I’m wearing jeans that are falling off right now. I wish I could say that’s because I’ve lost the 75 or so pounds I still need to lose. I have not lost all that weight, although I have lost 20 pounds in the last year.

The reason my pants are too big is because of my workout routine, which has made all of my muscles are stronger and more toned than they’ve been in a decade or more.

A few key components have worked together to make these positive changes sustainable.

I first put on weight in my early 40s, and have tried many times over these past 20+ years to find a plan that I could stick with. I’ve tried every diet plan you can think of including the big name ones and many I’ve created myself. I’ve joined gyms, taken classes, bought yoga mats, and attended meetings. Most of the time I would start out strong, maybe lose 10 or more pounds, but then put it back on and more in a few months. …

“No, I don’t want to attend your f***ing zoom party!”

I erased the message, and just hit the “maybe” button instead, knowing full well I wasn’t going to be sitting at the computer, pretending to be happy, tonight, on this New Year’s Eve. The year 2020 was going out with a groan, and I wasn’t even vaguely interested in participating in yet another virtual celebration as if there was anything at all to celebrate anyway.

The chiming clock sounded at 10:30. I decided there was no reason to wait to open the bottle of bubbly I had shipped to me, weeks ago, for this evening. All of the admittedly pathetic plans I had tried to make had fallen apart. The woman I was hoping to start dating didn’t want to risk the drive to my place. My other girlfriends were all completely stuck in the mud and had never been an option. …

On my 65th birthday, I went to Ireland with my family. It was in many ways a wonderful trip, full of fun and time spent with my daughter and grandchildren.

However, it was also, in many ways, a challenging trip.

One of the most challenging things I did on that trip was a climb to the top of Queen Maeve’s tomb. The path was rocky, and often very steep. I was proud of myself when I made it to the top. …

When I was twelve years old my mother talked to me about sexuality. It was a simple conversation, at a level that one could have with a 12-year-old in 1966. I’m fairly certain it was based on the fact that my mom loved to read and had probably recently read the Kinsey Report. One clue is that she described sexuality as being on a continuum. She told me some girls “liked” only boys, some liked only girls, and some were in the middle.

My mom was pretty progressive for the time she lived in. She openly had gay and lesbian friends and gave me a lot of freedom to be myself. I knew as soon as she explained the many choices on that continuum that I was in fact, somewhere in the middle, and I told her so. …

I’m new here and I haven’t made thousands of dollars writing on Medium (yet). I have, however, made a decent living for the past four decades, primarily as a writer. In that time I’ve come to understand the process of writing almost always has some basic similarities, regardless of the platform or audience.

Writing for Medium is different, for example, than writing a grant, and yet in many ways, it’s the same. I’ve written millions of dollars worth of grant proposals and numerous manuals and other educational pieces that have been distributed across the USA. …