The slow downward spiral continues

218.2-->208.8--->207.2
Unfortunately, Blogger decided to delete my original post moments before posting, so here are some thoughts summarized, a story from the weekend and a sad lack of the detailed day-to-day eating I know all 3 of my readers wait for with baited breathe.

Yes, I lost a pound and a half, a good reemergence of the slow, steady decline in weight since last summer. The January spike was an aberration and a reminder to keep mindful, not something more sinister. Thoughts on how to proceed:

• Reduce two days of unrestricted gorging on anything and everything to one day.
• Start making the 2nd day of unrecorded free-eating about how I started: shove out the bad stuff by eating filling vegetables.
• I gotta expand my vegetable palate. If I'm going to maintain and increase my veg consumption, I need to add to the broccoli/string bean/brussels/asparagus quartet and the momma/poppa salad two-step.
• Keep trying for one. Damn. Pull up.

I'm a bit weirded out by my body image: I look in the mirror and I look the same, but the comments and compliments come in on a daily basis now. It's strange that my body and appearance is a regular topic of conversation. I'm such a girl, if a girl can be a middle-aged dude. When my appearance is commented on, my standard replies are:

• What, I didn't look good before?
• Got my speedball formula just right. More coke, less heroine.
• Letting my wife do the cooking.
• -high pitch giggle- -hide face in hands-

This past weekend I was out with my three year old daughter on the cargo bike. We attended her dance class, then hauled off to Costco in LIC for a delightfully unhealthy lunch at their food court and then loaded up the bike with a hundred pounds or so of supplies. As I was prepping myself for the ride home, as I was slipping on my gloves I noticed my wedding band was not on my finger.

It has been a little loose for a month or so now, and only seems to be getting looser. I checked my gloves, checked the bike. It was cold out and I was handling bags of frozen things, and I never noticed the ring slip off. After muttering a few words I hope my daughter didn't hear, I resigned myself to it missing and road home, making plans of how to tell my wife and a plan to melt down my parent's bands in a few years when my weight is stable and it'll be our 10th anniversary. My wife took it quite well, except that she insisted I get some sort of place holder ring so as to prevent all the ladies from gettin' on this. I contacted Costco and the dance studio to offer a reward for a return of the gold ring, but did not have much hope.

A couple of days later, I'm cleaning out and resetting my backpack for the week and there it was at the bottom, along with chest crumbs and empty plastic sandwich bags. Dumb luck, I guess. I won't be wearing the ring until I bring it somewhere to have some bumper added, and in a few years I'll either resize it or melt it down with some other stuff to make a new ring. Regardless, I'm still very married, and will be flashin' my single piece of bling any day now.