Thursday, April 5, 2018

TWO HUNDRED!!!!

Pounds, that is, something I haven't seen on the bathroom scale in quite a while.

When we moved here six months ago (already six months?) I was 230~240, depending on what time of day, day of the week, season of the year, and probably the phase of the Moon. I was also having a double cheeseburger, small fries, and medium Diet Coke at least 4 times a week, and would have KFC, Jack In The Box, Taco Bell, or other junk food an additional several times a week.

I've had ONE drive-through burger (Burger King) since we moved here, and that was the night I drove to DIA to pick up my wife on her return from the trip she made to SoCal some weeks ago. I still loves me some cheeze-burgers, but now when I get a burger, it's in a sit-down place like Smashburger, or my favorite, Vern's Place, up in Laporte. My wife doesn't care for Vern's, but their burgers are about the best I've had here. Sorry, but the closest In-N-Out is in Utah, either SLC or Ogden.

My target weight is 185, per my Doctors back in Long Beach, and my new Doctor and Cardiologist agree that would be a good weight for me to be at. The charts say 175, but my previous Doctor thought that would be a bit light for my build, and when I told him I felt better when I weighed 185, he said to make that my goal.

And I'm slowly getting there. My A1c is down to 6.8~6.9, much better than the 7.4 it peaked at when I was at Maximum Gross Takeoff Weight back in Long Beach. My hips and knees appreciate less to carry around, and I'm finding it's now much easier to squeeze into tight spots on the car to work on it. I'm no longer the "Designated Under The Dashboard Guy" that I used to be, but I can still do that type of work, albeit a lot slower than I used to.

And even though we're expected maybe an inch of snow tomorrow, Spring is really getting cranked up here. Our neighbor Sarah's flowers have popped up and are blooming, and the Iris and Crocus bulbs that 'came with the house' are through the soil and growing like weeds.

The landscape guy was here this morning, and did the first Weed-and-Feed application. With the rain coming tonight, I'd say he made a good choice to do it today. I went out and talked to him for a few minutes, and he said he had a dozen yards to treat today, and that the rain tonight should let the treatment penetrate into the grass where it will help bring it back.

One thing I noticed in the backyard was the multitude of small holes everywhere there's just dirt. I thought maybe they were from birds browsing for insects, but SURPRISE, the holes are from all the earthworms we have.

I haven't seen really big earthworms since I left Illinois in 1982. The soil in SoCal is mostly 'black adobe', about the consistency of concrete, and the earthworms there are much smaller. They almost need tungsten carbide tips on their little heads to punch through what passes as "dirt" in SoCal.

I'm working on a "6 month AAR" post, and hopefully I've have it done in the next couple of days......

10 comments:

  1. That is great news. The place agrees with you, but then again you knew it would. God willing, you'll stretch another ten or fifteen onto what your span would have been in SoCal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The first time we came here almost six years ago I wanted to move here.

      And when we got back to Long Beach, and saw all the trash alongside the road, and all the graffiti, I knew we'd eventually "get out of Dodge".

      Delete
    2. If you ever get lonely for home, you can just kneel down next to a car's tail pipe and breathe in.

      Delete
    3. yuk-yuk!

      I'll take the air here, thank you.

      Delete
  2. Congratulations on the weight loss. It has taken me eight months to drop 30 lbs. Another 100 to go.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. YOW....that's a BUNCH to drop!

      Just take it slowly. Too much weight loss too fast can really play havoc on your body "at our age"....

      Delete
  3. Congrats on the weight loss, Jim! I know how hard it is to lose weight...especially at our age. Well done. The last time I was down to 200 lbs was fifteen years ago.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The last time I know I was 200 was about 2006 when I got weighed for helicopter transport between the two Sea Launch ships I worked on.

      Delete

Keep it civil, please....

Gloomy, Gritty, Grey Day

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