Weight

Okay, Wyatt ( Support Your Local Gunfighter ) is back on the weight loss gig again after a vacation time splurge at the Jersey Shore in which he gained a whole four (!) pounds in two weeks. Hell, I could do that with one visit to The Olive Garden.

Wyatt inspired me to do something about my weight back in the spring when he was shedding pounds like Brittany Spears sheds underwear and now that he’s back to being serious about losing weight I’ve decided to join in the group of folks (friends I haven’t met yet) in an attempt to get very, very serious about dropping some (more) weight of my own.

Two summers ago (2006) when we were building the Aerie and I worked alongside of Don and Adam for nearly all of the process, I dropped down to around 210 pounds. That’s about what I weighed when Tery and I got married in 1972. She proved to be too good a cook, however, and I proved to have damn little will power. I ballooned up and reached as high as 250 along the way. Weight Watchers was helpful, but it’s tough to go to the meetings and be the only guy there. When you drop weight faster than the women (as guys are wont to do) they give you these dirty looks.

Anyway, I got down to 210 in August of 2006 and then the house was done and winter settled in. Hunting season ended and football season (the TV kind) captured my lard ass. By spring I was back up to 225 and heading higher. I made the mistake of staying mostly inactive for the summer of ’07 and when fall arrived I continued up to near 240.

This spring I started to shed some pounds as Terry and I participated in two or three bird walks a week and watched what we ate much more carefully as she pulled out the Weight Watchers cookbooks. I started keeping a record of weight loss in mid-June at which time I was at 232 pounds. It’s come off slowly since then with the exercise of birding, working in the yard and pushing away from the table. Realizing leftovers can be your friend is vital, as they say, “Cook once, eat twice (or three times)”.

I’ve gotten down to 217 as of this morning (Sunday) since I started keeping tabs. I’ve been lower at times during the week, but that was mostly water weight as I sweated it out under the hot summer sun. If I could kick my ice cream habit I could do much better.

This morning I signed up with a support team/pressure group of bloggers including RT (who, I am informed, is doing the record keeping this time round) and Wyatt. A little pressure goes a long way toward motivation as anyone who has ever had to work to a deadline will tell you.

We’ll see if this helps. My ultimate goal would be somewhere around 190. I haven’t been there since junior year in high school. That would be back in 1965-66. Yeah, I'm an old fart. Going to be older on the 17th.