Keith Bartlett

 

      ...nothing goes in a straight line.     For this week's weigh-in I had my first week of a weight increase rather than a decrease.  This didn't surprise me as my diet was off track and my weekly activity was down.  I didn't eat badly but I took in more calories than I was burning.  With that in mind I am making sure to reset my meal plans and get back to the times I am eating them.  Having my last meal between 3 and 6 PM has been important to my plan.  For the past year I was eating far too many calories, and bad ones at that, after dark and up until midnight.  As I lay in bed at night feeling a little bit hungry I simply tell myself that is the sound of fat leaving my body.       HOWEVER...  with this little set back I decided to slip in an opportunity to have a cheat day.  When I have a good weigh-in I am less inclined to have a cheat day because I feel that if I do I am taking a backwards s...

       In the fall of 1998 I went shopping at Target for a pair of jeans.  I thought I knew my size, as I thought I did when I bought pants in May of this year, but as I did this year I underestimated my weight and size.  In the fitting room I was mortified to find that for the first time in my life I had to buy pants in a 36 waist.  I still remember that upsetting fitting room experience.  I went home and got on the scale to see that I was something just over 180 pounds.            It shouldn't have come as a surprise that I had just reached the peak of my weight at that point in my life.  For several years before I was drinking up to four Mountain Dew per day as my "energy drink".  I don't think Red Bull was a thing yet and I am grateful for that.  Earlier in 1998 I had switched to bottled Starbucks Frappuccino, again three or four per day, to drink something "healthier".  I made bread at ho...

 ...the numbers keep going down.

     Monday's weigh-in marked 7 straight weeks of weight loss. It was less than the 2 pound minimum I targeted, however, the 7 week trend continues down and I will take any number as long as it is lower than the last one.  It was another week of lower calorie healthy food without a serious exercise boost.  I'm lifting light weights but I haven't gotten into any cardio.  That's something to work on.     The lower number was exciting and I continue to feel much better and more energetic.  The best part of this weeks progress came when I tried on a pair of pants that I had never been able to wear.  In May I bought two pairs of khakis in a size 36.  I didn't try them on before I bought them.  I assumed I only added 2 inches from the 34's I couldn't fit into anymore.  I took the pants home, put them on, and could not button them. It wasn't even close. I was too fat.  I was also too stubborn to exchange the pants or buy 38'...

     I was really looking forward to today's weigh-in and was pretty confident that I would get under 180.  There was a nagging thought, however, that the large lunch and dinner on Wednesday might have been too much. Maybe that extra Perfect Bar I had yesterday was going to keep me a few ounces from the goal.  Did I exercise enough? (No.)  I'm very goal oriented and I don't like missing my goals.  So when the numbers rolled to a stop like the wheels on a slot machine.....     It wasn't like a jackpot but it still felt pretty good to hit the goal. I know that from prior weight loss efforts that the first 10 is always the easiest.  I'm 10 down since I started the blog on August 9, and 15 since my high weigh-in back on May 24.     For this week I'm going to shoot for 3 pounds down.  My walking and running is limited by Plantar Fasciitis.  I love my Dr. Martens but the lack of an arch tore my foot apart.  I down...

    In January of 2017 I saw my doctor in California for a routine physical. I knew my weight was high but I didn't realize until that day that I was 204.  I had never weighed that much.  I had been on blood pressure meds since 2014 but they didn't seem to be helping.  I certainly wasn't taking enough responsibility for things I could do to manage my blood pressure and other out of balance aspects of my health.  Based on my blood work my doctor wanted to add "pre-diabetic" meds to my BP meds.  Adding new meds was not a step I was willing to take.     Based on all of this new information from my doctor I did start to take my health and weight seriously again.  When I had my appendix out in September of 2018 all of my blood panel numbers were in normal ranges, my blood pressure was normal and healthy, and I stopped the blood pressure meds.  My weight was down over 40 pounds from 204 in 2017 and I maintained the low to mid 160's until ...