I feel great. No one has ever accused me of not being expressive, but I am having a hard time not telling the world how great I feel at the moment. I think this falls into the category of being thankful of my blessings, something I am always all about these days. And I know that there will be times and days when I do not feel great, so I like to acknowledge the moments when I do…feel great, that is. Like everybody in the world that has ever lived and will ever live, I have plenty of problems, but right now I cannot think of what they might be and before I can be bothered to remember them, I want to declare my joy this Christmas Day with feeling absolved of those problems and just being able to say to anyone who will listen that all is well with me and I feel great.
I woke up this morning (Christmas Eve Day) and it started off with a bang. Yesterday I awoke and got on the scale and lo and behold, it read 299.7. I was so excited that I wanted to share this momentous breakthrough with my kids on Snapchat, so I picked up my phone to photograph the scale. When I did that, my weight jumped up to 300.4. It was like the universe telling me…Not so fast, Abernathy! It took some juggling, but I managed to get the photo by prepping the phone, grabbing it right after getting on the scale, and snapping the picture, before it could change upward. Somewhere along the way I gained 0.1 so the picture I posted was of 299.8. Nevertheless, it made me feel great that I had accomplished my goal of finally breaking 300, a weight that has been a distant low threshold for me my entire adult life. I was weighed in 9th grade by the Hebron Academy infirmary at 216 (I was 5’9” at the time) and was told I could not play tennis on the hard courts because I had the body of a 20 year-old and the bones and ligaments of a 14 year-old. The next time I recall getting on a scale was when I was due to head off to Cornell. My doctor in Rome filled out the required physical exam and listed me at 310 as I was just turning 17 years old and had then reached a height of 6’3”. In college I reached my maximum height of 6’5” and for one summer, while working 8-12 hours shifts doing arboretum work when I was 20, I did get down to 270, wearing size 42” pants and wearing XL shirts, but that was only momentarily. The rest of my life was spent over 300, and if I’m going to be honest here, getting up to a record high of 472 when I was in my early 50’s.
I just ordered new pants (my third such downward move in pant size since June) and am back down to a 42” waist and wearing 2XL tops. This morning, I felt even better since I weighed in at 298.8 and feel like I may just have seen the last of that 300 monster that has plagues me for my whole life. I am now doing 1-2 hours of exercise of some sort, walking, treadmill, weights, calisthenics or something in my home gym every day. I feel like the eating program AND the exercise program are well locked-in and I neither feel deprived nor anxious about any of it. It seems to suit me and my state of mind about it all is that it is simply a new lifestyle for me that I enjoy more than suffer through. Along with that comes all the positive things that come with improved physical health…more energy, better disposition, more activity, etc., etc. Basically, feeling great makes you feel even greater.
Today is about doing for others. I put on my favorite red holiday sweater (I suspect its my last year in this one, given its larger size) and came out to the living room with a bounce in my step…with Buddy bouncing along underfoot, as he does. Kim was fast asleep, also as she does, and was surprised to see that grand-nephew JJ was up and at the kitchen counter playing a video game on his iPad. JJ is about 9 and a very cerebral kid that is highly focused on whatever he’s doing. That means that he is not so highly social, especially with an occasional and distant relative like me. But JJ, as such kids tend to be, is also much better in small groups than in large ones and I usually see him as part of a larger family gathering. This morning it was just him and me in the kitchen so I was pleased to be able to have a calm and quiet chat with him about what he liked about his video game and then what he was enjoying the most at school. I am that reliably stodgy uncle kinda guy who just has to ask kids about what’s going on at school. Kids usually hate that, but with JJ this morning, he was OK telling me how much he liked math and I liked being able to tell him that I thought that was one of the better things he could like a lot in school since more and more of the world was being dominated by math. Given his natural proclivities, this preference was not surprising and I think its safe to say that I would have tried to encourage whatever he said he liked the best because I think with any kid, the key is to reinforce their interests and encourage them generally. I believe they will all generally broaden those interests as their inclinations trend, but the single most important element is some combination of motivation and confidence, so that is always what I seek to inspire when I get into these discussions. It was a solid mini-bonding moment and it led to me asking him if I could get him something to eat or drink. He initially said no, but I suggest a few things and got a quick hit on a Capri-Sun juice box and then a slightly more hesitant hit on a bowl of cereal (him having turned down either a blueberry or chocolate muffin). It was a small but good interaction with a nice young man with whom I only rarely get to interact. It made me feel good to be of some minor service first thing on a quiet morning.
Now Kim and Buddy are up and with me in the living room while the wind is howling from the East outside and the storm clouds over the ocean are both moving and threatening more rain. Nephew Josh and Haj and Leila are back in our guest suite getting the last of their sleep in before starting their Christmas Eve Day. I suspect that Sharon & Woo will be heading this way from the Best Western in the next hour or so and then Will & Ashley will toddle north some time in the later morning. Meanwhile, my mission for the day is go to the Edelweiss Bakery in Rancho Bernardo and do whatever standing in line is necessary to secure one of their on-the-shelf Bûche de Noël cakes (we so enjoyed the one we got for our party last weekend) in whatever size or configuration is available (we didn’t pre-order in time). I will probably have to call an audible and get whatever pastry I can if that is not on the shelf any longer. I simply don’t know what will or won’t be on the shelf. What I do know is that once I have whatever pastry is available, I head to Whole Foods for our Chicken Schnitzel (a personal victory for me and my preferences in cuisine). And that is how I will be feeling great for this Christmas Eve.