Tag: health

Rough Night

It started a little after 4:00. Migraine. Shit. Usually my vision goes weird, then the headache comes a little while later. Today it was the other way around. The headache hit out of nowhere and it was bad. Then my vision went all screwy.

After about an hour and a half my vision was okay but the headache was hanging on. Not nearly as bad as it was at the start, but it was lingering. Jen made chicken in the air fryer for dinner and it was fabulous. Unfortunately I had one bite too many and the foamies hit. Worse than that? It’s been two hours and my stomach still feels blocked up. I have another 15 grams of protein to go to hit today’s goal so I have to have something to eat.

One last annoying thing. I am friggin’ exhausted. Is it the couch to 5k’s fault? I don’t think so. I just don’t sleep enough and sometimes it catches up with me and kicks my ass. Yippee.

Tomorrow is going to suck out loud. It’s an in-the-office day and I have meetings almost all day. Worse, I am running all of those meetings. I hate when that happens. Before work though I will need to watch the series premier of Marvel’s Secret Invasion. I’ll also have to play some guitar. I have four songs leftover from May that need rhythm guitars. Only two are ready to go though. Hopefully I’ll be able to sneak one of them in before I have to pack up and get ready for the commute. That means I am going to have to get up early.

Yeah, tomorrow is going to be a tough one. Tonight has already been a tough one. It’s going to be the old one-two punch of suck.

Wish me luck.

I Have Experienced Hell and Lived to Tell the Tale

Wow! Was that ever sucky!

I really thought I was deluding myself but here I am, recapping the first painful, awful, baby step.

Can you dig it?

I just finished the first couch to 5k experience. I neither ran five kilometers nor actually traveled five kilometers. It’s just the first step. The app had me walk for three minutes then run for one minute, and repeat that process six times. I am pretty sure I died during the second run, and then died again during each of the remaining runs. I was planning on going to the movie theater parking lot but when push came to shove I just stayed in the neighborhood and went around the block a bunch of times, ignoring the fact that I was really insecure about all of my neighbors staring out their windows watching me the entire time, which I am 100% sure was happening at each and every house on the street.

What did I learn from this experience?

  • I learned that the coach the app has chirping in your ear the whole time is an annoying person.
  • I learned that jogging is a whole ton more difficult than yogging.
  • I learned that, while I don’t have nearly the loose skin issue I expected I would have a year after gastric bypass, there is loose skin in my world right now and when you start actually running for real, that loose skin literally jiggles and it’s a slightly disturbing experience.
  • I learned that running fucking sucks. I mean I only ran for six minutes but WOW did it suck.

Couch to 5k workout number two will take place on Thursday. Wish me luck.

On a slightly related note, I did make a friend out on the road this morning.

Couch to 5K: Take Two

I installed another Couch to 5K training app on my iPhone today. I did it the other day only to get iCockBlocked by a required subscription plan. This time I was able to get to the training description (run for one minute, walk for three during your first workout) without being forced to pay money. I take that as a win.

The app wants you to do three workouts per week. My questions for myself are, when and where? The when will probably be Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday. I would rather do Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but Wednesday is my in-the-office day and there isn’t a lot of time in the morning to waste on things like workouts. So I think we’ll start on Tuesday.

The where is another issue. Originally I was planning on just running around the block, starting at the end of my driveway. I don’t know if I want to subject the neighbors to such a terrible site though. Now I am thinking of following my same game plan for car music. There’s a movie theater in town that doesn’t open until well after I start my work day. They have a huge parking lot that often doubles as my recording studio. I think that, starting Tuesday, it might also double as my 5K training track. Either that or the rail trail downtown. Maybe I’ll alternate between the two. Who knows.

Fingers crossed I don’t chicken out on Tuesday morning. We’ll see how it goes. I’m sure I’ll write 236972357 blog posts sharing every minute detail.

Couch to 5K?

When we went to Disney World* back in January we were there for the Disney Marathon weekend. The weekend ends with a marathon, but in the days leading up to it there was a half marathon, a 10K, and a 5K. Jen suggested that next year I should run the 5K.

I was thinking about it last night. I fake run more than 5K pretty much every day. At the pace I go when I jog in place in the cellar (pronounced “yog” with a soft J) I run for 32 minutes, which is enough to close my 30 minute exercise ring while also rounding off to the nearest mile, which is four miles. 5 kilometers is 3.1 miles, so my watch congratulates me for running a 5K every day.

Don’t get me wrong, I know that my faux running is about as far removed from actual running as you can get. I don’t actually run 5K, I just pretend. We are all in agreement on that, right? If I were to actually take up actual running, I would need help and I would need to carefully build up stamina before running any notable distance.

That brought me to YouTube last night when I should have been sleeping. I searched for “couch to 5k” and started watching. A few minutes ago I installed a Couch to 5K app on my iPhone. I promptly deleted it after it took all of my information and then prompted me for the $40/month subscription. Fuck you.

I have an idea of how to start based on a video series I watched last night. Now the question is, do I actually do it? Am I seriously thinking about taking up running? It would be pretty cool to run the Disney World 5K next year. Pretty cool indeed. It might even impress my wife a little, which is more or less my goal for everything I do.

We’ll see.

*More on Disney World coming soon. You have been warned.

Stress

Why are things stressing me out today? Everything is rubbing me the wrong way. I feel like I am fucking things up at every turn. First my stupidity with the trash pickup this morning. I’m not even going to mention the mouse trap incident from this morning. That would just make me sad.

There isn’t anything specific that’s going wrong today, it just feels like everything weighs 10 times more than it should, emotionally speaking, and I am doing everything wrong.

What the hell, Robert? Stop being like that. Everything is fine.

Everything that is except for the fact that I am in the office when I would rather be home, and it’s friggin’ freezing in this conference room right now. Brrr, babie. I wanna go home and hug Jen and pet the kitties and play some shitty blues rock on the guitar. Those are my happy places. Those are my mental health medicines.

Sleepy

Despite the possible influence of a mild migraine headache overnight last night, I thought I got a decent night’s sleep. Apparently I was wrong. I have felt seriously exhausted all day today, and it’s especially bad (as it often is) after I finished lunch. I just feel really tired and I wish I didn’t.

I didn’t use my CPAP machine last night. For some reason I thought it would be a mistake to wire myself up while dealing with a migraine. I didn’t want any extra noise or distractions. I just wanted to pass out and stay that way until the alarm went off. I think it worked, but now I expect if I had put the machine on I would feel better tonight. Hindsight, and all that crap.

Change of subject, all of the guitar playing I’ve done over the last few days is really making me want to get the work I need done to my two 1970’s Gibsons. I have two shops I want to bring them to and get an estimate from. One is in Rockport, MA, which is an hour away from here. The upside of that shop is that it’s open on Saturdays. The other shop is in Malden… or Medford… same difference. They are not open on weekends though, but they are open until 7:00pm on weekdays. I should be able to get there before they close. I am thinking of making an appointment for 6:30 or so next Monday. I have no clue how much they will charge for frets and wiring. I just hope it’s low enough that I can pay for work on both guitars without needing to sell anything else. If I do need to raise a little more money I will probably sell my Fender Bassbreaker 18/30 amp, but I don’t think I will be able to get very much for it.

I might sell the 18/30 anyway, even if the money I raised is enough to pay for the three things I need. Maybe I could raise a little more fundage and pay for new pickups for the Les Paul Custom. I don’t know. That’s a pie in the sky kinda thing.

I am really tired and I still have 2.5 hours to go in my work day. Blah. I hope to get some better sleep tomorrow. I might mix a song before bed though. I have three songs ready to go. Huzzah, right? Rock and Roll.

Fear the Walking Migraine

Last night at about quarter to 11:00 I decided it was time to go to bed. At that very moment, I noticed my eyes were off. I was just starting to have the first symptom of a migraine. It wasn’t bad, but it was there. I turned off the lights, buried my head in the pillow, squeezed my eyes shut, and within five minutes was asleep.

When I woke up I had a mild headache, but nothing too bad. I got up (after hitting snooze six times) and got dressed and started my day. I added some Extra Strength Tylenol to my morning vitamins for what remained of the headache and went down cellar to do my day’s exercise.

That’s when things went bad. What happened, you ask? I put on last night’s episode of Fear the Walking Dead. What else could cause such a disaster?

Spoilers ahead, but it’s probably okay because you’re not dumb enough to watch this idiotic show, are you? I’m the only one left watching, I am positive of that.

Anyway, you’ve been warned… spoilers for what passes as a plot for season nine episode five… I think.

I always bitch about how the plot for this show is constantly driven by people talking on magic walkie talkies that have unlimited range, unlimited battery life, and there is only one channel available so everyone in the former United States of America can hear every word, yet they still constantly give away all of their plans and positions while knowing the baddies are listening in. It’s the dumbest plot device imaginable.

Anyway, this episode kicked it up a very large notch. I have to believe that the writers and show runners wrote this episode to troll us. You see, the entire episode was people sitting around talking on walkie talkies. Seriously, pretty much the entire episode was just people talking on walkie talkies. There was one other plot device in play. Yeah, it was the seven year old kid making all of the decisions. The seven year old kid traveled all over Georgia with a dying adult who was going to turn into a zombie at any moment and everyone was okay with that. The seven year old kid performed radiation therapy on a patient. The seven year old kid was able to run a railroad hand cart without help. As if those things do not require any strength at all to operate. The seven year old kid decided where to go and what to do. All of which was done over a walkie talkie, of course.

Fuck this show

The worst part is that much of Reddit is on blackout today to protest the company charging enormous fees to access their API, thus putting a number of third party apps out of business, and r/fearthewalkingdead is down so I can’t bitch to like minded masochists.

This sucks.

Two Hours to Go

The weekend is about two hours away. 123 minutes, to be exact. I’m finding motivation a little tough to come by this afternoon but I will get everything that needs to be done today done today as far as work goes.

Jen is planning on spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. How good does that sound, right? I will go grocery shopping afterward. I’m a little behind on my protein intake for today so I may need to eat something substantial after I get home. I am ahead of the game on hydration though. My post-lunch one hour pause before having anything to drink will end in about three minutes and I’ve got a 20 ounce bottle of Gatorade Zero upstairs in the fridge with my name on it. After that my daily liquid intake goal will be obliterated nicely.

I put out four mouse traps in the cellar. The cats don’t come down here so it should be okay. Let me rephrase, the cats are not allowed down cellar. They very much want to come down here, I just don’t let them. One trap went off but I think that was due to a ghost, or an Earthquake or something. No mice were involved. I did see one running past the base of the stairs. I was upstairs and opened the door to come down and there it was. Asshole. Was it the same mouse I saw earlier? How the hell should I know, it was a mouse. I wasn’t checking for identifying details. Sheesh.

Reminder to myself: Write lyrics tonight. Record vocals in some random empty parking lot tomorrow morning. Maybe take the cameras to the ocean for sunrise on Sunday. The forecast at Salisbury Beach looks promising. We’ll see. Sunrise would be great, but music is what’s important. I also need to clean the kitchen and do a little work straightening out the kids rooms this weekend. That’s important too, but a different kind of important, you know? Health and well being and happiness vs musical mental health. Simple. Speaking of, when’s the next band practice?

Okay, Robert. Go get that Gatorade Zero and finish your work projects. You’ve got this, red head. No problem. 110 minutes until the weekend.

Post script: There was just a blast of thunder outside that was loud enough to shake the walls a little. It didn’t set off any of the mouse traps though. That’s good.

Sleep and Stomach Stuff

I wanted to go to bed early last night but I ended up staying awake until almost midnight. Dumb ass. The numbers my Apple Watch collected were pretty weak. I didn’t have a lot of restful sleep and my heart rate didn’t drop very much. I managed to keep the CPAP mask on all night. That’s been a trial for me lately. I have to put it on super tight to keep the seal from letting go. I’ve had two days in a row without problems, but the previous four or five days all had me taking the mask off at some point in the night because the bad seal kept waking me up.

I woke up with some stomach fun this morning too. Yesterday I had a big lunch. It was way more food than I can handle post-bypass. Then at dinner I did it again. I had way more food than I could handle. It resulted in me feeling uncomfortably stuffed for hours last night. Eventually it passed and I was able to have some water and a snack before bed. It did result in me waking with a stomach ache. Not one of those really bad curled-up-in-a-ball-on-the-floor type stomach aches, just a normal bad stomach ache. I tried to work through it while exercising but I had to stop. I spent some time in the bathroom (TMI) and eventually it passed. I had some breakfast and it didn’t come back. I feel a little worn out this morning, but I don’t feel any pain now.

And that’s the health update for today. I’m going to have lunch about an hour from now. I don’t expect any problems, but I should probably make sure I don’t overdo it again, right?