Ok, so here we are at the end of day THIRTY. The first part of the diet trilogy is at en end. But before we get to that, I do believe I owe you an interesting factoid about the number 30. And so here you go:

“While the number 30 has many significations, its most fundamental significance is the fact that it is the number of the circle, or cycle. The circle, it will be noted, is the geometric expression of absolute completion and infinity. It symbolizes the continuous, yet fixed, nature of life, energy and matter along the timeline. It is the shape of every planet(*) in the solar system and the fittest representation of all time cycles as the clock itself (being in the shape of a circle) testifies.”
*Except the earth. The earth is clearly flat. Oh wait, maybe it’s a flat circle. Never mind then.

So there you have it. Completion and infinity. Seems appropriate.

On to diet news. So that scale is one dirty son of a bitch. 200.1 it said this morning. 200.1. It couldn’t just weight me in at 0.2 pounds less to make me happy?

Well, maybe I can start off the 2nd set of 30 days below 200. Unless it decides to uptick again *grumbles*.

But yeah, I’m 1/3 of the way through this thing. Oh, and about that cheat day I’m allowed… I won’t be using it tomorrow. Really, I figure at this point, taking a cheat day is likely to just make things harder. And well, while I really wanted to eat one of those free sausage bagel sandwiches they had at work today… I was able to walk away from it without a problem – despite being really hungry at the time.

I’ve got this. I’m really going to enjoy the first beer I have after this is all over though, I can tell you that…

So the thing about 29 is this… it takes that many years for Saturn to orbit the sun. Unless, of course, you are on Saturn. Then it takes one year.

I worked from home again! Last week was the first time I got a weekly work from home day, and I didn’t find out until Tuesday, so I took it on Friday. But, for the most part, going forward, I plan to use it on Monday (or Tuesday in the event that Monday is a holiday). But, the great thing is, I can choose whatever day I want each week, so, a bit flexible. In any case, it’s really nice to be able to do.

The diet still goes well – though the scale still refuses to drop below 200. I’ve really been quite close for like a week now, but the stupid thing keeps fluctuating. I hope tomorrow, as that is day 30.

I also finished another run. This one was a bit problematic due to.. errr… biological needs… mid-run… so I had to find what was surely the most disgusting facility on the planet… which obviously meant a break mid-run… and.. well, yeah, it sort of throws everything off.

Anyway, as a result of the run, I’m super tired and just want to lay down and watch an episode of Stargate and then get my reading in.

See you tomorrow!

So today was the last day of week 4. 28 days in. That feels like a long time to have been doing this, but I’ve still got a long time yet to go. That said, I’m definitely seeing results, and so those results will help me to continue to push onward.

Let’s see…. 28. Did you know that 28 is the number of Hebrew letters in Genesis 1:1, the first verse of the Bible? Me neither, until just a few moments ago! How many English letters are there? Well, I’d imagine that would vary by whichever version you are using.

I forgot to give my thoughts on The Meg. So it was better than I thought it would be. It was also less… 3D-enhanced that I thought it would be. I mean, don’t get me wrong, it’s far from like… a GOOD movie, but it was pretty entertaining, and not from a “haha, this is really dumb” perspective like I was thinking it would be. It’s worth a watch if you’re looking for something to do.

I’m still zeroing in on that 200 mark. Tomorrow, maybe? I’m hoping to get there by day 30… so tomorrow would be nice. I’ll be adding in a third day of running this week. I’m thinking I’ll keep the current schedule but add in the other run on Saturday. Speaking of, it seems like tonight would have been a nice night for a run, based on what it felt like when I took the dog out on a walk – hopefully it will be just as nice tomorrow.

And that’s it! 29 tomorrow!

This one is coming in a little late… but maybe WordPress is set to something other than Eastern time and it will still count this as 8/18? Or maybe I can cheat and edit the post time somehow… hmmm.

Anyway, I haven’t gone to sleep yet, so as far as I’m concerned, it’s still today! However, I am way too tired to come up with another interesting 27 fact, so you’ll have to make do with the one I dropped yesterday.

Why is this post so late you ask? Well, after some 16 or 17 years or so of being a fan, I finally went and saw Dashboard Confessional live. It was good, glad I went. They played a surprising amount of older material, and only a couple songs from the latest album.

But, as a result, I’m super tired, and so I think this is going to be the end of the post.

Oh yeah, diet. Still going well. I really wanted to buy a beer tonight but I didn’t.

See you on 28!

Edit: I totally cheated to make it post for 8/18.

26. That’s how many seasons of “48 Hours” there have been. That’s way more than 48 hours. Someone should let them know their time is up.

I’m narrowing in on the completion of 30 days. But not quite yet! Thanks to working from home today, I didn’t have to resist the temptation of bagels and cream cheese and donuts. I do miss those things, very much.

The good news is, when I weighed myself this morning I seem to have gotten through the stall that had been happening. It was the lowest number I’ve seen so far – Still not quite past that first milestone I’m looking for, but I have renewed hope that I might get there by the end of this week… or if not then, perhaps the end of the first 30 days.

Tonight I will be going to see THE MEG. In 3D. Now, I don’t really care that much about 3D, but, since Sinemia let’s me see 3D without it counting as my one premium showing per month, I figure, why not? I don’t dislike 3D, I just don’t care enough to pay extra money for it. And anyway, The Meg seems like it could be a fun 3D movie. People making stupid decisions… giant shark… should be a good time. Anyway, I’m hitting up the late show, so when I get out it will be after midnight, hence I’m making a post now, because there will be no time after.

And so I guess you can look forward to my thoughts on it tomorrow. As well as what I can come up with for 27 (Did you know there’s been that many seasons of America’s Funniest Home Videos? Damn. Now I can’t use that tomorrow.)

25. Let’s see… something clever to say about 25…  Oh, I know! Did you know that 25 is the smallest aspiring number? That’s right, 0-24 have no apsirations, they’re just lazy, with no ambition at all. Oh yeah, and something like 25 is a composite non-sociable number whose aliquot sequence does not terminate. I have no idea what any of that means. Maybe you do.

In any case, it’s day 25. And I just recently got back inside from run #4. Whereas Monday night was a close to ideal night for running, tonight was definitely not. It could have been worse, to be sure, but the air was really thick, and that makes it harder to breathe. At least the temperature was decent. That said, my time improved by 20 some seconds, so, that’s something. Still having to stop and walk, but again, went farther before doing so. Certainly by the time I do this first 5k here in October (the 19th I think?) I should be easily going the whole distance.

And tomorrow is a work from home day! That means I can sleep in an extra hour, hour and a half or so, which is pretty exciting.

Well, I’m exhausted from running, and this is right about at 200 words, which seems sufficient to me, so I’ll check in here again tomorrow for 26.

24. Like the TV show. You know, Jack Bauer. Or the newer guy, but I don’t know the character’s name because I still haven’t gotten around to watching it.

I’m a bit annoyed at the scale stalemate at the moment – I really thought I’d be dropping below the 200 mark this week – and I guess I still could, there’s still 4 more days until the start of the next week – but it was seriously so close, then it went up a bit and started hanging out. That said, I was able to wear a shirt today that had definitely been uncomfortable tight the last time I had attempted wearing it (pre-diet). So, that’s always a good sign. I’ll know I’ve really made progress when my shorts I bought a couple months back start to be overly loose.

I’ve made it over half-way through the first season of Stargate SG-1 in my rewatch here. It really is a good show. I’d love to see a new take on it. I loved what they were doing with Universe before it was cancelled, but I think a new show more in the vein of SG-1 would be pretty fantastic. Of course, there’s little  hope that it will happen anytime soon. In fact, I’m going to go watch an episode right now – S01E15 – Singularity.

23. It’s a number of great significance. Just ask Jim Carrey. And now it’s the number of days I’ve been on this diet.

Not a lot to say in regard to the diet today. My weight loss kind of stagnated, but I think it’s because I regained water weight from having too much sodium. I’m gonna try to cut back on that.

Unfortunately I also haven’t really done or seen anything terribly interesting today, so I don’t have too much to say. I can tell you, starting this week I can finally start having a weekly work from home day, which I’m pretty excited about.

Ok that’s it, 24 tomorrow.

I’m just back in from my run, thought I’d bang out a quick blog post before I move on with the remainder of my evening.

Tonight is a good night for running. It’s not perfect, but, the air isn’t as thick as it was the last two runs, and it’s also a nice temperature, so the run wasn’t immediately miserable. There was also the plus that my stomach wasn’t bothering me this time around. So by all measures it was my best run yet, though time-wise it was only slightly faster than the first run. I did a better job of moderating my pace and so I spent more time “running” (actual runners should read this “jogging”) and less time walking. Obviously the running was at a bit of a slower pace, thus accounting for the only slightly faster time.

Here’s a bit of a running allegory that crossed my mind as I was running. So on the route I run, there are lots of inclines and declines. The thing that I was noticing was that, a lot of time, when I was on an incline, I was feeling like I really needed to stop. But, if I pushed through it, shortly after I started the decline, I’d start to feel like I could continue, only to repeat again, a bunch of times. Now, I did reach a point where I had to start walking for a bit, but, I definitely made it further than if I had just stopped the first time I felt like I needed to.

Are you ready for it? Here comes some allegory. The same sort of thing is true in working toward any goal. You’ll have the tough periods of incline, when you don’t think you can do it anymore. And it’s easy to throw in the towel. But you just have to remember the decline that’s ahead. Then you can coast, and rest, and recover… ok, so you don’t actually coast when you are running… this is becoming more of a biking metaphor. Come to think of it that allegory was really more of a metaphor.

Well, whatever it is, that’s what I have to say to you.

See you on 23!

I’ve made it to the end of the third week, with no cheating at all! I was just having a conversation this morning about how going this long without sugar (and carbs) seemed like it was going to be a lot harder than it actually has been. I’m not going to say that I don’t want to eat carbs and sugar, because well… I kinda do. However, I’m just keeping my goals in mind, and I know sticking to this plan is going to deliver some results.

I still have over 2 months to go here though, so it’s still a long road ahead.

Tomorrow is Monday, which means I’ll be going for a run. At night again. My stomach issues seem to have passed, so, I don’t think it should be a problem. Now, I do think there are thunder storms in the forecast, and so, just as before, I will say this. I am committed to running tomorrow night, so if it’s raining, even a downpour, I will do it. However, lightning and the like will keep me inside (and it will be postponed to Tuesday).

Anyway, Akima is pestering me to go outside, so I guess I’ll end this here so I can take her for a walk.