I've lost weight...ask me how!

"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more..." Henry V, Act III


If you have known me for any length of time, you will have seen this quote from time to time as I have posted. It is a call to once more go into the fight and stress to perhaps this time see victory. Today, I ask you to recall with me a sure and certain victory. I have chronicled it before and I, once again, take up the gauntlet to update you on the battle. The picture below was taken in 2008. I weighed nearly 460 pounds. Things needed to change.

I didn't sleep well. I had a heart problem that constantly left me with either a medicine change or a frequent doctor visit. It was work just to get up and move around anywhere. 

This next photo was taken a little bit later but if you look closely I had the dark rings around my eyes that indicated that I was taking on fluid and not getting enough sleep. Still, something had to be done. 

So, I began to work out, take my medications faithfully, and to eat better. I accepted the fact that I was turning into a middle aged man and accepted that the changes were due to those mitigating factors. The doctor appointments were less frequent but still present. Still, something had to be done. 

So, the work was starting to pay off and I was able to buy some new clothes again. I traveled quite a bit during this time which my weight loss at this time gave me some freedom to feel better. Still, something had to be done. 

Now, there are ups and downs in this fight and the photo above was taken right before I ended up at the hospital and had ballooned to 450 pounds due to my heart problem flaring up and the pacemaker at the time,  one of which I've worn a version of since I was 18, gave out and the thought was that I was going to die. Still, something had to be done. 

The photo above was take when I weighed about 330 pounds. I was beginning to shed a bunch of weight and began a process that has continued to this day. Though I have made great strides, still, something had to be done. 

A most recent picture at a wedding. I currently weigh 290 pounds and am continuing to lose it. There is still much more to do but for now you accept the victory. Still, something had to be done. Next week, we will explore the something that had to be done. 

Musing About Life and the Start of a New Blog

So today brings a new day and a new look and a new approach to the blog. These certainly will be the musings of a weary traveler. So, why call it “Musings of a Weary Traveler”? Not because I travel to strange and interesting places but I have done that some. Not because I am always tired but I am indeed weary as life so often leaves us. No, I am on a journey from the day of my birth until the end of it all here on earth. I am living the hyphen right now, that place in between those two dates and thus on my journey. I measure life not in goals but in experiences. I measure it not by the gallon full but by the cupful. It’s like the Psalmist said in 23:5c, “my cup runneth over with joy.” It runneth over not because of what I’ve acquired but by what I have retained. My cup runneth over not because of what I have accomplished but by what I’ve experienced. Do I want for anything? Sure, but I have learned to leave as much as I can and pack as light as possible. I’ve learned to treasure people and not things. I’ve learned to steward that and those which I have been given to do so. 

So, herein, I begin again to  reinvent myself and to begin a new chapter in this book called Life I invite you to come along with me and take this journey with me. I can’t guarantee the most exciting of times but at least we will have journeyed together. Tolkien said it best, “There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after.” Such is life, the quest to find the thing only to find out you were looking for was not the thing. So, what am I looking for? The same thing you’re looking for: peace, fellowship, good food, a decent cup of coffeee among other things. Let’s hope we never find the Platonic form of it, so that we may keep on looking. Life, what a quandary?