. We keep our food and activity trackers open on our monitors at work, and we can IM each other periodically to see how things are going.

More later.

tangible progress

I've been eating well this week (not perfectly, but well). I'm trying to follow the 90% rule for eating, so I eat well for 18 or 19 meals a week. The other 2 or 3 won't be the healthiest, but that's ok. I will never achieve perfection for a long period of time in this area, so it's better to just do the best I can 90% of the time rather than to eat perfectly for a few weeks and then eat like crap for another few. I've also been taking long, regular walks with the dog. My goal here again will not be to do this everyday, but to do it 5 or 6 days a week. Now that my work schedule is changing, I will be able to take morning walks every other week, and take evening walks on the alternate week. (I'm working 8am to 4:30pm one week and 9am to 5:30pm the next).

The scale today said: 342.

happy v-day

Happy Valentine's Day, everybody. It's just another ordinary day to me--the only action I might get would be due to Elling, my beagle, taking advantage of my leg. He's prone to do that every other week or so.

goal updates

Just got back from a 30 minute walk in the park with the dog. He's happy, and I got my exercise in. There's something so nice about not being in front of a computer monitor or a tv or listening to the radio for a few minutes and just being out in the stillness of that little patch of God's creation.

A few goal updates:

Health: I've been walking the dog a bit more. I need to work up to walking for at least 30 minutes a day of continuous walking. Walking is not only good exercise, it also resets the body's weight set point and cures depression. I also weighed myself on Sunday--348. Ugh. Well, at least it's better than 365 like in early fall of last year. I've also been eating better. I bought a blender to keep at work and I have a supply of soy milk, frozen fruit, and meal replacement powder to make smoothies for lunch. All I have to do then is bring some fruit and veggies. I stocked up on high-protein Balance Bars. They're 40% carbs, 30% fat, and 30% protein, and only about 45% tasty, but they were 50% off at Walgreens. Add those up and you get 195%. My ultimate goal weight is 195. Coincidence?

Spiritual: I will check out a church this weekend. I promise.

Social: A coworker walked up to me after work today and said "I want to talk to you about something. I don't have many friends. Do you wanna hang out sometime?" That's an exact quote. She's pretty cool and we get along great at work, so I'm sure we'll be compatible on that friend level. No, Mom, she's engaged.

I'm off to read for a couple hours before bed (one of my Educational goals). I heard authors Douglas Frantz and Catherine Collins talk about their book on Hugh Hewitt's talk show on the way home from work today and stopped by Borders on the way home to pick up a copy of The Nuclear Jihadist: The True Story of the Man Who Sold the World's Most Dangerous Secrets...And How We Could Have Stopped Him. Click here to see Hugh's February 12 blog entry about the book. I'll let you know how it was later.

One more plug...Check out my dad's new blog, Condensed Wisdom.

sore throat

Had (still have) a sore throat today. My voice is weak and I sound like I'm on my death bed. I'm really only feeling a bit lethargic, but I'm not sure if that has more to do with the sore throat or that I ended up not doing much of anything today. Now that my livelihood requires me to be able to communicate clearly over the phone, I'm hoping I'll be better by Monday morning. I've been drinking lots of tea with honey and lemon, resting quite a bit, and mainlining Cold Eeze zinc lozenges.

And let it be recorded here: Pats 27, Giants 13.