Next week I resume normal activities after undergoing a GreenLight laser procedure five weeks ago.

Just prior to the procedure, my resting heart rate was in the mid- to high-50 beats per minute. Two weeks afterward, when I was instructed to just rest, my resting heart rate climbed into the mid-60s.

When I’m out of shape it’s in the mid-70s. When I’m exercising sporadically, it’s in the 60s. And when I’m in good shape it’s in the mid-50’s. That’s where I want it to be all the time.

I resumed light exercise two weeks ago and my resting heart rate is now in the low-60s. I expect to be in the 50s soon.

My hard-to-achieve goal is to drop into the 40s. But this will take intense short intervals of high heart rate training. My general rule is that when I’m running at a pace where I need to take a breath on every step, I’m close to 160 beats per minute. And I will need to do maybe three or four short intervals at this rate to get my heart rate below 50 beats per minute.

In the three weeks after the procedure, I gained five pounds. At my present weight of 202.7 pounds, I’m still up two pounds. But I hope to lose that in a few weeks.

Since we started eating more vegetables a few months ago, we’ve started grilling vegetables. I didn’t realize how tasty vegetables such as corn, eggplant, squash and tomatoes are when grilled with olive oil. In fact, that’s what we’re going to do right now.

When June and I went to visit our friend Judy in Santa Maria, we experienced how their social lives revolved around grilling. We had a nice relaxing time. We’re thinking about how we can redesign our lives to do more of that.