6 November 2011 - Halloween and a Momentous Occasion

Monday was the greatest holiday known to kids.  It was drizzling a little and not too warm, but that didn't stop the kids from having a great time.  I took the kids out while Joanne stayed home and manned the candy bowl.

The kids brought home a tremendous haul.  In our family, we've always combined everyone's candy together at the end of the night and tried to manage consumption so as to avoid sugar induced illness.

Given the size of the Halloween haul, and the general tastiness of candy in general, it was somewhat miraculous that on the morning after Halloween, I achieved a momentous goal.  Back on July 5th I decided that I felt lousy, didn't like being fat, and needed to do something about it.  My blood pressure was creeping back up too.  So I downloaded an app called Lose It! on my phone and set up a goal.  I weighed 235 pounds--10 pounds heavier than I'd ever previously been in my life.  My goal was to lose 40 pounds.  Over the course of the past four months I have been very vigilant in managing my caloric intake.  I still ate hamburgers, bread and even donuts and ice cream during my weight loss, but I tried very hard to manage portions and stay within my daily calorie limit.  As the weeks went by, the pounds started to come off.  I felt better every week and even took up jogging -- sometimes running as many as eight miles at a stretch; something I hadn't done (or been able to do) for years.  Then, on November 1st, this was the scale's reading:

I was very happy (and honestly, relieved) to reach this goal.  I have continued to use Lose It! to try to ensure that I now maintain weight.  I'd like to try to get down into the 180s, but if I can stay under 200 for the long term, I will be very satisfied.  I should note here that Joanne joined me in the Lose It! quest, losing 20 pounds herself and getting back to what she weighed when we were married.  Perhaps not coincidentally, we reached these goals right at November 1st, 2011, the day we also celebrated our 16th wedding anniversary.

As the week went on, the weather turned warmer and our snow melted.  By Thursday, this was all that was left.

On Saturday, the girls and I attended the high school play of one of the priests in our ward.  It was a theater-in-the-round performance of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead, an eclectic and existential take on the role of two minor characters in Shakespeare's Hamlet.  Although the girls didn't get most of it and the play's dialogue is pretty heavy stuff, it was good to be there to support Taylor (he's my First Assistant in the priest quorum presidency).

Joanne wasn't able to attend the play because she was in Delaware for our nephew Kurt's baptism.  She had a very good time with her brothers and sisters, mom, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.  The girls were certainly glad to have her back home after a couple of days away.