Bicardi 151

12/12/2005

OK....... I can not have Bicardi 151, but the number fit with what I wanted to post about.
My total weight loss, as of today, is 151 pounds since February. Breaking it down, that is 35 before surgery, and 116 in the 6 months since surgery. It just keeps falling off ! I have no specific goal, but will probably lose another 90 - 100 pounds to get to where I will level out and remain.

I made it through Thanksgiving, and all the food that goes with that day, with no real problems. I therefore know I can do the same with Christmas, even with all the vendors and friends that have food around, or send gifts of food to the company. I just say "no thanks". It's really not as difficult as I thought it would be. I now "eat to live" and no longer "live to eat". That's progress.

I spent last week on vacation, starting with a weekend in Kansas City. I toured some beautiful homes that were all decked out for Christmas with some friends up there, and then had a nice dinner on a lake that evening with them. I then crossed all of Kansas to spend a night in Denver, and then on to Crested Butte, Colorado for 4 nights. I wish it had been longer, even though I've never seen it so cold as it was that trip. Thursday December 8th morning it was a
-35F. Yes, a minus 35 degrees Farenheit ! Fortunately there was no wind to speak of, and it is
after all, a "dryer cold", so it was not unbearable.

I have finished my Christmas shopping, and next on my list are my Christmas cards, which I did not get out last year. I did just finish up my Christmas Letter to go in the cards as well. In there, as well as here, I am soliciting anyone I know from back at the John Knox Presbyterian Church Youth Group in the 1970's to send me addresses of anyone they are still in contact with, as I am hoping to organize a reunion of our group at Christmas time 2006. Also, anyone that was in the same fraternity I was in, Phi Kappa Theta, at Oklahoma State University, I am helping to organize a reunion of all the years members, sometime in the summer or fall of 2007. Send me names and addresses on Phi Kap's also !! My high school reunion (Nathan Hale High School) will also be in the summer of 2007. So I have a lot of activity approaching quickly !!

2006 will see me travel again on my almost annual trek to South Lake Tahoe. I will also return to Crested Butte a few times, and in late October, will take a Mexican Riviera Cruise for a week.
I still am hoping to get to Hawaii, and back to Europe, both in 2007 most likely.

Life is more fun when one is active, and I have re-activated my life to start doing more.

Wally