I have lost weight this past year, about 10 pounds. Who knew that a combination of exercise and a sensible diet would result in weight loss? I still have 10 pounds to go, but they will have to wait until Spring as I prepare to face the upcoming gauntlet of holiday tables of gluttony with less exercise.

We are all fatter just from looking at that picture. I should just increase my exercise, but it looks like it may decrease. Here’s why.

It’s Winter! Yes, after a very mild Fall that extended past Thanksgiving into December, Winter has finally settled in here. I left for a business trip to St Louis this past week with the temperature in the Roy Moore comfort zone (in the teens), enjoyed a couple days with the temperature hitting 50, and then returned to Chicago with the temperature back in the teens. This has been me since I have returned.

While I did some running, biking and swimming throughout 2017, most of my exercise was walking.

Excellent exercise for weight loss. But then Winter arrives.

And then this becomes me walking …

If you think the solution is simple and that I should join a gym, then you don’t know me at all. I can barely force myself to go for a walk, let alone get dressed, pack a gym bag, scrape the ice off the car windows, drive to a gym, exercise, shower, get dressed again and then return home. That is not happening. So I will be walking outside in the mornings …

… and then trying to warm up while I work the rest of the day.

That is, unless I have stumbled upon a brilliant solution. It is about a half mile walk to my old office/warehouse building. I should be able to make it there somehow.

That may not work as my dogs are smaller.

That’s about right. But I should be able to walk there. And once I get there, I have measured that 16 lengths of the inside corridor of that building equals 1 mile. I’ll be able to walk or run in warm, cozy comfort. And just take a look at the scenery down the corridor.

Maybe from the other direction is a better view …

Oh, that’s so much brighter with less garbage on the floor. So that’s my exercise plan for the winter. Then again, temps in Chicago today in mid-December are forecast to break 40 degrees under bright, sunny skies. And my young daughter is slated to be away from home today. That sounds like a great day for my wife and I to go take a walk together along the beach.

Good times ahead in Winter in Chicago.