I just entered the preretirement age, a beautiful time. I need to regain strength and endurance so I can be fit and healthy when my husband retires in 20 years. He wants to share walks on the rocky Alaska beach outside our home.

I ascribe to the hormonal theory of obesity, which I learned about on this site a few years ago. I am happy to be back and plan to use the phone app for logging meals and tracking my progress.

“When you go out into the woods, and you look at trees, you see all these different trees. And some of them are bent, and some of them are straight, and some of them are evergreens, and some of them are whatever. And you look at the tree and you allow it. You see why it is the way it is. You sort of understand that it didn’t get enough light, and so it turned that way. And you don’t get all emotional about it. You just allow it. You appreciate the tree.

The minute you get near humans, you lose all that. And you are constantly saying ‘You are too this, or I’m too this.’ That judgment mind comes in. And so I practice turning people into trees. Which means appreciating them just the way they are.”

~ Ram Dass