Lose 20 Pounds In Three Months

A few days ago one of my friends over at MyFitnessPal asked if losing 20 pounds in the next three months is a reasonable goal. What would your answer be?

My first reaction was surprise. She has been very consistent with her exercise, jogging about 30 minutes three or four times a week. During the time I have known her the photos she has posted on MFP show real progress. With this in mind, I answered that "it depends."

My own experience tells me that it is definitely possible to lose that much weight in 90 days. In fact, I lost almost 60 pounds in the first three months after I changed my lifestyle. The answer to the question, "Is it possible?" is Yes; but, she was asking if it was realistic. That requires a little more thought. Losing one pound requires burning about 3500 more calories than you eat. A quick calculation means that my friend will need to burn 5,250 calories more each week than she eats. That's a daily deficit of 750 calories. That's a whole meal or about 75 minutes of cardio over and above what she is already doing. Or some combination of the two.

There's another factor; where is she now compared to where she wants to or should be? If she had 40 pounds to lose (and I didn't think that was the case based on her progress), then losing 20 in three months might be a little more attainable. However, she had already done a BMI calculation concluding that she needs to lose 21 more pounds to be at her ideal weight. I can tell you that my last 20 was much harder to lose and keep off than the first 20. In my case, it took about six months to lose the first 100 pounds, but it took eight months to lose the next 60.

I know that my friend can do it, and I am confident that she will maintain that weight when she reaches goal. Why? Because I know that she is not "going on a diet" but instead is committed to a lifestyle of being healthy.

Be sure to eat breakfast, and take a Clif Bar with you.

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest.

Training Zones and Running for Fitness

Running is not for everyone. I was reminded of that when a friend of mine posted his social media status recently:

I went for a run but came back home after 2 minutes because I forgot something...
I forgot that I'm fat and I can't run for more than 2 minutes.

Cheryl, TLOML, and I are going to participate in a 5K Run/Walk in about 10 days. Cheryl is going to walk with one of our friends. I am planning to part jog and part walk and beat my time of last year. To prepare we have been doing a 5K each weekend near our home here in South Florida. We are using the upcoming 5K as motivation to keep up our fitness routines. Cheryl has hers, I have mine. Both of us now have Timex watches with GPS and heart rate monitors. As we discuss our workouts we have found ourselves talking about how to "get in the zone." The right heart rate zone.

Whether you want to lose weight, burn fat, develop your six pack abs, or just maintain a healthy fitness level, regular cardio exercise needs to be major part of your weekly usual workout pattern. So, what is the right zone? Depends on your objective for the workout and your overall fitness goals. You will need to know your resting heart rate (mine is 53 beats per minute). You also need to know the safe maximum heart rate for YOU. Don't worry. There are plenty of calculators for that if you don't want to do the simple math of subtracting your age from 220. Okay, it might be a little more complicated than that, so here are a two from some good on-line resources:
http://www.active.com/fitness/calculators/heartrate.htm
http://www.exercise.com/tools/target-heart-rate-calculator
I think  you will really like this second one with it's sliding scales and good visual indicators of target heart rate zones.

Monitoring my heart rate during workouts has been part of my routine for several months. A couple of weeks ago I came across an article on RunningForFitness.Com about training zones. It spurred me to do more research. Let me share some notes from their web page as well as a few from LiveStrong.Com, another great source of fitness info.

The rest of my post today comes from  RunningForFitness, LiveStrong and the Mayo Clinic.

Your Fitness Zone
For vigorous exercise, aim for a target heart rate of 70 to 85 percent of your maximum heart rate (MHR). Your MHR (roughly calculated as 220 minus your age) is the upper limit of what your cardiovascular system can handle during physical activity.
http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/target-heart-rate/SM00083

Tempo Runs
A tempo run is a sustained, high-intensity effort to help improve your endurance and stamina. You begin with a five- to 10-minute warmup and then begin your tempo run, which can be intervals such as three minutes of running at high intensity followed by one-minute recovery jogs or 20 minutes of consistent running at a high intensity. Whichever training style you choose, your high intensity running should be at 85 to 90 percent of your maximum heart rate, according to "Running Times."
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/406879-heart-rate-monitors-for-tempo-runs/#ixzz25H5vHXJQ

Considerations
Your running ability is affected by water and food intake, stress and sleep, which means your heart rate will be different on different days. This varied heart rate response is one reason a monitor is beneficial. The pace you ran yesterday may cause your heart rate to elevate too high today, and you will need to slow down. If you are having a strong day and your heart rate is too low, you can increase your pace to elevate your heart rate into your training zone.
Read more: http://www.livestrong.com/article/406879-heart-rate-monitors-for-tempo-runs/#ixzz25H5WE223

You may also want to read Heart Rate Training Zones By USA Triathlon Coach Ken Johnson, or this article on BodyBuilding.Com by Lisa Moser,  http://www.bodybuilding.com/fun/moser9.htm

Final Thought
Don't push too hard. When you start to work your heart over these suggested percentages, not unless you are in great shape and can push yourself into a higher range, then you have gone into an Anaerobic Threshold. Which means that you are pushing yourself way too hard, and no healthy benefits are being obtained. You are defeating your purpose. If you push yourself into an Anaerobic Threshold your body can no longer meet its demand for oxygen. You will start to feel exhausted, your HR increases above the Max. (which is 100%), you will stop the fat burning process, and you will start to hyperventilate due to the excessive amounts of lactic acid in your body. In other words, you are not pulling in enough clean oxygen through the lungs to clean it out of the blood. Your heart can no longer pump enough blood to your working muscles to sustain your activity, and you are overloading yourself. You prevent this from happening by staying in your Target HR Range. As you become more fit, you can push yourself into a higher range without going over into the Anaerobic Threshold.


REMEMBER: Talk to your doctor before starting an exercise program if you have a chronic health condition such as heart disease, high blood pressure or diabetes or you take medications such as beta blockers for these conditions or for migraines or glaucoma. Also see your doctor if you experience heart palpitations, fatique or shortness of breath. And of course, be sure to eat breakfast, and take a Clif Bar with you.

Heart clip art used under license from PresenterMedia.Com

Daily Goal: A Second Shower

Tropical Storm Debbie might over in the Gulf, but it's outer bands have been dropping lots of rain here in South Florida. Lots of rain. So much that my daily workout routine has been disrupted a little bit. But there are always ways to get in some cardio and some exercise. The Journey Gym is under the patio roof. Swimming in light rain is still good; I mean after all, when you're swimming laps what difference does it make if it's raining? And there's the Elliptical machine. Each of them took turns helping with the daily workout over the last several days, but none of them were getting the grass mowed, so the lawn was starting to look a little shaggy. Finally this evening was an opportunity to fire up the lawn mower and cut the grass and cut some carbs. How many calories can I burn today? Strap on the blue tooth heart rate monitor, buckle the Timex Ironman watch to my wrist and get after it. Quickly - it likes its going to rain again and soon.

Thirty-six minutes later I put the mower away. As I head for the shower, I glance at the watch which says I have burned 323 calories. Haven't had dinner yet, but Cheryl will appreciate my presence a little more if I shower first. And then it comes to me - a daily goal for fitness.

Do something every day that requires a second daily shower.

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest.

Doc's Secret to Losing 25 Pounds Fast

The secret is one word: dangerous. Or, we could use the word, stupid.

Believe me, when I weighed 367 pounds 18 months ago I wanted a quick way to get rid of all that fat. I had done it before. That is why I quickly rejected the notion and set out to lose 25 pounds, then 50 pounds, then 50 more, AND KEEP IT  OFF. So, a few days ago when I saw the title of a Men's Fitness blog, Joel Marion and Xtreme Fat Loss Diet, I just had to see what it would say. It seemed out of character for a magazine that I like to read. If you know anything at all about weight loss you know that losing weight is simple - create a caloric deficit. Burn more calories than you eat. If you do it fast you put your health at risk. Why? As the author points out, "a drastic reduction in calories causes your body to revolt and fight back. It starts to shut down your metabolism and start holding on to body fat as a way to protect you from starvation." If you have ever lost weight before only to put it back on - which I have done before - then you know that you can lose weight quickly and put it back on just as quickly.

Losing weight quickly is the wrong goal. Change your goal to getting your weight down to a healthy range. Do it with a change of lifestyle. One pound of fat is about 3100 calories. To lose the pound don't just eat 3500 calories less; exercise. See my rules that start with

1. Eat right
2. Exercise

A drastic reduction in the amount you eat won't get the job done. It took me 50 days to lose my first 30 pounds. It took 72 days to lose the next 30 pounds. I did not go on a crash diet. I started by making two changes - eat a little less each day and exercise more. Trust me - it works, and I have kept it off.

In my first 50 days I tried to eat around 2000 calories a day and to add some exercise that would burn about 100 calories. During that first 50 days I read everything I could about getting fit and realized that I needed to know  my BMR - base metabolic rate. You use energy no matter what you are doing, even sleeping, and it's important to know how fast you burn energy just staying at your current weight. When I was 367 pounds my body needed 2,890 calories just to maintain; that was my BMR then. Today I weigh about 208 pounds, so my BMR is now a little over 1900 calories.

You need to know your BMR so that you can set a realistic goal. I want to lose 9 more pounds. That means I need to create a deficit of about 31,500 calories. If I lose a half pound a week for the next 5 weeks it will be because I create a net difference of about 900 calories each day. Or I can set my timeline for 10 weeks with a daily difference of 450 calories (which is my current goal). Eat right. Exercise. Do both. If you don't know your BMR, then go use this quick calculator, or use the one I use over at MyFitnessPal.Com.

If you have some secrets to how you lost weight, please leave a comment. If you are getting frustrated, leave a question. Let's do this together.

Proof That The Journey Gym Works

Ten weeks ago I started a new workout routine. In those 70 days I have shared some of my thoughts about my new Journey Gym, and some of my activities during the Journey Gym 70-Day Challenge. 

At the half-way mark I wrote that a small weight gain did not tell the whole story. A week later I shared that my youngest son had said, "Wow Dad, You Have Definition." Two weeks ago, a co-worker who is four years younger than me asked, "how do you stay in such good shape?" Recently, TLOML has told me several times that she likes the look of my biceps and deltoids. And last week I slipped into size 34 jeans.

Today I offer additional proof that it is important to track more than your weight. At the half-way mark of The Challenge, my weight was at 213, almost four pounds more than when I started the 70-Day Challenge. The good news was that I had lost a total of four inches on my body. Gain four pounds, but lose four inches? My body was telling me to monitor the balance between carbs, fat and protein more closely. Thank goodness for the nutrition info on food packaging and the tools at MyFitnessPal.Com. I made adjustments to my diet by adding more carbs and making sure I ate several times a day. The good news is that I lost those four pounds. The more exciting news is that I gained four total inches. It's exciting because of where I gained it. An inch gain on both biceps. An inch gain on both forearms. That's the result of the resistance bands on the Journey Gym. Lost another inch around the waist with small increases in calf and chest size. The result is what you see in the picture - me showing off for Cheryl, TLOML.

When I introduced rule #6 - Work It Out As You Go, I told you what Cheryl said she wanted for Christmas in 2010 - biceps. She finally has them. This afternoon we are going to celebrate. I am going to put on my black 34" Wrangler jeans and take her to a movie. Would you like to celebrate the same kind of life renewal? Quit thinking about it and start doing it!

For less than the price of most gym memberships, you can have your own Journey Gym.

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest.

Can You Lose Weight Without Knowing Your BMR?

Of course you can! I did. For a while that is. In fact, for the first two or three weeks on my journey to losing 156 pounds, I didn't even count calories. Oh, sure, I did do some rough calculations of the likely amount for each meal by reading the package labels, or doing a quick Internet search for nutrition information. I learned that most bread slices are about 100 calories, that a large egg is about 70, and so on. So when I say that I just guessed at how much was the right amount of food to eat it was at least an educated guess. True story!

Now I am not suggesting that you take the same approach because I don't know anything about your BMR. When I started my journey I just wanted to look like the guy in the blue shirt holding his second daughter; that was more than 20 years ago when Falon was just over a year old. My best guess is that I weighed 225 pounds back then, and the day I set the goal I was at 367 pounds. My dream became losing  142 pounds by the end of 2011. It was time to change something and eat right and start exercising is the only thing I could think of. I did not know my BMR or that such a term existed.

If you have been following our story you know that I tracked my weight and other measurements using Google Docs. Then I discovered MyFitnessPal.Com while looking for nutrition information on something I wanted to eat. When I discovered there was an app for my phone it became easy to "count calories" by logging everything I ate. And it has tools to help set goals which all starts with knowing your BMR - basal metabolic rate. Here is what I read on their BMR page.


BMR (Basal Metabolic Rate) is an estimate of how many calories you'd burn if you were to do nothing but rest for 24 hours. It represents the minimum amount of energy needed to keep your body functioning, including breathing and keeping your heart beating. Your BMR does not include the calories you burn from normal daily activities or exercise. Our calculator uses the Mifflin-St. Jeor equations to estimate BMR which is believed to be more accurate than the more commonly used Harris-Benedict equation.


Eighteen months ago my BMR was 2,903 calories per day. If I wanted to stay fat at 367 pounds and not exercise then I needed to eat that much. And I did and more. Today my BMR is 1,850. And because I am more active today, I eat about 2,300 calories. How does this help you? Why did I tell this story? Because when you are setting goals, you need to know what you are doing now so that you can change what you do tomorrow. 

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Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest. Calculate your BMR. Set a goal.(If you really want to understand BMR, try this Wikipedia article.)

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Robin DesCamp: My life keeps getting in the way of my plans.

It's been a busy week. I have had the pleasure of spending time with my daughter, her husband, and our only grandchild for the last six days. That's the cool part of attending the Annual HIMSS Conference here in Las Vegas this week. But, being on the road has made me get creative about how to exercise each day during this 70 day challenge. So, this evening as I finally catch up on my RSS feeds, blog reading, email and packing for the return to Florida tomorrow, I saw Robin's post:  journey gym 70-day Challenge: My life keeps getting in the way of my plans.

Guess I'm not the only one that had to work around life this week.  Enjoy her well written article. I'll be back with some new posts after I return to the Ramblewood area of Coral Springs, Florida.

OH, and if you have some old photos or scrapbooks from times when we might have been together in the same place at the same time, please send them to me privately by clicking this email link for photos@blogs.docdevore.com. Please! With sugar on it?. Trust me - they won't end up here unless you give me permission.

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Remember to eat right, exercise, and get plenty of rest. It works!

Bodybuilding.com - Kiyoshi 'The Samurai' Moody: Bodybuilding’s Natural Warrior

This is week #3 of The Journey Gym Challenge. Day 16. A long day, too. When I left the office to head home I was tired, hungry, and just wanted to sit down next to TLOML. Instead, when I arrived, I gave her quick kiss, changed clothes and headed out to the gym, otherwise known as the DeVore Poolside Office, and cranked up a new video from the folks at JourneyGym.Com and got my workout in. And I feel better about myself, just like I always do when I get started. Then I sat down to catch up on Google+, Facebook, Linkedin, Skype, and this newest post over at BodyBuilding.Com. Here is a little snippet from David Robson about a real champion who knows how to stay motivated. Enjoy!

Where do you find the motivation to constantly push yourself to the limit in the hopes of maintaining your position as one of, if not the best natural bodybuilder currently competing?

There are many things that motivate me to keep pushing. These are in no particular order. First, people who say it can't be done drive me to push beyond any limits.
Second, the competitors I compete against (Phillip Ricardo, Mike Waddington, Cleveland Thomas, Panex Pierre) push me to be my best.
Third, I want to make my daughter proud of her dad. She loves talking about me to her classmates and once brought me to show-and-tell.
And fourth, my mother......

Read the rest of the article at:  Bodybuilding.com - Kiyoshi 'The Samurai' Moody: Bodybuilding’s Natural Warrior

OH, and if you have some old photos or scrapbooks from times when we might have been together in the same place at the same time, please send them to me privately by clicking this email link for photos@blogs.docdevore.com. Please! With sugar on it?. Trust me - they won't end up here unless you give me permission.

Be sure to get some breakfast, and take a Clif Bar with you.
By the way, have your ordered your JourneyGym yet?

The Disclaimers, Shameless and Legal Stuff

I am not a doctor. I am not a certified trainer. I am not a professional body builder. I m in better shape and I do know a lot of stuff that those experts told me, but I don't have a paper that says so, and they haven't told me everything they know yet. Or as Uncle Buck said: "You should always consult a professional, like your doctor, before you begin any weight loss program, and you should ask an expert before you try some of the foods and exercise that Cheryl and Doc use." In other words, this blog contains my opinion on what might work and is for folks who are serious about changing their life. It should not be construed as anything more than what I found on my journey, and how I learned to use it. So you have now been warned: Do attempt the journey on your own without consulting a professional or gaining parental approval. And by the way, there is some other legal stuff on this page about who owns the trademarks and photos and copyright stuff. Most of what I have is not original, but the way I package it up IS, so be sure to read ALL of my rules. 

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Rules are simple. Eat Right. Exercise. Get Plenty of Rest. Let me know how you are doing!

Day 8 of Journey Gym Challenge - Rule #22

Yesterday was rule #7 for day #7. Nothing to show because it's a day off. Today starts the second week of our 70 day challenge put to us by the good folks over at JourneyGym.Com. We have a lot of video to share and it's coming as soon as we can.

Tonight's routine: 17 minutes on the Elliptical followed by a good 7 minutes of upper body routine. What is rule #22. It's rule #2 - Exercise squared. Yeah, I just made it up, but it is the second year of this journey, and the good Doctor John has given Cheryl and me a way to keep working out while the gym is packed with people working on their New Year's Resolutions.

Did you order your JourneyGym yet? If not, send me a note explaining why, and telling me what you are doing to take your exercise to the second level - rule #22.



OH, and if you have some old photos or scrapbooks from times when we might have been together in the same place at the same time, please send them to me privately by clicking this email link for photos@blogs.docdevore.com.  Please! With sugar on it?. Trust me - they won't end up here unless you give me permission.


Because you have your fun assignments for the week, I am going dance some swing around the pool listening to some great steel guitar and thinking about all those great memories we have shared. (Send that email.)

photos@blogs.docdevore.com

Be sure to get some breakfast, and take Clif Bar with you.

The Disclaimers, Shameless and Legal Stuff

Thanks for spending some time with me.

You may also want to get useful tips on losing weight and exercising at my blog at MyFitnessPal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/docdevore) or Daily Stories about how to lose weight by only learning two rules - eat right and exercise - then visit Doc's blog over at docdevore.blogspot.com. CYA! (wear sunscreen :)

Okay, the legal stuff. Listen up.

I am not a doctor. I am not a certified trainer. I am not a professional body builder. I m in better shape and I do know a lot of stuff that those experts told me, but I don't have a paper that says so, and they haven't told me everything they know yet. Or as Uncle Buck said: "You should always consult a professional, like your doctor, before you begin any weight loss program, and you should ask an expert before you try some of the foods and exercise that Cheryl and Doc use." In other words, this blog contains my opinion on what might work and is for folks who are serious about changing their life. It should not be construed as anything more than what I found on my journey, and how I learned to use it. So you have now been warned: Do attempt the journey on your own without consulting a professional or gaining parental approval. And by the way, there is some other legal stuff on this page about who owns the trademarks and photos and copyright stuff. Most of what I have is not original, but the way I package it up IS, so be sure to read ALL of my rules. Here they are: All postings on my blogs are the opinions or thoughts by Floyd V. Doc DeVore and are protected by a Creative Commons license; all photos are the exclusive copyrighted property of Doc and any reuse, posting or alteration must be approved or licensed in a manner consistent with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at plus.google.com/108251433034379163350/aboutt. In other words, if you want to use, just ask me.

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(wear sunscreen :)

Do you have the original? Or a good copy? You fitness plan depends on it!

A picture of my loving mother, my beautiful partner and fitness encourager, and my son-in-law. Yes, that is Michael back in 2005. The picture is fuzzy; it's a photo I took a few days ago of the mousepad made from the original. Just like Star Trek: The Experience, the original photo is no more.

BUT, if you have a copy, I would sure love to have it. Maybe you have it tucked away somewhere on an Internet Cloud.

Why am I asking you? Michael knows that I know Kevin Bacon. Seriously. So one day a long time ago in a galaxy far away... oops, wrong movie. Let's see if I remember; something about how he made a movie and there was Kevin Bacon and therefore Doc DeVore knows Kevin Bacon. My quick response is that he therefore alost personally knows Marion Mitchell Morrison, better known as The Duke, John Wayne.

You may know that we are both talking about the popular triva game, "Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon", based on "small world phenomenon" or the concept of "six degrees of separation." What does that have to do with how I lost 157 pounds in 15 months? EVERYTHING!

Simple really. When Cheryl helped me get started on the journey in October of 2010 I only knew two things about getting from where I was to where I wanted to be - eat right and exercise. Until I could become an expert, the only thing I knew was to eat sensible meals, and start walking. So I did. What I learned in the months that lay ahead was learned by connecting the dots in my network of friends. Today that network spans to Jay Freeman in California that I have never met, Monica Adams that taught me what muscle groups to work and how, and fellow sojourners all across the country on MyFitnessPal.com who knew things I didn't, and soon I learned I could help them with things that I had picked up along the way. In other words, I knew a friend, who knew a friend, who knew someone that had a copy of the photo above. Would you send it to me? Or at least point me in the right direction?

After you find who has my photo, go get one of my favorite Kevin Bacon movies.  Don't watch until you the corner and back - farther if you can.
Hey, the Journey Gym packages arrived from Dr. John. Yesterday we did our chores and did our first circuit. Great workout. More later, but allow us to introduce to you to DeVore's Journey Gym in Coral Springs, Florida.


Don't forget to watch one of these Kevin Bacon movies. Both are great!

One at the start of a journey. One marking the end.

OH, and if you have some thoughts you would rather not share publically, but just need a friend to listen, I would LOVE to listen to how YOU want to LIVE LIFE. Seriously!! Send me an email.

AFriendToListen@trustmeonthesunscreen.com

By the way, all the tools I use are free or cheap and can be yours. Watch for a future post.
Want your own Journey Gym. I can get you a deal if you click this link:

The Disclaimers, Shameless and Legal Stuff

Thanks for spending some time with me. 

 You may also want to get useful tips on losing weight and exercising at my blog at MyFitnessPal (http://www.myfitnesspal.com/blog/docdevore) or Daily Stories about how to lose weight by only learning two rules - eat right and exercise - then visit Doc's blog over at docdevore.blogspot.com. CYA! (wear sunscreen :)

Okay, the legal stuff. Listen up.

I am not a doctor. I am not a certified trainer. I am not a professional body builder. I m in better shape and I do know a lot of stuff that those experts told me, but I don't have a paper that says so, and they haven't told me everything they know yet. Or as Uncle Buck said: "You should always consult a professional, like your doctor, before you begin any weight loss program, and you should ask an expert before you try some of the foods and exercise that Cheryl and Doc use." In other words, this blog contains my opinion on what might work and is for folks who are serious about changing their life. It should not be construed as anything more than what I found on my journey, and how I learned to use it. So you have now been warned: Do attempt the journey on your own without consulting a professional or gaining parental approval. And by the way, there is some other legal stuff on this page about who owns the trademarks and photos and copyright stuff. Most of what I have is not original, but the way I package it up IS, so be sure to read ALL of my rules. Here they are: All postings on my blogs are the opinions or thoughts by Floyd V. Doc DeVore and are protected by a Creative Commons license; all photos are the exclusive copyrighted property of Doc and any reuse, posting or alteration must be approved or licensed in a manner consistent with a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at plus.google.com/108251433034379163350/aboutt. In other words, if you want to use, just ask me.

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(wear sunscreen :)

Repent - or how I lost weight!

Coming home from Naples with camera in hand as Cheryl drove, we neared our place in Coral Springs. Stopped at this light, an idea came to me about a few other pictures I had snapped without really knowing what to do with them, if they even turned out. As the IMGs were uploading to Picasa, and later as they synced to Picasa Web Albums in the cloud, God told me why he wanted me to snap these three photos. "Doc," he said, "that's how you lost weight. Oh, yeah, that's right!

Are you lost? So was I. But not anymore. As the year of 2011 unfolded the best discovery I made was finding me.

"You found yourself again, " Cheryl said as we drove to Naples today. Now, she has said that before, so we had lots of time to talk, and I learned where Marysville, California is located geographically. And it's not where I thought it was. More about that tomorrow.

Here's what Cheryl was trying to explain.  God had always been there, and most people thought Doc knew him personally. Well, of course, I did, but what they meant is that I must be like Moses, and God talked to me on the mountain. Don't be silly I would say. Huh? What did you say? Oh, okay, you don't have to repeat it, but you did: "WHAT'S THIS GOT TO DO WITH LOSING WEIGHT? COME ON, GET ON WITH THE STORY GRANDPA!" LOL

Like I said - tomorrow!

PS for today - buy.com was the very first site from which I did on-line ordering; you know, back in the old days, when I couldn't spell innernet. ;-)

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