Cravings sneak in. The headaches today were much less but still there. No weight loss yet but it’s only day 2. I did feel a few small feelings of, man, would I love to really eat something. For these first three days we are on Lindora foods only and it ain’t much. Even the foods with some sustenance like Chili or Spaghetti are very small portions. At around 5:30 I did feel my first feelings that I was actually pretty hungry. I have a snap reaction to eat the second I feel the slightest bit hungry no matter what, so that’s a habit I am going to have to work on. I muscled through though with the help of some coffee. Caffeine is a natural appetite suppressant.

I have to say I’m starting to get sick of the lindora food and I am so looking forward to completing these fist three days so we can start eating “real” food. I try not to think about it because if I do it freaks me out a little. It will be important to see some improvement in my weight as well to starve off discouragement. So far, the first day is easy; the second day is harder. Hold on tight kids, it might be a rough third day.

And so it begins. As you should know by now, I am starting the Lindora diet program today. For the first three days of this program, it’s a heavy protein based diet. At 7am I got to start with a chocolate shake which was quite nice actually. After I finish this blog post at 9am I will get some bbq nuts for a snack . So far, I feel fine and not hungry. But we’re only beginning, so by tomorrow I may be on the floor whining. No, I’ll be fine.

This diet is protein based in general. Very low carb and low fat. The doctor in charge thinks I should be off my insulin by the end of the first week and probably off one of my other diabetes meds a week later. That would be very cool and I’m looking forward to that. Overall, it’s expected I will loose around 20-25lbs in this 10 week program. That would put me comfortably under 200lbs which has always been my goal. So, here we go. It’s time for my snack.

Update: 9:00pm: Made it to the end of the day and it was quite an afternoon. I started to get a headache around noon and it increased rapidly. By 2 I needed some Advil and realized I had had enough water. I had my appointment at Lindora and they confirmed the drastic drop in carbs contributed to the headaches. They modified the menu for be, boosting the carbs to help out until I fully adjust. The good news is that I didn’t feel hungry so outside of the headache it was a decent day.

I will be starting the Lindora weight loss program starting tomorrow. It’s something Lisa talked me into and she is doing with me. We have a friend who has been on the program and has done fantastically well with it. Weight loss is the biggest factor holding me back with my diabetes, so it’s no trivial thing. If I can drop around 20lbs and keep it off; and isn’t that the truly tricky part, keeping it off, I will not only be off insulin but several other prescription meds as well. We’ve analyzed several programs and this one looks like the one for us. It is medically based and teaches you to eat real food as apposed to being dependent on pre packaged food.

So, I’ll be keeping you up to date with how I’m feeling and my progress. This is a low fat, low carb diet and I’m one who loves to eat, so this will be a challenge for me. But I’m so looking forward to dropping weight, looking better and I know I will feel better. I still remember what it was like to be sub 200 lbs and it felt much better.

Like someone hit me in the ribs with a baseball bat. I had a bad cold that I finally licked with some antibiotics but he persistent cough will not go away. I have coughed so much and so hard now that my right side just below my ribs is sore. It’s so sore now that every time I sneeze or cough it’s brutal pain. It’s happened once before a long time ago. I have been taking Musenex to thin out the mucus or so says the doctor. My goals these days are to control myself enough to let it heal. That and lots of advil.

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Who wakes up at 4:30am and blogs about their weird dream. Me. I’m a blogger.

I was at at Ozzy Osbourne concert with a friend. This is already strange because I’m not that big of an Ozzy fan and I wouldn’t pay for a show. I also have no idea who this friend was. We were very close to the stage, left side. Ozzy preformed the usual hits but he seemed lackluster and uninterested. At one point, he was doing a slow number and was organizing and mailing checks during the song. Strange time to take care of business we thought. Then we were behind the stage in a booth like in a cafe and there were two girls there too. Ozzy was dancing around in very revealing underwear, almost like a women’s underwear and stockings and was sticking his butt in peoples faces (hey, I told you it was weird). Then he sat down and we were talking and business and success. He went off with one of the girls because she had some kind of idea they were talking about. They came back and we continued talking about business and things. By this time the crowd had almost disappeared. There were only about 20 people left in the whole place. Ozzy said, “is the band still there?” and jumped back on stage to finish the show. At the end of the show Sharon Osbourne walked in, although she didn’t completely look like Sharon and asked how everything was. He’s being weird we told her and she said over here shoulder as she was walking away, yeah, he’s like that.

A general list and by no means complete.

• Cable News: I’ve gone into this on the podcast. There is no more news left in the news. It’s all opinion and people yelling at each other. The focus is on the most sensational stories and there is no intelligent analysis. Fox News is especially hilarious when they say “we report, you decide” just before they tell you what to think. I think there is something here related to the rise in citizen journalism and social media. Fortunately, some people can still see through this sham and are seeking out news in other places. When the traditional can no longer inform us, we must inform each other.

• Viagra Commercials: Crass and embarrassing is the only way to describe the infamous “smiling bob” commercials. None of the other commercials have any subtlety or tact either. This is the spam of commercial television.

• Cougar Conventions: Oh, yes, it’s true, the first annual Cougar Convention will be held in Las Vegas next year. I’m sure one of the goals of the convention is to put a more positive light on the whole Cougar phenomenon but I’m not sure a convention in Las Vegas will be enough to remove the smarmy tarnish of the whole Cougar thing. Just think, if this was older men going after younger women people would be outraged. It’s not my business what older women want to do and I don’t care, but the glamorization of it all bothers me.

• Ashley Madison: This is a website that encourages and promotes dating other men while married. They provide a vehicle for infidelity. They have been hitting TV pretty hard lately with ads and it gives me a sick feeling in the pit of my stomach. Have we really come this far? Is infidelity so ok that we can brazenly and openly promote it like this? Is marriage so devalued? Again, not my business what goes on in anyones marriage but neither should be it Ashley Madisons either. And one final sick point, they are profiting off all this.

Virginia is not a teenager yet, but it’s fast approaching and I’m feeling already out of my depth. The surge of hormones and emotions are upon us, certain body parts are blossoming and she needs advice about girlfriend fights. I’m a boy; boys don’t fight like that. We don’t think so much about it. Boys rarely ask the question why. Why does she do that to me? You should talk to your mom feels like such a cop out, but in reality it’s probably a very good idea. Virginia already tells me she gets better answers from mom than me. “Girls think about things so differently than boys” she says to me. You are quite correct Virginia, quite correct. But remember, when you’re ready to edit that video blog, now that your dad can help you with.

Excuse me while I rant again about politics and the state of discourse in this country. I also talk about the new book by Joey Kramer, the drummer for Aerosmith.

The Beatles are back, but not digitally. My house is falling apart. The Mackenzie Phillips story gets me pissed off and Portland is a go.

It’s a day that kids look forward to with disappointment and all parents with elation. We have reached the end of summer and for us it has been a long and eventful one. Virginia went to her first sleep away camp with great success. She got to spend some quality play time with her favorite cousin and we spent a month in Portland, OR.

Like most parents, I look forward to a familiar routine and some quality quite time at home. I have plenty to do getting Connected World Media kicked into high gear and I need some serious focus time to do it.

Of course it’s a holiday weekend, so the fridge is on the fritz. Something with the freezer and a light that says call service. We’re trying to just get it to hang in there until Tues so I don’t have to pay extra for a holiday repair. The spa is also wants me to call service as well. Anything else want to break around here?