Happy new year!! We have new hope, new plans,new goals,new focus.

I opened up the new year weighing 261.2 pounds.My knees were still around an 8 (bad) and I had made them decisions in the December post.So let's get this month going.

I was walking 4 days a week at lunch 2 1/2 miles. I was not going to town for lunch.I was down to one Diet Coke per day and drinking lots of water.My son Mac had been on my ass about drinking so much Diet Coke and telling me it was bad on my joints. I had cut way back on how much alcohol I drank. My knees still hurt and I was still taking 600-800mg of Ibuprofen a day---but hey I'm a welder & I'm tuff.

I was weighing my food and keeping a good food log.

Going over my day book. I see that on 1-8-09 I started taken Movefree and Celation for joint supplement. This seemed to help some after a week.On 1-16-09 I received a Caltrac. This little gadget is better than sliced cheese. The company is owned by Dr.Ellis that wrote the book, Ultimate Diet Secrets Light.This gadget is the size of a cell phone, you program your stats in it and put it on your belt. It will calculate all the calories you burn in a day. This is based on your weigh, height,sex,age. It tells you how many calories your RMR (resting metabolism rate) burns as well as your active calories burned. This thing is great!! No more guessing, damn Sam, now it's down to simple math.

Now, I am kinda like an Airedale dog---I ain't as dumb as I look.Because I now KNOW how many calories I'm stuffing in my pie hole AND how many calories I burn in a day, I can do the math. If I eat 2000/day and burn 3000/day I am deficit 7000/week and that children means I lose 2 pounds that week.

On 1-20-09 I received my Trigosamine supplement and started taking it as well as the Movefree I had left.

The first half of the month my food choices on weekends were poor, but got better.I walked at work and on 1-22-09 began walking 30 minutes on the treadmill at night too.

On 1-22-09 my knee pain was down to 5.

On Monday 1-26-09 I took my backpack to work and put a 20 pound sandbag in it and walked 1 1/2 miles of my 2 1/2 walk at lunch. Man that was a chore. Datgum it was tuff.For the rest of the week, I carried my pack 1 1/2 miles of my walk.

My goal for January was to get below 250 pounds if my knees allowed.On 1-25-09 I weighed 258, down 3.2 pounds.On 1-31-09 I weighed 250.8.

I felt alot better, I had lost lots of fat and gained quite a good amount of muscle in my legs and lower back. The Caltrac,food scale,backpack,Trigosamine all were working.By the end of the month I discovered I had not taken any Ibuprofen since 1-26-09. Could the water, limited alcohol,good joint supplements and walking large be working? Something is AND I damn near reached my lofty goal.

I did lose 10.4 pounds and had gained around a 1000 pounds of confidence.

Pearl of Wisdom from the mind of WEL
Read December's Pearl ---well this month I decided the eggs WERE worth the wear and tear.