Success!

My first week on Weight Watchers was a success. I lost 7 pounds! Of course, part of that was probably because I ate quite a bit at a buffet the day before I began the diet last week, but it’s still pretty good. Now I only have 18 more pounds to lose to reach my goal of 200 pounds. Following the diet wasn’t too difficult the first week, but I think it will become harder the next few weeks because I have to take a few business trips to the Twin Cities in the upcoming weeks. It’s a lot harder to eat healthfully when dining out than it is to do so at home. Hopefully my weight loss won’t slow down too much in the next few weeks.

This weekend I had the chance to hang out with my friend Bill. I hadn’t seen him for quite some time. He has a nine-year-old son who is usually with him whenever we get together, but he wasn’t along today. It was nice to have some time for just the adults. After running a couple of errands that I needed to get done, Bill and I went downtown and played some pool and darts. As Homercles can attest, I’m not that great at pool, and my skills at darts are lacking some, but we still had a great time. I hope I get the chance to hang out with Bill more often than once every couple of months.

Sunday was an exciting day for me. Okay, exciting is probably a bit of an exaggeration, but something fun happened to me. One of my hobbies is tracking where my money travels using the website Where’s George? Well on Sunday I had a one dollar bill turn up outside the United States for the first time. Three years and eleven days after I first entered the one dollar bill, it turned up in Ramstein, Germany! I wonder if that bill will be reentered.

A Plan

Last summer I went on a diet and lost 33 pounds. I managed to keep the weight off until May when I started gaining weight back. I’d like to get my weight back down, but until now I haven’t really had any plan for how to do that. I’ve found that I have been eating too much when I am at work. Most days I end up buying some candy from the vending machine – usually some Chewy Runts. That candy is quite tasty. Sometimes I’ll even buy some Zingers after lunch. Well, in order to lose some weight, Mel and I are both doing on a diet. I think that the most important of a diet is simply having a plan. By knowing what I am to eat, it’s a lot easier to follow a diet. So, yesterday morning, Mel and I both started using Weight Watchers to lose weight. It’s worked for her in the past, so I hope it will work for me as well. Yesterday morning my weight was 225 pounds. I’d like to get down to 200 pounds or lower. That would be ideal for my height. I really think this diet plan will work.

Wedding Planning and the Autopsy

Yesterday Mel and I ordered both the flowers for the wedding and the cake for the reception. We also ended up buying some candles for the reception. We had been having a hard time finding exactly what we wanted. We needed unscented candles because a member of the wedding party is allergic to scented ones, and we wanted them in purple and green. It has been almost impossible to find colored unscented candles, but yesterday we hit the jackpot! We probably bought around forty candles at Hobby Lobby and they were on sale for 50% off! We don’t have quite enough candle holders for them, but we have a couple of months to find the rest of what we need.

I also had a chance to ready my father’s autopsy report yesterday. It really wasn’t that hard to read as it was written in such a matter-of-fact scientific manner. It confirmed that he died from a heart attack due to partially blocked arteries. What was interesting to find out was that he had previously had a heart attack. My mother did not know that either and possibly neither did my dad. I suppose it could have been something very minor that he didn’t attribute to a heart attack. Also, I learned that his heart was quite large. It weighed 600 grams, compared to the average weight of 350 grams. I’m not sure what the cause of this is, but I will be sure to mention it to my doctor the next time I go in for a routine physical, which Mel wants me to do soon.

Carpooling

Tomorrow I am going to begin carpooling to work. I have several coworkers who live within a mile or so from my house, so with gas prices as they are, it would be silly not to carpool. Not only will it be better for my wallet, but it will also be better for the environment. We would have begun carpooling today, but my coworker has to leave early this afternoon. When I taught in Riverside, Iowa, a few years ago, I carpooled to work. I don’t mind doing it, but there are some definite disadvantages. For one, we both have to arrive at and leave from work at the same time. If one of us should be caught in a meeting at the end of the day, both of us are stuck at work. Also, there’s the issue of what radio station, if any, to listen to. When I carpooled to work in Riverside, I became much more acquainted with the Backstreet Boys and N*Sync than I really wanted to. I like to listen to “Morning Edition” on NPR on my way to work and “All Things Considered” on the way home. Perhaps she’ll have similar tastes in radio listening. Finally, I sometimes run errands on my way home from work. Carpooling will make this more difficult. However, considering that it will not cost nearly $36 to fill my Saturn with gas, these are things that I am willing to sacrifice.

Now a brief report about the cat: I took Ike to the vet yesterday morning. He has a urinary tract infection and is obese. We have put him on a measured amount of dietary cat food and have to give him an antibiotic twice a day. Hopefully this helps him out.