Rick's Daily Journal

San Francisco.....168 pounds!!!!!!!! Even I am shocked looking at and typing those numbers. Losing 5 10 or 15 pounds you see a little change but nothing really to boast about like I feel doing. Losing almost 70 pounds has seriously transformed my looks, my health and what is even more remarkable it has transformed my thinking. In a way it has been way too easy and yet it has also been a supreme struggle to stay focused considering there was such a lag time on seeing or feeling results. Yet when I did start to feel and enjoy the fruitation of my endeavors it has been like I went in overload reaping of benefits. My modus operandi was achieved through sheer determination. They say you should never critize a person unless you have walked a mile in their shoes. Well I walked many many miles in a fat man shoes so I have seen both sides of the coin which makes me qualified to remark on or estoll the benifits weight loss or admonish anyone on the detriment of being overweight and complacent about your health. I am still wearing the clothes I came to this city with back in December and beleive me they do not fit well at all. I went to the Levi store downtown a few weeks ago to try on a pair of jeans but it was still to early to be spending money on something that I was certain to grow down out of. My son is sure to note the bad sentence structure but I could not think of a way to say I was going to get slimmer. Usually we buy clothes for kids with the thought that they will grow into them soon enough so they can be a little large. Lastly a few people have remarked that I have not posted here much lately. I was shocked for I thought I might of had an audience of one maybe two but four is beyond comprehension. The main reason I have not posted more is there are just aren't enough hours in the day to do everything and with my new found health I want to do so much that blog writing is getting a low priority for now. I really don't write here for anyone but myself anyway, mostly to keep track of what I was doing at a point in time to jog my memory. And lastly (again) I want to thank my son Jon and my wife Tacey for supporting me finacially in this transformation. Without them all of this would have been impossibe. My health insurance will not pay for this portion of my return to health. Makes no sense since if I am healthy then I will be filing less claims. They will also not pay for pneumonia or flu shots to prevent the advent of those diseases yet they forked out over $20000 when I got peumonia in September. Sometimes the feet are headed to the beach while the brain is still watching the Sopranos.

Weight loss....Now that I am losing lots of weight I am keenly aware of what all that heft was doing to me and how my lifestyle and health was handicapped because of it. But along with the healing my body is doing I have had to retrain my brain because your brain is in on the conspiracy to make you too heavy and if not for this fast I am sure I would fail in this endeavor. My body resisted the effort to do anything and my brain was being complicit right along with it. My health and motivation was so severely compromised that one side of my brain ruled the roost. Everything was an effort and it was only getting worse. The more obese I became the more my heart labored and the less I wanted to do anything. I was totally clueless that being over weight could be such a detriment to my existence. Oh sure I was aware of how I looked and knew that it was not good for me to some degree but I did not realize how wonderful I would feel or how damaging the weight was. The rewards are almost boundless. But it has been a supreme struggle. Each day I would go outside my sons home and try to walk up the hill a ways. Progress was excruciatingly slow but seeing the transformation in my son I knew with application I would drop some weight. Each day going up that hill was hard and depressing. Two houses up and back down hill. Two and a half houses up and back down. Day in day out I never waned from the effort no matter how it looked like I would never make it to the top of the hill. Then one day I made the top and I was overjoyed. Many days spent struggling to the top ensued until I was like Magellan and had to find out what was on the other side. Then it was why not make this a circuitous route back to my son's house so I can see new things instead of the same old sights I seen on the way up. Make it a metropolitan adventure quest so to speak. Two houses had now turned into a mile and a half. After that is was not something I had to do but something I wanted to do. I was riding the train out to the zoo one day on a special errand, that I will get into in another blog, when we got blocked in the middle of an intersection and could not proceed for about 10 minutes. I looked down the street and about three blocks away was the Pacific Ocean with breakers ten feet high crashing ashore and right then I knew I had arrived. Or more precisely my brain had arrived along with my body. My brain said "Yea! let's have some adventure ", and my body a willing partner walked to the ocean like Vasco Balboa centuries earlier . The doctors said after a few weeks on this fast that we expect you to burn 2000 calories a week doing some form of exercise along with only eating enough of their protein supplements to make sure my body did not burn muscle for energy and only convert the fat to run all systems. Ketosis is what it is called and it is a marvelous thing your body will do given the forced deprivation. The energy my body needs to maintain itself has hit a virtual state of penury and has no choice but to go the snobs called fat who live in various places on my body and say "Hey! You need to contribute to the energy fund or the body will fail and we will have nothing and we will be just a memory with a piece of granite extolling our life's accomplishments or lack of them". I make the analogy that fat is like a movie star. It wants to be out on display so everyone can see it and is not happy unless it occupies the prime places on your body like your stomach and your posterior. It is shouting "look at me I can survive a famine if need be". Last time I looked there were no famines in America. The only thing is fat is not really a movie star no matter its' star billing. Fat is the white trash that moved into the neighborhood and put on the front lawn a 1972 Gremlin on blocks with the doors askew and placed a cheap plastic flamingo from Walmart next to it and called the place home. Lastly my son made mention the other day that you never see a really fat old person. The reason that is is fat kills and it doesn't wait for you to get old it wants to kill you now. We all struggle to attain a nice home a comfortable car or grown up toys but fail to struggle to save our selves.

Had a brutal evening here in the city. When I left to go to my 5 PM doctors appointment the temperature was a balmy 64 degrees with clear skies and nary a hint of a breeze. As usual I was wearing shorts and carried a light sweat shirt, for in the afternoons the wind changes direction and picks up some of the chill the vast Pacific has to offer. I take the train into the city which from where I embark proceeds into a deep tunnel that never rises more than 5 stories underground even at my terminus. I have no problem with this but I can not allay the fears my wife has for this form of transit so in a way I am lucky she is not with me on this sojourn. Halfway into the city the train grinds to a halt in a part of the tunnel that has no access to the surface and radio communication is limited if not nonexistent in this portion of the underground tube. We cooled our heels there for over a half an hour and thusly made me quite late for my appointment. The clinic was understanding of my situation when I did get there as this is a city more dependent on mass transit than similar size cities around America outside of New York city. I did not get out of the doctors office till after 7PM and as is usual for the New me I walked the ten blocks back to the train station for my ride back to West Portal. The wind was whipping up like a Nor'easter about to pounce upon the New England states. I figured I would just quicken my pace and stay ahead of getting a chill on my jaunt downhill. I might add here for those not familiar with San Francisco, you have two options for a walk anywhere in the city, uphill or downhill, no prairie here. I made it to the station and descended down into the bowels of earth where my ride home would be awaiting me in two minute intervals. My first clue something was amiss was seeing the the waiting platform, normally this time of night a sprinkling of people late from work or maybe shopping, a sea of humanity and three trains idling on the tracks. From the PA system, which normally has a pleasant female voice stating which train was approaching and from which direction, comes a voice from I am sure a secure room well away from this crowd announcing that there would be no more trains moving this evening. Three outbound (out of the city) trains in the station with approximately 300 people on each one not counting the ones waiting to board all of sudden having to put plan B into action. Not having done much Boy Scout time in my youth I never the less have always tried to live by their motto, Be Prepared. For this I was sort of prepared being I had purchased a Muni map when I got here in San Francisco. The map has all the routes of the buses, trains and a supplement with Bart route outlined. So I had Plan B covered. I did not have Plan C covered though. Plan C is bring clothes as if winter might come here to northern California. Reaching the surface again I was disheartened to find out that the wind was now blowing to the tune of 10 on the Beaufort Wind Scale and I am making no exaggerations. You know it is bad when you start using the Beaufort Scale. Things are now getting really complicated and I am falling behind managing sanity. Why sanity? It is now 45 degrees and I am dressed for a stroll down the beach in Miami. I am on a fast and I have not had a protein supplement since 2 in the afternoon. Being on a fast you don't hold water very well and San Francisco is famous for being stingy with the privilege of using their facilities. I am not kidding, they have signs in the window telling you in advance, just in case you might think to ask to use their bathroom. Lastly all of a sudden 1200 people want to use the same 50 person bus, that will magically be transformed into a sardine can with these crowds, I will require to get within walking distance to home. This compounded by the fact that this is only one station of many on Market street that also just let out. I finally got on one of the electric buses and even got a seat. The real bonus was this bus driver had the heat cranked all the way up. I felt like I was in Alaska and had hit the command start early so my first foray into the cold would be that much lesssend. I transferred buses near City College after again waiting in the gale force winds. This was a diesel bus and it either did not have a heater or the driver secretly was wearing long johns. A transplanted Alaskan not willing to come out of the cold closet maybe. It all worked out and I am that much wiser. Two transfers, one convenient and well placed bush and a short 3 tenths of mile walk home to a house sitting at 51 degrees and only 9:45 PM made for an interesting diversion from the norm. I am not going to run out and do a cheer for diversions but once in awhile they are needed just to keep that edge.

San Francisco 190 pounds!!!!! Wow it is hard to believe that a short time ago I was 45 pounds heavier and a whole lot more sedentary and complacent about my health and weight. And if I have more days like I have been having I am sure to lose a lot more weight. Yesterday I left for the train station to go shopping at Costco in the city and as usual I double checked that I had the house keys in my possesion as my greatest fear is that I would be locked out and not be able to access the internet. The train station is down hill from Jon's home and part of it is a fairly steep grade which at times taxes this old body. I get to the bottom of the steepest part and realize I am wearing my flip flop sandals which answered my question of why this walk seeemed so different. Back up the hill and put on my tennis shoes, check for key possession and proceed on my way again. I get to the train station and reach for my Fast Pass and, Yep, left it on the table back home. Retrieve the pass and make note about getting frequent flyer miles and head back down the hill. Get on the train and since it is 5pm the train heading into the city is almost empty. I get to the next station which is Forest Hill and realize I do not have my Costco card so I debark and cross over to go back to West Portal which is the station near the house. Outbound train is at this hour of day is like a ride on a train in Hong Kong, be prepared to be intimate with your neighbor. Why can't I ride on one of these sardine rides next to a model for Victorias Secret instead of the guy that thinks hot water is what you use to make coffee with. So it is back up the hill, key check, pass check, shoe check and off on my adventure again. I get off the train at Van Ness and look at my Muni map and ascertain Costco is about 5 blocks down 10th avenue so since I really did not want to brush up against Abu again I chose to walk. It was a pleasant walk with many new sights around each corner. I get to Costco as they slide the NORAD type door closed and thus ending my expectations for some Rojos Salsa that evening. Morals of the adventure.......be forgetful you lose 200 calories and check watch occasionaly

San Francisco 200!!!!!!!! What a wonderful month this has been. The weather has been tame compared to Alaska but the locals here think it stinks as there has been a lot of rain. Lots has happened in the interim since my last post and I regret not posting more often to report on events while still fresh. One of the premier events was Jon taking me to a football game at Candlestick Park on an otherwise dreary day. The players were the San Francisco 49ers versus the Houston Texans. Now I must state I have never been a great fan of football but seeing a game live in a stadium with thousands of fans was awe inspiring. You could feel the energy of the event like a full body massage. I have seen loyalty to a sports team on a much smaller scale and I must say it pales in comparision to the people gathered that day. Everything connected to the day was larger than life. The stadium is huge. The grass of the field was greener than any grass I have ever seen. The scoreboards were larger than buildings in my hometown. Upon entering the stadium I was not prepared for the assault on my senses. Candlestick Park is from the outside a nondescript concrete structure as I am sure most stadiums are. But upon entering the seating area it is like you have traveled to some magical fairy tale land where time seems to stand still and a sense of magic comes over you. I have no idea how long we were there but we did stay to the end of the game and got to enjoy the egress from the building of many thousands of fans. I suppose living here and attending games on a regular basis you would become inured of the magic but then maybe not.........foot note......I attained the remarkable weight of 200 pounds today and have never felt better........Thanks Jon your perserverance on my health is coming into fruition......to the future

San Francisco 215......A storming night in the city on the bay. Got back here yesterday from Alaska finally what with all the delays and overbooked flights. Flying standby does have its detractions but all to be taken in stride for the excellent benefits it invokes. Hooked up the new speaker system to the laptop so I can listen to music minus the headphones. Jon has lost 100 pounds and looks fantastic. I am down 20 and my heart and breathing are a lot better for it. Another 40 or more and I might be able to do things again and as the doctor says I might live longer than a year with my bad heart. demons be gone

Unless the god of El Nino chooses to show his head winter has descended upon my part of the planet. We got our first snow a few days ago and it is still coming down. There should be another 2 inches on the ground by morning. Thank heavens my son in law roto tilled my garden yesterday or I would have to contend with an unruly mess in the spring. Been very few Octobers we have not had snow by Halloween so this is the norm. Global warming seems to be more prevelant in the spring and during the winter than the beginning of it. With the price of heating oil we all have to be fools living in this climate. Can we just put all systems on automatic and come back in the spring. My oxygen level seems to be getting worse. The VA doctor said I will be bad for some time to come from the viral pneumonia. In june is was at 90% and yesterday at the VA I was 79%. When I am that low walking is an effort not to just pass out let alone do anything. God I hope I get better. The thought of being tethered to oxygen for the rest of my days does not sit will with me..................