The saga, and weight loss continue

I've lost 14 pounds since my last post on May 24. I'm particularly happy with this as I spent a week driving the Hot Rod Power Tour and a 4 day weekend in Florida playing. So while I wasn't able to exercise during these travels, I was able to continue to eat according to my plan (mostly). This morning's weigh in placed me at 214, down from 228.5 on May 24 and 290 on December 1, 2007. I was also able to put on a pair of 34" waist pants this morning, something I haven't done in at least 3 years.

The Hot Rod Power Tour was phenominal!
I was sorry to see it end, and I can't wait for next year. Next year it will begin in Madison, WI and make a stop in Racine and Warren, MI at the home of GM's design center. I'm wondering how they will route from Racine to Warren; if they will go north through WI and MI or south through Chicago and Indiana. I would prefer a northerly route, but I'm thinking they will drop south and I might be able to sleep at home the 2nd or 3rd night. In any case, I'm scheming my upgrades to get done prior to next year so I'm not the same poor sap that was driving a bone stock car next year.

I had a B&B PRT exhaust system installed on the vette over the weekend at Bloomington Gold in St. Charles, Il. I love the angry sound it makes now when I'm on the throttle, and I like that it purrs along when I'm cruising on the highway; it's the best of both worlds.


I also got some great news from my doctors last Friday. As I think I mentioned before, I developed heart failure in January 2007 and had an ejection fraction of 10% with atrial fibrillation. I've read somewhere that the prognosis for someone with an EF of 10% is 1 year. I was worried about this up until the point when I had a hybrid-maze procedure performed in February of 2008 at Northwestern Memorial Medical Center by Doctor Richard Lee. My EF had improved from 10% to 40% last year, but dropped back down to 30% by February. I had a check up last Friday and am happy to report that during the 3 week period in May I wore a long range heart monitor I showed no episodes of atrial fibrillation and that my echo cardiogram showed my EF had improved to 45%! Normal is 55% so I have some room for improvement, but this is happy news. As a result, I was taken off of Amiodarone, Lasix and potassium. I will wear a monitor again in August and if I still show no signs of afib then I can get off of the Warfarin, which will leave me on Toprolol, Lisinopril and fish oil. Life is good.

It's the 4th of July weekend, which means festival time. For me, the main event is Ribfest, more specifically live music. I'm looking forward to Ted Nugent, REO, Big Head Todd, Trace Adkins and Janesville. I'm told that Night Ranger and Styx are playing in Arlington Heights, so I may go to that instead of Ribfest, but I'm not sure.

Gotta go...