Weight Loss Clinic

It's hot in Ottawa today. I was at my weight loss clinic at the hospital earlier. David drove me so I wasn't exposed to the blistering heat but coming home I stood outside to wait for him. There's lots of trees at the hospital so I had some shade.

At the clinic, we studied portion sizes. How much to put on your plate that will make you healthier and lose weight. One-fourth protein, one-fourth starch and the rest vegetables. In truth, I find it hard to stick to that. I've given up chip, nachos, popcorn and all sorts of things that make the calories stick to me.

Two and one-half ounces of protein per meal. Sounds tiny. But I think if I'm clever and take less for one meal, I can take more for the next.

But I'm going to try my best. When I began my weight loss journey (as it's called so many times) I was 289 pounds. Now I'm 257 pounds. So it is working and all it will take is a little effort and I should be able to lose all I want.

If any of you is thinking of losing weight, I really recommend doing it in a group of people. I find my fellow journeyers to be fun and wonderful people, good to talk to.

So this month I'm going to work on my portions.

Walmart Photography

I'm waiting for my photos. Soon, I should get a call from Walmarts that my photo is in. I use the singular because I bought the least expensive package, which is $13.99. You only get prints of one pose.

That's fine by me. There was only one good photo anyway, and that's not the photographers fault. I'm not photogenic.

You can see it in all my school photos. Bleah. I look awful while everyone else looks so cute, so adorable. Now I do like my baby pictures but anything after that, no.

But I did get one good shot from Walmarts and I'm going to use it at Author Shout which is a site for authors to promote their books. I'm looking forward to trying this site and hope it works better than the more than dozen others, who claim their site is free and then try to charge you money if you actually want to promote. (buying ads or such)

These sites just let you sign up for free and list your book. Sure thing that nobody will see it in all the other hundreds of books. Therefore, you have to pay to get special attention. Some authors do, I don't know how it works for them. It doesn't work for me.

But Author Shout wants a professional headshot, if you don't have one, they won't let you on. So I'm hoping that means they're a little more serious about promoting authors. You can't necessarily draw this conclusion but I'll give it a shot. (Didn't I already say that?)

It was supposed to take two weeks and now it's two weeks and one day. So maybe today my phone will ring.

Walking And Other Exercises

Walking. I've been doing a lot of that lately. My need to stay in some sort of healthy shape drives me, that, and my sister gave me an earful when I told her I'd not done any for awhile.

So I cave in to pressure. Anyway, it's been doing me a lot of good. My blood pressure is doing so well that my doctor told me to stop taking one of the pills he'd prescribed for me. That makes me feel good, thinking that maybe I can do without other pills, too.

But all this had me thinking of those people who, when young, know they  need to eat right and exercise in order to be in shape when they're old. I compare them with old people who are stiff and can't do things they like, camping or hiking, because they're 'too old'.

It was starting to look like I'd be one of those people with aches and pains that can't be explained and it all started with my damaged left knee. There is no bone setting for my patella anymore, it's all worn away and my kneecap just sort of  'floats' under my skin.

This means I can't ride a bike, I never learned anyway but could have when I was grown, so there's no riding along the bicycle path for me. It runs along the Ottawa river and is really a nice place to be. It goes to Remic Rapids and the beach at Westboro. It also goes out to Britannia Beach.

I had a friend who biked this path regularly and he once had to walk miles because his bike wheel busted open. Oh, well, it's all exercise, isn't it?

And there are things to see in downtown Ottawa. I go down to Sparks Street Mall and today they had a car show on. All classic cars, a Triumph and a 57' Belair. Nice to look at. Out of my price range but nice anyway. You could win the Belair in a raffle if you were lucky.

So I'm going to stick with my walking. Maybe go on the bicycle path by the Rideau Canal. I could walk for a couple of miles down to Dows Lake and get a little boat to rent. Now that would be great exercise.