Literally.

I try to be understanding and tolerant about that too because I was such a heavy smoker for so many years.  It is actually somewhat embarrassing to know now that I reeked of tobacco smoke without even realizing it but....even with that understanding.....I can't stand the odor of a smoker.  Makes me sick.  Gives me a headache to be near them.   I'm having the conundrum of trying to figure out a polite and tactful way of informing smokers I work with about this problem.

"Damn you reek!", while holding my nose and fanning the air would probably hurt a person's feelings and I don't want to do that.  As I said, I was a smoker too and was oblivious to the smoke cloud of stink that hovered around me through the day.  I can hold my breath, but not for more than a couple of minutes at a time and it makes conversation difficult.

What to do?  What to do?

I'm pretty much coming to the conclusion that I may just have to be up front and direct about the whole thing....like the asshole ex-smokers that I always hated in the past.  Fortunately, it's becoming more and more a smoke-free world every day.

Can't happen soon enough for me. 

A question I've been asking myself for the past few days.  Where am I going?

I guess I've been thinking about this because I zipped past another birthday, number 57.  Three more and I will have to change the title of this blog.  I've never really given much thought to being on the down side of fifty and staring straight at the huge six-oh.  I frankly didn't think I would be alive this long.  I was almost right..and that is another reason that I'm mulling over where I am going with all this fitness and health stuff.

Nearly one year ago I went into the hospital due to increasing chest pains that even my noted denial couldn't ignore any longer.  It was a near total blockage of the left anterior descending artery.  This is called the "widow-maker"...the heart attacks that cause men my age to drop dead on the spot.  If I had not gone in to get it repaired, I probably would not had made it to the end of the month.Scared the shit out of me.  Scared the shit out of my wife.  On top of that problem, it was discovered that I have Type II diabetes and my blood glucose level at the time was dangerously high.

I was a mess.  A walking disaster.  I was also deeply into denial about the warning signals my body was sending to my blissfully ignorant brain.  Yet, there is nothing quite like coming face-to-face with the very real possibility of your own death.  I was sooooooooo lucky.  Even though I had abused my body for years and pissed away countless chances to do something about it; I still had one chance left.  Only one chance though.  Something deep inside told me that it was probably the last one I would get.

So I quit smoking.  Cold turkey and never looked back.  I so wish I had done it decades ago because it was the single most important thing I have ever done for myself.  My wife joined me in that achievement and now we both enjoy the pleasure of not being addicted to those damn cigarettes.  Once I rid myself of smoking, exercise became much more effective.  Diet followed with my giving up lots of junk that I use to regularly shove down my throat day after day.  I learned portions.  I learned to pay attention to carbs, fats, and salt.  I monitor my blood sugar like a hawk.  I found a doctor and see him regularly.

Easy?

Not really.  Dying is pretty easy though.

And I am not going that way....not yet....not for as many more years as I can get.

Another Fine Day

Some People Are Clueless

I like to wear headphones when I work out.  I've a selection of music on my MP3 player that helps me keep up a pace and gives me energy.  Plus, it just makes a session more enjoyable.  When I am playing music through my little earbuds....I'm focused.  I don't care about anything or anybody around me.  I'm centered on the task at hand which is either shooting for that extra mile on the elliptical or another two reps of weight over what I did the last time.  The one thing I do not want to do is have a conversation with some other person in the gym!

It invariably happens that, right when I get into a real good groove with my workout, right when my selected song hits a good spot where I can really push hard....some dumbass comes up to me and starts yammering.  I look up and see their lips moving but can't hear a word, so I yank out the earbuds.  I mean, it could be an emergency; like the gym is on fire or a rich dude is throwing hundred dollar bills around in the lobby.

It's never important.  It's always some type of mundane chit-chat.  "How long ya been working out?  Do you want a spot?  Some weather we're having, eh?"  Crap like that.  Why some people feel an obligation to have conversations with people that have no interest in talking is something I will probably never understand.

Perhaps the tiny earbuds are too subtle...and I need to upgrade to something larger and more obvious.

It Sucks

Discipline

It is the hardest thing about going to a gym.....getting there.  Life just doesn't make it easy for most of us.  There's job, school, weather, gym open/close hours, and even friggin holidays which throw a monkey wrench into a plan of developing a daily exercise routine at the gym.  Then, once at the gym, you have to contend with getting a machine you need or weights that you want to use.  You either stand by waiting while some dillweed does reps for half an hour of almost no weight or asks to cut into your routine to pound out two reps at super high weights...leaving the seat or bench dripping with sweat before wandering off.  There are the ones who stand around visiting with others or yammering on their cell phones.  There are even those who sit at a machine.  Not doing anything....just sitting and staring off into space.  You ask to cut in and they give you a funny look and say "I'm just resting, be through in a minute".

All which conspire to give yourself a reason to, maybe, skip exercise today.  Then the next.  And the next.  And since you missed exercising for a few days, may as well fudge on your diet plan a bit.  In no time at all you discover that you've taken a big dose of fuckitall along with a shot of regret. 

Sticking to an exercise regiment is not easy but I always try to remember something a friend of mine told me about the need of self-discipline for getting and staying in shape.  "If it is important to you, you will find a way.  It it is not, you will find an excuse"

Excuses are easy to find.  Results require effort.

Morning Zen

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Early Bird

I've found out through experience....that if I don't do my exercises first thing in the morning, I will find an excuse to blow it off later in the day.  I'm really good at finding excuses.  It will be too hot, too cold, too dark, too light, too many people at the gym, gym is closed, I'm hungry, I'm full...I can come up with a million excuses, all the while forgetting the reason I wanted to do the exercise in the first place.

I think that's the problem.  A bit of perversion from the biblical verse...the flesh is willing but the mind is weak.  I've discovered that it really helps if I can do exercise before my mind has a chance to think much about it and come up with any objections.  After exercise, with all the good physically induced endorphins flooding my brain, my mind is like "oh hell yeah, wanted to do this all along, do it some more".

I do have stumbles though.  Wednesdays, for example; I have to go to work so early I cannot get a workout in.  It is always a struggle to do it at the end of the day when I am tired and hungry.  

Maybe I could bring a set of dumbbells to my meetings? 

Start of 12 Weeks

Okay....so what's the point in posting an ugly photo of me for the whole world to poke fun at?  It's not masochism or some deep seated desire for public humiliation.  It's really for my own motivation.

You see.....losing weight and getting physically fit is a slow process.  Agonizingly slow.  One good way to gauge progress is to set up time specific challenges such as the one I am starting today.  Another good tactic is to have a before photo to begin the challenge.  So often so many get discouraged when they fail to see dramatic progress...like in the advertisements for diet and exercise crap.  We expect miraculous results and when they don't appear, we say fuckit and give up or move on to the next bright promise.  Having photographic evidence of a transformation proves that it is occurring and can motivate you to continue, no matter how long.  It's also to show that I'm a real person. 

So here is my before photo.  I'm weighing in at 175.4 lbs...the lightest I've been in over twenty years.  We'll see what I look like in October.  Maybe I'll have a tan by then.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Take Your Medicine

When I started this goal of getting physically fit, my intent was mostly toward vanity.  I was very overweight and had become ashamed of how I looked.  There were the ancillary things too....such as being tired all the time, no energy, feeling generally lousy....but the main reason was that I simply wanted to look good without any clothes.  

Health?  meh.....maybe in the back of my mind.  The thing is, I didn't connect my health to exercise.  To me exercise was a way of losing fat.  I felt that if I got the weight off  THEN I would get healthy.  Health was about diet.  Exercise was to lose weight while on a diet.

Then I get the double whammy of a heart attack and diagnosis of Type II diabetes.  The heart was repaired, that was just a matter of fixing the plumbing.  Diet is important for this to prevent future damage.  Diet is important as well in managing the diabetes...but I've discovered that exercise is an absolutely critical aspect in controlling my blood glucose levels.  Daily exercise is every bit as important as the meds that I take every day.  I've also got the benefit with daily exercise of treating my blood pressure, cholesterol, and strengthening my entire cardio/pulmonary system.  

Plus I lose weight and get muscle.  Win - Win

Don't think of exercise as a chore you have to do....like shaving or doing the laundry.  Exercise is something that you do for yourself, to treat yourself....to make you feel better.  Look at exercise as a much needed medication in which you cannot afford to miss a single dose.    

You Want It?

One of the really crappy things about getting older is that the body is slower to respond to exercise.  When you are young, you can whip yourself into great shape just by walking to the fridge for beer and dip.  Fast forward 20, 30, or more years...and it seems that you gain weight just by looking at food, regardless of all the workouts you are doing.  It's probably not that bad, but it seems like it and it is a major reason why so many get discouraged.  I mean; spend weeks and months busting a gut to get rid of your gut and see very little change or, sometimes, even more weight....and it's understandable why so many say fuckit and give up.

The thing is, the body changes as it ages (duh).  A big part of that change is not the gray hair or the wrinkles but the way the body processes fuel....aka food.  When you are young, the body can burn anything you put into it with great efficiency.  Hamburgers, fries, burritos, ice cream, pork rinds...hell, you could probably digest plastic.  Add a few years though and the machinery starts to gum up and slow down.  A fifty year old can't eat like a twenty year old without looking like Jabba the Hutt.  It's sad and sometimes it makes me mad; but there it is.  Getting old is not for sissies.  Getting fit when you are old takes more than working your ass off in the gym.  You have to change the way you have been eating most of your life.   

I guess the big question is....how bad do you want it?

Next Level

Wednesday Cat Blogging

I'm Feeling Great....Really

Okay now....I have huge bruises on my hip, arm, knee, and back.  My ribs ache.  I can barely walk a straight line.  And it hurts to do much moving around, not to mention even stand up.

But I'm happy.

Why?

Because I've done these things to myself to get healthy.  I will heal...eventually....and will be stronger afterwards.  Pain just reminds us that we are alive.  

Too Nice Outside for the Gym

Bike Helmets are Dorky

I was resistant to the idea of getting a bicycle helmet.  It just seemed a bit ridiculous to me.  After all, when I was a kid, I rode my bike everywhere and never had a serious injury.  Oh sure....I'd take a spill every once in a while and maybe scrape my knee or elbow, but that was never any big deal.  Just rub some dirt on it and keep going.  

Besides; bicycle helmets look....well....stupid.  They usually come in bright florescent colors and are shaped as if they would fit some alien's skull.  Nothing says "dork" like wearing one of these things, so I pretty much made up my mind I wasn't going to mess with getting one for myself.

Until I took a spill off my bike.

And another.

And another.

And I was getting really bloodied and bruised.  

I was starting to think to myself "that old saying about once you learn how to ride a bike you never forget is a bunch of shit" but realized that I still knew how to ride a bike, I just wasn't as pliable as I was 40-50 years ago.  The bones and joints are not as flexible.  I have a lot more mass.  I don't heal as fast.  Plus, I really ought to have a bit more sense than when I was an eight year old.  At that age I more or less thought I was immortal and indestructible.  Now I know better and know how fragile body parts can be, especially the head.  I can't afford to lose anything....most specifically what little I have in my skull.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

New Toy

It's not fancy.  In fact, it's just something grabbed off the floor at KMart.  It's not high tech super duper costing a grand or two....but it's grand to me and it does the job.

I've never really understood why people would spend so much money on a bike.  When I was shopping around for one, the prices started at seven or eight hundred dollars.  Shhhheeeeeeeet.  It's a bicycle for crying out loud!  I would no more pay hundreds of dollars for a bike than I would pay hundreds of dollars for a pair of shoes.  It's not only a matter of my well known cheapness; I don't have that kind of cash laying around to spend on whatever I want.  My wife would give me a severe ass whoopin if I spent a paycheck or two on what is basically a toy.

So I get this, and I like it.  Works great.  I'm not going to enter any races.  I'm just wanting to get a bit of exercise and was getting tired of the treadmill.  Plus....I can go down some bike trail paths in the woods.  It's really cool (literally and figuratively) early in the morning.  Maybe I'll take some photos sometime.

Cry Baby

I got myself a brand new bicycle.  I wanted one for outdoor exercising...specifically for the miles of great trails close to my home.  Jogging hurts my creaky old joints so biking is my solution.  Doing cardio in the gym week after week, especially when the weather is great, is a bore.

Anyway, I took the bike out for its maiden spin this afternoon.  It really is true that you never forget how to ride a bike; however, it evidently is possible to forget how stupid some automobile drivers can be and are sometimes so wrapped up in talking on their cell phone they are oblivious to anything or anybody else.

One such idiot was weaving down the road yakking on her cell phone forcing me to jump a curb and scrape the shit out of my leg.  Okay....it's not a big wound, not even worth a bandaid....but it fucking hurts.  I don't think this is what is meant by that no pain no gain saying.

A Double Dog Dare

I've got a page over at Facebook called getF.I.T. It was started up by myself and a friend of mine, Boyd.  Both of us have pretty much drifted off from doing anything with it....life happens.  Anyway, I decided to revive the place and see if I can bring it back to life.

Pull My Finger

It has to be the oldest joke.  It most likely is one of the first that we experience.  By the time we are able to walk and talk and grab stuff, some wit will point and say "hey, pull my finger".  The youngster gets a delightful and magical surprise.  The alleged adult gets the satisfaction of passing on a tradition to yet another generation.

Everybody loves this.

Right?

Well....I guess not.  My  wife, for instance, refuses to pull my finger when I offer it to her.  I can't really do this at work since my staff would file harassment charges against me.  My friends may go along, but then they would have to try and top me and some of those guys can really let loose hideously raunchy stink-bombs.  My grandchildren, who would probably really think this was cool, live far away.

I am reduced to self pulling.  A flatulence masturbation so to speak.

Hope I don't go blind.

Don't Be Cruel

I mean....WTF?  Really?  A group of women go to the gym and, rather than do something wild and weird like, oh, I dunno, exercise...they clump together yakking it up.  Besides the irritating point that they were IN THE WAY of others trying to get at machines or weights; their conversation tended to be about other people in the gym.

Now, normally, people talking around me doesn't bother me.  I'm fairly deaf and with my music, I can drown out everything.  Yet their conversation caught my ear and, like driving past a horrible car wreck, couldn't stop myself.  Here are some snippets I overheard.

"Look at that whale on the treadmill.  Gawd, you can hear her legs pounding all the way over here".

"Yeah, them monster boobs must hurt flying up and down like that."

"Check out the fat guy with a cane.  Jesus!  He can barely move his lard ass."

"I don't know why these blobs bother coming here every morning.  Really turns my stomach to look at their huge stomachs."

"ha ha ha ha ha"

.....and on and fucking on. 

The one major difference between these assholes and the people that they were making fun of is that the people they were making fun of were actually working out.  The assholes did what assholes do....just hang around and stink up the place every now and then.

The gym is the place to go to GET fit, not to show everybody how fit you are.  Making fun of fat people at a gym is like going to a hospital and making fun of sick people.  I know a lot of people (myself included) that struggle with the low self esteem of being badly out of shape.  A major difficulty is overcoming that enough to get ourselves into a gym and start doing something about our bodies.  I've personally found that most people do not even notice if you are fat or out of shape because they are focused on their own training.  The few who might are supportive because you are there doing something about it....it's a common cause.  I belong to the YMCA.  It's a Christian organization but I'm an atheist.  They don't care...because it's all about having a place to get and be healthy.  The only membership requirement is to pay your dues.  Fat people are welcome.  This is where you belong!  

Next time you see a new person, one who obviously has not even thought about exercise in decades...smile at her or him.  It takes a lot to take that first step.  We all have taken it.  Aren't you glad nobody tripped you to amuse themselves?

Keep your heart true.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Vacation?

I hate vacations.  Really.

Oh....I love the time off, being able to relax, getting away from the daily grind, and all that other stuff of being off work for a few days; but it's a real pain in the ass to return to the office.  Paperwork doesn't stop and it just piles up waiting for me.  

I need another vacation.

Just Picking & Grinning

For now....but will be back soon.

Who Wears Short Shorts

I've generally avoided wearing shorts for the last few decades.  Mainly because of the pasty whiteness of my legs with highlights of scars from past misadventures, which nobody wants to see.  Also there was the unappealing look of scrawny legs topped off by a overhanging gut, which nobody wants to see either.  However; with the toning I'm getting in my legs and the increasingly hot weather that makes wearing sweat pants stupid, I'm needing to get myself into some shorts again.

Now...remember....I haven't really worn any shorts since Reagan was president so styles have changed.  My shorts of choice were just an old pair of jeans with the legs cut off.  I quit wearing those when informed that they are extremely "gay".  I didn't really care about that, but I was also told that they are extremely out of fashion and a man who wears them is considered to be a doofus and laughed at by the public at large.  So, not only would others at the gym consider me to be gay, but I wouldn't even be able to catch the eye of any gay guys because of my fashion dorkiness.  My insecurities can handle only so much abuse.

Younger guys these days wear baggy-ass shorts that seem to go down to their ankles and I can't see much point.  May as well just wear pants.  I tried looking for some workout shorts but there seems to be a conspiracy against having pockets....couldn't find any.  I got a couple of pair of nice cotton shorts but, without pockets, I had to carry a bag around like a little purse with my wallet, keys, MP 3 player, a card saying that I'm a diabetic so that if I start acting like I'm drunk call an ambulance rather than just throw me out....all the little things I need in my daily trek to the gym.  Big pain in the ass.

Then I found cargo shorts (heavenly music in the background).  These are great.  They come down to around my knees.  Comfy as all get out.  And pockets all over the freaking place!  I can't believe I had gone this long without trying on a pair.  I may even wear these things to work.

I have camouflage colored so that I can sneak through like a ninja.

Leg Day

I finally am starting to wear shorts to work out in the gym.  The weather's getting warmer so I'm not freezing in the morning though I still have the pasty white skin from a long winter.  I'm also noticing that my legs are more muscular thanks to all the months of leg exercise days.

But I don't like them.  Leg days, that is.

It's boring!  For males, working out the legs is nowhere near as satisfying as exercising the chest and arms.  I can do an intense upper body workout and feel invigorated by the soreness afterward.  With lower body..I just feel sore.

But I know it's important.  So I do it.  I can't go back to chicken legs.

Guaranteed Smoking Cessation Method

I'm thinking about writing a book filled with cutting edge techniques and advice on how to quit smoking.  I hope to make a load of money because I've discovered an absolutely sure way to quit tobacco use.  Not only are results guaranteed but the effects are immediate and very inexpensive.  I'm basing it on all the things I've learned with my success in completely giving up tobacco and nicotine after 40 years as a smoker.  

Slim book.  One page.  One sentence.

Stop smoking!

What's that?  You wanted something complicated?  Something magical?  Maybe a pill or complex system that would make the withdrawal easy?

Sorry.  The best and only way to stop smoking is to just stop smoking....cold turkey.  Yeah, it's uncomfortable for a few days but it gets easier.  It also works.  If you are considering quitting and using patches, gum, lozenges, or even vaping; you are really only fooling yourself.  That is the hard gained lesson I had to learn, and it took a heart attack and hospitalization to teach it to me.  

Quit.  Really....just quit.  You know it's the only way.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Some Motivation Required

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Snacking

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Snake Oil

The Joy of Diabetes

                                           
There is nothing like having to stab yourself and bleed several times a day.  Here I give some helpful tips on how you too can experience the wonders of a diabetic lifestyle.

Getting More Strength

Well okay....I've just about finished my first case of Full Strength and I have to say that I am very pleased with the product.  Now, I'm not claiming that I popped out in muscles just by drinking one of the shakes every day.  I got the muscles through a lot of workouts in the gym.  What the Full Strength did give me is good nutrition that was easy to fit into my busy day AND satisfied me so that I wouldn't get hungry after an hour or so and stuff my face with a bunch of crap.

It helped.  This is good stuff, I just can't say that often enough.  I'm ordering more before I run out.

....and getting some chocolate this time...

Warm for Form

There were two very different type of people at the gym this morning.  One was a dude that appeared to load massive amounts of weights and almost bust a gut doing one or two reps before moving on to something else.  Basically, wandering all over the gym trying a little of this and a little of that, but not really having any plan.  The other was a rather smallish woman who was doing multiple reps, increasing the weight a bit with each set, and maintaining absolutely impeccable form.

Guess which one was making better use of their time?  Guess which one is, pound for pound, much stronger?

I think the woman may have thought I was ogling her but I was actually just studying what she was doing...because I wanted to copy for myself.  I was paying very close attention to how she was lifting.  I would hire her as a personal trainer because she evidently knew what she was doing.

The dude may have thought I was trying to hit on him since I was smiling when watching him too.

Why The Gym?

That's what I was asking this morning while I was trying to get in my upper body workout at the YMCA.  Actually I was asking myself silently in my mind but directing it, along with my best WTF glare, at several guys sitting on the machines.  Not doing anything.  Just sitting...talking....on their cell phone....looking at the birds through the windows....hell, just about anything but actually using the machines.  Oh, I ask to work in and they were at least courteous enough to allow that but...jeeze...I really shouldn't have to ask some asshat to move his butt off of every single machine so that I can do weird things at the gym, like exercise.  Even the free weight area was crowded with guys just milling around and mostly yakking on their phones.  One laid his right by my feet while I was doing curls and I was sorely tempted to have a little oopsey and drop a dumbell on the thing.

This is what confuses me.  Why go to the gym just to socialize?  Seems that it would be a better venue to go to a coffee shop or something.  At least there you don't have to pay for a membership, just buy some crappy overpriced coffee and maybe some pastry with an unpronounceable name.  The point is, at a coffee shop they could sit on their butts and yammer till the cows came home.  They would still have about the same risk of breaking out in a sweat.

At the gym, they are in the way.  Shoo.  Shut yer pie holes.  Bodies under construction.

Got Strength?

I took the plunge and bought a case of Full Strength.  It's a nutrition shake specifically designed for men and particularly good for (ahem) more seasoned men.  It was a bit of a difficult plunge because, as most people who know me know, I'm picky about how I spend my money.  Full Strength is pricey.  Including shipping costs, this stuff comes out to about $5 a serving.  That's not outrageous for a nutritious and satisfying meal...but if it turned out to be just another BS product that sits on my shelf, then I would be annoyed and my wife would be more so for wasting money AND kitchen space.  So I had to be careful.  Had to make sure this was something that I really wanted and something that would really be beneficial for me.

I've tried Full Strength before and liked it.  It's probably the only nutrition shake that I've ever had that didn't taste like some chemical cocktail mixed in a dirty sock.  This stuff is actually pretty tasty.  The nutrients it has is ideal.  Also, it is put out by Shawn Phillips, who is a no-nonsense straight-talking fitness guru that I trust.  There was a slight problem when I tried to order a case and they were out of chocolate.  Evidently, they only make this stuff in small batches and it's not stockpiled somewhere in a warehouse for several years...which is good.  Still, I didn't know if I would like the vanilla flavor (they only make it in the two flavors).

The primary reason I need a shake to replace a meal is due to my job.  I don't get an official lunch break, I just eat when I can where I can.  Most times that means at my desk.  More times than not, it means that I don't have enough time all at once to eat a decent meal.  The nutrition shake is my answer.  I can mix it up and drink it down in a few minutes...but there are some requirements that I need for that; it has to be something that will satisfy me because I don't want to be hungry again in an hour or so, it has to taste good so that I will actually look forward to drinking it rather than holding my nose and gulping it down, and it has to mix well in a shaker bottle since I rarely carry a blender in my shirt pocket.

The Full Strength met those requirements.  Some time ago I had done a taste test on the shakes and thought they were great but I had only tried the chocolate at work in the shaker bottle.  Would the vanilla taste okay shaking it by hand at work?  Should I risk getting a whole case of something that I'm not absolutely sure will work for me?

Fortunately, there was an answer.  Full Strength and Shawn Phillips will offer free samples.  You pay for shipping but that's reasonable....can't expect a company to give out freebies to any yahoo who asks for it and stay in business for very long.  Paying shipping makes you put some skin in the game.  They only give out so many samples a day so, if you don't make it one day, try again the next.  Anyway, I sent off for a sample so that I could try the vanilla at work.  Needless to say it met all my expectations and I am now a confirmed customer.

I usually don't shill for products, but this is a really good one.  Check out the web page.  Check out Shawn Phillips.  Get a sample and try this stuff yourself.  You won't regret it.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Hauling Ass

It's one of my pet peeves.

 Yeah...I know...I have a bunch of them, but this peeve really peeves me more than usual.  They are in stores all the time.  Huge fat people using the store-provided scooters to navigate down aisles loading up on food.  Now, I really am not one to judge others, and I completely understand that some physical disabilities are not always obvious...but c'mon....these folks are using the scooters because they are fat and too damn lazy to waddle around the store to pick up their supply of Cheetos and Mountain Dew.

Don't get me wrong.  Being a few hundred pounds overweight is definitely a disability.  I would imagine that even taking a few steps for some of these people would be flirting with heart attack or stroke, and I'm not against people using the scooters who just are not as fortunate as me in being able to walk around during the day.  What it is that really burns my grits are those who use the scooter to load up on all the types of food that most likely got them into the shape they are in to need the scooter in the first place.  It's just a lack of personal responsibility.

For example.....

I have type 2 diabetes.  The reason I have it is because of a lot of bad health choices over many years.  I could have avoided it but I chose to be in denial until it hit me in the face and I couldn't hide from the facts anymore.  From that point, I could have gone in two directions.  In one, I could have continued doing what I was doing, continue with the denial, take medications to treat the diabetes as well as the host of other physical ailments that would have followed, and complained about poor little me having a disability.  In the other, I can accept responsibility.  I couldn't do anything to change what I have already done to my body, but I can damn well control how I take care of it in the future.  That required changing some things....what to eat, what not to eat, stop smoking, exercise, exercise, and more exercise

And that's the same with morbidly obese people.  I'm not blaming them for being fat.  There really is no point in that.  What I do blame them for is STAYING fat.  If I see a really fat guy at the gym, I don't sneer and ask them what the hell they are doing there.  I know why they are there.  They want to change.  I respect the hell out of that because everybody at the gym is there for the exact same reason.  If I see a fat person on a scooter in the store picking out veggies, fruit, and lean foodstuffs....I think it's great and I will really admire them for wanting to change.

I see a fat person straining the load limits of a scooter while piling their basket up on Twinkies and day old donuts....I might sneer, but I'll probably thank the heavens that nobody I care about has their short unhappy life.  I'll feel sorry for them and hope they want to change before it's too late to change.

Experts

Diet and nutrition "experts" are all full of shit. Half of them say certain foods are just what you need to be healthy, while the other half say those same foods will kill you.  I am so sick and tired of reading about this hot food item that will burn fat and build muscle, or that other food that will probably give you nose warts and double your weight overnight.  The really irritating thing is that supposedly good and bad foods will switch places every week or more. 

It's all crap.  These so-called experts fall into two camps; the super-duper body sculpted winners of the genetic pool who could live off of Doritos and Mountain Dew and still look amazing...and fat slobs that gladly take money off of people desperately trying to understand just what the hell to eat to be healthy.  Neither care.  It's all bullshit, all of it.

What I'm doing is simple and basic.  See...I have a theory that we really do instinctively know what is good for us and what is bad.  I think the problem has come with us not listening to our bodies any more.  So that's what I'm doing.  Listening.  Hearing my mother's voice in telling me what is good and what is junk.  Mom knows.  She always knows.  Eat your veggies.  Only one cookie or you'll spoil your dinner.  Clean your plate because there are poor children in China that would love to have your scraps.

Not sure what the last piece of advice has to do with anything....but the voices of my parents that I hear in my head are a package deal and I can't filter out the weirder stuff.

Now I Only Need The Sex and Rock 'n Roll

I've got the drugs.  Lots of them.  Drugs to lower my blood sugar.  Drugs if it gets too low.  Drugs for my heart, my blood pressure, my cholesterol.  Drugs to thin my blood and sooth my tummy.  A special itty bitty drug to take if I ever get that frightening tightness in my chest again.

None of them give me a buzz.  They cost a lot of money and some of the side effects are bothersome.  However; I guess one side effect of not taking them is dying...which kind of sucks, so I take them.  Several times a day.  I was the type of person that didn't do pills.  Never even liked taking an aspirin.

Those days are gone forever.

I'm Back!

Good lord...it's been a while.  The last time I posted was way back during Halloween.  Now that is gone along with Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, and even the Super Bowl.

Time flies.

I am healthier than I was last October though.  I've been eating properly and have gotten into the habit of exercising daily.  Still have diabetes...which sucks...but I suppose that if it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have near the motivation to take better care of my body.  A Pyrrhic trade off maybe.  Who knows?  Anyway, the photo above signals the beginning of a 12-week Body for Life Challenge.  I finally mustered the courage to download the photos.  I've kept the really revealing ones to myself for right now, but it's not as horrible as it has been in the past.  Since my heart attack, I've lost about 15 lbs and have kept it off.

AND I AM STILL COMPLETELY NICOTINE FREE!

All in all...starting off this year better than many others.

My Halloween Schedule

Before sundown with all the cute little kids ....top shelf candy, the good stuff. Hershey bars, Reese's cups, Snickers, tootsie pops, etc.

After dark with somewhat older kids but still dressing in costume ....anything left from the first round and adding the cheap crap I still have left over from last year.

After 8 pm with teens looking for free food and if they wore a costume it would be an improvement over their raggedy hoodies and droopy jeans ....the pop-tarts in the trunk of my car with a best-if-used-by date of three years ago.

After 9 pm I will be emptying out the contents of my cat's litter box.


Anybody knocks on my door after 10 pm gets a special treat.

 

 

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Twisted TV Throwback

Andy had momentarily forgotten that Helen wasn't at church this morning.

Be Weird Friday

Why "be weird Friday"?  Why not?  Friday is the day that I celebrate the precious freedom that we all have but rarely exercise...being weird.

I think it's a real problem.  Not being weird.....but the fact that so few dare to embrace weirdness.

When you were a kid, being weird came naturally.  It was called having fun.  Laughing at silliness.  Laughing at yourself.  Somewhere along the line we became so self absorbed, so self conscious, that we lost the urge to just be goofy for goofy's sake.  We became adults.  We got serious.  We grow old but, more tragically and unnecessarily, we act old.

When's the last time you were weird?  Would you dance in a pink tutu?

Celebrate weirdness.  Do something to make others laugh and you'll probably make yourself laugh as well.

And isn't that a great way to end any week?

Choices

I'm a busy guy.  I work all week in a demanding job.  Up early in the morning and going all day.  I don't have time to exercise....not today....maybe tomorrow...if I have time.

Then WHAM...in a hospital bed.  Can't even go to the bathroom without nurse assistance.  And, as I lay there in that bed with tubes and needles and wires; I think about how suddenly un-busy my days have become.

If I had exercised regularly beforehand, chances are I wouldn't have had to spend the time in the hospital.  Maybe or maybe not...who can say?  One thing that I do know is...I would much rather spend an hour in a gym than five minutes in a hospital.  Exercise may just minimize future hospitalizations.  Certainly worth an hour of my attention.

Twisted TV Throwback

Dr. McCoy never talked about why he always hated using the transporter.

Be Weird Friday

Running With the Old Dogs

The cardiac rehab I'm going to three times a week is something quite unique.  It's in a gym that's pretty much like any other gym with only a few differences.  The primary difference is that it has a crash cart available just in case somebody's ticker gives out while on the recumbent bike.  Of course, everybody is wired up to monitor their heartbeat and, every once in a while, you'll see the nurses run around to find somebody whose wire has slipped to make sure they didn't flatline.   But all in all, it is just a gym...with the exception that most of the people using this gym are, shall we say, seasoned citizens.

And that's really good for me because it means there is no intimation factor going on.  Nobody is showing off in the mirrors and nobody is trying to pick up a date or impress anybody else.  Everybody is working on their particular workout plan.  We are all there pretty much for the same reason....we want to get more fit so that we can live a few more years.

Though there is no real intimidation, there is still some things that irk me once in a while.  For example; every workout session usually starts with a brisk walk around the track for a few laps.  I usually begin at a pretty good pace and am counting how many times I'm going around the track and what machines I will be getting on afterwards.  Then.....out of nowhere....some really old dude all hunched over goes shuffling by me like I'm barely moving.  A couple of minutes later, he laps me again.  "Really?  Damn Grandpa, where are you getting your energy?"

Proof positive that age and fitness are not correlating values.  Also proof that I am way, way out of shape if I can get showed up in a gym by Methuselah.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

You Are an Inconsiderate Asshole

I'm not hating....I was one too.  Nearly a month of being a non-smoker has really opened my eyes to just how disgusting the habit is to those who don't smoke.  It has also opened my eyes to how smokers are blind to these offenses.

Cigarette smoke stinks.  There is just no way around this and the aroma hangs around a smoker like a fog.  As well, five minutes in proximity with a smoker leaves you with the same odor.  Smokers are immune to this because they are use to the smell.  It's kind of like being in a feedlot....initially the powerful smell of manure knocks you back on your heels, but after a while, your nasal passages get overloaded and don't register the stench anymore.  This phenomenon causes smokers to assume that nobody else can smell their cigarette smoke either, so they happily puff great clouds, usually right in your face. Nice folks who would be mortified if they publicly let loose with a fart that could curl paint give no thought to blowing out toxic pollution from their mouths.

"Do you mind if I smoke?" say the ever polite smoker who doesn't really expect an answer to the question.

"Hell yes!" I reply.

That response usually gets me sneers and grumbles as if I was impinging on their right to stink.   I guess that makes me the one who is an inconsiderate asshole.

Wednesday Cat Blogging

Rehab

This was my first day in cardiac rehabilitation.  It's an exercise center run by the hospital staffed by nurses for heart patients.  The idea is to do cardio to help heal and repair whatever damage you may have with your heart or circulatory system.  They wire you up and monitor you closely....I guess in case you seize up on them or something.  It's a pretty nice place, very modern with lots of state-of-the-art equipment, and it is also populated entirely by older people.

Intimidation factor here?  Zero.

Some of these guys though....really can punch out a workout.