My Continuing Edumacation

I've been on the road now for a little over a month and have gained three pounds.  When I started on my diet/exercise regimen in February, I weighed in at a whopping 249 pounds.  Looking at the pictures now, I don't know how people could even stand being around me.  I was Gargantuant.  I certainly cringe to look at those photos now.   I guess they liked my personality or something.  In just three months, I was able, through diligence and hard work, to shed 43 pounds and get down to a more respectable 206.  Admittedly, the rigors of the road and traveling with an even more enthusiastic eater, have been a bad influence on my regimen.  It seems almost every time I want to eat more healthy, the man is stressing cheese.  Despite that fact, I'm happy traveling with Dhrits because he's such an easy-going, interesting and entertaining person.  I just need to be more personally willful.  Weighing in at 209 pounds is all right for now but it is not something I am happy with long-term.

Now, if you have looked at my daily pictures, with all the restaurants documented that we have visited as posted on Facebook, you would probably be surprised that I have only gained three pounds.  I certainly was when I stepped on the scale this morning.  I seriously thought that perhaps I had gained somewhere in the vicinity of 15 or 20.  But considering the fact that I was hitting the treadmill semi-regularly in the first two weeks and I still do my fair share of walking, I have been able to slow my growth-poundage-rate down.  Also, I think my metabolism has sped up from all the regular running and weight-lifting I was doing before this trip commenced.

I am now determined to get more serious again.  All is not lost and I am a man who has been always able to bounce back from adversity.  Double Garga-Power!

This coming Monday, I will finish my Meteorology online class and be only one more class away from being able to graduate from Santa Fe College.  Hopefully, by August I will be done with my Genetics class and clear the way to enter Journalism College at UF in the fall.  I was not able to register for classes in time to take a Photo Journalism class this coming fall but I'll be sure to be on my toes to get into one in the Spring of 2010.  I love carrying the camera with me and plan to buy a digital SLR before I go to L.A. in late July for Kuli Mela and Ratha Yatra.  All work and no play makes Gargs a bored boy so I have decided to go to the West Coast for a week's vacation or so.  You know, see some old friends, good for the soul.  I'll be traveling with Glani, Govinda, Shyam, Radha and Vrn at various times during the trip.  Shyam, Radha and Vrn have never been there before so it will be fun to see their happy faces taking in new places.  To take a few days off and hang out at the Ratha Yatra after-party and walk around Manhattan was also good for my soul.  I have to say, I'm much more of a city person than a country person.  I mean, I appreciate the country but I really like social and cultural stimulation.  

I'm trying to strike a balance between work and play.  Actually, I'm one of those guys who shoots for work being a pleasure.  In mu mind I'm always pulling for pleasure.  After all, that's the natural state of the soul.  Hopefully, that will become a reality for me more and more in the upcoming chapters of my life.  I think my continuing edumacation is key.