Too Much Partying

Gary at age 30 and about forty pounds lighter.
The long hair and beard did not weigh much.

I made a bad mistake this morning. I got on the scales. Over the past two weeks I have gained five pounds. That is not a good thing.

The photo is the Sweeten Family of Tim, Karen, Gary and Julia plus Aaron Bates.

I do love to party but even that must be done in moderation. As a wise man once said, "A second on the lips but forever on the hips."


My daughter Julia put up a special blog for my 70Th birthday. It is great. http://happybirthdaygary.wordpress.com/ Many of my friends from around the globe wrote nice, affirming comments on it. I do appreciate all those good memories. Thanks for leaving out all the bad memories of my weight gains and bad moods. They had a lot of grace in them.


It had also several old time photos of me, my parents, siblings and nuclear family. One of the photos shows my mother with a very small waist line. When we looked at it we were shocked. Mother fought her weight my entire lifetime to the best of my memory and I have waged an often losing battle with candy and ice cream as well.


Habits are hard to break. Why? because we like the behavior but dislike the results. I love to eat, especially with my family and friends. When we get together we laugh, tell stories and tease everyone. But, the longer it goes the more we eat. And, you know what that leads to.


Over the past few months we have celebrated the birthdays of Julia, Lily, Timothy, Gary, Hazel and the United States of America. We also celebrated Mother's Day and Father's Day along with the anniversary of son Tim and wife Shelley. In a few weeks we travel to Maryland for Th 50Th anniversary of my brother and sister in law and the anniversary of daughter Julia's handy husband Dave.

I am amazed I have gained only five pounds.