Howdy, howdy!  I know, I’m not supposed to be posting today.  But there’s something I wanted to celebrate now that Dad has finally given me the go ahead.  And since next week is a book review post, I thought I’d just write this one as something special in between.  First, say hi to Dad from my Stonecoast years!

That was when he was around 270 lbs.  He maintained that weight for a while after losing 60 lbs (yeah, he was 330 at one point).  Then, a week or so after Thanksgiving last year, we went to see a new doctor who came into the room and immediately said Dad was dying because of his weight and diabetes and all that stuff (dude was a real ray of sunshine </sarcasm>).  So, he told Dad to lose 70 lbs through diet and exercise.  He gave us a crappy little paper that showed what the diet would consist of (not helpful at all), said to do 30 minutes of cardio a day, then sent us away to figure everything out ourselves.

So, we did.

The doctor said 1,200 calories a day, so I found an app to keep track of that.  Dad got a new Polar A370 watch to track his exercise and that H10 heart monitor we posted about a while ago, plus the corresponding apps.  And for almost 8 months (November 29, 2017 until July 18, 2018), Dad religiously stuck to between 1,200 and 1,300 calories a day.  The calorie app would yell at him if he was under 1,200 because, for men, that’s considered starvation levels, but he rarely went over 1,250.  He walked on the treadmill 6 days a week and did some strength training as well, but had to give up the exercise for a few weeks when the doctor put him on a statin and he had some adverse reactions.  It was hard work and I’m super proud of him!  Say hi to Dad now!

He’s lost about 80 lbs!  He weighed 191.1 on the 18th!  He went from a 2X down to a large.  He bought a new belt a few months ago and is currently in need of another new one (he’s been drilling extra holes into it as needed for now).  He did an awesome job!

Now, we’re slowly figuring out a maintenance plan.  That’s all.  I just wanted to brag about Dad a bit.

See you Wednesday!