The results for The 40th Expedition are in: -4.5% or -9 lbs.

At 193 lbs, I am below the 200 lb threshold. I could've tacked another 5 lbs to that total, and skip the 190s entirely, but it would have been unearned.

Closing out this Expedition has not been normal. Nausea kept me from holding anything down for a couple of days. Water fasting followed that up for the four days thereafter.

And then there was the cascade of medications.

I spent about 4 days in the ICU this past week because of a STEMI heart attack.

I have much to unpack from this experience and will do so in these gaps where the medications do not dull my writing. At the time, I remain on this earth...the prospect of eternity is very tangibly just around the bend. May we always hold that perspective.

In the meantime, I've got Tomlin's Our God (2010) and David Crowder Band's album Illuminate (2003) in my head.

What I am listening to today: Lite Hits Classics. So far it's been blockquote below and James Blunt's You're Beautiful (2005):

You can look at the menu
But you just can't eat

Howard Jones, No One Is to Blame (1986)

I had left the waters of the loathsome sardine, didn't I? Just when I thought I was breaking loose and heading out toward open waters, I am being reeled back in. I've got another six days ahead of me leading up to Sunday, The 40th Expedition's weigh-in on the 18th. We'll just chalk it up to budgetary exuberance.

I'll wind up turning in a 21-day streak of that vile thing. But it's only two cans a day that I'll power through in my mornings.

My blood test intrigued me this morning within the context of what I shared in my last post:

• glucose: 76
• ketones: 4.4 (highest yet)
• Dr. Boz: 17.3

This was all in the context of having 3 oz of liver yesterday, which is similar to what I had the other day. I suspect the yardwork elevated the production of ketones. Excess ketones for unneeded energy are not turned into fat and embark on the great oceanic voyage. Sugar however...well, we know all about that:

Whoopi-ty-aye-oh
Rockin' to and fro
Back in the saddle again

Gene Autry, Back in the Saddle Again (1939)

Ok so the above song wasn't in the radio stream—currently Boys II Men's cover of It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday (1991) followed by another cover, I Can Love You Like That (1995). But today's post just feels like a Sleepless in Seattle (1993) theme. Perhaps this site leans more toward You've Got Mail (1998)?:

The odd thing about this form of communication is that you're more likely to talk about nothing than something. But I just want to say that all this nothing has meant more to me than so many somethings.

Finally, this stream drops me off with Out of Touch (1984) from Daryl Hall & John Oates.

I was delighted to see AccuRadio featured Throwback Thursday: 1996 today.

And I gotta admit, I ❤️ the idea of Top 40: July 19, 1996. What a great day to be alive for the class of '96! As the world was unfurled, that time was a couple of months after high school bridging over to a new beginning of attending university. That summer, you could see me spending my last moments at Piggly Wiggly and also spending time at the family print shop in Somerville, listening to a spotty country station out of Jackson, as I was lit up in red in my darkroom work.

And while this radio stream is not exclusively the top 40 of that date, it is playing a song that played in my convertible in that July '96: Billie Ray Martin's Your Loving Arms (1995). I used to keep Dance Mix USA Volume 5 spinning regularly in that ol' Mustang of mine, a place of the Real McCoy's Run Away. I miss the energy of that time when every weekend was a mystery as to what it might entail. I'll listen to that album and I can almost smell the air freshener I kept in that convertible.

Was it really that long ago? Aren't ya supposed to be OLD for a 30-year reunion? Pay no attention to this gray wolf's beard—I'm more Geralt than Gandalf!

Sardines and Me

I've got all of my glucose tests below. I'm trying to establish the impact beef liver has on my life. My data seem to indicate it has a significant role.

I finish eating each day by noon with my butter coffee soon finishing thereafter.

Fasting Glucose

At 15 days in a row, today marks the last day of my sardine focus. In time, I learned to ground it up and then crisp it on a pan with fiery cayenne. It's far from my go-to meat. (I mean, C'MON, it's NO bacon!) But, it enabled me to slam through and ABSOLUTELY wreck that weightloss stall.

And with nary a doctor or even a coach, sans the YouTube channels of Kelly Hogan and Dr. Ken Berry, I'm down 141 lbs.