#2120: Tuesday, July 31

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Post 2120
- 7 years and 212 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      204.5 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/30/18):           203.7 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       + 0.8 lbs.

  Diet Comment

This is an unexpected negative result. I really thought I would be down in weight at weigh-in this morning. I think it's hangover from the weekend. I'm being good today, tomorrow's result will be better.

Food Log

Breakfast
2:40pm: Purple-green protein smoothie with home-made almond milk, kefir, large organic egg, chia gel, kale, spinach, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, celery, whey powder (24g protein), coconut oil, hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), raw organic cacao powder, moringa leaf powder, fo ti, cinnamon, turmeric, vanilla extract, Dr. Gundry's Vital Reds and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch
7:00pm: London broil, carrots and home-made mayonnaise.

Dinner
12:30am: Cottage cheese, pepperoni and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 12 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 64+ oz.; and a shot of Jameson's Irish whiskey

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#2119: Monday, July 30

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Post 2119
- 7 years and 211 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      203.7 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/27/18):           203.2 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       + 0.5 lbs.

  Diet Comment

This is not as bad as I expected.It will come off this week.

Food Log

Breakfast
5:45pm: Bacon and (dirty scrambled) eggs, with brussel sprouts and Dubliner cheese.

Lunch
9:00pm: Chopped salad: London broil, shaved parmesan cheese, walnuts, cabbage, chard, kale, spinach and balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner
12:30am: Cottage cheese, and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 1;   Coffee: 12 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 64+ oz.;

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#2118: Friday, July 27

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Post 2118
- 7 years and 208 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      203.2 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/26/18):           201.9 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       + 1.3 lbs.

  Diet Comment

I expected this - this is extra water weight, from the high-sodium combo of pork rinds and cottage cheese I had as a late snack last night/early this morning. So it goes. I'll easily come back from this. Today I was good, but I expect with some travelling and dining out this weekend, I will have to re-start my loss on Monday.

Food Log

Breakfast
Skipped.

Lunch
8:45pm: London broil, cottage cheese, and a Quest bar.

Dinner
1:15am: Brussel sprouts and quinoa, and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 56+ oz.;

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#2117: Thursday, July 26

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Post 2117
- 7 years and 207 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      201.9 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/25/18):           201.9 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 0.0 lbs.

  Diet Comment

OK - I can deal with a no-loss, no-gain day. And I did, thank you very much.

Food Log

Breakfast
6:40pm: Chopped salad: Sriracha chicken breast, hard-boiled eggs, chard, spinach, kale, cabbage, walnuts and creamy balsamic dressing.

Lunch
8:30pm, at Maxwell's: Pepperoni and cheese, cookies.

Dinner
12:45am: London broil, brussel sprouts and a Quest bar.

Snack
2:15am: Pork rinds and cottage cheese.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 1;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 56+ oz.; and shots of Jameson's Irish whiskey.

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#2116: Wednesday, July 25

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Post 2116
- 7 years and 206 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      201.9 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/24/18):           202.6 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 0.7 lbs.

  Diet Comment

That's wonderful - I'm really resetting myself. It doesn't hurt that I'm drinking coffee again after almost a week off. It's also interesting that coffee is a factor - the only difference I detected when I stopped caffeinating myself was with my weight control. I didn't notice any psychological or cognitive problems, nor did I feel any physical problems. What I couldn't do was lose weight, and I gained a bit when I first stopped my coffee intake. Go figure. It's a good lesson to me, though.

Food Log

Breakfast
3:40pm: Bacon, spinach, kale and cheese omelet.

Lunch
Skipped.

Dinner
1:30am: Roast beef, carrots with homemade mayonnaise and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 24 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 68+ oz.; and shots of Jameson's Irish whiskey and Maker's Mark bourbon.

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#2115: Tuesday, July 24

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Post 2115
- 7 years and 205 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      202.6 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/23/18):           203.2 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 0.6 lbs.

  Diet Comment

I'm very happy about my ongoing weight loss. Tonight's falafel waffle may not be the best thing, but, you know, it's good, it's cheap (because I'm gigging at Funk'n Waffles), and I was hungry.

Food Log

Breakfast
5:40pm: Purple-green protein smoothie with coconut-almond milk, kefir, large organic egg, chia gel, kale, spinach, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries, celery, whey powder (24g protein), coconut oil, hemp seeds, hemp protein (7g protein), raw organic cacao powder, moringa leaf powder, fo ti, cinnamon, turmeric, vanilla extract, Dr. Gundry's Vital Reds and stevia-inulin blend.

Lunch
10:40pm, at Funk'n Waffles:

Falafel Waffle. Where the waffle is made from falafel, the salad sits on top, dressed up in tahini sauce.

Dinner
11:00pm: A Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 24 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 52+ oz.; and a shot of Jameson's Irish whiskey.

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#2114: Monday, July 23

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Post 2114
- 7 years and 204 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      203.2 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/20/18):           205.0 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 1.8 lbs.

  Diet Comment

After being stuck all last week, the weekend - unusually quiet for me, thanks to a still-aching jaw that was distracting (and appetite-killing) until Saturday night. It helped that the barbecue guys had a conflict and weren't at Rooters jam - I love their pulled pork and ribs, but the sauce is sweet (too sweet to have in any quantity, I always get mine on the side and use just enough to moisten) and the cole slaw (the only vegetable option) is too sweet - not that the sugar in the sauce and slaw dressing stops me from wanting and eating it. So, for health reasons, it was good not to be tempted.

Food Log

Breakfast
6:20pm: Carrots with homemade mayonnaise and a Quest bar.

Lunch
10:55pm: Chopped salad: Cold, thin-sliced London broil, hard-boiled eggs, shaved parmesan cheese, chard, kale, spinach, cabbage and creamy balsamic dressing.

Dinner
11:00pm: Sautéed brussel sprouts and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 1;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 56+ oz.;

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#2113: Friday, July 20: Winning the day

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Post 2113
- 7 years and 201 days since I started this blog -

Comment

I didn't weigh myself yesterday. For what it's worth, I think I would have been down a little. I was rushed all day, and never had the time to do it. Then, throughout the day, I was functioning on 'automatic'. In the end, I wrote it off as a sick day. Why?

Because I made an appointment for 8:30am.

It has been more than two-and-a-half years since I've left the house that early. As a rule, If I wake up then, I go back to sleep. That's because I rarely fall asleep before three in the morning. It's a habit.

But a friend needed a ride to his first colonoscopy, and both the friend and the medical office were close to my apartment. I've relied on friends myself in the past for this so it was time to pay it back.

I was told the whole procedure would last for an hour-and-a-half to two hours, I set my alarm to count down seventy-five minutes and went back home, but couldn't fall asleep (I tried).

An hour later, I got a call that it was done, and scrambled back.

I was back home by 11:45am, and the day could have been fine, but I had a 1pm dental appointment for a crown replacement, so I set my alarm appropriately, and tried to take a nap, with limited (about twenty minutes) success.

This procedure was supposed to last two hours, it ended up being almost four. When I was done, I was quite sore. It felt like someone had punched me in the jaw - and that was before the novocaine wore off.

Instead of being three o'clock, as planned, it was a quarter to five, and I had to leave for a gig at five-fifteen. I hadn't yet eaten anything  all day. I grabbed a couple of Quest bars, loaded up my gear and left for the gig.

Just to complete the picture, this is the weekend of the Syracuse Nationals, which is an auto race and exhibition where thousands of classic, restored and custom cars compete. I guess. I have no interest, but my apartment is in the city's motel concentration area, where all these people with all these fancy cars congregate while they're in town, and create a traffic problem for me the entire time, because the biggest hotel (Holiday Inn), with the biggest parking lot, is at the confluence of the Thruway exit and 7th North Street, the street I live on. I am less than a half-mile away. And these good people put on a show for the locals, who set up beach chairs on both sides of 7th North. During this four-day period of time, I expect it to take five minutes or more to pull out of the driveway.

Yesterday was the first day of that.

The forty-minute drive to Moondog's Lounge took fifty minutes, the extra ten coming from negotiating the quarter-mile between my apartment complex and the Thruway entrance.

Clearing that, I'm happy to say, was the last of the day's trials and tribulations. I was tired and sore, but once I was on the highway, at peace and looking forward to the gig.

I get this weird sense of satisfaction when a day like this happens. It is a challenge, something of a game to me, to see if I can stay cool/maintain/abide in the face of obstacles, pain and frustration. Today, I was able to do that, and really enjoy the gig at Moondog's Lounge with Modafferi.

But, boy, at the end of the day, I was tired! Almost-/semi-/pursued enlightenment (ha-ha) isn't easy. (Achieved enlightenment is, I think).

I ended the day feeling grateful for all the good things in my life. I got home and fell asleep instantly.

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      205.0 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/18/18):           205.4 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 0.4 lbs.

  Diet Comment

I didn't report what I ate yesterday (it wasn't good), but I expected a gain. This hasn't been a great week. I'm wondering if the lack of coffee had a negative effect.

Food Log

Breakfast
4:40pm: Chopped salad: Prosciutto, hard-boiled eggs, shaved parmesan cheese, chard, kale, spinnach, cabbage and creamy balsamic dressing.

Lunch
8:30pm: A Quest bar.

Dinner
1:00am: Pepperoni and brussel sprouts.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 1;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 56+ oz.;

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#2112: Wednesday, July 18

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Post 2112
- 7 years and 199 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      205.4 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/17/18):           205.4 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 0.0 lbs.

  Diet Comment

Again, I expected a loss, and I'm disappointed. Yesterday, I said, "Oh, well - there's always tomorrow." Still true, but I'm tempering my optimism a bit. I don't understand how I'm 'maintaining' my weight since the weekend.

Food Log

Breakfast
5:15pm, at CoreLife Eatery:

Chicken Cobb salad (shredded kale and spinach, grilled chicken, avocado, bacon, hard-cooked egg and blue cheese dressing). Not shown: A medium cup of Gannon's Charlie Brown ice cream (chocolate with peanut butter ribbons).

Lunch
Skipped.

Dinner
1:40am: Pepperoni, baby carrots and homemade mayonnaise, cottage cheese, sugar-free dark chocolate and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 52+ oz.; and a shot of Jameson's Irish whiskey.

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#2111: Tuesday, July 17

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Post 2111
- 7 years and 198 days since I started this blog -

Comment

I get a lot of positive feedback that I seem to be happy (that was a joke). I do consider myself a happy guy, and I don't take my happiness for granted. I am very grateful.

But I know that while happiness is a choice, even when the choice is made, it is not an all-the-time thing. I am not always happy, mainly because I'm not always thinking about, considering or feeling like a choice has to be made.

Sometimes, especially when I'm alone, I'm neither happy nor sad - there is a neutral resting state of my emotions that is, in the same way visual black is the absence of colors, the absence of emotions.

Besides actually making the decision to be happy, the biggest influence on my happiness is the ability to let go. I have an exercise I've done so often it has become as natural as pulling your hand away from a hot stove. It just formalizes the act of letting go. This is a coping mechanism I use for the things that have a negative initial impact.

Then, there are days like today.

A little background: We have had seven days in a row of high temps - it is that way all over New England. My apartment is warm. My air conditioner is working, but due to the apartment below me being vacant, it cannot deal with the outside temperature and the heat coming up through the floor from the hot apartment below. This has made sleeping difficult, even with a fan on in the room.

Beginning at three in the morning, when I checked my e-mail (you know I have an extremely third-shift sleep schedule, right?) and found that my Airbnb reservation for my brother, sister-in-law and myself to overnight at my niece's wedding had been canceled by the host.

I was up for another two hours (5am is a late bed-time even for me) finding another place - there aren't many 2-bedroom apartments available on Airbnb. No place available at any price was as convenient as the original one, and to get one at approximately the same price I had to widen the search area.

So, sleep-deprived, I woke up to find a note from my new host congratulating me on my niece's wedding and adding, unfortunately, the listing went up just yesterday, and there is an error, because the apartment will not be available at all in August.

I shrug, the refund is immediate, only time has been lost. The ensuing search yields only a more expensive apartment, located a twenty-plus minute drive from the wedding. Plus it's a walk-up. The original apartment was an eight-minute walk away from the wedding. Sigh. Let it go.

Next on the agenda is to file the paperwork with T-mobile to get my Verizon phone paid off. This has been an ongoing struggle, since Verizon's final bill didn't have the refund amount in a T-mobile-approved format. The problem has been going on for weeks.

And that's where the day got really bad.

Paperwork filed, I get an almost immediate response that my refund has been approved and processed, for the entire amount, less the trade-in value of my phone.

This would seem fair, except when I originally applied for the refund, I was told by T-mobile that if I kept my phone, I would get the whole payoff amount if I kept my phone, so I did. When I went back to straighten out a billing problem a week later,

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      205.4 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/16/18):           205.4 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       - 0.0 lbs.

  Diet Comment

Darn! I expected a loss. Oh, well - there's always tomorrow.

Food Log

Breakfast
Skipped.

Lunch
7:10pm: Salmon and eggs and brussel sprouts.

Dinner
12:30am: Pepperoni, Dubliner cheese and a Quest bar.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 44+ oz.; and a shot of Jameson's Irish whiskey.

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#2110: Monday, July 16

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Post 2110
- 7 years and 197 days since I started this blog -

Food and Diet 

Today's Weight:                      205.4 lbs.

Previous Weight (7/13/18):           203.4 lbs.

Net Loss/Gain:                       + 2.0 lbs.

  Diet Comment

This I expected. After a weekend full of sugar in its multiplicity of forms (starchy vegetgables, grains, sweets (lots of sweets in sauces, dressings, as well as desserts), copious amounts of alcohol, and stoned binge-eating, the only surprise is that the weight-gain isn't greater. Still, I have to get serious, and include the weekends in being serious. This weekly yo-yo of weight cannot continue.  

Food Log

Breakfast
Skipped (20-hour fast).

Lunch
8:40pm Chopped salad with Sriracha chicken, chard, kale, spinach, cabbage, shaved parmesan cheese, walnuts and creamy balsamic vinaigrette.

Dinner
12:30am: Pepperoni, a Quest bar, and two ounces of sugar-free dark chocolate.

Liquid Intake

   Espressos: 0;   Coffee: 0 oz.;  Tea: 0 oz.;  Water: 80+ oz.;

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