A Starting Point

I went to the Doctor (continuing migraine issues) and they weighed me. It took a crane, of course. I weighed in at 321 pounds.

My goal for the year is two-fold.

"Reasonable" goal - 280 pounds. I have found that to be a cut-off. When I am under 280, I feel lots better and can do lots of stuff.

"Hallelujah" goal - 250. Keep hope alive.

I am joining Morningside College fitness center tomorrow. They have a pool, a jogging track and other fitness stuff.

I need some liniment

I survived the basketball game. But tomorrow and Saturday I am not sure I will be happy about it.

This Could End Badly

Dennis Gallagher just called - wants to play basketball today. I coach basketball. I watch basketball. I do devotionals at halftime of basketball games (at church). But it has been a long time (and a lot of pounds) since I have played basketball.

The other players are, of course, Dennis' boys (starters on high-school basketball team) and Ben, who could have been a good player had he not broken my heart and chosen singing and dancing over basketball.

If I do not blog for several days, weeks or months, you will know I am recovering from whatever I broke during the game.

My Beautiful Black Suit

I was going to wear it to the Christmas Eve service last night.

I was only about an inch and a half or two inches away from buttoning the waist.

Either need to get onto this exercise thing, or I need to buy a bigger black suit.

An Idea from an Unexpected Source

My son, Matt, is home for Christmas and he gave me an idea about weight loss. It is one I am going to try. Matt has never been a font of wisdom - his ideas have usually run more toward, "Let's blow this up and film it" or "Let's see what we have to do to get kicked out of Walmart" or even, "Let's stage a kidnapping at Hy-Vee and see how people react." (By the way, the answer to the last question was BADLY.

So, anyway, he mentions this website called sparkpeople.com which offers a lot of diet monitoring help. You enter your food intake and other information and it tracks your calories, fat intake, etc and makes suggestions (like, perhaps - "the fourth piece of turtle cheesecake was a bad idea." )

Anyway, I am going to sign up on Spark People and try to be faithful in entering my food intake. It might be interesting to see how many calories a day I am actually consuming.

Loser or Loser?

We spent the week at Ben's musical (he was fabulous in "Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat"). I ate reasonably, but have not exercised at all. There just wasn't time. I am hoping that when his play and Madrigal (next week - I will be appearing in tights!) are over, I can get back to a reasonable schedule.

I am considering several exercise options, but have to stop thinking and start doing.

I want to be a big loser (of weight), not just a big loser!

Winter in Iowa

I have done a little better this week in terms of eating (though Outback just now was not a high point). I have not been eating as much junk food or as much food period. But winter hit Iowa this week. We had an ice/snow storm yesterday, and it is cold and windy today. Having fallen on my head a couple of times, I just don't exercise outdoors in the ice or snow. So, I have to figure out a plan B for exercise.

For me, neither exercise nor diet works alone. I have to combine the two. Living in Iowa makes that a challenge.