Further Progress

I've not invested as much energy here the past week of so since T's Mom's surgery led to her strokes and subsequent serious debilitation but this process continues and as I look back on this record of how we passed through this in times to come, I'll be glad to see how things progressed during this period. And progressing we are:)

Last night we shifted swan's and my walking routine from summer vacation schedule to early school year schedule. We did our 4.26 mile "stroll" between 9:30 PM and 11:00 PM last evening relying on our new LCD headlight forehead bands for improved vision and safety. It was late enough to have missed the daytime heat. Our Cincinnati mid August weather is terribly hot and humid. We have previously been walking early to mid-morning as allowed by my professional schedule. To do that now that sue's schedule is ramping up would require us to get up at like 3:30 to 4:00 AM in order to get up eat then walk, shower, get ready for work and then have her there on time, so that is just not possible for us. We will have next Monday off, so we will be able to walk in the morning that day weather permitting. Then next Tuesday she will be in classes with kids. I have an evening workshop presentation (how to influence public policy regarding disability issues for family members and people with disabilities) Tuesday night, and a meeting of our Board Thursday night. How that week will work with our walking routine time will tell. Maybe I'll have to walk alone mornings and her at night. That would be sad. We've come to love our time together walking and sometimes have great talks as we walk. Sue has her beginning of the school year parent night that evening too though, so I don't know how that will work. We do have a treadmill and I'm sure that as time progresses and the weather changes we'll eventually have to resort to that option to keep the exercise routine going.

Anyway, after last night's walk I weighed 195.5 pounds, which is a new low. At 196 I have lost 105 pounds. This morning I weighed 196.5 pounds at get up. If I would split the difference between the two weights as an average, I'd be 196 pounds, so I guess I can accept that as a new weight. Thus I have hit the 105 pound weight loss level. That means I have 31 pounds to go to reach my optimal weight. As I type I weight 195 down from 301, it seems sort of like a surreal dream. Who would have imagined this could be my reality by mid August not quite five months yet our from my surgery.

T is pretty well right where she has been, (down 72 pounds in under 5 five months from surgery...no mean accomplishment) fluctuating up and down through a 1 and a half pound weight window. When you think about the stress she has been under with her Mom's illness, grabbing food in the hospital cafeteria, eating with her other family members some (the whole family other than her is way dedicated to high fat, sugar, and unhealthy eating and smoking) makes staying on her course extra challenging. Between her work and time with her Mom, she really has no time for exercise, other than maybe the trek from the hospital parking garage and the ICU to see her Mom. For her to have not regained is a huge accomplishment. Even as she continues this way she will be losing more soon. It is way slower and more gradual for her with her gastric sleeve bypass, than it is for me having been able to undergo the Rouen Y gastric bypass procedure.

So there it is. I'm down 105 pounds (perhaps even plus a half pound more were we to accept my 195.5 pound weight after my walk last night.)

Thank you all who have followed this journey with us and cheered us on. It would have been way more difficult to do this without the energy you have given us with your good wishes and encouragement.

All the best,

Tom

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you've imagined.