Category: health

Got it in Two

Remember what I said the other day about what I am going to do when I get Wordle in two guesses? Remember?

Wordle 479 2/6

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Oh yeah.

After not getting to sleep until 1:00am-ish on Sunday night/Monday morning can you guess what time I fell asleep last night? That would be 1:00am-ish, yet again. I wanted to get up super early to run some errands while still having time to get all my exercise in. Nope. I slept late. I had to run a little during my walkies to make sure I got the distance in before work started. The workout lasted 33 minutes (instead of the 38-42 it has been taking me to get up to 3.2 simulated miles lately) and I ran for about 11 of it. In the immortal words of Austin Danger Powers International Man of Mystery… ouch, babie. Ouch.

Happy Monday

Happy Monday, everyone (he said sarcastically).

Last night got strange. There was a small health issue that we all knew was nothing, but on the day after the vaccine it might have been something so we went to the ER and had them tell us it was nothing. The zaniest thing about the ER trip is that we got there at 10:00 and left at 12:00. Two hours? That’s it? Amazing!

So I was late getting to bed last night. I was probably going to be late anyway, thanks to television. I was sitting in bed watching The Walking Dead on my iPad when we decided to go. Live TV, babie! I was planning on watching the episode and then trying to sneak in House of the Dragon before I fell asleep. I am pretty sure it wasn’t going to happen. I was still seriously beat on post-vaccine day. I was going to try it though. Instead, I went to sleep a little before 1:00am and woke up a little before 7:00. My SleepWatch numbers were good. I feel so much better today. The only post-vaccine symptom left is a very sore left arm. That’ll clear soon enough.

So I watched last night’s The Walking Dead while doing my walkies (38 minutes, 3.22 miles [simulated], 609 calories). The episode was pretty good. The stuff with Daryl and Judith was excellent. Look at me getting all emotional about the parenting stuff. Who woulda thunk it? The wrestling stuff though… what the fuck, Angela. It was bad when Fear the Walking Dead had a wrestling episode, but the main show? It was just friggin’ embarrassing. It was probably about one minute long but it felt like two hours. Just stop.

House of the Dragon (aka Hot D) will have to wait until tonight. I thought I had a doctors appointment this week, on October 12, but it’s actually next week on the 18th. October 12th is Bruins opening day. Another thing that will wait until later tonight is the finalization of the Bruins opening day roster. They waived three veterans yesterday. Will they be picked up today? Will they be sent down to Providence? Will they be cut completely? Will they remain with the team? Who the hell knows.

In past years, today would have been a day off work for me. Columbus Day, aka whatever people are calling the day instead of Columbus Day because Columbus was a pretty atrocious person who really shouldn’t be celebrated, especially since his great discovery was the result of him being a bit of an idiot. At the start of 2022 our holiday structure was altered to change non-national holidays, like today, into floating holidays. So I don’t have today off, but I can take a day off later in its place. Jen is off today though. I should have put in for today so that we could spend the day together. Three day weekends kinda rule. I think I need to use two days this month again to stop my personal time off accrual from maxing out, again. We’ll see.

There you go, folks. That’s my Monday morning. Happy Monday.

Covid Booster: The Day After: Still Alive (Mostly)

Just checking in. I’m still sort of alive. Mostly, at least. The foggy head is lessening a little, but the body aches are still holding on. My arm, where I took the shot, is still killing me. There’s a constant dull ache, but any time I forget about it and try to use it it kicks my ass.

Mostly I am just exhausted. I got a lot of sleep last night but my sleep numbers were sucky. My sleeping heart rate dip, which should average between 10-20%, and 20-30% is a kick ass, actually went the wrong way. It went up 7%. Crud, huh?

The only productive thing I’ve done is 30 minutes of exercise. That ring is closed. My move (calorie) app isn’t even close though. It’s only 57% complete. I expect that at some point tonight I am going to have to do another 30 minute walk.

Other than that I’ve just spent the day staring at the television. I watched all five episodes of Star Wars: Andor. This week’s episode is going to be awesome. When I finished that I needed something else to veg out to so I started rewatching Falcon and Winter Soldier. I just started episode four. I think I can get through the whole season today. Once that’s done… Loki? We’ll see. We have The Walking Dead tonight (only seven episodes left!) and House of the Dragon so we’ll see if I can get to either of those tonight.

Wordle Stats

The first time I got the Wordle word in three tries I got all proud and stuff and posted it to Twitter. The first time I got it in two tries I got super proud and stuff and posted it to Twitter and Facebook. A workflow patter was thus created. That was during a brief period where I was feeling okay about going to Facebook again, entirely due to the weight loss surgery support groups. Now I am feeling down on the whole thing again so I need a new Wordle workflow.

Wordle 474 2/6

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That’s right, boys and girls. Now when I get it in two tries, like I did today, it’s going to Twitter and The Blog. Enjoy!

In the immortal words of Barnie Stinson, “this is so going in my blog!”

Last night I was put in command of the television remote control and managed to get caught up on every show I’m currently following. There were three shows that I was one episode behind. I watched ’em all. Andor, Rick and Morty, and The Handmaids Tale. Andor has been my main focus, but after the cliff hanger in Handmaid I might be watching the next episode of that show first.

The plan for tonight is to do something with dinner that I haven’t done since the surgery. We’re going to have some spaghetti. I’ve made spaghetti since the surgery, for Jen and Harry, but I haven’t eaten any of it. Pasta, bread, rice, and rice-like things were the last items to come off of my do-not-eat-these list. Well, sugar is eternally on that list but as of now it’s the only thing left.

Pasta has been off of the do-not-eat list for over a month, I just haven’t felt confident enough in the universe and my tiny, rebuilt, mangled stomach to give it a go. I haven’t had bread or rice or quinoa either. I can if I want, I just haven’t. Tonight I am going to have a tiny little serving of spaghetti. Cross your fingers that it doesn’t make me sick. I expect it is going to be friggin’ epically delicious. I hope so, at least.

Week 22

Hello and welcome to week 22! The week where I did not weigh in. I weighed in yesterday. I was thinking of doing it today, but if I don’t then we’ll get an extra day when I weigh in next week and maybe that will give me a more impressive number. Or not. Who knows. As long as I keep moving in the right direction I really don’t care how fast it goes. Though in this case bigger is, if not better, more fun.

I think we may have weathered a storm at work. Fingers crossed, right?

I watched half of last week’s That Pedal Show while doing this morning’s exercise. I should have watched The Handmaid’s Tale. A new episode is out but for some reason I keep thinking new episodes come out on Thursdays, like Andor. Wait… is Andor out on Wednesdays too? Shit, is there an Andor that I haven’t seen? I gotta start writing this shit down. Ugh! Lunch is going to be an hour late today. Maybe I’ll be able to watch something during lunch, but I usually try to avoid TV during work hours.

Crap. I just checked Disney+. There is a new Andor today. Grrrrrr.

Anyway, my walking is done. I still need to do the weights and the elastic. I didn’t do them yesterday because I was too busy, but I’ll do them today.

22 weeks and 140 pounds since surgery. I still can’t believe it. It’s starting to feel like a fairy tale. Some kind of make believe. It’s almost too good to be true. My next check in at the clinic is October 18th. I wonder how much I’ll weigh when that day comes around.

Happy Five Months

Today is October 4th. Five months ago today I had gastric bypass surgery. In honor of the monthaversary, let’s weigh in. Yes, weigh ins are supposed to be Wednesdays and today is Tuesday, but the 4th of the month is a special occasion, right?

My weigh in last week was good but a little underwhelming. I lost 1.6 pounds. This week is a little more like it. Five pounds exactly. From 295.8 to 290.8, Sooooo very close to flipping that 10’s digit. Yesterday I said I might skip this week’s Wednesday weigh in. Now that I know I am less than a pound away from the 280’s, I might actually do it. You know, just in case.

The 10’s column did flip on the totals. My total weight loss since the surgery is now 140.6 pounds. My total weight loss since the first appointment back in January is now 161.2. Sweet Christmas, that’s a lot of weight. I’ve lost the equivalent of an adult human. I googled “weight loss equivalence” and found two sites that compare your weight loss total to something relatable. Neither had a value for 160. They both had the same value for 150 that wasn’t all that relatable. They both said the complete Oxford English Dictionary. Eh. One of them had an entry for 185 that was Hugh Jackman. I guess I have a goal now. It also had an entry for 235 that was Arnold Schwarzenegger. Again, goals.

This morning before work I did my daily walkies. I watched last Friday’s episode of The Rings of Power. I was planning on going the equivalent of 3.2 miles (about five kilometers). I was so into the show that I wasn’t paying attention to the data on my watch and I was over 3.8 miles before I realized I could stop. I thought about pushing it up to four miles, but I think that would have stretched a little beyond 9:00am so I stopped. Maybe we’ll do that tomorrow. Maybe going a little extra today will shave off that 0.9 pounds and get me into the 280’s by tomorrow. Who knows. I just feel silly with this whole thing now. Hugh Jackman, here I come.

Two Hours?

I got downstairs to do my exercise and watch last night’s Walking Dead by 8:00am. Plenty of time to get through it all before punching into work at 9:00.

I went to the AMC website, brought up the episode, let’s effin’ go!

Wait…

The episode is two hours??

Noooooo!!!!

I did all of my normal daily exercise though. I walked in place for the equivalent of 3.2 miles (5k-ish) in record time. My mile splits were under 12 minutes for the first time ever. Not sure how I did that. I also did my normal dumbbells and elastic band thingie exercises too. I usually wait until later in the day for this, but they are done and done. I still might try to do 15 minutes on the bike at lunch time. We’ll see.

Tomorrow is October 4th, so there will be a monthaversary weigh in day. I might skip the usual Wednesday because of it. Here’s hoping for good numbers.

Okay, bring on the Mondays. Sadface.

Week 21 Weigh In

It’s Wednesday so it’s weigh in day, and it’s pretty underwhelming this time. That’s okay, after the celebrations last week, I was due for a slow week.

I am down 1.60 pounds. In the weight watchers days I would be thrilled with this. In the post-surgery days I am still pretty thrilled, even if it’s a great deal less than what I am used to at this point. We’ll see if we can have a bigger drop next week. As long as we keep going in the negative direction, I’ll be pretty stoked.

I had a bad time with dinner last night. It was just a split second’s worth of forgetting the new normal and it screwed me up for hours. In the old days I was a super fast eater. Bite-chew-chew-swallow. My teeth are pretty screwed up, so the less chomping I did, the lower the chances for dental issues. I can’t do that anymore. I need to chew the holy hell out of every small bite before I gulp. Last night I cut myself a small bite of chicken and forgot to chew thoroughly and swallowed it after just a few chomps. I realized the mistake immediately and knew I was going to have a bad time.

I tried to eat a little more, but soon enough that stomach pain and nausea hit me. I gave myself a 10 minute break. That didn’t help so I turned it into 20 minutes. Nope. 30 minutes. Still nope. 40 minutes and I was starting to feel like the end was in site. I put my dinner plate away in the kitchen and went grocery shopping. When I was home again I restarted eating dinner and everything went smoothly. I can’t mess up like that anymore. Pay attention, Robert!

Okay then, in summation, here’s hoping for a bigger bang for our bucks in week 22, and also don’t forget to chew your food. At least 32 times, just like Nana used to say.