What I’ve been up to…

Some folks had noted I hadn’t updated a while.  I’m glad to report that no, I haven’t gone completely off the wagon, but I have hit a bit of a rough patch.

My friends on Facebook and whatnot know why, but for those who don’t – my mother passed away on July 21st.  She had been in the hospital recovering from a femoral bypass and things just took a turn for the worse.  She was in the ICU for about 5 weeks and we were even hoping she’d be make it to a rehab hospital but it was not to be.  I missed my trip to Florida and spent as much time as I could in Sacramento – a lot of it with Mom in the ICU.  (The ICU staff at Sutter Memorial were amazing.  It’s the people that make the hospital, not the building or equipment.)
Needless to say this has been a fairly stressful time and I have strayed a bit from the plan – I’ve been “out of the box” on occasion, to use HMR speak.  It can be hard.  For example the day of Mom’s funeral I had to pick up car up from the dealership after having been repaired.  The car made it 10 miles and then completely died.  I called a tow truck and the first tow truck showed up with a broken winch and I had to wait for a second.  It made for a long afternoon and by the time I got back home my dad had ordered pizza for him and my sister.  I looked at my diet food and just said “screw it”.  (Well, I didn’t use screw.  But I did use a similar word.)
Fortunately with all that went on the damage was slight – by the time I checked in again I had gained 4 pounds.  (The first week that this had all gone on I had lost 12.)  That’s already off.  I’m down to 330 now, so that makes a loss of 130.  Since I had listed 200lb as my original goal weight I’m halfway there – but I’m starting to think 180 now, so I need to lose 10 more pounds to get there.
The benefits of losing weight showed up a lot on my vacation to Maui.  After all of the stress I felt I needed to do something and when Chris’ timeshare interval came up I talked him in to going.  (I didn’t have to talk very hard.)  Being able to walk places and move better was very nice.  I needed just a bit of a seatbelt extension on the plane but I was able to use the tray table in first class for the first time.  (They’re in the arm and come out and down over your belly.  For me my tummy was always in the way.)  Look for another post on Maui after I get my first set of pictures uploaded. 
Anyway I’m trying to be back on track with mixed results.  We’ll see.  I don’t want to give up at all, but things are challenging right now.  I’m told it will get easier.