I have lost this 10 lbs often enough to know that even when I do everything right dietwise for a day that the weight still can go up.  Yesterday, I ate three small standard meals: oatmeal with fruit and raisins and OJ, sandwich with fruit and raw vegetables, and a small bowl of soup.  I drank water and coffee.  No wine.  That has to be on the order of 1300 cal.   I also went to the fitness center and lifted weights for an hour at lunch.  My reward was +.4 lb on the scales.  I understand that wine is a mild diuretic so not drinking wine adds to weight gain.  I also know that lifting weights does not burn as many calories as running nor does it cause the same hydration losses to sweating.  So on a rational level I understand what happened.  I rehydrated more than I lost fat, but it still hurts in the old emotional, irrational  motivational part of the brain. At my age, I also have to face an overall declining metabolism that means that I have to force the metabolism up with exercise.  I need 3 small exercise sessions per day to keep the fire going.  Plus, the diet that worked before may not work as well this time. 

Run at lunch today.  The rain has cleared and the sky is gorgeous.  It will be a warm springlike day for the groundhogs out there.

This weight loss is going to be hard.  I have been pretty consistent about exercising and eating this week.  I have had no weight change.  I think I need to up the running and cut the wine.  I drank 1/2 a bottle with J when I got home from the lake.  I coulda/shoulda stopped at a small glass.  But once that first glass goes down, the rest are almost unstoppable.  Work interfered with working out at lunch yesterday.  Those two things probably reversed a week's good work.

Concrete driveway is in at the lake.  Now I have to wait for it to cure to see if a 2WD can make it up the hill.  Pictures tonight.  This is a $12.5K engineering experiment.  Unseasonably warm (44 low 61 high) and light rain today which is great for curing concrete.  No chance of a freeze for several days.

It's a beautiful day in Tennessee.

Saturday evening at the lake - fun.  Sunday morning doing vacuuming etc - the price of escape.  I did some calisthenics with 5 lb and 15 lb dumbbells. 

We are having concrete steps and ramps down the bank to the dock installed at the lake house.  Water level goes down 20-30 feet at Norris Lake during the winter.  The ramps are in.  Rip rap has been installed.  It looks like really quality work.  Steps and some more path down to the water will be put in this week.  This will make access much easier and cleaner than walking on the muddy bank.  We are also getting the concrete driveway done.  I wonder if this will make the house more attractive to theft.  Our steep gravel driveway is pretty much impassable without 4WD.  Pictures maybe Tuesday.

We went to the Grape Escape in Cleveland on Sunday evening with Janice's siblings.  It's a fundraiser for the Museum at Five Points: very good food and wine, a wine auction, and the usual.  Janice's siblings run with the Cleveland cool crowd.  These are the people who would never have associated with J and me high school.  It was interesting.  Money flowed pretty freely in the auction.  The recession is apparently over in Cleveland. 

So, two interesting problems that turned out to be nonproblems.  1) I went running at lunch.  I needed to go by my car afterwards and I took the key with me, putting it in that tiny little pocket thing that is sewn into the waistband of running shorts.  When I got back, the key was not in the pocket.  I started panicing about where it could have fallen and how long it was going to take me to find it.  Just then, I felt something in my crotch.  I jammed my hand down there and much to my relief found the key.  I wonder what passersby may have thought about a guy looking anxious then grabbing his crotch then looking relieved.  2) I looked at my running watch when I walked out the door.  The screen was blank.  I figured it must be a dead battery, what a hassle.  Later, after the key fiasco, I heard the watch beeping.  I figured the battery must be working and the screen contrast must have gotten set too low to see anything.  The main button is easy to push accidently.  When I got back to the office, I googled for an instruction manual and found an all reset that brought the screen back to life.  Problem averted.