Where does the time go when it's not around here? I don't know

This has been a tough week for me and my family. My grandfather, the strongest man I've ever known, has been diagnosed with lung cancer and is currently in the hospital. We have been advised that it is inoperable. We are hoping to stabilize him at the hospital and then get him home. He wants to be home. We will respect his wishes.

I don't know if I want to talk about it too much here. It isn't that I don't want to talk about this great man, but I don't know if I want to air that in this public place. He has been a huge influence on my life, and it would be difficult for me to do justice to him with anything I could write here. And I don't need to be airing my family's pain.

Plus, this is supposed to be about my health. I did run 5 times this week and did a good job eating. I feel better about running and am going to try to run a little faster. I've been able to get up to 2.5 miles every day, and it is getting easier. I think one more week of this and then I'll get up to 2.6 miles. I need to keep progressing in both distance while running and lower calories while eating.

I will try to keep updating more regularly. I don't know how often I'll be able with my family duties. With everything going on in my life, I still need to get healthier.

People said you monkeyed around, but nobody's listening now

A handful of us at work decided to start a support group to lose weight. Or at least help each other lose weight. We even have a spreadsheet for all of us to track our possible weight loss. It is called TOG for Tub Of Goo. I am hoping this will be the little kick start to get me going.

Today has gone well, eating well and I ran 2.5 miles. I will have to say that it was hard to shut off "The Bourne Ultimatum" after only 30 minutes.

I have been thinking about my usual summer activity: Softball. I am not sure I will do it this summer. I just think I need a rest from it for a year. I have a few months to decide, but if I had to make the decision today, I don't think I'd play. Last year just sucked for me.

I want to describe how a woman told me at the movie theater this weekend that I am a racist. All because I caught her and her family trying to steal a movie. But I don't want to degenerate this into an angry blog. But it makes me hate people more.

I guess that's when the penny finally dropped: you're as clueless as I am

The plan for the rest of this week is to keep running and finish my bad food while still reducing calories. So far it has worked. I have clocked in at about 2600 calories each of the past two days, which is better than the 3-4,000 calories I have been eating each day for the past few months. By the weekend most of my bad food will be gone, I will give the rest of it to my parents, and then get ready to be healthy all over again.

My running isn't doing too bad, but I still can't RUN for 30 continuous minutes - I can only run for about 15 minutes, then walk at 3 mph for about 4-5 minutes, then ramp it back up until I do the cool off period for last 4 minutes. It just gets to feeling like my legs weight 400 pounds when I run too long. That might be the extra 35 pounds above the waist that is doing it.

I went to my physician's office a few weeks ago for blood work (and to get the referral for even more physical therapy) and my cholesterol level is down. In March 2006 it was at 227. As of December 7, 2007 it was at 203. This is significant because over the prior 5 years, my cholesterol has progressively risen. This is the first time it has gone down. My HDL and LDL levels were actually only slightly high. And my blood sugar level was great. Overall, everything is better, except my fat belly.

Physical therapy is going well. This week my back has been better than it has been for months, at least since October. And nothing has felt really good involving my back since the accident (don't you get tired of me talking about that? Fuck knows I'm tired of talking about it.)

I now have a plan going forward. I need to keep up with the plan for the foreseeable future - another 20-30 years. At least until the end of March. And I do want to start weight training in the Spring on the Bowflex. We shall see.