In this sliver of time before my heart valve replacement surgery, I can’t exercise hard. I can’t jog or do push ups or anything like that, so there’s no chance of me building up those reserves.

That doesn’t mean I can’t start working toward the place where I can do a handstand. Basically, now I can focus my body and lose weight.

The weight lost is tough for me an everyone. So many of those easy foods are prepackaged and full of carbs. Luckily for me, I live down the street from a farm that sells fresh produce. So I’ve been working on this for a while now and ramping up lately. A few years ago, I was 287 pounds. This morning, I was 224 pounds, so that’s great, but I’d like to be around 190 pounds. That’s 34 pounds which isn’t easy.

For breakfast, I had some cottage cheese. For lunch, a little chicken and cauliflower. We haven’t thought about dinner yet, but something easy.

The hard part for me is that I like to go hard with everything and that can be disastrous for weight loss. I need to focus on just moderation without excess moderation.

To help with that, I’ve been meditating some. I’m using websites that my friend Ken gave me and I have the Calm app. I’ve always meditated as part of a Quaker practice, but never daily. The daily part is helpful.

With the better food and meditation, I find myself worrying less about the operation, and more focused on now and healing and building my strength.