Tag: health

Intermittent Fasting

I just started my lunch break and in doing so I just ended last night’s intermittent fasting fast. I started the process 162 days ago. I haven’t missed a day. My Zero app tells me I missed a day, but that was due to a sync mess up when I tried to track a day on my iPad instead of my iPhone.

For the most part, the process has been pretty easy for me. I stop eating at 9:00PM and don’t start again until 1:00PM. There have been a few days where I had to end the daily fast a little early for whatever reason, and there have been a ton of days where the fast went long. The longest was a touch less than 24 hours. The shortest was… about 14 hours, I think. Over the last few days though it has not been easy. I don’t know what changed, but I have found myself bordering on ravenous at about 8:50 each night this week and have had to start my night’s fast 10-15 minutes late. Then the next day, by 10:00AM I am hungry enough that I am feeling a little sick.

Why? What’s different? My stress level is through the roof, but it’s been like that for three weeks. Why did the hungries start three days ago? I don’t know. It’s a mystery.

I haven’t gotten to the point where I am going to skip a day, or even stop all together. I’m thinking about it. I have come close to ending a night’s fast early, or start it an hour or two later instead of just a few minutes. I also haven’t exercised this week, and I didn’t weigh in on Tuesday. I don’t know what to do. I would like to ride this out and get back into the groove, as it were. I just don’t know. I told myself I wouldn’t do it if it made me feel sick, and it’s starting to make me feel sick.

We’ll see.

Chick Corea

We’ve lost another giant. Chick Corea passed away a couple of days ago. Cancer. Again.

That’s Chelsea, MA native Chick Corea to be clear.

I’ve always been ashamed of myself for never being enough of a jazz guy. I played sax and went to music school for crying out loud, I should have been more of a jazz guy. I guess rock and roll and blues were just too much fun for me to pull my attention away for too long.

I did have a thing for Fusion though. It’s hard to be a Prog Rock fan and not at least dip your toes into the Fusion world. As a guitar player, my connection to Chick Corea came via Al Di Meola. Al was a teenager when he joined Chick’s Fusion band, Return to Forever, and the handful of records they made together were spectacular. Chick played on some early Di Meola solo records too.

Ironically (maybe?) the first thing I think of when I think of Chick Corea is the title track from Return To Forever’s Romantic Warrior. Ironically because Fusion is meant to be an electric genre, but that song is acoustic and it is brilliant beyond measure.

I am honoring this legend’s memory right now by giving the Romantic Warrior album a spin. I suggest you do the same. If you like your music played at a level of virtuosity that makes mortal humans’ heads explode then this is the record for you. Chick’s playing on that record is the kind of thing where you can imagine The God of Keyboard Players listening to it and thinking, damn that guy is awesome.

Rest in Peace, Chick Corea. The music world has lost another hero, but we still have all of the music to listen back to when we want to remember just how good we had it when you were around.

A Little Lost

My head doesn’t feel like it’s on straight today. Why is today any different than yesterday?

Dad was moved to a new hospital on Tuesday and spent the day yesterday getting all sorts of tests. We have an idea of what’s coming but we don’t know when and we don’t have any details. It feels like we’re back into a holding pattern and it’s messing with me.

Something I ate last night (too many peanuts, methinks) isn’t playing nicely today and it’s irritating the hell out of me. Stupid digestive system. I also got a pretty shitty night’s sleep last night. That’s not helping the situation.

I have meetings booked for the entire morning and part of the afternoon. What if a call or a text comes in while I’m busy and I can’t get to it? What if I miss something?

I feel useless and pointless and lost right now. Well… I probably always feel a little useless and pointless and lost, but now those feelings are kind of taking over and I don’t like it.

Procedure – Part 2

My father’s cardiac procedure is done and he’s back in his room. Everything went well in that they have enough information to move on to the next steps. The next steps, however, sound seriously terrifying. That’s okay though, we knew that was coming. The only question left is when does it happen and who handles it. I am trying not to freak out over the possibilities.

Procedure

At some point this morning my father is going to have a cardiac procedure. It’s not a big one. Under normal circumstances it’s probably a tiny, routine thing. With his current situation though… well… it’s cardiac, enough said.

Should anyone reading this care to send any happy thoughts or good vibes or positive energy his way, I’d be grateful.

I am totally optimistic that all will go well and it will clearly tell us what the next steps are. That doesn’t mean I’m not scared though.

Break a leg, Papa.

That Was Unexpected

I got onto the weight loss wagon back in September. I started the intermittent fasting silliness and I started making sure I closed the 30 minute exercise ring in my AppleWatch Activities app. I never stopped with the fasting thing, that’s still going on every day. The weight tracking thing fell away just before Christmas, as it does. My last weigh in was December 15th. The exercise thing temporarily ended on the day my father went to the hospital.

Yesterday was the day I officially went back on the wagon. I closed all three rings for the first time in over a week. My weigh in day was on Tuesday before, so I weighed in today…..

….and I was down six pounds.

So I stopped being careful with food and I stopped exercising and… I lost weight. Six pounds in almost two months isn’t all that much, but it’s still good.

I did not see that coming.

Unmotivated

I’ve been pretty much crushed for the last week. It’s getting worse. I just want to curl up in a ball and go away. I can’t though. I have too much to do. Is it necessary stuff or is it distracting stuff. Yes. Tonight I hope to finish up the bed room. New mattress pad, new mattress, new end tables. Tomorrow we start on the kitchen which includes the closet in the mudroom. It’s going to take a few weeks to get through everything on the agenda. There are so many boxes waiting to be opened that I don’t know what to do with them all.

So. Many. Boxes.

At least a new mattress could potentially mean that Jen and I aren’t overwhelmed with back pain when we wake up tomorrow. That’s a plus, right? My foot issue which may or may not be Plantar Fasciitis started sneaking up on me eight or nine days ago, and it was a nightmare through last weekend, but now I think it’s gone. I probably just jinxed it though. At least I’ve got that going for me.

The work day is ~88% complete. 60 minutes to go. At least I’ve got that going for me, right?

More Stuff

Not to be left out of the birthday fun, my nephew is 10 today. Double digits. He’s a mini-me. He’s lucky in two ways. If you’re going to have the misfortune of looking like me, it’s good that you didn’t lose your curly hair the way I did, and also it’s extra lucky that you’re skinny while I was already well on my way to being a fat ass by the time I was 10. He is keeping all the good stuff that I had when I was little. He’s also hysterically funny and he’s not afraid of his own shadow. Two things I didn’t have at 10. So basically, if you eliminate all the stuff that I was bad at when I was 10 you have my nephew. He’s awesome and I love him and I hate that I haven’t been able to visit in forever. I am so sick of the pandemic. It’s killing me.

My father showed some improvement on Tuesday. On Wednesday he seemed to take a bit of a step back but was still better than he had been. Today the word is he seems to have improved a little bit again. We have tentative plans for next steps starting next week. It’s all scary.

We should have the bedroom done tomorrow night… assuming we don’t come up with any new ideas. The mattress is going to be the killer. We have plans in place though. The kitchen stuff starts coming next week. Next weekend is going to be another crazy furniture assemble-fest.

I made a works in progress playlist for RPM. Still not 100% invested yet. Maybe if I can get some guitar parts down it will trigger me. Maybe.

https://hearthis.at/roberjames1971/set/rpm2021-works-in-progress/

I haven’t played with blog themes yet. I browsed a little before bed last night. We’ll have to book some time soon. I have so many reminders in my phone right now. I have to schedule everything with myself or I forget everything.

I’m tired and sad and I want everything to go back to normal and I want it now.

Improvement

I think there may have been some improvement over at the hospital. Not sure. There aren’t any answers, but there was a little more clarity. A little. A tiny bit. It’s something and I’ll take it.

Cautious optimism (I use that phrase too much, I think, but it’s appropriate here). Raise a glass to continual improvement. I mean, I don’t drink but if ever there were a time to start….*

*Ellipses are supposed to be three dots. Why then do I almost always use four or five? The compulsion….. annoys me. Something else I am not very good at, in the long line of things I am not very good at.