Navigate by a New Star

In a line from his song "Four Chambered Heart" Tom Russell mentions how people follow misguided wise men who navigate by the wrong star. As we think about the holiday season, that sentence keeps coming back to me.

For so long I guided my physical well-being by the wrong star. Now I am trying to make big life change. It means setting a new star as my focus. That has been the most difficult but most rewarding decision of the entire change.

Another good week. Lost a surprising five pounds. I thought I had maintained but in preparation for the 5K this Saturday, I started walking an extra mile each day. I think that helps. Also a local doctor gave me another way to calculate how many calories I burn. If I walk a fifteen minute mile (which I do, now...not at the beginning - I whined for about seventeen, eighteen minutes) I multiply my weight x .042. That shows me how many calories I am burning per minute while walking that pace. Then I simply multiply (my weight x .042) x how many minutes I walk.

I suppose the correct algebraic equation would be (my current weight x .042)how many minutes walked.

So far I have lost 49 pounds overall, 37 since the start of the focused diet. Man, one pound away from the big 5-0. Next week, I will have lost over half a hundred. Wowsers. Keep praying for me.