Weight loss is not a game.

I see so many that want to turn their health, and weight management into a game. This is not a game it is our lives that we are dealing with. We should not be in a rush to lose weight,  the best way to lose the weight is to change our lifestyle so we control our weight over the long run. We lose the weight slowly by eating real food, and controlling our portions. I understand that for some they will need to stop eating some foods that they are allergic to, that is causing their weight issues. But for most it is just a case of eating real food, staying away from processed foods and fast foods most of the time. I also except the concept there are times that we will either have to eat less clean as they say, that is going to happen. But the concept is that we eat clean at least 80% of the time. The other thing that I see is that they want to make it a challenge to beat someone else, to me that is completely wrong, the only one you should be challenging is yourself. We should all challenge ourselves to do better today than we did yesterday. That could mean eating more real foods today than yesterday. I could mean walking a little farther today than yesterday. I could just mean to have a better outlook on life today than yesterday. 

The most import thing I want everyone to understand is this we should never rush our weight loss, we should be working slowly at losing the weight with the thought in mine that we are going to have to maintain that weight loss once we reach that goal.

Now on to something else that most seem to miss understand. This misunderstanding is easy to happen with our TVs and internet being full of this concept lose the weight ASAP. But not of those ads give you any indication of how you are going to keep that weight off. Really they know you will not and that is what they are banking on. They want your money!! Remember that they want your money.  

You have to come up with a plan to lose your weight that you are willing to stay with the rest of your life. I repeat myself “You have to come up with a plan to lose your weight that you are willing to stay with the rest of your life.” I will explain my reasoning if you follow the correct plan when you reach your weight goal or as I am going to say here the weight your body should be at you will be eating the correct amount of calories per day and you will be exercising the correct about each day and you should continue at that level from now on. But you will have to make some adjustments a long for age. As we get older we need less for the same weight. 

My plan as I have it is this I eat to not feel hungry and at the same time I stop eating before I feel too full. How to you know when you reach this point? For me it has slowly happened over time. I have been working at it now for over 6 years. Does that mean I am going to stop logging? No, I am not. You see logging is part of my plan and it comes easy to me. I have been journaling for my whole life. I feel like something is missing if I do not log my food.

My last commit is this we are all different and we all have to find what works for each of us. But I will say this crash diets do not ever work. 

A State of Mind - My Story

Weight lose is the battle of your will and your body. In you mind you see all of the fancy ads on TV, that talk about how fast you can lose the weight if you buy their wonder this or that. But reality sets in and you find that yes maybe you can lose the weight fast, but what happens when you stop using the wonder this or that. You go back to the way you were eating what you were and your weight more than likely goes back to where it was and adds even more to it.

I have been there and done that so I am speaking from my experience. Now I am going to tell you a story and it is going to be a little long.

As a boy in middle school and high school I as always fairly slim and trim, but I always had a little bit of a belly. At 21 years old I joined the Navy and left for Boot Camp 3 days after my 21^st birthday. I weight 167 pounds and was right at 6 feet talk. Boot Camp was 11 weeks long, in that 11 weeks I gained up to 210 pounds. I had never ate the foods that they fed us before going in to the Service. I was always eating food grown on the farm before I went in the service. I went from a 28 inch waist to a 33 inch waist in those 11 weeks. I felt less active and I felt that I was not able to do as much as I was before Boot. After Boot I was sent to schools so I was in a classroom all day 5 days a week, and on top of that I was going to evening classes. I do not really know what my weight was for most of my time in the service, I just know that I was able to wear the same close I was given in Boot most of my time in the service. I was never given PTs and was never asked to prove I could run or do other real exercises as long as I was in the service. That had to do with the fact my job was never physical it was always desk, and lab work. I did do some really physical work while in a special agency that had me setting up communication all over the country and the world. But I never really noticed any weight loss, or gain. I got out of the service in February of 1977, I remember my weight from my physical that I got leaving the service and it was around 225. So I had stated reasonably stable for the 8 years. The summer of 1977 I was having headaches and not feeling that good so I went to my doctor and was told I had high blood pressure. I was places on medication that made me feel worse than I was without it. I ended up not take the medication due to the fact I could not do my job and take the pills I was given. So I found another doctor that told me that if I would lose some of my weight and become active that more than likely I would not need the medication. My weight at that time was 235, I started riding my bicycle and getting as much other activity as I could while working 10 to 12 hours a day 6 days a week. My weight never really got any lower but I was more active and my blood pressure was under control. I managed to stay away from medications and at least my weight stated stable until when I was about 45, my job changed again, and my son was off to college and I did not have my riding partner so I stopped riding my bike and I spend all of my time chasing every computer certification and class that I could. My weight started up and I ended up back on blood pressure medication, acid reflux medication, and even for a while cholesterol medications. And I lived with the medications for over 15 years. I was so busy trying to feed my family and get them through school that I forgot about myself. At that time I lost my first wife to a car accident and that made my life even worse, due to not have her and my daughter was off to college at the same time. I no longer wanted to be at home. I worked and even made excuses to stay over night a lot. I also chased more certificates. My weight went up and up. I started seeing and old friend that I new and we ended up getting married. She is a great cook, and I managed to lose some weight for a while but I was chasing certificates and jobs trying to make ends meet, so my weight went back up to the point that I could not even tie my own shoes. This was 2010 at about Thanksgiving and my doctor wanted to put me on one of the sleeping machines and I said no, I cannot stand anything over my nose. So I made him a promise and a promise to myself to lose the weight. Now my goal was not a number on the scale but to get off all prescription medications. I was up to 290 pounds. On New Year’s Day 2011 the day I say I really started losing weight I was down 10 pounds. That was a victory in itself. I stuck with just portion control up until March then I quit drinking diet cokes, and I started to walk. At first I was lucky to make it a quarter of a mile. But I stayed at it. July 26, 2011, I found and joined loseit, and Fitbit, by then I was walking a few miles non-stop and was feeling good and my weight was down to around 250. I never stopped the portion control but now I was logging and learning how to portion my food out better over the day. And Fitbit was giving me really goals to meet. By New Year’s Day 2012 I was down to 208 and I was walking 10K steps a day with ease, and I was also riding my bike again. I have lots of energy and I was off all medications. My goal was reached, even with my still be being 23 pounds heavier that my doctor wanted me at. Worse was the fact my weight just was no longer coming off with ease. Every pound was like a war being fought. I never stopped logging and never stopped trying to figure out if I needed changes to my diet. I also worked at increasing my walking and reached as much as 25K steps a day. By the end of 2013 I was down to 195 and walking and bicycling. 

Then came February 2014 and I was forced to retire. My weight started going up and up, I was still logging, and I was still active but not walking as much. I just could not figure out what was wrong and I kept cutting back on my portion sizes. Early 2016 my weight was up to 250 again and I was eating very little, but gaining weight and I was still as active as I had been but not walking that much. I gave up and asked my doctor if I could get a referral to a dietitian. I started seeing the dietitian and the very first appointment we just talked and she suggested that I get an RMR test, I had to ask what that was and she explained it was to test my metabolism. I got the test the next week and we found that it was lower than it should be. The reason was as she put it was I was not eating as much as I should. I started by eating the way and the amounts she recommended and walking again At first I gained weight. I was eating more but still only portion control and no special diet. After about 2 months I started losing weight again. Very slowly at first then I would have weeks I would lose 2 or 3 pounds. By New Year’s Day 2017, I was back down 205. I was walking my 10k to 15K steps a day every day. My weight kept coming down until I got to about 195 and it stalled out there for about 6 months. 

I was reading and researching weight loss and plateaus/set points. I came across a few very good books. But the most interesting was the concept that stress is our worse enemy when it comes to weight management. So about 3 months ago I started following some very good at vice that I want to share with you. 

What is a failed plan?

Eating foods you are not willing to eat the rest of your life.

You are eating less food than you need and you are hungry all the time.

You are exercising but you hate what you are doing.

You are not allowing yourself to have any pleasure in what you eat and the exercises you are doing.

You are dependent on the scale as your measure of success in your plan.

You are unhappy or miserable when out with friends and family due to lack of what you feel you are allowed to eat.

You have not planned for missteps, bad food days, or days for rest.

You cannot think about anything else but your weight, your diet, and what exercise you will be doing next.

You are not sleeping at least 7 hours a night.

You are giving up sleep to exercise.

You believe that you cannot lose weight without exercising yourself to the point of total exhaustion

You allow friends or family to get away with telling you that you do not need to lose the weight or that you should gain some of it back.

You are not happy with your life then your plan is a failure.

You have not researched all types of plans and made a decision just for you.

You are not flexible about your food choices.

You do not have a wide variety of food choices.

I am sure there are other things to be said I will add them later if I think of them.

I live by this now I continue to log everyday. I walk everyday, and I do resistance workouts 3 days a week. As of this morning I was down to 189. I cannot even describe how much energy that I have. I am walking 7 miles non-stop at a pace of just about 4 miles an hour. I am almost 70 years old and I feel like I am 30. You to can do it you just have to stay with the plan that works for you. I believe that what I follow above is the key to my plan. 

Please never give up and never stop working the plan if the plan is not working for you make adjustments and give it a month. And make more adjustments if needed. 

You can do it if I can.

Charles Kemp 

My motto is JUST DO IT

Who is in charge your mind or your body

This may sound crazy but I am going to explain something I have figured out over the last six years. We have to allow our body to be in charge of our weight management, out fitness, and our health. 

What am I talking about? If we listen to our minds we will do it wrong every time. We have to learn to listen to our bodies! Our bodies will tell us when it needs fuel, our bodies will tell us we are exercising enough, overdoing it, or not doing enough. Our bodies once we have cleaned up our diet and we eat only real food will tell us when it is truly needing fuel. It will tell us when we are over filling it too. 

I have learned over the years that if we allow our minds to rule our bodies we will over eat, we will set on the couch and watch TV, we will eat the foods that we find that looks good but are really bad for us. Oh then there are the ones of us that believe we can run that extra mile or climb that extra rock or just that distance that is really stupid once we fall and break something. We will only allow our bodies the control it deserves then a lot of this will not happen. I look at my body as leader and my mind as the devil made me do it. Our minds will always want to do more or less of what is bad or good for us. Normally it will want to do more harm than good. If we truly listen to our bodies it will tell us that it is getting the fuel it needs and the amount it needs. Our bodies will tell us it is getting the exercise it needs, or getting too much or not enough. We always want to push ourselves to within an inch of our max limits but Neve go over that limit and hurt ourselves. We can do that only by listening to our bodies. 

So how do we listen to our bodies. You start at the bottom of your feet and work your way up and mentally ask the question of your body how are the feet doing, are they hurting or are they okay. You work up your bodies and do the same for you leg muscles, knees, hips back, stomach, chest, neck and shoulders. Learn to tell the difference between being sore and being hurt. If you are sore then may be you need to rest a little more, by getting more sleep or maybe cutting back a little on your exercise for a day. If you are hurt then get it fixed. If you are feeling good push yourself to with in that inch and see the improvements that it brings. 

I am going to say this the only challenge that I like is the challenge I have with myself to be better today than I was yesterday, and to be better this week than I was last week. 

Now on to food! Eat real food, if it runs, flies, swims, and grows from the earth it is real food. Real food will keep your hormone system healed so your stomach can tell your brain that it is full or hungry and be honest about it. The more processed food you eat the more your hormone systems is going to be sick and out of balance. 

You have to learn to eat to never be hungry and at the same time eat just enough to be comfortably full. There is a fine line there that takes time to find and stay within the two points. 

Some talk about interment fasting, well that is I guess what I do for just after dinner time to breakfast time in the morning. I eat dinner at about 6 pm and do not eat again until breakfast which for me is between 9 and 10 in the morning. I also do something else that goes agains what the so called experts say I do my morning walk before breakfast and not after. It works for me.

My exercise is walking and I wall on after 6 miles without stopping in the morning before breakfast. I also do resistance workouts every other day. Again this is what works for me.

I diet is whole real foods, and I only practice portion control. Do not follow the recommendation for low fat this or that, low fat is a bunch of crap in my think. I drink whole milk, and I us real butter on my homemade bread. I eat the whole egg, and I have pork belly instead of bacon. I also eat a large full breakfast then snack the rest of the day up to dinner, then I have a fairly large dinner with a dinner salad, meat, and rice or potato, or pasta. I do not drink coffee and I have never liked coffee. I drink unsweetened tea, green tea, or water. I do not believe in using artificial sweeteners, I normally use raw local honey. Oh, yes for breakfast I have whey protein in my whole milk, and I have ginger root grated and added to my morning cup of hot tea, sweetened with honey. My snacks are easy, fruits, nuts, and veggies. I do love sardines, at time, and my wife cooks roast beef and makes my sandwich meat. 

Now on the my proof of concept: My starting weight back in 2010 Thanksgiving, was 290 pounds, by New Year's Day of 2011 when my new life really begins I had lost down to 280. By the first of the year 2012 I had lost down to 208. Then by the first of the year of 2013 I was averaging 197. I did really well up to February of 2014 when I was forced to retire due to my hearing. After retirement I was active but not watching my diet as closely and not walking the way I was everyday, I started gaining my weight back by the spring of 2016 I had regained back to 250, and I was on the verge of having to start back on my prescription medications. I asked to see a dietitian and found out that my BMR was not what it should be for my age weight , etc. The dietitian helped me with my portion control and I began my walking again. By the first of 2017 I was back down to 205, and as of this morning I am down to 189.6. No special diet, or special medications. Just hard work and doing what I always knew I should be doing. But I allowed my mind to control my body and not my body to control my mind. 

If we listen to or minds we will fail every time we have to really learn to listen to our bodies and let the body be the boss. 

Also I am going to say this, stress is your worst enemy, it makes you mind do things to your body that just should not be done. 

Apple Watch

I received my Apple Watch Series 3 on Friday. I am still trying to learn it and it is going to take time. I am really liking it for notification, and the Activity, and workout. I have been using Fitbit devices for the past 6 years and they have gotten me a long ways into my fitness but I really need to take it to the next level. 

The watch is so much more comfortable that I believed it would be. It does have a large screen and it does look large on my small wrist. The other thing is that it feels lighter than the Fitbit Charge2 that I have been using and the Charge 2 is much smaller. I never could see the screen on the Charge 2 when outdoors, I can see the Watch screen very easily and that is making a big difference. I am also noticing that Fitbit gives out a lot more burn calories than the watch, I know some would say that is bad but I say it is good. That is what I mean about taking myself to the next level. I have never been someone to eat back my burn calories and now that I have the watch I am so glad I have not. The battery life of the watch is better than I expected it to be. I am getting almost 2 days out of the battery and I have really been playing with it a lot to learn it. Now I have to say I have noticed that the battery life of my iPhone 7+ is not as good and I believe that is due to the always connection that the watch has to the iPhone. 

I was disappointed that I could not set up the MacBook to be unlocked by the Watch but my research showed that I have to wait for the update to High Sierra, which should be sometime tomorrow. I will report back after I get my MacBook updated to see how that goes.

For now I have to say I am really liking the connection that the iPhone, Watch, iPad, and the MacBook has. This is so much better than I ever had with Windows. 

What I am really liking about Apple Products

What I am really like is that they all work together when on the WIFI. I can get a text message while I am just using the iPhone and go and open my MacBook, or iPad and answer the text. I can be looking at a webpage on the phone and switch to using the computer or iPad for a larger screen. This makes things work so much better. I also like that most of my apps are one the iPhone, iPad, and the MacOs so I can switch as needed. 

I am also really liking the new IOS 11 for the iPad it is great to have the docker like on the MacOs. 

I am waiting to get my Apple Watch 3 this Friday, and no I did not get the LTE version of the watch. I will update later on the watch and High Sierra after I update it next week. 

While I was walking this morning

When I go out and walk, I do not listen to music like most do, I listen to my thoughts. Well, today the following came to me:

First I am neither republican or democrat. I am very much independent. I will say while I am a physical conservative, I am also liberal in a lot of my thinking. Now, my wife and some of my family would not believe that. For example I do not believe in abortion on demand, but I do believe there are certain reasons for it, mostly if the mother is in danger of death and that would also cause the death of the baby. I am not a racist, I have friends and family that are from most color and nationalities. I do believe also that the groups that scream racism at others are the racist themselves. 

While I am a Christian and a believer I am also against organized religion. I believe that organized religion is of this world and not of God. So I do not recognize the Pope as a leader of God but of the world. 

I also realize something else the Bible is said to be God’s word but it has also been written by man. We recognize it as being written by God’s instruction. I follow the Bible because it makes more sense than any other book that has ever been written by man, and the fact that there is so much in the Bible that has been written in different times by so many different ones that all say the same thing. 

I do not believe that being gay is right, but I am also someone that will not belittle, or hate someone for who they are in private. I do not believe in showing sex believes in public, man and woman, man and man, or woman and woman.  That does not mean I do not kiss my wife in public, and it does not mean I will not hug my son or another very close friend in public it is just the sex part that is not meant to be made public. 

Now on to politics, this world and this country is in every bad shape due to our elite class of politicians, and the troubling thing is that we the people have allowed this to happen. We need to limit the terms of all of our politicians, and I believe that also includes the Supreme Court.  We need to make it law that what ever laws our congress, President or courts see to impose on the citizens include the law makes themselves. 

I also believe we need to bring back pray to our schools, we need to make it mandatory to stand for the pledge to our Country and flag. We should never be told we cannot fly the flag except in cases that it is not being flown correctly.

We need to respect our law enforcement as long as our law enforcement are enforcing the laws as written and not by their interpretation of the laws. 

I guess I could say so much else but I will leave that for another day.

Well it is Monday again

Well it is Monday and it is going to be different this week, my step son is having gastrulae bypass surgery tomorrow so my exercise routine is going to be interrupted I also put in a very hard routine last week and it has made me very tired so I am not really feeling up to the hard routine today. I will get out and do my 10K today and more than likely I will figure out how to do it tomorrow too. Also I am not sure what I will be doing about my eating this will, seeing my step son will be staying here for a few days after the surgery and he will be on a liquid diet, so my wife and I will more than likely be managing on salads, and cereal for most of the week. Also, I am surprised that I did not have a gain this morning after eating out yesterday, and I know I had way too much salt. And also this last week I would have been over budget if it had not been for all of my exercise burn calories. I am at 191 now that is 4 pounds below my lowest in 2013 and 4 pounds below my goal weight. But I am still 6 pounds or more above what my doctor wants me at. You see he looks at it as what I weigh fully dressed, and we all know we take our weight without our clothes. I get asked every time I see him when am I going to get the weight off and meet his goal, I keep telling him the same thing. I am eating correctly and I am exercising way more than most if not all of his other patients, so it is up to my body to make the adjustment, I am as the bodies soul doing my part.

Odds and ends

This is just some of my thoughts that more than likely will go in many ways. 

First of all I am looking forward to the new IOS11, it looks to be different and much improved over even IOS10. I will right more on this once I have my hands on it.

Second I am getting an Apple Watch, wow when the watch came out I said why would anyone want one of them. But I have been using Fitbit devices for six years now and they have progressively got more into notifications from the smart phone, so I have decided to go with the device that not only has activity tracking but also is an extension of the iPhone. And as for as the iPhone is concerned when it first came out I said I would never have one, but they kept getting better and they proved to be the most stable hardware, and Apple keeps the IOS up to date and that impressed me. I have also gotten the iPad Air 2 and now the MacBook Air. Seeing I have been in MicroSoft’s Camp for so many years, I am even surprised that I have made the switch. But I have to say I am so impressed with Apple’s hardware and now with the Software they come out with. Sure It is not as easy to personalize as some of the others but I have learned to deal with it. I have also come to understand that I just want something that works and I do not have to screw with all the time. And I have to say that Microsoft products I had to screw with it way to much. I am loving the fact that if I need to do something on one of my devices that I just open it up and do my work then put it away and go on with life, there is no making it work any more. 

Now lets get on with my life, my weight loss and maintenance is going much better than I could ever believe. I am down and holding at 191 and feeling really good. I am no longer stressed over losing my weight or keeping it off. I am no longer stress over I cannot eat this or that. I am no longer stressing over I have to do this exercise or that. I do what feels right to me and so far it is working.  The key is balance, we must eat to live and we must live to learn. Eating a portion controlled balance menu is the only way to go. Also eat to not ever feel hungry is the key for me, but yet to never feel overly full, that is the balance. As for as exercise is concerned be active for all of you're a wake hours is what is important. You should never let an hour go by without getting up and walking around for at least a few minutes. Yes that sounds to simple but it is very important. Also we need 30 minutes of at least a brisk walk everyday, and that walk does not have to be all at once. Now this is the very minimum that you need to have the minimum fitness that you need more is need to lose weight and to really be fit. 

I guess I could go on and on but why I will have other thoughts later.

Change in walking plan

For a while now I have been doing two one and a half hours walk everyday. That is three hours taken up out of my day and it amounts to about 10 miles of walking. It has been working for me and helping me drop my weight a little more, but my body was getting use to it and it was like I was just doing my normal thing. 

So this week I have been doing something different. I have been work at walking for 2 hours, and pushing for 15K steps and seven and a half miles. It is a push for me and it does take me to the point of really being tired. This morning I managed to get 15.5K steps and the 7.5 miles in 2 hours and 3 minutes. I feel great and it did push me to find it in me to reach new limits on my journey. I will stick with this for a while and then switch it up again later. 

I am so happy with my Apple Devices that I am getting the Watch

I am loving the way that the iPhone, iPad, and the MacBook Air, work together that I have decided that I am ordering the new Apple Watch Series 3 without cell phone radios. 

I have been using Fitbit devices for my activity tracking for over six years. But Fitbit does not sync with Apple health and my doctors use the Apple health information to keep up with my weight, blood pressure, etc. I am very active and over the last 6 years I have logged over 18 million steps with Fitbit devices, but the lack of sync with apple health has persuaded me to move away from the Fitbit devices and get the apple watch. Sure I can use a number of apps to sync with apple health and I have tried most of them and they all seem to do the job but end up corrupting my health data or corrupting my Loseit data. So it is time for a change. I will report back in time with my take on the watch.

I order it tomorrow and with get it on September 22 or later. Until then I will not be commenting on the watch. 

What has worked for me to get to where I am to day with my weight loss and fitness

First off a few things to remember reading this.

1. This is what works for me and may or may not work for you.
2. I am not say you should do what I am doing, all I am doing is telling you what works for me. 
3. I am almost 70 years young so that effects what I do and do not do.

First I am going to say that I have tried the Atkins diet, the South Beach Diet, gluten free, and others that I cannot even name anymore. Most of these I have managed to lose weight but never managed to keep the weight off. What is working for me is logging everything I eat, walking, and doing some resistance workouts. I follow my stomach is the what I have told some of my friends, I eat before I am hungry and I stop eating before I am stuffed. I have learned to enjoy the feeling of being pleasantly full. I also follow the portion control concepts. I do not eliminate any real food from my diet, I limit it. I love eating cake and ice cream every now and then, and I love a cold beer or glass of wine at times, again in controlled portions. I do use Loseit to log all of my food and I have been for over 6 years. I no longer stress over the over or under calorie amounts. I am logging my food and I am eating to never feel hungry or to feel over fed. 

I walk a lot, I normally walk about 11,000 steps in the morning before breakfast, then again in the evening after dinner. My rest days are the days I only walk either in the morning or evening. I get in my 11,000 steps a day every day except days like when we had the really heavy rains. Heat does not bother me as much as cold does. 

I do about 30 minutes 3 days a week of resistance workouts, using my body, dumbbells, and a curl bar. I am not into heavy weighs, just doing enough to hopefully help tone my old muscles. 

Again I am going to say I do not believe in eliminating any real foods. But I do not eat fast foods if I can find anything else to eat. I do not drink soft drinks daily buy will allow myself one every now and then as a change of pass. I also do not have a hard regiment of foods that I eat. My weekly meals or never repeated with in the same week. My wife does the cooking and we can go weeks without repeating the same meals. Neither my wife or I like boring meals, or activities so we keep things mixed up. 

Now a little bit about me.

I am hard of hearing so TV does not interest me very much, I love to read, and I live reading ebooks, blogs, and researching anything that interest me at the time. My education is that I have been a technical person my grown up life. I also grew up on a farm and went to a very small school for all 12 years in the same building. I went to college and did not like the large classes. I went in the Navy and was trained to be an Electronics Tech. I spend 8 years in the Navy and got schooling that would equal to a BS degree in the Electronics Tech world. After the Navy I went to work for a number of different companies doing Electronic Troubleshooting. I met my first computer sometime in the late 1970s and studied and taught myself to program, and to repair computers. In the late 1990s I studied and became a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer working on the Microsoft Servers, and being a specialist in Microsoft Exchange Server(Email Server). I retired in February 2014 from Dell Computers, and before Dell I worked for a year as a contractor for Microsoft. I was 66 years young when I retired, or I should say I was forced to retire due to my hearing issues. After retirement I tried my hand at working for Home Depot but my hearing and standing on the concrete floors proved to be a problem for me so I gave that up and have been happy to be retired every since. I keep myself busy reading walking, doing yard work, and keeping the floors of the house swept and mopped. There is never a dull moment.