Day 3 of getting back to normal

Last year at this time, I began a concerted campaign to become fitter and to lose weight. Julian bought us a Wii Fit console for Christmas, and I began to use it regularly, particularly using the running segments. I also began jogging outside regularly. The Wii Fit showed I was greatly overweight, bordering on obese. And it tracked my BMI and weight in graph form. As the weeks and months progressed, so did the graphs showing a steady reduction in weight and the BMI. By June, my BMI was nearing the division between overweight and the normal range, and I had lost around 25lbs.

Then I had my heart attack while jogging. Since then, I have been able to slowly regain my health while maintaining my June weight.

For 2011 I plan to resume that weight loss progress in which I had success. I need to lose another 20 -25 lbs, and to bring my BMI well within the normal range.

Over the last few months, I have slowly resumed my jogging and my Wii Fit exercises. Before Christmas I had two or three weeks of inactivity as a low grade fever hit me. Now that has gone, I have resumed jogging, with two 5 km runs yesterday and the day before.

Today's jog was cut a little short at the 4 km point as a slight ham string pull told me to ease off for a while. I walked the rest of the way home.

Tomorrow we get back to twice weekly swimming of senior's laps at the local pool. And if my ham string pull still bothers me, there will be lots of walking instead of the jogging. At day three of the program there is a long way to go, but the program will see success.

Bucket lists

Anne and I are both Old Age Pensioners. Lately, Anne has been talking about her "bucket list", things she would like to do before she kicks the bucket. These are things to do while we are still in the best of health.

Her bucket list has a time frame of completion before she is 70, but she has set a goal of both of us living well into our 80s and 90s. But her short-term list before 70 is as follows:
Learn how to stand on her head comfortably during her weekly Yoga classes.
Sew a beautiful dress for our Grandaughter, Gabrielle.
Complete the needle point (or is it cross-stitch) she has been working on for several years now.

For me, my short-term bucket list is as follows:
Get back into running again and complete a 5km, 10km and 1/2 Marathon before I am 70.
Lose lots of weight.

Those two items are complimentary of course. Wii Fit puts me in the "overweight" category, but not the "obese" category. And its suggested ideal weight for me is 145lbs, two pounds lighter than the weight I was when I married Anne in 1966. Anne's Wii Fit ideal weight and her actual weight are very close.

I have begun to lose that weight I accumulated over the decades, but it will be a long process that will take a year or more if I am able to keep at it.

Another bucket list goal we share is to put money aside into Adrian's Registered Disability Savings Account (RDSP) for the next eight years so as to take advantage of the government's contributions to the maximum.

Wii and exercise and diet

My Wii "Mii" is a short, fat person despite me trying to program it to be tall and svelt.

We were given the Wii Fit interactive program by our eldest son, Julian, some time before the July 24th flood. For a few weeks before that flood, Anne and I, and Julian on occasion, began to use the program as a weight and exercise program. I had the greatest need for it since over the years I have gained weight. I was slowly beginning to lose that weight through using the program. Then came the flood and access to our basement, where the Wii is kept, was cut off. It was only in the New Year that we really had access once more and could begin again.

A double incentive for me to exercise and diet seriously came with the results of my most recent blood tests with the slightly high blood sugar count.

Today I achieved the first step in the weight loss program. Wii would only let me set a weight loss of one pound for two weeks as a goal. Today, a couple of days before that target date, I achieved the goal. Wii allowed me to set another goal for two weeks, of losing one more pound.

Difficulties will come when we leave Julian in charge of the house when we take an almost two week vacation in Arizona at the end of February. We hope that by taking long hikes and maintaining our diets we will come back without any appreciable weight gain.

Perhaps my Wii Mii will become slimmer as the exercise and diet results come in over the next six months or more?