BAM!!!!!

That may be a little premature, but I'm excited. When I weighed this morning... I was at a whopping 252 pounds. For some that may seem big, but for me, that brings my total weight loss for the year to... 30 POUNDS! I think that is pretty good considering that most of the month of January I spent "trying to cut back" without a real diet plan and lost only 5 pounds the whole month. Anyway, I started the year at one size pants and they were very snug (prompting my desire to lose weight in the first place). This morning, I tried on a pair of pants a size smaller... and they were snug, but I could get them on and could have worn them if I had to.

My goal for the year (the whole year) was 32 pounds. I am not resetting that goal until I reach it, but then I will be adding a Phase 2 to the Alex Montgomery Reclamation Project. The Phase 2 goal will be 20 pounds. This will get me to 230 which is a weight I was at about 4 years ago. I think this will be a weight I will be happy with and that I can sustain with a reasonable diet and exercise.

We shall see. Also, I understand at some point I will hit the proverbial plateau or wall (depending on what terminology you want to use) and am prepared for that and will focus on overall conditioning during that time until weight loss resumes, as well as re-evaluating diet to make sure I am eating enough to keep metabolism up and also to make sure I am eating the right foods.

Presidential address...

I will not watch the presidential address tonight. I have no desire to hear that man talk about taking over businesses (even ones that didn't take a bailout, not that it matters) or limiting the pay of executives (what in the wide world of sports does this have to do with the economy, sounds like simple class warfare and envy to me). He wants to let the treasury secretary take over businesses he deems need taking over with little oversight (him and 2/3 of the federal reserve board), none from congress (again, not that I trust those people, anyway).

Guess communism worked so well in Russia and Eastern Europe we should give it a chance here.

Sorry for the missed update.

I know you missed my weight loss update last week, and for that, I apologize.

Not much time for much detail, but I wanted to let you all know... I was at 257 last week and now I am at 255. That brings me to a total of 27 pounds lost for the year and only 5 pounds from my original goal. Once I reach that goal, I will be setting a new goal. Perhaps I'll shoot for another 20 pounds to get me to 230, which is where I was when I moved to Charlotte about 3 years ago (wow, I put on a lot of weight in a short time).

Please endure my little rant...

I try to keep things lighthearted here and leave the major theological and political fare for some friends that I believe do a much better job of discussing those things in print.  However, I just need to get this off my chest.

I do not like a big federal government.  Not at all.  There are a lot of areas in which I disagree with Thomas Jefferson (one major one being his deism and lack of respect for the Word of God), however, I totally agree with him on his fear of a large centralized government. I believe that any government big enough to give you everything you want is strong enough to take everything you have (I think that was Jefferson, but I may be mistaken).  One of the few roles of government that I see is to provide for the common defense.  This means a strong military that is well equipped and well trained to act as a deterrent to any sane country in the world thinking of attacking us or our representatives around the world as well as to defeat any countries swiftly and completely that are foolish enough to threaten our country, our representatives or our friends.

I think involved in this is also care for these people that sacrifice to serve in our military, and their families.  We have a veterans' care network.  I do not know how many of you are familiar with the Veterans Affairs network of hospitals, but I have recently become more familiar with them than I care to be through work for my company.  They are some of the least efficient, poorly organized outfits I have ever been associated with.  Perhaps the most glaring example of this I have seen was this week in Atlanta where the lack of organization left us fending for ourselves in trying to organize the work.  Even worse (we were getting paid to be there) is the ordeal that veterans have to go through there to get parked.  Due to what can only be called complete lack of planning, additions have been made to the building to the extent that parking is severely limited now.  Patients and visitors must use the complimentary valet parking system to park and go in to visit patients or to get in for their appointments.  We would arrive at 7:30 in the morning and there would already be a long line of people waiting to drop their car off to be parked and this line grew steadily until shortly after lunch (then people were waiting 10-20 minutes to leave because it took that long to get their cars back).  It was sad and angering (though, sadly, not surprising) to see how inept this government run program was in treating veterans, it's primary function.

Anyway, all of our veterans deserve far better than the standard of care they are given, but I won't go into all the garbage our government spends OUR money on instead of what it should.

Rant over, please carry on.

Thoughts from the VA...

Been at the VA hospital in Atlanta here for a few days.  Couple of thoughts and observations from my time...

1.   I am still amazed at how many doctors and nurses smoke.  Seems that they of all people would know the effects.  I understand that all people have weaknesses and issues, etc. and even the best pastors still sin, to make a comparison, but it just seems that people working in the health profession would not have that vice.  I have never smoked a lot, though I have smoked cigarettes in the past, but watching loved ones die of cancer was enough to make sure I never smoked again.

2.  Why do people with death wishes that choose to light a cigarette with an open flame and smoke a lit cigarette WHILE HOOKED UP TO OXYGEN insist on coming to sit next to me?  Sheesh, you may want to die but I have no desire to die in a fiery explosion right now so please take your ignition source and your tank of highly flammable pure oxygen and mosey on over somewhere else.

3.  The parking situation is so bad at this hospital right now that we have to arrive on campus before 7:30 to find a contractor parking space.  Due to daylight savings time, this means we are sitting there in the dark for thirty minutes or so waiting to start work.

4.  But don't pity us, pity the poor vets that come there for appointments, they have to drive onto the campus and wait in a line that winds around the employee lot to get their car valet parked.  By 7:30 the line appears to be over an hour long.  Apparently through poor planning or no planning, the hospital grew much faster than parking availability.  I'm generally a patient person, but I have to believe if I had to go for an appointment to that place, I'd start working up a good temper about a full day beforehand if not earlier and probably wouldn't let it go for a day or two afterwards.  That or tell the doc when he says I have to come in, "No thanks, I'll just die."

1 pound and other happenings...

I have to switch to weighing on Sunday for the next two weeks as I will be out of town the next two Mondays and not have access to my scale I have been using.  I weighed this morning and it shows I had gained a pound... I'm not too upset right now as last week, I checked on Sunday and had gained a pound from the previous Monday and then weighed Monday to discover that I had lost four pounds by then for a 3 pounds loss for the week.  Body weight fluctuates during the week and even during the day, so I really want to make sure I only weigh at same time on same day of week...  so I'll call it a one pound gain this week and move on from there and focus on finding ways to exercise this week while at the hotel in Atlanta.  Good news is that I will be out in the field and doing a lot of walking all day long.

Also, went to my niece's softball tournament yesterday, and she got into the first game, getting a great hit right over the third base bag (and had the girl on second been paying attention would have had an RBI).  She played first and got one out but it was a routine grounder to second and she made a routine throw to first that was right to her chest.  But, seeing the first basemen for other team drop routine throws, hey, she made a good play.  The second game was cut short by time.  Her team was up 11-2 but they only played 3 innings so no subs got in.  Bottom line, she is infinitely better than she was a few short years ago and she is continuing to get better.

Side note:  My 10 year old nephew was at a game across town and had a triple (he's about as fast as his nephew so he had to hit it a LONG way, or he had a double and an error and his mom didn't know the difference), so that was great.  The 11 year old nephew played at 3 but I was already on the way back to Charlotte by then.

Take a good look at me... I'm wasting away...

I thought I had lost weight this week as I went back to a smaller belt... then on Sunday, wore a pair of pants that had been too tight to even put on a few weeks ago (and they fit well).  Stepped on the scale this morning and saw that I had lost...

3 more pounds, bringing my total for 2009 to 21 pounds.  I still have 11 pounds to my original goal and then will probably set another goal.  I am happy with my progress so far and I think I shall celebrate tonight with a good long swim at the Y (now that I can fit into my bathing suit again).

As for my other goals... the reading plans of the Bible and Calvin's Institutes are going great.  I have fallen behind at times, but have been able to catch up and currently am on pace and am being refreshed and learning and seeing new insights and being provoked to thought through this.  The hiking has been put off for a while as I tried once and the extended walking cause issues with shin splints and ankle pain.  The running has been replaced by other forms of exercise, so I am disappointed I won't be running a 5K this year, but maybe I can do something else (get a bike??).  And as for the minor league baseball tour... have gotten great feedback from folks and looking forward to sharing this with them.  And I got to go to Clemson for a game against UNC-Charlotte and it as a beautiful day and a great game between two good teams.  Loved it.

I also started teaching high school Sunday school at church and am loving it.  I am starting to see that this just might be what God has created me to do in His kingdom.

Snow

I think for the first time since I moved back from St. Louis, I am experiencing a "real" snowfall.  This is not a wintry mix of snow flurries and sleet/freezing rain, it is actual heavy snow.  Now, it is only supposed to be 3-5 inches (which is enough to shut things down since we have little snow equipment for the highways), but it is nice.  

I had been planning to go to the grocery store to get normal things like sandwich meat, etc. (I stocked up on milk and bread yesterday though I'm not sure why, just that we are supposed to do that when it snows, I don't argue with the herd mentality).  Thought I could get to the store and back before the snow, but I waited too long.  It was snowing when I left and the only interesting thing about all of this... when I walked into the store, the floor was wet and (as Bon Jovi told us in the 80s...) slippery when wet.  Let's just say things were going along normal and then, "SON OF A..." and I'm on the floor.  Never seen Harris Teeter employees move so fast as when they came over to check on me.  I should have worked it for free groceries or something.