Word for the year - Day 11 of the Chill

This one is a really easy write, something that I've been wanting to post about for sometime.  The word for the year is weight.  Sometime in the past year.  Actually right around the end of June, I decided that there needed to be less of me around here.  I was out of shape, my clothes didn't fit right and every time I went to the doctor's office, I kept hearing the same comment, "Has your blood pressure always been that high?"

A little history behind this would probably be helpful.  No, my blood pressure has not always been that high, but about five years ago, I stopped getting myself weighed on a regular basis.  Well, it was more of a forceful stop as opposed to something that I really intentionally did.

I used to donate blood, actually aphaeresis, about every month.  On my last donation, my 79th pint, I was deferred permanently, because I test false positive for Hepatitis C.  Please note the false positive.  The government said I couldn't donate anymore, because of the reading, even though I knew, as did my doctor at the time, as did the personnel at the Blood Bank, that I didn't have Hepatitis.

Every two weeks, I'd go in to donate, get my blood pressure checked and get weighed.  That went out the window.  I didn't own a scale, so I wasn't keeping track of my weight and it went up, and up and up.  Fast forward to this year and we changed insurance, so I got new doctors, and decided to check out my new doctor.  Needless to say, because of my age, I got all sorts of tests done and everywhere it was the same, "Has your blood pressure always been that high?"

My new doctor gave me three choices, swimming, running or biking.  I'm not a very good swimmer, nor have I ever liked to run, but I did enjoy biking when I was younger so I opted for that.  He gave me moderate goals to work toward and said if I followed the regimen he specified, I'd lose some weight and in his words, "The beauty of this is you'll probably be able to eat just about anything you want."

And that has been pretty much the case.  Bad weather and other things curtailed my biking during the holiday period.  Add to that extra food that always seems to be around during that period and I went up a little bit, but this morning I weighed myself and I'm back to my pre-holiday weight, which is 20 pounds less than I weighed when I started this back in July.

I bought a bike off of a friend of mine.  I take it out for nice rides, both on streets and trails as often as possible.  I also won a Fitbit in August and that has really gotten me obsessed about how much I walk during a given day, which has also helped.  I feel better, I have a lot more stamina than I used to, don't get winded on hikes like I used to.  In the past, when I'd go on an 8 to 10 mile hike, my body would scream in protest for the next day or so.  Yesterday, I went on a 8 mile hike, found 56 geocaches and this morning went on a half hour bike ride, then walked 3 miles later in the day.  My body doesn't protest anymore.  It feels good.

And that's why the word for the year is weight.  Because I'm losing it.  All I ask is that you don't find it.