The third week in April is when we usually schedule our annual physicals, and this week was no exception.  We went, we saw, we conquered.  We got on the scale with nary a moment’s hesitation, because the seventy pounds I used to wear around my hips are still gone.  The fifty pounds Bill used to wear are gone, too.

It’s two years ago this week when Dr. Bliss told us to get moving or else, and the or elses—including the very real possibility of Bill’s ending up in an electric cart—were utterly terrifying.

And so began our “10,000 step journey,” one that I’ve chronicled in this blog.  I did it originally as a way of keeping ourselves honest.  If we stopped walking—if we reversed our weight loss efforts—not only would we know, so would all of my readers.  What I didn’t expect was that so many of those selfsame readers would also climb aboard the step-train.  By the way, just this week I read an article from Science Daily that says the act of taking steps actually increases the blood flow to the brain.  In case you’re interested, here’s the link:  https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/04/170424141340.htm

Photo courtesy of Adina Hicks

We’re still walking.  I generally walk five miles a day; Bill walks three.  (Hey he’s older than I am and has a bad back. Besides three miles and turn out to be two and a half more miles a day than he used to walk!)  We have a trainer who comes to the house twice a week who has helped us with balance and strength issues.  (Guess what? When I hit a golf ball these days, I can send it a very long way.  Maybe not in the right direction still, but a lot farther than I used to.)  He’s also given us the necessary skills so that if and when we do fall—which does happen to even the best of us—we can and do get up—in the middle of a room, without having to climb up a piece of furniture.

And we’ve adjusted our food intake.  We eat less.  I can tell you that, in the past two years, I’ve eaten more salad than I previously consumed in my whole lifetime.  But they’re interesting salads, not just shredded iceberg lettuce with Miracle Whip on it.  (My mother’s fav!)  We do not keep potatoes in the house.  We do not keep bread in the house.  We do not keep breakfast cereal in the house.  Occasionally we’ll have a celebratory breakfast of waffles or pancakes, but those are rare.  So are dishes of oatmeal.  Breakfasts are usually some kind of eggs.  In Tucson we ate grapefruit from our backyard tree with our breakfast eggs.  In Seattle we often have berries and cream as our fruit.  By the way, the cream doesn’t kill you.  It’s the carbs!

When I was in the life insurance business, my agency manager was a fellow by the name of Gilbert F. Lawson.  He had two stock sayings that he pulled out at agency meetings: 1.  Know the score, keep the score, report the score. The score will improve.  2. Results are the final judge.

We’ve been keeping score and reporting the score for two years now.  As for results?  See the photo below which was taken at an event last weekend.

I believe the results speak for themselves!  And for those of you who have joined up?  Feel free to pass along news of your own journeys.  We can all cheer each other along the way.