Keith Bartlett

While the goal was to lose 50 pounds from June 30 to Christmas, getting sick in November and December limited me to losing 35.  I don't like missing targets, but I'll take it as a win.   For 2026 the goal is to lose 25 more, for a total of 60, by May 1.  60 pounds in 10 months.   Let the skating resume.  

  A lingering cold slowed my progress in November making it now impossible for me reach my goal of losing 50 pounds by Christmas.  Rather than celebrate the 35.2 pounds I've lost in 5 months, I spent Thanksgiving week berating myself about missing my goal.  This week I am choosing to focus on the positive and work to lose the 4.8 pounds in the 3 remaining weeks that will put me down 40 pounds.

 

 

Moonlight Rollerway, Glendale California  

19 pounds to go in 52 days.   For November, I've doubled the daily workout goals for a push to the finish line.  

119 days, exactly 30 pounds lost.  I'm thinking maybe I should move the goal from 50 to 60.  Why not? Lose 60 pounds for my 60th birthday.  Yes, yes, I think I will. 

Less than 1 pound to lose to have dropped 30 pounds.  I'm pressing the calorie burn into high gear for this this weekend.  

The further I can get away from 170, the better.  

 

Getting back in the 160's will be a big mental boost for me.  I haven't been in the 160's since December of '23.  

 

    Even though my exercise output slowed in September, the rate of my weight loss still has me on track for 50 down before Santa comes to town.    

 

The primary reason I do not take "cheat days" when I'm in a fitness routine is that it takes more days to get back on the path than the one I spent wandering from it.  My Labor Day cheat day turned into two weeks of weight gaining, stomach gurgling, blister busting delay.  I started with a Labor Day doughnut binge. Krispy Kreme had a buy a dozen get a second dozen for $2 deal. I mean, if you're going to cheat, go big or go home.  However, the short diversion into a sugar coma came with a longer recovery. I added five pounds to 182 that week. The week after that I was down with a mild illness after also getting a nasty skating blister on my ankle bone.  I haven't skated for 10 days.   This week has been a return to the drill. I've been walking every day and keeping a 20 hour fasting schedule.  I hope I'll be back on my skates this weekend.  

30.6 pounds to go.

 

The Apple Watch is a highly motivational little device. There is not a chance that I would have walked and skated a combined 32 times in July without it.  Weight lost in July: 10.8 pounds.

When I think back to 1999, the first time I lost 60 pounds, the program was pretty straightforward. My diet was very strict: bacon, eggs, steak, water and NO caffeine. The exercise? Skating. Hours and hours per day of skating. But, that was 1999.  I haven't skated in about 15 years. This morning was my eighth time out on my new skates. If it's supposed to be like riding a bike, well, I may not have forgotten but there are definitely a few things for my muscles to relearn. The first few times out I thought maybe I should have gotten a bike. But, no bike. If it worked in '99, it will work now. I am gifted with a foundation of good health. The only thing different this time is the calendar. I'm committed. And skates are faster than shoes.