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TIMOTHYNOHE's Recent Blog Entries
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Friday, August 26, 2011
It matters not how strait the gate
How charged with punisment the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
That is the last four lines from the poem Invictus. www.bartleby.com/103/7.html Click the link to read it. William Ernest Henley had TB of the bone and lost his leg below the knee. He wrote this poem at about age 25 as a defiant statement against losing his leg.
He was a child who had a devastating disease and lost his leg through no fault of his own. And he had an indominatable attitude. Invictus mean vistory.
We are a all fighting our own battles and sometimes we need to remember this poem especially the ending to know that we are in control.
.... I am the captain of my soul!
Thursday, August 25, 2011
.... and today I came across the part where Chris Downie started to jump rope.
I have a jump rope. I tried it a couple of years ago. It's hanging on a nail in my cellar. I think I will try to learn how to jump rope.
And I have a Perfect PullUp in my door frame. I can do three. I think I will push to do more.
Thanks Chris!
Wednesday, August 24, 2011
I was too. But my dearest friend changed that for me. If you love him save his life.
There is merit to the idea of "body acceptance" only to a point. I used to look in the mirror and actually say to myself "Yeah, I'm a little overweight, but I carry it well. I'm still a darned good looking guy." Who was I kidding?
Another part of my brain knew, absolutely KNEW, that I had about a year before my first heart attack and it would probably kill me. I didn't bother with the doctor but once a year so I could get the blood tests to have my cholesterol medication, blood pressure medication, erectile dysfunction medication, etc renewed. I was committing slow suicide.
"He'll lose weight when he's ready" ... maybe not. Lose weight? What was the point. I am probably dead in year. And the damage I have done to my body is irreversible. I didn't really care. I couldn't wear my wedding ring; it lived in Her jewelry box. I couldn't sleep with her because my snoring was so loud and when I took the spare room, I discovered that I was waking up choking. I did not want to bother the doctor.
The winter of 2008 I was sick. First the flu which led to an ear infection. The antibiotics messed with my fauna and I started a bout of chronic diarrhea. Six weeks of not being far from the bathroom. Toward the end of that I went to London for a week ... cold wet nasty place it was. Snowed at least a little everyday. Three inches on Easter Sunday. Got home with a cold. Another infection. more antibiotics. More diarrhea.
It finally cleared mid April. Then at 6:30 AM on Saturday 19 April 2008 She (WMBO) had had enough of me being sick. She didn't know I was certain that I was dying soon.
She(WMBO) gave me a boot in the butt. "Get up. Get dressed. We're going to Weight Watchers."
I laughed at her. "We don't belong to Weight Watchers. We don't even know where or when the meeting is."
"I signed us up online last night. Meeting is less than a half mile from here at 7:00. Get up. Get dressed. We can walk."
"It doesn't work. Two years ago you made me go and I lost 5 pounds in six month."
"You didn't work the program. Get up. Get dressed. We are going to Weight Watchers. I will meet you out front in 5 minutes." Boom she was gone.
At that point we had been married for almost 35 years. I knew what a request was. I knew what an invitation sounded like. This was neither of those.
I got up. I got dressed. I went to Weight Watchers. I sat in that meeting p-eye-ssed off. My arms across my chest. This was all bullshirts.
After the meeting and the intro session I told her, "This is not going to work. I'll give it six weeks to fail."
"Give it eight, I bought monthly passes. But it has to be an honest eight weeks. Do the program for real. If it doesn't work in eight weeks, you can quit."
I cleared the kitchen. Did the program. I started to walk. At first it was hard. 10 minutes to exhaustion, then every day, and that was the real trick, every day, a little more. I relearned how to swim. I got a good bike and used it. I joined the Y and used it. Then I started to run. 5ks, 10ks, half-marathons, duathlons, triathlons, bike centuries, hiking, swimming.
In those eight weeks and seventy more after that I lost 90 pounds. I have kept most of it off, having gained back about 15 during ... can you dig it? ... marathon training. 15 October Baltimore marathon will be the final tune up for 5 November the Savannah Rock and Roll Marathon.
I am off the blood pressure medicine. I don't need the erectile dysfunction medicine any more. I was off my cholesterol meds, but the doctor, whom I see happily twice a year, put me back on because of my age, not my diet. I can sleep with my wife now.
I proudly wear my wedding ring.
She(WMBO) saved my life!
Show him this. Tell him how much you love him. Give him a boot in the butt and get him started back to good health. And it doesn't HAVE to be Weight Watchers. Spark People is a great program that employs all the same principle, less the meetings.
Save his life.
Tuesday, August 23, 2011
Jamgirl8 is now one of my Spark Friends. I like that. She posted on W8Watchers Friendsthat she was thinking about quitting; she was frustrated. And I responded to her. What developed was an exchange that I thought might be useful to anyone having a struggle, whether or not you are with Weight Watchers, much of what I said to her would apply.
I asked her if I could pos tour exchange and her screen name and she was OK with that.
******************
JAMGIRL8: I am fighting that mental battle right now. You know, the one where you have gained a few pounds even though you are tracking and exercising? It is kind of like, what is the point? Why bother tracking if you keep getting the same results? I hate this war in my mind, I am on week 16 and should be further along but my body is very stubborn but I am more stubborn.
I can't quit, I have to keep going. Please tell me the scale will start moving again! Ugh!!
TIMOTHYNOHE: I wish I could tell you the scale will start moving. That is for you.
Look closely at your trackers (SparkPeople's is excellent. It's why I am here.) Are you really tracking everything? Are there little things you might think are insignificant that you are missing?
Are you eating all your DPs? Any or all of your WPs. Are you earning any APs? Are you eating any/all of those?
I ask those questions as a way of getting you to look at something you might be able to change. If you are eating all your WPs I would look at cutting them down or even out. I always kept them as a buffer zone.
The main trick is to eat to satisfaction. If you have 29 daily points, you have eaten 27, filled all your good health guidelines, and are satisfied at the end of the day, then you are done. Don't try to stuff in those last two points.
Do you attend meetings? If you do, buttonhole your leader and talk to her/him. Show her your tracker.
Good luck. I am pulling for you.
JAMGIRL8: Thanks!
I don't add AP, afraid of adding extra. I have 44 pts given daily and I do usually eat those. I keep track of weekly points but make an effort not to use them all. Still eating sugary fruit (ie bananas) in low frequency and covering my food points with lean protein, veggies and fruits first and then on to other things such as whole grain breads and pasta.
I do painfully track every.thing. I say painfully because this has been as much of a self awareness journey as it has been anything else. I adopted a paper journal just for that reason. I write down amounts, what I ate and what I was feeling when I ate it. I have learned just how much food is an emotional crutch as anything else could be.
I have uped my work outs so maybe just water retention. I am not quitting because I know what will happen, I will snowball back into a world of fatness!
I will keep my WP as a buffer, I have not ever consumed all of them and surely don't want to start doing so now.
I will tackle my leader Saturday, if the Hurricane doesn't get us!
Thanks again, I printed your advise out and will go over my journal on my lunch break. Have a great day!
TIMOTHYNOHE: As I look at you a little more closely, I see you have lost 23.2 pounds. Congratulations!!
And you did it in 16 weeks. Way to go!
(Tim whips out his handy dandy slide rule ... mumbles ... hmmmmm.)
That works out to 1.45 pounds per week. High five baby!
When we are as ... no polite word for it ... heavy (sorry) as you are (sorry) we want to see that scale move and fast. It doesn't always happen.
WW (and the US gummint) recommends 0.5 to 2 pounds average per week for any four week period (excluding the first three weeks). Using my experience, I lost a phenomenal 15.8 in the first 3 weeks. So we throw those out. over the next 75 weeks I lost 74.2 pounds.
(Tim whips out his handy dandy slide rule ... mumbles ... hmmmmm.)
That works out to 0.9893 pounds per week. Less than 1 pound a week.
Your leader should look at all those things. I don't know what your first three weeks were, but what have you lost over the last 13 weeks? What has your average been? Maybe you are doing better than you think!
The previous program said there were four main components:
** Eat smarter. It sounds like you are doing that.
** Move more. You started doing that too. Keep it up and it gets easier. I started with an exhausting 10 minute walk around the block. For my next trick I did it the next day too. And the day after that. I am now training for a marathon! From a 34 BMI to 26.2 miles in 3.5 years. Which leads ups to the next point --
** Start new habits. Moving more leads to moving more It becomes a habit. Eating right begin to taste better. I cut off fast foods for about a year because I knew it was my downfall. Then one day there was only a bag-o-tacos from Taco Bell in the car. I loved Taco Bell. I nearly gagged. I could now actually taste what I was eating and I found out what Taco Bell REALLY tasted like.
** Seek support. Dude! Here we are supporting each other. And you have your meeting room support too!
Remember. You are looking to lose weight, but you are also looking to develop a healthier lifestyle and that is the main thing. You didn't get to where you are overnight. It will take time to get better. Be patient.
Monday, August 22, 2011
Last winter Mom started to have a series of TIAs. And she would make a little progress then have another TIA. She was well enough to be at home, but she needed companionship. 24/7 companionship.
Luckily, she had 13 children, 9 of whom live close enough to be with her. Sure saves a lot of money. Doing my turns is why I quit working for Weight Watchers.
Finally in June, just before her 90th, she had a full fledged stroke. I usually pull my turn about every 7-10 days or so. So unlike my sisters who see her every day, the progress she makes is phenomenal!
She is getting up and down the stairs with a cane. She still says some unintended things and sometimes can't find the right words. She can't write yet. She does her word finds now, which I find truly amazing!
The nurse came today. Her BP was 138/65 and her RHR was only 68!
Generally being with her mostly entails sitting with her. She doesn't want to be entertained and really only wants to talk when she initiates the conversation. I understand that because she doesn't understand everything I say. She understands my sister better and I expect its a couple of things. I have a mustache and beard and she cannot see my lips as well. And she knows other clues, body language?, from my sisters.
I remember before she got sick, she used to go on and on about Marie Reilly. I remember Mrs Reilly. She was old when I was a kid. She died this spring at age 103. She went to the hospital a week before she died ... from the home she had lived in for 75 years! For all intents and purposes she died in her own home. Never spent any time in a nrsing home.
I think Ms Marie was Mom's role model. She wants to be like Marie, even if it doesn't last to 103.
We want to make that happen for her.
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