Day 33 Thu 02/27/2020

Day 33 Thu 02/27/2020

At home day. I completed all my goals for the day, except for two.

I called Aetna today to try and straighten out several issues. The first being reimbursement for dental procedures. These notes are captured in my OneNote notebook, Daily Journal, 2020 Correspondence, Aetna Medicare Advantage HMO. I came away with a couple of action items. I’ll need to contact Net Services if I’m having problems with the website, and I’ll need to call Aetna Medicare Advantage PPO to inquire about reimbursement for the $142 (Jan+Feb) overpayments.

The second issue is to initiate withholding of federal taxes from my social security benefit. Our accountant, Laura Otto, recommended I have taxes withheld from social security. I had opted out of federal tax withholding to have more control over the money. Laura said that’s a good idea, but can be painful come tax season. I found the form, W-4V, on their website, ssa.org. After the form is completed, it’s either returned via mail or dropped off at the Bellevue office. I asked Laura for advice on the amount of withholding. She recommended 12%. I’ll mail it in the morning.

The last item I completed was a review of the bills. The summary can be found in Daily Journal, 2020 Topics, 2020 Bill Review.

Two items were tabled, a review of finances, brokerages, assets, personal balance sheet, and net worth, and a start at collecting all of the loose paper downstairs.

Today I tried to micro-manage my day, with an ultra-schedule. I’ve laid out morning & evening routines, the objective is to have a structured transition in and out of sleep. These routines are based on what I’d like to ideas I’ve gathered from the internet, combined with what I’d like to accomplish. For the rest of the day, I worked out what to do based on immediate needs, anticipated events, and long term items.

Day 20 Fri 02/14/2020

Day 20 Fri 02/14/2020

Happy Valentine's Day and Happy Birthday to my beautiful daughter, Elizabeth.

No poop today. I ate a lot, starting with a binge last night. Breakfast was 1 egg + 1 egg white, three chicken sausages, and some rice, and lunch was PB&J tortillas.

For Valentine’s dinner, we ate at a Chinese restaurant near Totem Lake Fred Meyer, Spicy Talk Bistro Chinese Szechuan Food. The restaurant had recently moved to Totem Lake from Redmond. We ordered Onion Beef, Crispy Szechuan Chicken (spicy), Steamed Fish (spicy), and Hot & Sour Soup with rice. Everything tasted good. The soy sauces dishes were a little too salty, and the hot plates a bit too spicy.

For some reason, my passion for journaling is waning. I’ve also missed a couple of days of My Fitness Pal. My sleep pattern has deteriorated; I don’t really understand what’s going on. It may be related to the recent change in my evening routine.

On Tuesday, I ended the 14-day teeth whitening procedure. Part of that routine was to stop eating, brush my teeth and floss, set up and install the whitening trays, wash my face and moisturize, after which I was ready for bed. One of the problems with sleep is not having a cue to go to bed. The daily whitening procedure put me on a regular pattern. I need to be able to continue the nighttime routine.

The sleeping headset works wonderfully. It fits neatly under my CPAP mask and does a decent drop of drowning out May’s snoring, without disturbing her sleep (I hope).

Speaking of the sleeping headset, I started having problems with the Amazon Echo. The Bluetooth connection dropped. Trying to reconnect proved difficult. I noticed it was connected to the wrong WiFi system and finally had to do a hard reset to get the Echo back in a working state.

I wound up watching the last four episodes of season 2 of Jack Ryan on Amazon Prime and wound up staying up until 3 in the morning.

Day 19 Thu 02/13/2020

Day 19 Thu 02/13/2020

The day before Elizabeth’s 29th Birthday. I’m glad she got her phone. She’s staying in the

I picked Priscilla Hoang MD FACC as my cardiologist. Dr. Hoang’s specialty is Interventional Cardiology, like Drs. Yu and Kim. I made an appointment for Monday, March 16th. 1:15 PM.

Interventional Cardiology takes one or two years of additional education and training in diagnosing and treating cardiovascular disease, as well as congenital and structural heart conditions, through catheter-based procedures, such as angioplasty and stenting.

Invasive Cardiology uses open or minimally-invasive surgery to identify or treat structural or electrical abnormalities within the heart structure, like Angioplasty and Stenting. Non-Invasive Cardiology identifies heart problems without using any needles, fluids, or other instruments which are inserted into the body.

Nuclear Cardiology is the study of cardiovascular disorders using imaging, which may use radioactive elements.

Echocardiography is the use of ultrasound waves to create images and surrounding structures.

Cardiac Electrophysiology is the study and testing of electrical currents, which generate heartbeats. Other techniques are Stress Tests, Heart Monitors, and CT Scans.

I had breakfast this morning, then got hungry. I got to get out of the house in the morning. No excuses today, just tired.

I ate a snack of PB&J tortillas, so many calories it became lunch. Dinner was leftover kale and sausage soup, Mabu-tofu with pork, and some jasmine rice.

Today was slow. I napped through most of the day trying to figure out the iPad notetaking capabilities. Tomorrow is a gym day. That should keep me away from the fridge.


Day 18 Wed 02/12/2020

Day 18 02/12/2020

Workout day today. I spent the morning relaxing. I tried the toilet paper spray, Pristine. It took a while to get the hang of it, but once I did, it worked OK.

Last night was the final day of teeth whitening. I called the dentist this morning to ask, “What’s next?” I talked with Elizabeth, who said I should put the leftover gel in the fridge and wait two months before trying again. I put a place holder in our Google Calendar.

I used the Jack Black facial moisturizer last night. I went on super light and blended in quicker than the Cetaphil body lotion.

I also used the sleep mask and headset. It worked, I fell asleep relatively quickly, listening to an audiobook. I also helped to drown out May’s snoring, something that happens when she’s affected by allergies, has a cold and is congested. It fits under the CPAP masks.

It was a good day at the gym, I got there early and worked hard. Tory is still sick, and Jimmy seems to be moping around me. Maybe it’s me, but I’m wondering if he’s got an issue.

I spent some time with the iPad Pro, looking for a good workflow for both journal entries and possibly photography.

I did breakfast for lunch again, 1 egg + egg whites (1 egg equivalent), 3 strips of bacon. Dinner was the Sausage and Kale Soup, made a little lighter this time without carrots or celery. Total calories for the day is under 1000, macros are split even.

I found out my cardiologist “retired,” and I’m stuck looking for a new one. Top candidates are Drs. Oscar Gonzalez and Priscilla Huang. Like Dr. Kim, Dr. Huang’s specialty is in Interventional Cardiology. Dr. Gonzalez is more of a surgeon.

I also paid the car tabs for the Impreza.

Finally, Elizabeth called.  She got her phone up and working and sounded very happy.



Day 14 Sat 02/08/2020

Day 14 Sat 02/08/2020

I’m on the clock and need to limit the time I work on this journal entry to one hour or less.

No journal entry for Friday, I fell asleep after dinner and wound up watching a bunch of YouTube videos. Interestingly, I finished with one that espoused the virtues of getting 7-8 hours of sleep. It was his highest priority for aiding with weight loss.

Review Friday, there’s not a lot to remember, except, possibly, I made a really good stew, Slow Cooker Beef Stew, by http://www.damndelicious.net. For a paleo version, I left out the potatoes. There was a lot of food prep to do. We didn’t have any tomato paste, so I wound up reducing some tomato sauce. For kicks, I threw the herbs into the sauce as it was reducing in hopes fo getting more flavor. I wound up with more than the recipe called for and tossed about half the pan into the crockpot. I used some of the stock to clean the fond off of the browning pan and also added a half cup of wine (French, Cotes du Rhone). The only downside was burning a pan. I got distracted, I believe I was trying to do some dishes and wound up burning one of the Costco 3-ply pans. More to clean.

The stew tasted pretty good. May separated a portion and added some cornstarch to the broth to thicken. It tasted fine to me. Calories about 450, with decent macros.

Earlier, my gym workout was shortened by too much talking. I’m thinking about wearing a headset to help me stay focused. The only other thing that happened yesterday was picking up packages at the UPS store.

After watching that video on the virtues of getting sleep, I only got 4 or 5 hours last night. I woke up early to make breakfast, wanting to see if there is any difference between Costco’s expensive eggs (local, Washington State, pasture-raised). They’re brow. The yolks can be darker. Preparing breakfast went quickly, I saw nor tasted any real difference, although the yolks in my overhard eggs did seem a little darker.

May wanted to go to Uwajimaya, the Dollar Store, and the Post Office. We stopped at the Panera Bread at Thrasher’s Corner for lunch. I had the Pick 2, a half green goddess salad with chicken and a cup of the 10 vegetable soup. I swapped the green goddess dressing for olive oil.

After we got home, I finished the laundry and worked on my MacBook Pro. It took a while for May to make dinner, and I started to snack (near all-out binge) around 5 PM, celery and PB, some chocolate, and a protein shake before I slowed down. May made some zucchini noodles (zoodles), and a chicken alfredo sauce with Costco rotisserie chicken breast and more zucchini.

Overall, I finished the day around 1500 calories. My weight is just below 250. Today’s weigh-in is skewed because I weighed myself after breakfast (251).

I watched the first episode of McMillions with May after dinner. She had fun with it, as I knew she would.

Wow, I’m running out of time. It’s 50 minutes. Time to wrap this up.

Day 12 Thu 02/06/2020

Day 12 Thu 02/06/2020

Coffee in the morning, along with a protein shake. I struggle with my hunger for most of the morning, most of the day, actually. I decided to get out of the house to avoid the inevitable start of a binge.

I stopped at the AT&T store in the West Totem Lake shopping complex to inquire about Lizzy’s phone. I tried the website twice, both sales being canceled with no explanation. In these instances, talking with a human helps, and it worked. The sales rep completed the purchase. Lizzy should get her phone sometime next week.

I also stopped at Home Depot to pick up extensions for our vacuum’s wand. I found something about 18 inches long and bought three. It turns out they were a bit small, but I made it work. I was able to reach the upper reaches of the upstairs skylight.

I made lunch using some of the old salad mix and canned tuna (2 oz) and topped it off with a protein shake. For dinner, we had leftover pork chops and turkey marinara sauce, along with some spinach and a few (3) cauliflower tater-tot.

To combat napping in the evening, I went downstairs to work on my MacBook Pro, uploading more information on how fat cells work and collecting tax information. However, for the 2nd day in a row, I did not get any further on lodging for Arizona and Orlando.

Not a bad day. I got 10 minutes of jump rope, able to get to a jump count of 10 three times, and was productive on the computer. Tomorrow’s a busier day, having to cook and all.

Day 11 Wed 02/05/2020

Day 11 Wed 02/05/2020

This morning I weighed in at 253 lbs. The coffee was not so good, but the protein drink was. I skipped over breakfast, hoping to help with weight loss.

I continued to work on my research on metabolic syndrome. There’s more interesting data on adipose tissue (fat). Summarizing. There are two mechanisms of weight gain, concerning adipose tissue, enlarging cells and multiplying cells. We gain fat cells as we age. After puberty, it stabilizes, unless we gain weight, 15% or more, for a sustained period. If so, we continue to increase the number of fat cells. Except for surgery, there’s no way to decrease their numbers. That leaves controlling the size of the cells as the only way to manage weight. That’s enough for today.

My workout at the gym did not go as smoothly as I had planned. I spent an inordinate amount of time talking with Steve. We hadn’t seen each other for a while and were playing catchup. Plus, he’s quite the talker, anyway. I got through most of my workout, choosing to leave on time instead of keeping Jimmy over.

I cooked up another batch of Paleo chicken sausages. For lunch, I ate a few of these with a scramble of one egg and three tablespoons of Kirkland egg whites (3 tbsp are the equivalent of one egg). I chased this down with another protein drink, actually finishing the big plastic jar of Whey Isolate I bought two years ago.

May warmed up the Kale Soup for dinner and added some Costco Rotisserie chicken, a wing and a drumstick. The soup was good. I couldn’t finish the drumstick.

Yet again, I fell asleep after dinner for about 40 minutes. Bad, bad, bad.

I updated MFP today to get a feel for my macros. It was an almost perfect day, 160 grams of protein, 40 grams of carbs, 1500 calories. I did an hour-long workout but did not jump rope today.

Day 10 Tue 02/04/2020

Day 10 Tue 02/04/2020

I’m feeling a little bloated this morning. It may possibly be a consequence of the binge I did on Sunday night. My weight before breakfast (and poop) was about a pound heavier than yesterday. I’ll try drinking more water.

Today has been another lazy morning. After coffee, I tried my hand at shaving. I have a dormant pimple above my lip. I tried to poop without any luck.

I left the house this morning around 1030. It was cold, around 33 degrees F. Coming out of the garage, the snow was lightly misting. By the time I got to Costco, the flakes were a bit bigger.

I found everything on May’s Costco list except for Evergood Hot Links. They must be a seasonal product. I bought more chocolate whey isolate power and salami, things on my list.

Also, I’m going to try more expensive eggs. Costco sells a carton of two dozen locally grown, pasture-raised, brown eggs. I’m going to see if the yolks are darker and if the shells hold up when I boil them.

I made it to Fred Meyer around 1200. May’s list was mostly vegetables, but her oatmeal was not there. By the time I left Fred Meyer, the snow had stopped and turned to light rain. After I put the groceries away, I spent some time in the bathroom and watched some TV until it was time to pick up May. I got wrapped up into finding a resolution for a problem with controlling the TV with Alexa. No, I didn’t fix it, not yet.

Elizabeth called to let us know which gift she wanted for her birthday. We offered her a choice between an iPad Pro or a new cell phone. She picked the cell phone, a Prism White, Galaxy S10+.

The phone is pricey, about $1000, or a $34 per month payment. I’ll use the payment plan until I can pay it off, probably later next year. I’m having it shipped to Flordia. The payment plan is a no-interest loan.

Our dinner was good. I fried some pork chops for dinner, while May sauteed some broccoli with mushrooms and zapped those tasty cauliflower tots from Costco. Unfortunately, I ate six or seven Hersey’s Kisses, about 150 calories and 21 grams of carbohydrates. It’s a disappointment because I caved, but fortunately, not a lot of damage. I estimate total calories for the day around 1500, maybe lower.

I fell asleep after dinner again. That’s something I need to work on. Finished up the face wash, shaving some leftover stubble from this morning.

Looking at the day in review, I had planned on doing some of the research work for places to stay in Arizona this March and Florida in May. That’ll have to be pushed off for tomorrow, possibly Thursday. I also wanted to get a few more items of research on metabolic syndrome, again, work for another day.

Day 9 Mon 02/03/2020

Day 9 Mon 02/03/2020

It’s turned out to be quite a lazy day. I didn’t go to sleep until 0330.

After I dropped May off, I sat down for a cup of coffee. I wasted the morning away, playing a game, and watching YouTube videos.

Yesterday, I forgot to finish my journal entry, take my evening medications, wash my face – 2nd day, or do the teeth whitening. I fell asleep after dinner, woke up around 0130, binged on chips and ice cream.

For most of the morning, I worked on finishing my journal. Somehow, the morning got away from me and crept into the early afternoon.

I weighed in at 253.5 lbs, before breakfast. Through the miracle of metabolism, I wound up losing a couple of pounds, even with having binged all night. I pooped three times.

Hold on. Poop, it’s an easy subject to talk about, but awkward to see published in a blog post. I should come up with a different way to indicate personal, but essential movements of my bowls. For now, I’ll add an item to the To-Do list in OneNote Daily Journal.

The OneNote Daily Journal seems to be working. It’s taken a few YouTube videos, but I believe I’m starting to understand the basics of how to design a page. The program offers concept organization and thought contextualization, very much like a high school or college notebook or three-ring binder. Each notebook can have several sections. Sections can have subsections. Sections are collections of pages. One is allowed to design each page in a freeform manner, using rectangular text containers, tables, inserted objects, such as pictures, Excel files, and PDF files. It takes some getting used to, but once you do, it’s not a bad program, and, for now, at least, serves the purpose I need.

I skipped everything on my meal plan today. Around 1400, I ate breakfast for lunch, finishing off the homemade pork sausage, ate a couple of Paleo sausages with an egg, and the rest of the brown rice. Before dinner, I had a protein drink. May made some spaghetti with turkey meat sauce. I’m estimating I ate around a thousand calories today, no snacks.

I was able to get in 10 minutes of jump rope, but not much else, in terms of exercise. A power outage caused the gym to close, canceling all workout sessions today. I’m fine with it. I needed some rest today.

As I said, it’s been a very lazy day.

Day 8 Sun 02/02/2020

Day 8 Sun 02/02/2020

It's Superbowl Sunday. The 49ers are playing the Chiefs. Who cares? Although I have no stake in the outcome. I'm hoping the Chiefs win. I guess that's how deep the rivalry between the hometown Seahawks and the 49ers has become. It's almost sad to see Russell Wilson hawking wares at the fete, but that's the business they're in - sales and entertainment.

I got up early and made breakfast, Klondike Cakes, bacon (3), and coffee. After this, I pooped (finally) and showered. Thanks to getting up early this morning, I finished the laundry around 1000.

I did some work fixing up the OneNote Template. I was working on OneNote late last night and wound up with a confusing template. It's fixed now.

May wanted me to make the Sausage and Kale Soup. We have more ingredients like carrots, celery, and mushrooms, so today's soup will be hopefully hardier. Previous versions of the soup had kale and Evergood Hot Links. Today's soup using some hot links I found in Fred Meyer.

Food prep took longer than expected. I planned to have the soup done by 1330. It was ready to by 1400. The soup was OK. The sausage was very spicy, but the flavor profile was different than Evergood's.

May and I watched some of the documentary, One Child Nation, which took an in-depth look at China's one-child policy from the 70s to the 90s. I took away one stat, China lost nearly 330 million children, saving about $130 million. That's three kids per dollar. Wow! On the one side, it a considerable atrocity; on the other, would China have the wealth they enjoy today. We'll never know.

I made a stab at a meal plan. For now, it's straightforward and simplistic. I included calories and macros. Let's see where it goes from here. Maybe I'll try and put it in OneNote, and edit it from there.

I settled on the Phoenix trip, leaving Friday 3/20/2020 and staying for a week. I plan to see some of the LPGA tournament, Founders Cup, in Phoenix, then possibly do some early morning, late evening photography, or drive to visit Gerald in Green Valley. On Wed, 3/25/2020, I'll visit with the Hill's in Goodyear and come home on Sat 3/28/2020.

I got about 10 minutes of jump rope done. I'm up to eight consecutive two-hops and seven three-hops.

May wanted to watch the Super Bowl. I was less than enthused. She made a small salad, also made some hot wings with dip, and put some chips out. I was doing great with my diet up to that point. Of course, I overdid the chips and had an ice cream bar to boot.

I started to binge on the chips, probably eating a half a Costco bag and ate two Kirkland ice cream bars; not good.

Somehow I fell asleep around 2300, and I'm not sure why. Overall, I'm disappointed with my lack of will power.

Day 7 Sat 02/01/2020

Day 7 Sat 02/01/2020

Since I can’t sleep, I thought I’d jot a note about the system I’ve arrived at for my journaling process so far. It’s a three-part process that starts in Microsoft Word, then moves to Microsoft OneNote and ends in Squarespace.

I chose to start in Microsoft Word because I wanted to take advantage of Grammarly, “The Ultimate Proofreading and Text Evaluation Tool.” I wanted to start in OneNote (reasoning later), but it did not have a grammar evaluation tool, native or otherwise. I struggle with grammar, punctuation, spelling, and context. A tool like Grammarly or even the native grammar checker in Word helps out.

For every day, diary-styled, journaling, I set Grammarly’s goals to their default. It the text gets too technical, I make adjustments to the goal settings. Grammarly evaluates in real-time, and I make changes accordingly. Once I’ve finished, I save the document to Microsoft’s cloud storage, One Drive. I do a quick reread, Select All [text], and Copy. Then move to Microsoft’s OneNote.

Microsoft’s OneNote is the program I wanted to store my journal entries. So far, not having a grammar checker is its only shortcoming. I created a notebook to house these journal entries, stored in the cloud on OneDrive.

In OneNote, I made a daily journal entry template, which contains four fields (text containers), a title, a journal entry, a schedule, and a meal record. OneNote provides the title text container as default for a new page. The Schedule block uses checkboxes, approximate times, and task descriptions, and the Meal Record uses bullet lists.

After completing the text in Microsoft’s Word, I paste the text into the Journal block. I check to verify the transferred text, do another Select All, and Copy.

In the last step, I post the journal entry online in the blog of my Squarespace website. There’s nothing tricky. I open a new blog page and paste the text using the import text too. I do a last check to make sure everything is OK, and post.

The point of this is to post my daily journal as part of my weight loss accountability, eventually sharing these posts with family and possibly trainers. For now, I’m still evaluating the process and the product.

On the upside, I’ve found a real purpose to OneNote. It’s pretty cool. I wish I didn’t have to use Word, but it’s been a few times now and seems to have worked out. If doing the blog post doesn’t work out, I’d like to continue the diary in OneNote.

So, I didn’t get to bed until 0300. Subsequently, I slept in until 0930. May had breakfast ready, an omelet with the pork sausage, a few cauliflower tots, and three chicken sausages. I added sriracha.

The morning was a bit confusing. May was still feeling out of sorts and didn’t want to go to Costco, but Fred Meyer and the Dollar Store was OK. We left the house around 1100, shopped at Fred Meyer for an hour, then drove to Woodinville, the back way. After rummaging around the Dollar Store, we had lunch at Taco Time NW. I wanted something that would combat the cold, today was quite chilly and ordered a Casita Burrito platter. At about 1000 calories, we made a note to try and something lite for dinner. Dinner was some canned chicken soup with a couple of Costco chicken skewers.

We got home around 1400 and started some laundry. I worked on reviewing articles on the topics of motivation, inspiration, accountability, self-image, and goal setting. I came across several articles written by Ron Prasad, a life coach in Australia. I like his writing style. He has a concise way of getting to the point. I placed these in the Motivation section of the Health and Fitness Research notebook, along with notes.

I also got a couple of loads of laundry in, did the teeth whitening, but did not poop, nor did I shower (having showered twice yesterday).

Today was not very busy. I’m wondering if days like today are an example of future days ahead in retirement. Ew. It was too cold and too blustery to do anything outdoors. May wasn’t feeling good and wasn’t in the mood to run around town shopping. There weren’t any movies to see, a blah day. And tomorrow is looking like another blah day.

Let’s summarize my progress on diet and exercise for the week. I’ll give it a grade of C. I didn’t hold to a strict diet. I didn’t log my meals. I missed Monday’s workout. And the workout sessions I did do were probably a 50% effort. On the upside, the teeth whitening process is forcing me to limit late-night snacking.

I’m still motivated to lose weight. There’s a sense of what I might want to look like for my 50th high school reunion next year. But mostly, it’s about improving health, lowering my risks of heart disease, and Type II Diabetes.

I have a good “input goal,” a Ron Prasad term, in that I’m confident I can continue to lose weight. I have the tools, the knowledge, the experience, and the motivation. I’m continually seeking inspiration through testimonials on the web and YouTube.

May made a nice compliment today. She mentioned she didn’t recognize me in the store, because I was so skinny. Here’s to hoping next week is better than this.


Day 6 Fri 01/31/2020

Day 6 Thu 01/31/2020

Today was a slow day. It rained a lot, and part of a tree fell on the deck. We did not go to Costco, and I did not do the jump rope, as I had intended.

The day got off to a normal start. After dropping May off, I relaxed with a cup of coffee and made a quick breakfast of homemade pork breakfast sausage and the last boiled egg.

I hit the gym at 1000, got some good work in, and made it home by 1130. At home, I spent an excessive amount of time in the bathroom and finally got out of the shower around 1300. Lunch was a quick salad with chicken breast.

When I picked up May, we decided not to go to Costco. She was too tired, and it was still rainy and windy out.

May made a fried rice dish of chicken breast and Costco’s Mediterranean Chicken Skewers, served with cabbage. I added some sriracha and soy sauce. We started to relax and watch some TV. After her soap opera, May chose a PBS recording of The King and I, during which we heard a loud sound on the deck.

May opened the shades to discover branches. It looked like a large branch fell and hit the deck, which has happened before. However, this proved to be the top 15 to 20 ft of a pine tree. The treetop had a lot of long branches. Luckily, it fell about 10 ft south of the deck in the dirt and was leaning on the deck railing. But the branches had knocked over two of our planters, which is what alerted us.

I had to get the treetop off the deck. I took some video and photos and started pruning the branches. The rain began to let up, but the wind was still blowing hard. I began to prune the smaller branches, tossing them into the yard. Instead of heaving the whole thing off the railing, I decided to cut the treetop in two. It took about 30 minutes, but I was able to saw through the 4-inch trunk. I finished pruning the bottom half of the treetop and moved everything away from the house. The last thing I did was to clean up the dirt that tumbled out of the planters. While doing that, I decided to clear the rest of the main deck surface as well.

Tired, May suggested I take a bath, which I did after resting a bit. After the shower, I did day three of my teeth whitening program. I finished up the first syringe of whitening goop and started on a second. This time, it seemed like a lot of the goop oozed out onto my gums, which stings a bit.

I came downstairs to finish watching the TV show and wait for the hour-long whitening process to do its work. Predicably, I wound up taking a short nap. I took the trays out and rinsed with Listerine.

I started working on my journal entry. I’m hoping I can get to bed before I eat another midnight snack.

Day 5 Thu 01/30/2020

Day 5 Thu 01/30/2020

I had the right intentions but didn’t get to sleep until 0230 this morning. I dropped off May at the P&R, came home, poured a cup of coffee, and watched the end of Good Will Hunting, and something else.

I made a breakfast of 2 fried eggs, some homemade pork sausage, and brown rice and tossed a little sesame oil for flavor. It tasted OK, about 400 calories. I finished up the dishes and went upstairs to the bathroom.

I finally did the jump rope. I watched a tutorial video on how to put a jump rope together and how to bounce step. The instructor recommended limiting the exercise to 5 minutes per day to minimize the chances of injury, also to jump on a pliable surface, not concrete. She demonstrated one jump, then two, and so on. She said to progress slowly until you can jump 140 times, consecutively.

I moved the Impreza out of the garage in my compression shorts to make room for the exercise. I noticed some carpenters working on the back of one of the gray houses up the hill. I began by emulating her starting position with the rope behind the knees, hands in front. The first hop went well, not too high. I decided I would do ten consecutive one-bounce steps before going to two. I got passed the one-bounce reasonably quickly. I got as far a 6 or 7 two-bounces before my 5 minutes were up. I should mention the instructor said to limit this exercise to 10 minutes per day, maximum. I’m not sure that’s reasonable. We’ll see.

After my shower, I made some lunch, 3 oz of BS chicken breast, a bit of leafy green salad mix, some olive oil, and some sriracha sauce. Late in the day, I decided to go out and look for a reusable straw. The whitening technician recommended drinking coffee using a straw. I only had time to go to Safeway. They only had disposable straws. However, I noticed a sale on Irish Spring bath soap, 12 bars for $10. I believe that’s cheaper than Costco. I’ll check tomorrow. I left Safeway around 1600 to go to the P&R.

May made a pasta dinner with 3 ounces of chicken, button mushrooms, zucchini, and pesto sauce. I added grated parmesan cheese and sriracha. Although I tried, I did take a short nap for about 20 minutes. We watched the latest episodes of The Young and The Restless, My 600 lb Life and The Good Place. I did the dishes.

Today was day 2 for the teeth whitening procedure. I put too much goop in the trays and could taste it on my tongue. I brushed before starting and rinsed out after with Listerine. I followed this up with a face wash and some moisturizer.

The end of the day wrapped up as I finished this blog post. I wanted to write about my new found fascination with self-taught musician, Jacob Collier.

I came across a YouTube video of a cover of the Beatle’s song, “Here Comes The Sun.” A fun and animated cover with a novel video technique and an exciting musicality. I had to watch it twice before I realized that Jacob and Dido were the only people singing and playing instruments. They were wearing different clothes, hats, playing various instruments, singing different parts. More intriguing, the harmonization was unique. I later learn Jacob was using microtonal pitch shifts. Other covers of songs like “All Night Long,” “Moon River,” and the theme Flintstones theme song, blew me away.

Day 4 Wed 01/29/2020

I got to bed around 0130 but didn’t fall asleep until 0230. I dropped May off at the P&R, came home and showered, no poop.

I left for the dentist at 0730 for an 0800 appointment. The traffic was terrible. It took me 15 minutes to get to the freeway, and another 15 minutes to get to the dentist, 30 minutes for all of 8 miles. I got to Dr. Nomi’s a minute or two after 0800.

On the way there, I listened to Jacob Collie, Moon River, and All Night Long, his two Grammy-winning songs for 2020.

At the dentist, the whitening technician, Lacey, did a fit check. I wound up with two trays, something about one was “blocked,” and the other was not. She went over the procedure. I left with a whitening kit, the mold of my teeth, the extra set of trays, four syringes of whitening gel, a container for the unblocked trays, a small bag, a tube of tooth sensitivity gel, some instructions, my molds and the blocked set of trays. I took all of 15 minutes.

I took the back way home and arrived around 0830. At home, I warmed up some coffee and had a quick breakfast of a boiled egg and some salami. I watched some TV and did this journal entry until 0945, then left for the gym.

My workout went well. At the start, I felt the creeping effects of the lack of sleep. Everything seemed to come together after a few minutes, four exercises and planks.

I got home around 1130, pooped, and took a shower. Around 1330 I started the chicken breast and ate a quick lunch. Elizabeth called around 1415, and we talked until 1500. Nothing new. She sounded bummed about not getting the design job she interviewed for late last year. But as she does, she finds the silver lining, claiming her managers are sympathetic and are giving her more responsibility. I took the chicken out of the oven around 1500 and headed out to the UPS store and Fred Meyer.

I made it to the Park and Ride, around 1600. I noticed the garage door was opening (phone app), so May’s vanpool must’ve dropped her off. That’s when I saw her text about being dropped off; she sent at 1535.

I got home around 1630. I ate a snack of cheese and salami. May made dinner, a Chinese styled soup, with a Costco rotisserie chicken thigh, some Chinese BBQ pork (char siu), and a couple of potstickers. Yet again, I promptly fell asleep for a short minute nap. The rest of the night, we watched some TV, and I worked on finishing this blog.

Looking at the day in review, I’m not sure it was very successful. I did not do the jump rope. I ate too many snacks and took another nap after dinner. On the plus side, I started the whitening protocol this evening, probably an hour or two later than I should’ve. And May’s dinner was quite filling, so no snacking so far. My weight is around 253 lbs.

Day 3 Tue 01/28/2020

Day 3 01/28/2020

I dropped May off at the P&R, came home and made breakfast, two eggs, and the paleo chicken sausage. The sausage was good. I cooked a package and put the rest in the frig.

I got a reasonable amount of sleep, motivated by the need to get ready for the dentist.

Around 1015 I headed to the AMC theaters in Alderwood to see a movie, 1917. The director used a novel filming technique. It appears as one continuous shot, directly following the protagonist through the entire story. The cinematographer and director executed the “one-shot” technique successfully. The pace of the story suffered having to cover every minute of their journey, albeit a compelling story none the less — good special effect, but nothing new – loud explosion, and hyper-realistic bullet sounds. Overall, I give it a thumbs up.

At May’s request, I stopped at Fred Meyer at Thrasher’s Corner. I picked up a Nivea aftershave lotion. Side note: I recently discovered the joys of moisturizer lotion and, through trial and error, have gravitated to Nivea Men’s products. A few weeks ago, I was going to throw out a bottle of Keri lotion I bought 20 years ago. I was working for Boeing, supporting a wind tunnel test in the old Lockheed Skunk Works, 4X4 transonic wind tunnel, in Newhall, California; around 1994 (reference the Northridge Earthquake) and I picked up this lotion to help with dry air around the Santa Clarita valley. The Keri lotion was yellow-orange and smelly. To get rid of it, I spread it on my legs. I was pleasantly surprised at how smooth my skin was. I had to know more. Now I have a lotion for my body, my face, and an aftershave. I also have a face wash and an exfoliant.

I got home from Fred Meyer a little after 1400 and pretty much spent an hour, or so, on the pot. I took the Impreza to check on the tire pressure and waited at the P&R for May.

Dinner was some brown rice, the last of the green beans, and tofu, and a couple of pieces of Costco rotisserie chicken. I snacked on salami and cheese, before and after dinner, and also had a Kirkland ice cream bar. I did not enter anything into MFP, but I’m guessing I’m about around 2000 calories for the day.

I fell asleep after dinner for about 2 hours and spent until now, about 0100-ish in the morning, finishing journal entry for Monday and Tuesday.

I’ll wash up after I post this and be in bed around 0130.

Day 2 Mon 01/27/2020

I woke up this morning in time to help May get to work. Despite good intentions, I got to bed around 2 or 3 AM. A good cup of coffee got me through a morning of television.

I’m eating a lot of cough drops to help with a nagging cough. These are Ricola’s “dual action” cherry-flavored, the candy drop filled with a small amount of liquid cough syrup. The soothing sensation lasts about 10 to 20 minutes before I take another to stay ahead of cough. The goal is to keep my throat from “drying out,” which I believe would lead to the onset of bronchitis.

I went to the gym early because I wanted to bath before my dentist appointment. I planned was to work out at the gym for about 45 minutes to have enough time to bathe before the dentist. At the gym, Tory asked me to talk with someone named John about weight loss. Talking with John, I ran out of time and left the gym around 0845.

I got home around 0900 and wanted to leave before 1040. Running a little late, I made it to the dentist about 1105. My dental hygienist was Sandy, the same one I had last time. I’ve always had a substantial buildup of calculus/tartar at the base of my teeth. She recommended using a toothpaste with baking soda like Arm & Hammar toothpaste, which worked!

Dr. Nomi stopped by. No new cavities. We talked a bit about his recent, “guys only” tennis vacation to Maui. He talked about retirement, saying he was favoring reducing his workload in favor of stopping altogether. I agreed it was a better strategy than going cold turkey, and I conveyed my disfavorable experience quitting cold turkey.

I remember liking Sandy, a bit older than your typical hygienist. Not too talkative, she has a pleasant personality, great teeth cleaning technique, firm, and confident hands. My teeth never felt cleaner. Today’s visit confirmed my initial impressions. She asked if anything was going on with my teeth. I mentioned a desire to whiten them. She recommended getting fitted for whitening trays.

Whitening sounded like a good idea. Sandy inquired about the cost and came back with a half-off offer of $165. I decided to go ahead with the whitening process, and Dr. Nomi got me an immediate appointment. I met with the whitening technician, Elizabeth, who took impressions and made a fit and consultation appointment for this Wednesday, 01/29/2020, at 0800.

I gave my new insurance information to Veronica, Dr. Nomi’s receptionist. Nancy, one of Dr. Nomi’s office managers, said the procedure for processing dental claims with my new insurance is self-submitted reimbursement. In other words, they could not bill the insurer directly. I had to pay the Dr. Nomi upfront and submit the bill to the insurance company personally. Bummer.

At May’s suggestion, I went to Costco in Kirkland to pick up eggs and such. I found some paleo chicken breakfast sausages, 130 calories for 3, no sugar. Wow, I can’t wait to try them. I did not find the kale on her list, so I stopped at Fred Meyer. There I bought a birthday card for Elizabeth and a Valentine’s Day card for May but did not find any kale.

I got home around 1430. I ate something, junk mostly, cheese, salami, boiled egg, my first meal of the day, not counting cough drops.

I picked up May at the P&R. She made a dinner of leftovers, green beans, and tofu, some pasta with the remaining meat sauce, and I had a couple of snacks, cheese and pepperoni, cheese, and turkey breast.

Snacking is a real problem for me. I believe if I can conquer the urge to snack, I can beat this diet thing. It’s a significant issue if I’m to be successful at losing weight. And I’m struggling with it, right now.

I fell asleep after dinner and didn’t get to bed until around 0100.

Day 1 Sun 01/26/2020

Day 1. Everyone’s
always excited at the onset.  Strangely, I’m somewhat excited as well, considering how many Day 1s I’ve initiated over the decade or so. There’s somewhat of a hint of promise for the future, a future of better things like better health, better fitness, and less stress.

I’ve set the daily calorie limit in MFP to 1500 kcals/day (1498 to be exact), 112 grams of fat, 50 grams of protein, and 50 grams of carbohydrates, 30%, 40%, 30% split.  The logic behind the numbers is my propensity to favor protein over carbs and fat, and lower carbs to help manage blood sugar. I’ll use these settings until after my annual physical in March.  After which I may increase the carbs, making sure to continue to monitor my blood sugar closely.

I woke up around 7:30, 4 hours of sleep.  The morning was surprisingly sunny.  While eating breakfast, May and I watched the last half an hour of Sunday Morning, a Grammy special today.  May had her monthly subscription for hairstyling and a Mani/Pedi at Gene Juarez Salon in Redmond. 

I went to a hobby show at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe.  I did not know what to expect.  I was hoping to find discounted merchandise related to model building like tools, paint, cement, and model kits and possibly seminars or classes on the subject.  The exhibit was more about models that move like drones, trains, off-road models, model racing cars, battle bots, mod’ el ships, and model planes.  It was more about the clubs that promote activities and venues and provide organizations for social interaction
with like-minded peers. 

For lunch, we had leftover dim sum from yesterday’s outing to the Bamboo Village in the north Wallingford community.  Very good Beef Chow Fun Dry.  The dumplings Har Gow and Shu Mai were good too.  The Hoisin sauce (maybe it was oyster sauce) on the Gai Lan (Chinese broccoli) was too salty.

Dinner was also leftovers, turkey meatloaf, leftover green bean and tofu, and some kimchee.  I need to make some chicken breasts for make-a-head meals. I’ll add this to my list of things to do for tomorrow.

Today is a cloudy, rainy, lazy day.  I had no other plans other than going to the model show.  After lunch, I did some work on the blog at my workstation downstairs.  I had moved the MacBook Pro to its semi-permanent location to take advantage of the larger screen.  By mid-afternoon, I moved to the HP Windows 10 laptop in the living room to see if collaboration is available for the Grammarly app. 

I’m looking for a means to collaborate blog post editing between my MacBook and my Windows laptop.  It’s not.  0ffice Apps in Windows have Grammarly integrated as part of the editor.  Office Apps in the MacOS do not.  Instead, Mac users are supposed to use a stand-alone Grammarly application. 

While I like the MacOS Grammarly app, I can collaborate, real-time, using MS Word and use the embedded Grammarly to finalize the prose on the Windows laptop. Ideally, it would be better if OneNote was Grammarly compatible.  I have to use a tertiary step to take advantage of Grammarly.

Why use Grammarly?  Windows 10 Microsoft dropped OneNote from the Office suite.  The new OneNote no longer shares the structural backbone of the original MS Office apps.  Since I was mostly using the MacBook, I needed a checker add-on to clean up my spelling and grammar.  I like the approach used by Grammarly for feedback and recommendations.  

Let’s bring the discussion back to my day.  May made breakfast, two eggs, about 2 oz of Portuguese sausage, and some rice. I added some soy sauce.  For lunch, we had leftovers from yesterday’s Bamboo Village Dim Sum, some beef chow fun, some Chinese broccoli, and one and a couple of dumplings.  Dinner was the leftover meatloaf.  I had a couple of snacks, a couple of cheese and turkey rollups, and half of an apple fritter.  The leftovers, snacks, and some 30 cough drops accounted for all of the 500 calorie overages. 

It’s about 9:30 PM, and I’m hungry again.  I know this is not real.  It’s a conditioned response. I’ve been eating late-night snacks for nearly a year now, and It’s become almostimpossible for me to break this bad habit. 



 



Somehow I have to
find the motivation to get me through to bedtime.  I’m trying to use visualization.  The urge seems too great.  It’s so easy to grab something to eat,
possibly some pepperoni.  Let’s say
no.  Let’s get to bed early, say 10 PM,
which would give me a full 7 hours of sleep. 
More sleep results in less cortisol, which is supposed to aid in weight
loss.



 



Bah, I ate some
pepperoni.  Now it’s back to the drawing
board.