A narrative of my journeys with diet, exercise, and various healthcare professionals
I just spent 45 minutes preparing breakfast, lunch, and two snackies for tomorrow. All that food totally fills up my lunch koozie.
It just doesn’t seem right that:
a.) I spend more time thinking about food when I’m trying to lose weight; and
b.) I eat *more* food when I eat healthier than when I just eat.
Holy crap, that’s a lotta food. I think I’m gonna go do a calorie tally on what I ate today, to make sure I’m not off-base.
My back is officially healed from its traumatic bedroom-painting experience, and today is officially six months since I decided to really lose weight.
WTF. *shakes head*
I’m somehow reminded of that Tubthumper song from back in the late 90s: “I get knocked down, and I get up again…” ad infinitum. Sometimes I feel like that’s my diet story this year, except I don’t really get knocked down. I just lose momentum, and stop giving a shit, but then I realize what my apathy has done and I resolve to work even harder. It’s luckily not resulted in a massive yo-yo of weight, but the yo-yo of mental fortitude is damaging enough.
My stats haven’t changed much in the past two months, apart from going back up to 210 and 35.1% bodyfat. Lost a quarter inch in my bust and neck; gained a quarter inch in my chest; gained a half inch in my lower arm; and my waist, hips, thigh and calf stayed the same. I screwed up on measuring my upper arm, because it says I gained an entire inch in the past two months, and there’s no way that can be right. My arm can’t be as big around as my neck. Can it?
I’m embarking once more on the John & Sheryl diet method, shared with me by Sheryl back in… when was it? January. Yes. Back in January. This time, though, I’m setting myself up for success by planning out my entire week of meals in advance. I have my meal plan posted to the fridge, and I intend to spend some quality time each evening preparing my meals for the following day. Protein shakes, fish, chicken, whatever needs preparing and assembling. I think that should help considerably. And when I’m done eating, I’m done eating. No more snacking after my last meal of the day, even if it seems like a healthy snack. Water will have to do.
And since my back is all healed, I’m going to continue with my PUSH workouts again. I was hesitant to do strength training or even cardio when my lower back was all fubar. Now, though, I’m ready to go for it again. Monday, Wednesday and Friday will be my PUSH workout days, and Tuesday and Thursday I’ll go jogging at Wildwood.
*checks weather.com for this week’s outlook*
OK, I might have to come up with some alternate indoor cardio for Thursday. Maybe rebounding (trampolining). But, still, that’s my plan. As always, I’ll be walking at least 30 minutes a day over my lunch. Likely 45 minutes, assuming I get to work on time and don’t have to short my lunch hour.
That’s something else. I’m going to wake up earlier (i.e. not hit the snooze) and get to work on time this week. See, I have up until eight minutes after 8am to technically be “on time” by the timeclock’s rules. I’ve been just missing that by a minute or two, usually clocking in at about 8:10am. So, I have to short my lunch by ten minutes or so in order to get my full eight hours in. This week, I’m not going to let myself be late like that. The idea is to eventually be awake early enough to at least do some morning stretches, and preferably take a walk or jog around the block. That’s not for a while, though. For now… let’s just be on time to work, shall we?
So, this week’s success will be measured by:
I’m also giving myself a non-food reward to look forward to: when I lose five pounds — when I reach 205 — I’m buying myself some clothes. But not until. (I’ve been addicted to mail-order catalogs this spring and summer.)
That’s the plan. And I’ll tell you what, if I don’t lose any weight (or bodyfat) this week, after setting myself up for success as best I can, I will be highly disappointed. But I think I’ll do fine.
I’ll keep you updated.
Today’s follow-up was at 6pm, which gave me time to see Aaron, change clothes and feed the cat before heading back out to see Dr. Sue.
Dr. Sue was a few minutes late, due to her son’s senior pictures running longer (or being more difficult) than expected. She rolled up in her minivan just as I was starting to get a little worried about my appointment. When I realized that she’d driven to the office just for me, I thought that was pretty damn cool. She could have said she couldn’t see me today, and scheduled me for some other time. That was mighty considerate of her, I thought.
The session didn’t take quite as long this time, and she noticed right away that my back must be feeling a lot better than it was. She was right; all weekend, all I had were twinges here and there when I bent the wrong way or tried to take too big of a step. The routine was the same as before: moist heat, cracking the neck and upper back, stretching the lower back, ultrasound therapy, and one last neck crack. That got me to feeling almost normal.
I did ask her about her normal price for a visit, and she said it’s $25. She also said that my insurance probably wouldn’t pay for most of it. I told her that Aaron’s visits with Dr. Smith are mostly paid for by insurance, so hopefully these will be, too. I’m going to take care of my co-pay at my next (and hopefully final) visit on Saturday morning at 10:00, so I’m hoping she actually runs my insurance through, instead of assuming the worst.
My back feels like I worked out a little hard. That’s all. It doesn’t hurt like it did — there’s just some muscular soreness. I’m sure that will go away over the course of this week.
Now I need to get back into my exercise routine. I’ve become adept at finding things to watch on TV for the past week, while I was beached on the couch, nursing my back. I’m itching to get active again — which I would never have expected. I mean, I’ve continued to take my lunchtime walks, but I’ve been missing how I feel after a real workout. I did a few upper body exercises with my resistance bands, and did a few ab exercises. None of those seemed to bother my back, which is good. Maybe tomorrow I can try doing a full-on PUSH workout, and just skip past anything that feels like it might hurt (in a bad way — either my knee or my lower back).
Oh, yeah, did I mention that my right knee felt like shit over the weekend? I have no idea what I did, besides walking funny to favor my back, but my knee hurt like a bitch. When I got up to go to work today, it was perfectly fine. WTF?
I’m taking photos and measurements on July 14, in preparation for a renewed phase of my goddamn weight loss plan. I’m going to do this thing, goddammit. I’m sick of kicking ass, then ceasing to kick ass for whatever bullshit reason, then having to kick ass twice as hard to get back to where I was. This is bullshit, and being forced into being sedentary last week really made me see it. I’m going to lose 20 pounds in 15 weeks. By Halloween (preferably sooner), I intend to weight 190. Or be under 30% bodyfat.
(How many pounds of fat would be 4% of my total weight, assuming I were to gain muscle in the process? I don’t even know how to begin calculating that. How much does 20 pounds of fat weigh? —Never mind. Forget I asked that. *smacks forehead*)
I wonder if I could go jogging again yet?
Had my very first chiropractor visit this evening after work. I declare it a success… if a bit more expensive than Dr. Smith would have been.
I located the building with no problem (apart from irking the guy in the car behind me, who wanted to drive just a little faster). It was, in fact, right across from the Mango Tree restaurant, as promised. Parked the car in the lot behind the building, walked in, and found Dr. Hendricks’ door just inside. I wasn’t prepared for the small receptionist-less waiting room. There was one other man waiting there, and I asked him if I needed to let anyone know I was there. He was friendly, thankfully, and told me that Dr. Hendricks would come out and get me when she was ready. Which she did.
She came out in a polo shirt and shorts. No name tag, no white lab coat, none of that. I told her I was there to see Dr. Hendricks, and she said she was Dr. Hendricks. Casual, low-key, friendly. OK. She gave me paperwork to fill out, then disappeared back behind one of two doors to finish up with her previous patient.
When the patient before me was done, Dr. Sue (as I heard that patient call her) gestured me in. I took off my shirt and put on a back-fastening gown, then laid face-down on the table. She felt along my spine, starting at my neck, all the way down and back up. She identified tense areas I didn’t even know were there — but, once I thought about it, I realized that my neck *does* tend to be a little tense. She mentioned later during the session that it seemed as if this was a long time coming, and the weekend of painting just set my lower back over the edge.
Hopefully I’m not revealing any trade secrets here… She put moist, hot cloths on my neck and lower back, and left them there for a few minutes. Then she took them off my neck and adjusted my neck (that is, gave it a good twist so it popped better than I can ever do). After that, she cracked my upper back — and oooohhhhh, that felt soooo good. I haven’t had a good back-cracking in years. (I figured it might be a good idea not to mention my family’s penchant for back-cracking to the chiropractor, though.)
Then she removed the heat from my lower back and made the back half of the table move around. It was like she was circling my legs around from the hips, stretching out my lower back. That felt pretty good, too. After that, she did ultrasound therapy on my lower back, which felt oddly tingly and was supposed to be loosening and relaxing those muscles. Then she had me flip onto my back so she could properly crack my neck (ohhhh, yeah).
Then I was done. The visit took about a half hour, and I feel much better having done it.
As I was getting ready to leave, I asked her how much I owed her. She said she wasn’t sure, because she didn’t know how my insurance worked. I told her I thought it was an 80-20 thing, so she had me pay her $25, which is much more than Dr. Smith would have cost for a visit. I’m still betting that she just didn’t know how my insurance worked, and that I got overcharged for this visit. No way can she really be three times as expensive as Dr. Smith.
Now, two hours later, my back feels better than it has all week, but still considerably tighter than when I left Dr. Sue’s office.
I have a follow-up appointment on Monday evening at 6pm. I’m looking forward to it.
I really fucked up my back this weekend. Now I know how Aaron felt the few times he messed up his lower back.
I’m still going to work tomorrow, but I’m calling the chiropractor shortly after 9am. Hopefully Dr. Smith can get me in sometime tomorrow. I’d even be willing to take half a day off of work to go get fixed up sooner.
Man. I’m OK as long as I don’t fucking move. As soon as I go to switch position or stand up or whatever, though, my way-lower back hurts like a bitch. I’m not usually one for going to doctors, but I’m definitely going to the chiropractor tomorrow. This is ridiculous.
Update, 7/5/06 12:40pm: Ended up taking the day off of work. Woke up this morning with an improved back, but tired as hell. Called in at 7:30am and told my boss’s voicemail that I screwed up my back painting over the weekend, and that today would be devoted to having quality time with my chiropractor and generally getting better. Promptly went back to bed.
Called the chiropractor’s office at 10:15am. The earliest I’d be able to get in as a new patient would be next week, and that would be with someone other than Dr. Smith, as she’s out of the office. I told the nice receptionist that I’d give it some thought and get back with her. I promptly went upstairs and went back to bed.
My back does feel a little better today. I have plans for maxing and relaxing for a good part of the day, using either the massager or the heating pad on my back to keep it loose. I’m not terribly keen on going to a different chiropractor, as Dr. Smith has been heartily approved by both Aaron and Kris. We’ll see how I feel after today.