Update:
I’ve really gotten into a routine of exercise—work—sleep--repeat. With riding my bike 45-60 minutes per day and
doing 45-60 minutes of exercise per day, and trying to work a normal day—I don’t
have much time left to do anything else.
Last night I actually had an hour before bed and I thought I would watch
some TV. I ended up spending my time on
the computer instead. It all has been
good, just feels a bit strange.
Yesterday I wore shorts and a T-shirt on my bike ride and I was chilly
the entire time with the cooler temperature.
Today it is even cooler. Right
now it is only 55 and the forecast calls for a high of 70. I’ll wear more clothes today when I ride. Just uncertain how much more to put on.
With all the exercise (and along with my smaller portions of food) I
continue to lose body fat, gain muscle and improve muscle tone as well as
strength and stamina. My weight loss has
temporarily plateaued as I gain muscle and continue to lose fat. It’s disappointing not dropping weight, but I
am getting healthier and eventually I will get to where I want to be. Along with how well my prosthesis has been
fitting recently, I am feeling the best that I have in the last year. My clothes are fitting much more loosely—I am
hoping to not have to purchase any new clothes until I reach my goal
weight. I was digging around trying to
find the clothes that used to fit me more snuggly than the rest. It is already time to start cleaning my
closet out of the bigger stuff. That
feels good!
On the Fourth of July, the kids are coming over (minus Ruth in Chicago)
for us to do a family project. We have
been renting several storage units, most of which are filled with junk. We are all going to go through them and clean
them out. We’ll be tossing a lot of
stuff and rearranging with the goal of emptying them all.
My wife was teasing me about it on Tuesday. After she reminded me of the plan for Friday,
she said, “I just don’t want you to do what you did the last time we had
planned to clean out the storage units!”
I gave her a quizzical look, not putting together what she was getting
at. She said, “The last time we planned
to do this was on Thanksgiving Day 2013.
The kids were scheduled to come over at 8 a.m. to start. Instead I took you to the hospital at 7 a.m.
that morning and you ended up getting your leg amputated. Let’s not do anything like that this time!” In the strongest terms I ensured my wife that
I had absolutely no intention of trying to get out of the scheduled workday in
so dramatic of a fashion. I won’t be much
good lifting and carrying things, but I can help sort and drive the full
trailer to wherever it needs to go.
Thought for the Day:
When times are
tough, we need encouragement to keep going.
“When we’re on the brink of failure, the right words at the right time
can keep us in the game. When we’re too
tired or discouraged to keep going, an act of compassion can give us new
strength. There’s no doubt about it: Encouragement
enables us to persevere like nothing else.”
[John Maxwell, Encouragement Changes Everything].
Last week
when I weighed in, the scale showed that I had gained 1.6 pounds in a
week! Ouch! I’ve limited my food intake and I have increased
the amount of exercise I’m doing, etc.
How could the scale be that wrong?
It was very discouraging to me.
So far I have lost at least 1.5 pounds each week. Each week that weight loss has really
motivated me to keep on doing what I have been doing and each week I was
rewarded with additional success. Now I
hit not just a plateau where I stayed the same weight, I gained weight back. How discouraging!
I must admit
that as I stepped off the scale, I was wondering if all the effort was worth it
if this was going to be the result. I’d
like to eat more food. I would like to
feel like I could skip exercising a few days a week just to give me a break on occasion. As all this was going through my mind, I
cannot say I was depressed; but I definitely wasn’t in my happy place like
every other week after I’d lost weight.
I am
thankful that my wife spoke words of encouragement to me. She said that I probably had added muscle
mass and lost fat over the last week, it is just that muscle weighs more than
fat and that probably caused the weight gain.
While I’d like that to happen AND to show a weight loss on the scale, I
could live with those words. She
encouraged me to keep on doing the things that I have been doing despite the apparent
short-term setback.
I know that
everybody hits a plateau in weight loss—I just wasn’t emotionally prepared to
face it myself! I needed those words of
encouragement—things said in the right way at the right time to strengthen my
resolve and determination to keep doing the right things even when I am not
rewarded immediately.
I want to
encourage you to become an encourager.
Look around for someone who is struggling, someone who needs to be
lifted up and give them the gift of encouragement. We all need it at times. We need to hear the things that we know are
true but we just have temporarily forgotten them.
Proverbs 25:11 Like apples of gold in settings of silver is a word
spoken in right circumstances.
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