Sneezy Monday

I spent some time on Saturday and Sunday organizing and cleaning out our garage. I've still got plenty of work to do in there, but at we can put the Montero in and not have to turn sideways to get to it. The dust has severely messed up my sinuses, so I'll try to wear a dust mask next time I get in there to finish up.

I hit 300 lbs for real on Sunday morning and I was at the same weight today. I didn't walk too much this weekend due to some lingering foot pain, but the exercise from cleaning the garage made up for it some. I'm slowly, and I do mean slowly, trying to add just a touch of abdominal work. I did some leg lifts and a few pitiful crunches last night. There's still a lot of gut down there and tearing up my abs when I'm this big is not a pleasant thing to do.

My newest favorite low carb food is a big bag of frozen Tyson chicken tenderloins. I throw about 6 of them on a cookie sheet for about 25 minutes in the oven. I squeeze a little ranch dressing onto each one then sprinkle with Tabasco Chipotle and it's a pretty good supper. I may cut a slice of cheddar to go with them if I'm really hungry. A bag runs about 8 bucks at Kroeger and it provides about 4 or 5 meals, so it's a pretty good value.

So today is 34 days on the current weight loss plan. I'm over my bread cravings for the most part. I can watch people eat Cracker Barrel biscuits and cornbread and not have too much jealousy pop up. I just calmly eat my turnip greens and visualize myself jumping rocks in the Savage Gulf or pulling myself out of Sinking Cove Cave next spring. Yaulp!

Interlude

This week has mostly been a wash as far as the weight loss plan goes. I reported last Sunday that I was down to 300 pounds, but that seems to have been a bit premature. The next day and everyday through yesterday it was stubbornly stuck at 304 again. This morning it was back down to 302.

I think I overdid it last week, especially last weekend. My knees and ankles complained loudly through Wednesday night. Today at lunch was the first time since Sunday that I walked over a mile, and it felt pretty good with no pains. I'm going to do one 2 mile walk on the greenway either tomorrow or Sunday and a short distance the other day. Doing 5 miles in two days last weekend just did too much wear and tear while I'm still this heavy. I won't do that again until I'm down below 275.

I ate with Marissa at a Chinese buffet for lunch Wednesday. I didn't blatantly eat a lot of carbs, but I was out of ketosis for a day or so. No real harm done, since I'm following the same pattern as 2000 when I lost weight. I go for about 4 weeks of strict adherence to the low carb plan then I ease up for one meal. I should be able to go close to Thanksgiving now without cheating. Patience is the key, now. I won't see five pounds melt away in a week anymore, so I have to be satisfied with 2 pounds or so every 7 days.

Happy Birthday Lizziepoo!

To continue a month of making Hatch feel older, my niece Elizabeth Megan Hatcher turns 9 years old today. My little Lizardbreath is almost into double digits. That's hard to believe. I love you to the moon and the stars sweetie!

Intelligence?

I nearly wet myself when I saw the latest headline at cnn.com tonight. Looks like Uncle Bull has started a new job there.

Happy Birthday Dave!

There are certain moments in life that are frozen in almost perfect clarity. There's the time I broke my arm jumping out of a swing about 12 feet off the ground. I sat there on the ground and looked at my right arm, which having both bones broken appeared to have two wrists that dangled my hand uselessly back in forth like a slinky.

Then there's a time about 11.75 years ago in Alabaster, Alabama in the mop room at the back of the FoodMax. I'd been working there with Heff for a while mopping floors for 20 dollars a night. We usually rode there together from Columbiana but since Heff had been dating a girl named Janesa we had lately been arriving separately. I was in the back filling up the mop machine when Heff walks in, taps out a cigarette, lights it and stands there like he's wanting to tell me something.

I wait patiently for a few minutes, then he looks up at me and says "Janesa's pregnant."

I stand there stunned for a second then my mouth opens and I said "Is it yours?"

I don't know exactly why I said that, even to this day. I never liked Janesa it's true, but I don't think I ever would have conciously said those words, even to Heff. A lesser friend might have taken a swing at me, but Heff just stared at me a second and incredulously said "Yeah!"

So about 9 months later James David Falkner was born. I was at the hospital when he came out and Uncle Hatch has always been proud of the little bugger. Happy 11th Birthday Dave! You're making Uncle Hatch feel really old today.

Walking Totals

Here's my walking totals graph for the week ending this past Saturday. I totaled 11.9 miles for the week and averaged 1.7 miles a day.

Sunday Afternoon

Annie and I walked 2.6 miles today on the greenway. We started from the Percy Priest Dam trailhead this time. I hadn't planned to walk that far today, but that particular section of the greenway doesn't really have any hills worth mentioning so I walked a little further to make up for that.

Annie, being the typical dachshund, is fine with people walking on the trail, but she doesn't like people running and she goes ballistic when she sees other dogs. She also has a bad tendency to want to walk on the opposite side of the trail from the one I'm walking on. This is not good because bicyclists have a bad habit of not calling out when they're about to pass you from behind so I've had to yank her out of the way a few times. Is it so hard to call out "left!" when you're coming up behind someone on what is basically a silent bike? At least go with the old tradition and put a baseball card in your spokes. Heh.

I also walked around Kroger tonight with Victoria, so I've gotten a good bit of exercise in this weekend. My back and ankles are aching some, and I actually walked enough that my ab muscles are complaining a little. I'll probably only walk a little tomorrow to let things rest up a little.