Twenty down, fifty to go!

Back in the Summer of '10...

Just a quick personal update regarding the State of Skip. Summer is officially here. The weather in the (San Joaquin) Valley has been extraordinarily mild for June...low 90's. I'm sure there will be plenty of 100 degree days in which to swelter and bitch about later on.

So, Loretta and I started Weight Watchers a couple weeks ago. Not officially, ie, we are not paying customers. We simply resurrected the old WW materials, printed up some tracking sheets, and away we went. I actually began a diet regimen on the first of June similar to WW. I started the month at 256 pounds, an all time high for yours truly. Part of that was a lot of extra fluid from a prescription faux paux by my doctors (a new diuretic didn't work), and I swelled up like an early version of Porky Pig. So I went back to an old water pill. Now, after about 3 weeks, I'm at 235. Yes, most of it was water, but I am dropping some fat weight as well. My goal: 187. I figure three months to get down that far, maybe sooner if I start working out.

In addition to jumping on the WW wagon this month, my docs have put me on a home vital sign monitoring program (device). I have to weight myself, check blood oxygen, pulse, and blood pressure by means of a little box with a cuff and finger sensor as well as a scale. The info is transmitted to my Kaiser docs daily. Gotta do it every morning at 6:30 before breakfast. My after BP was doing well at about 115/75. Morning BP readings (before daily meds) tended to be higher, mine were running about 145/90. Now, they stay around 115/70 even right after I get out of bed. Might be the weight loss.

I'm quite sure that I won't have to take that pesky diabetes pill once the weight gets down further. Hopefully, the BP and cholesterol meds can go away as well.

I've also gone back to work, so that activity helps with losing weight and staying positive.

So how hard has it been to give up all my favorite foods, including alcohol? Not bad. When I get into the weight loss groove, it kind of becomes an obsession with me.

The pic is of steel cuts oats, something I have for breakfast at least a couple times a week. It's much more flavorful than regular oatmeal, a bit nutty!