Category: health

Diet

One of my Google+ readers was asking me about my diet habits. First, I hate the word diet. I get so tired of people going on and on about every fad diet in the world they’re on..and not sticking to it. Often times, people who “diet” ignore the fact they didn’t gain weight overnight, so losing it ain’t gonna happen that way either.

I don’t diet. Instead, I try to maintain a sense of balance in my eating and my workouts. I fluctuate between a 32 & 33 inch waist. Luckily, I love the natural flavors of most foods. I don’t need lots of heavy sauces. Said sauces often drastically up the fat content of your meal. I also don’t count fat, carbs, protein, etc. I just try to keep the bad stuff to a minimum and the good stuff as a priority. Trans fats and HFCS are evil and should be avoided completely. [1]It doesn’t help that practically EVERYTHING has HFCS in it these days. Protein & veggies should be a priority and depending on which study you pay attention to, carbs can act as filler. When I’m on a heavy weight routine at the gym, protein is the dominant food group with green veggies as prominent sides. Carbs come in heavy after workouts when they’re most needed.

If you have the time (or are willing to make the time) you can break your meals up into 4-5 smaller meals. A meal could be a large healthy snack so it’s not like you are eating a full plate every time. Your highest fat consumption should come early in the day and taper off toward your last meal. My pre-bedtime snacks are usually scrambled or boiled eggs or protein shakes. I also love popcorn. I make it the old-school way in a pot. Instead of butter or vegetable oil, I use olive oil.

I don’t rely on my eating habits alone either. If I find I’ve been eating too much, I up my cardio at the gym. Right now, having gained a few extra pounds from when the boys were visiting, I’m working cardio in every 3rd day. I’ve dropped 10lbs in just 2 weeks. My point is you don’t have to be a food nazi to keep a waistline. If your shooting for that ripped look, unless genetics is on your side, your gonna have to be dedicated in the gym and in your eating habits.

Don’t get me wrong I don’t eat perfect. As you can tell, I don’t watch everything that goes in my mouth. As mentioned, I try for a nice balance. I have my splurges but they are intentional and keep me from feeling deprived. Small indulgences go a long way to help prevent hardcore binges IMHO. [2]I love Popeye’s and Taco Bell, always will…just not every day/week! I have never been a heavy sweets person so that part is relatively easy.

References

References
↑1 It doesn’t help that practically EVERYTHING has HFCS in it these days.
↑2 I love Popeye’s and Taco Bell, always will…just not every day/week!

Crave

I had a weird craving for some pecan pie lately. Don’t ask me why, I just did. Anyway, we happen to have the little mini’s in our vending machine at work. I made the mistake of having one. It was absolutely awful! The only thing that compared to the real thing was the sweetness. I guess I should have expected that. lol The crust was dry, the filling was overly thick, and the pecans didn’t really taste like pecans at all.

I guess the only way to get my fill is to just break down and make one. I absolutely love pecan pies. Being from the South, I guess that is a given. I don’t know what the hell possessed me to think I could get it out of a machine. lol

Now, if I can just get Whataburger to open a restaurant in SF, my life would be complete!

Medic!

I’ve had to put my EMT skills to use quite a bit lately. Over the last couple months I’ve run into situations where my help was needed. A few times a the gym and a couple times just random occurrences.

It’s a good thing since I currently can’t afford to miss a day of work to ride on the ambulance. I used to try and ride at least once a month. Right now money is tight so I gotsta work. It’s funny how you just slip into that mode, so to speak. One guy sees me all the time at the gym and we’ve exchanged ‘hellos’ a couple times. He had a near-syncope (fainting) and needed to be evaluated.

My little brother thinks I’m Marcus Welby MD now. Every time he has an issue or needs to see a doctor he calls me to confirm everything. I’ve told him several times my training is limited but it still seems to make him feel better. Sadly, he was diagnosed with kidney stones recently. He was in so much pain he was blowing up my phone every day complaining. I’m like, ‘what do you want me to do? You drink soda like crazy, you eat horribly. It is no wonder you got kidney stones.‘ He is supposed to go back this week to get treated. Hopefully, they’ll get everything. I can only imagine the pain. OY!

Better

I had originally planned to post this last week but considering things, it didn’t happen. I’m not quite back to my svelte self from about a year ago but I’m getting there. lol As much as I hate cardio, I’ve been trying to add it to my workout routine on a consistent basis. Not to mention, I’ve been hitting the gym pretty regular as well. It took me a while to recover from the last motorcycle accident. The bone healed up nicely but the rotator and surrounding soft tissues took months to completely heal up. It drove me nuts because I hated not being able to push myself during my workouts.

While I’m over the 200 lb mark, some of that being body-fat doesn’t count. lol I’d like to lean up by another 10-15lbs. I’m still hoping to put a couple inches on my chest, arms, and legs. Once I do that, I’ll have reached my life goal and just focus on maintaining.

Wish me luck!


Doggie Update

Thanks to everyone who wrote in about Spike and sent good wishes. As mentioned, he’s home and we are trying to keep him comfy. Overall, he’s doing ok.  I’m cautiously optimistic. This last week has been emotionally rough on both Apple guy and myself. Him more so than me I’m sure. Spike’s been in his life a lot longer and they’ve been thru a lot together.

Our biggest concern was Spike’s hacking cough. The Opiate based pain pills the Veterinarian prescribed seemed to be suppressing it so far. We have him on low doses at the moment and I’ve only heard him cough a couple times. Keep your fingers crossed that we can go for awhile before having to up his dosage. The longer we can go before upping his doses, the longer he’ll be with us.

Unfortunately, he’s still limping quite a bit as his joints are bothering him. We were hesitant to start him on the prescribed steroid pills because of side-affects. The specialist that initially examined him called me on Wednesday with some additional test results. After a lengthy conversation, she assured me we could start him on’em and they’d help. We went with a very low dose and he seems to be responding so far. While he still limps, his energy level has come back quite a bit. He even got a little excited and tried to run the other day. He didn’t go far but it was just so wonderful to see him feeling a bit like his old self. His eating has come back too. This one really had me worried. He loves to eat [1]who doesn’t, right? lol and wasn’t eating much before his vet visit.

I think he suffered a bit of separation anxiety after the vet visit. For the first couple days, he was very clingy even on his walks. Normally, when we go out, he walks around and does his thing, sniffing, marking, etc. For the first few days after his visit, he’d just pee and then follow right behind me until we were done. On the other side of the coin, he definitely knows something’s up. He’s been getting extra attention and allowed to break several of his old rules. lol  He knows how to work it too. Of course, seeing him like that just makes me smile more because it means he’s feeling better.

Thanks again for everyone checking in on him. At the current level of meds, his still very alert and active. We’re happy he’s doing well. Keep sending good wishes that he stays that way!

References

References
↑1 who doesn’t, right? lol

Better

Everyone’s been asking about Spike so I’d thought I’d update everyone at once. He is doing better. A big thank you to everyone who was worried.

I’m still worried about him but he seems more like his old self this week. He developed this weird hacking cough that was getting progressively worse. Bad enough that he was starting to hack up blood. We originally thought he had kennel cough but the antibiotics weren’t helping. Luckily, Apple guy has a friend who is a Veterinarian that came by to look at him. He seemed to think it was allergies. We had him on Benadryl for about a week and it did seem to help. If its possible, he was even more sluggish and lazy dosed up on the Benadryl. lol Poor thing, he didn’t even want treats (And that’s saying something for Spike cause he LOVES his treats.)) I’ve since switched him over to Claritin. He is still hacking but not quite as much.

Last night was the first night in a few weeks that he ran like he usually does when I took him out. He doesn’t run far but we have a game we play where I run ahead of him and he’ll run to catch up out of excitement. I got such a tickle out of seeing him run. lol Such a small thing and it made me incredibly happy.

Apple guy’s friend is gonna come by again this week and look him one more time. I still think something else is wrong but I could be over-reacting. I sure hope so. For the moment, I’m just glad to see a semblance of his normal self return.

Snip Snip

In case you missed it, recently a bunch of folks managed to gather enough signatures to put an initiative on the ballot that would ban circumcision in SF. It made national news due to the oddity of such an initiative. Of course as usual, everyone starts over-generalizing about ‘liberal SF’.  I’ll be the first to admit people here are so initiative happy it borders on hysterical. [1]Seriously, if you can get enough signatures, you can put virtually anything on the ballot for people to vote on. Some things should require a little more review and decision making before just putting it to a vote. But while it was a bit of an extreme, the idea itself did have some merit IMHO.

Anyway, I knew right up front the initiative would fail. One, it didn’t allow religious exemptions and two it was very poorly written and overly broad. Circumcision has been part of “religious” ceremonies long enough it would take some serious doing to get something passed that didn’t include said exemptions. Being overly broad, it would have also created to many legal problems for enforcement. In the end, a judge actually ordered it removed from the ballot before it even went to a vote. That in itself is rare so that should tell you just how poorly it was written.

Frankly, I don’t think the government should be legislating something like this. I also think that we’ve become overly dependent on such an unnecessary procedure. While rare, there can be complications from a circumcision. And once done, its very hard to undo and even then its usually not the same. Why risk it unless its necessary? It is true circumcision has shown to be slightly more effective at preventing the spread of HIV. But the studies mentioned were for 3rd-world countries that don’t have ready access to clean water, good hygiene, medicines, etc. How very convenient to leave that detail out. lol And yes, there are cases where it ends up being medically necessary. But said complications are the exception not the rule.

Most people hide behind the “medical benefits” of circumcision to cover up the fact they are just uncomfortable with it. Cosmetically, it may look nicer but that shouldn’t out-weigh common-sense. Making a decision for your child based on a purely cosmetic preference is a bit selfish and extreme. Frankly, I’m glad I still have my hood. Its not overly pronounced or anything weird. When I’m “excited” you barely even notice. Side note here: One time after a “biblical encounter” with a guy, he went off on a tangent about it saying how he disliked it. Wasn’t he surprised when I pulled the sheet down and showed him! lolol True story!

Anyway, for .02, instead of coming up with more laws that limit social behavior, we should focus on community education. Communities rarely focus on public awareness campaigns anymore and its obviously showing. We’ve become a society fixated with telling people what they can/can’t do vs actually teaching people the pros/cons of their decisions.   /rant

References

References
↑1 Seriously, if you can get enough signatures, you can put virtually anything on the ballot for people to vote on.

Hip Hop

If you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook, you know Spike hasn’t been doing so well the last few days. He woke up the other morning and his hip was really bothering him. Poor thing, while he was trying to pee (lift his leg) he lost his balance and fell down. It would have been comical had I not been so sad. He turned and looked at me like I’d done something to him. It took him a few minutes to realize he was having issues. I promptly freaked out, got really upset, and almost started crying. [1]Yes, I cry. I’m a typical Aquarian in that I’m very emotional  He got thru it and I actually carried him upstairs. Not because he couldn’t make it on his own, I was afraid he might irritate his already unsteady hip.

Hip dysplasia is a very common ailment for English bulldogs and Spike being almost 9 (in just 2 short months) I guess its good that its taken this long to manifest. All of Spike’s siblings have passed away already according to Apple guy. I guess it was only a matter of time before Spikey succumbed to something. Luckily, he seems to be on the mend. He is limping a lot less and we are massaging and stretching his leg daily. At this point, we’re only trying non-invasive treatments. I’ve put him on a glucosamine regimen that he will remain on permanently, either thru his food or treats. I’m hoping rest and supplements are enough right now as I don’t have a lot of extra cash at the moment. If this doesn’t work, I’ll look at steroidal/arthritis supplements as well. It seems in Bullies dysplasia and arthritis go hand in hand.  Often the dysplasia increases the arthritis symptoms.

As I mentioned, he is doing better. I’ve been keeping his outside walks very short and he seems to be responding. He’s been putting more weight on it and walking around more and more like normal every day. We broke out his heating pad again [2]under his bedding to help keep his him warm at night and during his many naps. Keep your fingers crossed by the end of this week he’ll be almost back to normal. Sadly, this means he won’t get to go on as many walks. He loves to go out and I’ll have to come up with ways to get him out w/o overworking his hip. I have no problem getting him a red Flyer wagon and dragging him around in it. lol He would totally love it too. The problem would be keeping him in it. His eagerness and excitement is unabated and he loves attention.

I’m not prepared to think worst case scenario right now. I’m still shocked at how attached I’ve become. I grew up on a farm. I raised livestock and pets and never felt this much angst. The very thought of losing him drives me to tears. I love that damn dog and my life just won’t be the same without him.  And no, I have no desire to replace him now or later. If and when he does get to that point there will be absolutely no discussion of replacing him.

References

References
↑1 Yes, I cry. I’m a typical Aquarian in that I’m very emotional
↑2 under his bedding

Oh Yeah!

Today was the first day since the accident I worked out w/o any discomfort! The bone has been healed up for awhile now but the surrounding tissue(s) [1]ligament, tendons, muscle, nerves, etc have been taking their sweet ass time! Lol  I’ve actually been back in the gym, in a limited capacity, since the end of December. It’s been incredibly frustrating not being able to push myself like I’m accustomed to. But being a smart Moby, I have been taking it easy and gradually pushing myself w/o over doing it. So far, so good.

Not only did I not have any discomfort, I also did a full routine! [2]insert picture of me doing cartwheels here. Lol My muscles have that nice tight “pump” that comes from a good workout too. Hehehe  So, now begins the arduous task of building myself back up to previous levels. I also need to continue working off the extra poundage I picked up from not working out over the holidays. (I blame the cookies!)

*

In related news, the search for a new bike continues. I encountered some unexpected delays in getting the loan on my old bike cleared. I should have it all sorted this week hopefully. I MISS having a bike something fierce. I could handle the daily work commutes on MUNI. Every time I see a motorcycle now I get a sad feeling. *sigh* Time to stop dawdling and get on the ball.  Spring is fast approaching and I gotsta have some wheels to go riding with da gang!

References

References
↑1 ligament, tendons, muscle, nerves, etc
↑2 insert picture of me doing cartwheels here. Lol

just sayin’…

Ok, so not to be a douche or a heartless bastard but standing in line at a fast food restaurant and bitching about why your very large ass can’t loose weight is probably not the best solution. In fact, it shows that you are just unwilling to make an effort. Don’t get me wrong, loosing weight is hard work. But you didn’t gain 75+ lbs overnight and expecting to loose it so quickly is unrealistic. It takes a methodical  consistent approach with room for failed attempts.

I get so tired of folks who are overweight complaining and yet doing nothing about it. And before you go off on the medical conditions, only a very tiny tiny percentage of the actual population suffers from said conditions. It may not be all your fault but it is your problem.

Let’s be real. We live in a society where convenience and speed is valued more than health. We’ve become obsessed with the “instant gratification” mentality in almost every aspect of our lives. Even our schools no longer focus on promoting and teaching good nutrition. Hell, the very people who supply us our food go out of their way to trick us with misleading labels. It shouldn’t come as a surprise that our culture is mostly overweight.

That said, at the end of the day it is ultimately up to each and everyone of us to keep ourselves healthy. Sitting back and whining while shoveling a weeks worth of dietary fat content down your gullet in on sitting is not the answer. And while not always the most convenient, there are plenty of ways to eat healthier. At the end of the day, if more people walked away from the convenience of fast food and focused on healthy eating, companies would sit up, take notice, and provide a healthier product.

/rant