I gained a pound this week. The main thing that has changed is that I started going to the gym again. My appetite has increased because of it. I need to watch it.

I’ve been lifting weights off and on for 30 years or so. I generally lift religiously for several years, then get burned out and lay off for a few years and then go back again. My t-shirt says 3rd Annual Big Island Push Pull Championship. October 8, 2000. Hilo, Hawaii. Wow, six-and-a-half years ago.

When I was younger, I would sneak back to the gym at 5:30 in the morning after not going for awhile. My brother Kenneth would tease me by saying: “That was you, eh? With the plastic nose and bushy eyebrows, training in secret?”

We teased each other because sometimes he was out of shape and at other times it was me who was out of shape. I would train early in the morning until I got back in respectable form to lift with the strong guys in the evenings.

The guys in the evening would say, “Long time no see. Still strong, eh? You just started back?” “Oh yeah,” I would say. That was after maybe four months of sneaking into the gym and training early to get back in shape.

Now, at 62, I don’t have those issues of “attitude.” It’s humorous to think about now.

I’ve got a long way back. But I feel good and can’t think of any reason I can’t get all the way back. We’ll see what happens.