Toronto and England

Okay the diet is sorta continuing.

Well, I am eating less then I would if I was not trying to diet, but I am not completely on the diet.

Lets see, at the airport in Toronto I pigged out before I got on the flight. I needed the three shots of scotch, and the cookies (I swear). I also had a swarma in pita, but I skipped on the Chumos, and did not get a Laffa which is an improvement on Friday. I also stuffed it with veggies and no fried ones.

Today I ate a big shabbat lunch, but I did not each as much chicken and had a lot more salad. I was at a friends house in Golder Green and D--mn she can cook. it was really really good food. I have some friends around the world that I love spending shabbat with as I can eat really well, but I really need to lose this weight.

I am not trusting of other scales, and the thing about losing weight is that you need to be able to trust your scale, and since I split time between 3-4 of them, it ain't easy.

On the whole I am eating less, and more healthy. I am pigging out on this trip to London, on English Asparagus, and not chocolate, (only 3 squares since I landed). I also have not finished my bag of bears, me addicted to bears, of the soft chewy type.

What am I trying to say. I am doing better, but I got a long way to go. I think that I need to start to count points for this to work. I wonder if someone makes a point counter for a BlackBerry. Got to look into that.

I am going to drop these 20 pounds and my reward I have decided is I will fly to Hong Kong and get a new wardrobe. (Expensive reward). Lets see if I make this work.

It is nice to be getting things done.

Cheers,

Benjamin

the diet continues

Okay, the diet is continuing.

After a horrible Shabbat where there was way to much food around and I could not stop eating, I have still lost weight I am down to 240. I think Sunday is the best day to weigh in, but like next week I will be on the road so I will not be able to do so.

The key I think to losing weight is to stock only good foods in the house and to get rid of the wasted calories. I can happily eat 3-4 puff pastries for breakfast, but I can also have a bowl of cereal and Yogurt, and the second option is good for me.

I am still in the big stomach stage of the diet and that means that I am hungry for lots of food, and I hate this stage, it is the hardest, assuming I can get through it, my stomach will shrink and the diet will get easier.

This week it also going to get harder. I am traveling the Canada, and I am not sure what I am going to be able to eat their that will work. I have to stock the kitchen with decent food that I can eat and still maintain if not lose weight.

I am not yet doing a formal point count, I am really starting with focusing on healthy food.

So back to my cherry tomato's and work.

Cheers

Benjamin

Diet

Okay it is time and I am starting a new diet.

The thing is Weight Watchers is what has worked for me in the past, but I do not think I can make meetings, so what I am doing is weighing in each week, and then I will post my weight to the internet, right here. So my weight today is 244.4 pounds, which by the way is the most I have weighed in 2-3 years. I want to get back to 220.

The plan is simple, first off eat better, that means taking food with me when I travel, stocking the kitchens where I live better and I want to start to work out more.

Now things have gotten easier for Iris and me in Israel where I spend a lot of time, Fiber is now reported on products, and there are a lot more friendly products in Israel now.

Now off to my yogurts that taste like sawdust (I am sure that is an ingredient, and my soy milk that actually tastes nice and away I go).

Good luck to me.

Life

I have not posted here for a while. Partly it was because I am coming terms with Israel, partly because I have been so busy with work.

I needed this blog when I came to Israel as this place was so strangle and hard to live in, but now I am feeling like it is sorta home. I am heading back to Portland at the end of the week for a couple, maybe three months and I am scared that these are going to be the hardest 2-3 months of my life.

I know that I have lots of time to get work done and there are things I need to do in Portland, but I am scared about leaving Iris who frankly is the stabilizer of my life. I am also scared about the next stages of work that I have to do. I frankly am not the best at making bets that are quite large, as I tend to want to hedge.

The fact is I am growing to love Israel, I am not sure I am ready to leave Portland for ever, but I am growing to understand what I can love and hate about this place.

The fact is life is hard here, but for some people they love it. I find it easier to hide here then I do in Portland, and the guilt that I get from not fully engaging bites, but it some time rolls off like a rusty sword.

The fact is I live for guilt, and guilt is what drives me. I want to get things done, but guilt can carry me for weeks.

I want to bury myself in my work, but some days the guilt is so strong that I can not do it.

It is hard some days, but other days living here is wonderful.

Benjamin

News from Abroad

Watching CNN and BBC is just scarey. I look at how they report Israel and frankly it is just amazing. They give riots in China that are anti Japan the same press as a planned protest at the western wall. I just question these news sources, and from within Israel I do not have nearly the same sense of problems.

News is so questionable.

Benjamin

China and Israel

Okay,

I am in Bejing for business and I must say one thing about israel. Israel has made China much easier to live in. Dealing with the goverment in Israel and problems we have faced has made China feel like an easy place to live.

I actually like China now, I understand it so much better and I understand what the people are thinking and how they are acting. This is a complete shock to me as I really did not like China before.

The other interesting thing is to see just how hot the economy is here, and how much prices have gone up. The goverment here is doing things right, as it just no longer feels like a bubble.

Benjamin

Sabbath away

I was away this Shabbat. It was an interesting experience. We stayed with a family that lives in a Tamni Moshov and they are the only white guys for miles. It is an interesting place, but probably not for us. What was amazing was that they were renting a nice large house for significantly less then we were renting our apartment for.

I deafened with the family for Shabbat morning at a chabad that they promised was non messianic, but the Gabbi wearing a Kippa with Yichi on it just did not give me warm and comfortable feelings. The other choice where we went for Friday night was a Tamni Shul where everyone chanted at the same time at the top of their lungs in a small caravan with a rhythm that was slightly off. On the whole I like the Shuls in Ra'anana and I like being in Little America (Much like China town or little Italy in an America).

It was nice in some ways to be out there and in other ways I think I would have rather been home for Shabbat. I am going to be in China this week leaving in 4 days and spending shabbat at home before doing that would be nice.

Have a good week, the next post will probably be from Beijing.

Benjamin