Daily Bread #119

Sunrise or sunset?  It depends on which direction you are facing.  East? West?  What time is it anyway?  The world keeps turning, life flows on, and perspectives change.  At least I hope so,

That old Marxist line about your politics depending on your relationship to the means of production, had a lot of truth in it. Social location matters.  White people can pretend racism doesn’t exist, but people of color don’t have that privilege.

I took 3 hikes this week. Two were over 6 miles with some serious elevation gain, but it was the shorter, flatter, 4 mile one that stressed my knee.  It wasn’t a fire road but a hiking only trail, and near the end of the loop there were way too many stairs for me.  70 or so. There wasn’t a lot of choice at that point, so I plodded up them.  Luckily, they were going up and not down, because then we might have needed to turn around.  My new knee is good, but my other one is not as steady and balance can be an issue.  Going down stairs without a solid railing to hang onto feels just too dangerous for me.  It is important to know your limits.  Luck matters too.  But even with luck, my old knee was really aching the day after that hike.  I’m sticking to the fire roads unless I know for a fact that there will be no stairs on a trail.

My average weight went up last week by 1.8 pounds which really feels like a lot even though I am still a couple of pounds under my “don’t go over” goal of 150.  We had Chinese take out earlier in the week, so it might be the salt.  Maintenance is hard partly because my perspective needs to change.  After two years of consistent weight loss, my brain has been wired to keep to that pattern.  But is the amazing sky a sunset or a sunrise?  Are the stairs going up or down?  I need to find a flat and shady trail so I don’t stress so much.

I found out last week that I have lost more weight than anyone else in Kaiser’s San Rafael/Petaluma medical weight management program.  That news startled and humbled me.   I am not sure how many people have participated in the program, but my guess is something around 800.  I want a prize.  Wait!  I have already received my prize in dramatically improved health.  I’ll figure out this maintenance game too.  It just might take me some time.

Back in the day, we had long rambling conversations about what our lives would be like “after the revolution.” We were idealistic, but more than a little clueless.   “Be the change you want to see.” It’s a great slogan, but change means change, and whatever your imagination came up with, the reality will be very different.  I’ll just think I’ll just”keep on trucking” and see where this trail leads.

L’Chaim!  Week 11 of “maintenance”: My average weight this week is up 1.8 pounds from last week’s average for a total loss of 175.9.