Down but not out

So, I went to bed last Thursday with a slight discomfort in my jaw, nothing serious, almost as if I had bitten something hard and caused the tooth to throb a little. A couple of Advil and bam, pain gone, problem solved.

Not so much.

Friday was ok, had a wedding Friday and on the way back from it I started to get that throbbing again. Oh oh... got home took some pills and it went away. That night the real fun started. A throbbing nearly constant pain, alleviated somewhat by meds, but not totally. Water swishing in the mouth seemed to help best, but try doing that in bed. I almost drowned several times falling asleep with water in my mouth. Sleep was sporadic at best, a half hour here and there with no prolonged periods. I was convinced that I was dealing with an infection. Tried to treat it myself as best I could, since I couldn't see a dentist till Monday, using anti-biotics on hand etc. Nothing really helped for any amount of time. I was miserable, like gun to the head miserable.

Needless to say I didn't get any walking in. Nor did I get much eating in either.

Finally got to the dentist on Monday, figured an exam with some prescription for antibiotics and perhaps ( YAY ) painkillers. Nope....

Dentist entered the room, pulled up my x-rays on the puter screen pointed at the offending tooth and said " See that shadowy mass on the root? That's the bane of your existence and the tooth has to come out now."

Shiver.... an abscessed tooth.... HEAVILY abscessed tooth.... and he was going to pull it then and there...

YIKES!!!!

He did promise me a couple of things before he started though...

1- It would be a difficult extraction.... joy...
2- It would likely take a while
3- It wouldn't hurt, he was going to make sure it was well deadened
4- I would sleep that night

He delivered on all!

1- Difficult yes, the tooth exploded when he put the clamp on there. You have to know, this tooth, it looked flawless from the outside, there was NO indication visually that there was anything wrong with it, but there it was, dead on the inside, abscessed at the root. So, crown gone, nothing to hold on to to extract. Drilling holes into the exposed area to get a grip to loosen, tooth kept breaking. Finally had to cut the gum, drill into root and rock back and forth until loosened , then he cranked the chair up, stood up, braced feet and pulled and pulled and pulled until finally pop, the remains were extracted. He laughed, I love my dentist by the way, and said, " Man, there's NO way anyone would knock your teeth out that's for sure!!" Three stitches and done

2- See above

3- He was bang on, with the exception of the pressure exerted and having all those instruments etc. crammed into my jaws, there was no pain at all, I was thrilled.

4- I slept for almost 12 hours straight.... sigh.... it was SOOOOOOOOOOOOO nice.

As I was leaving he made me another promise. I wouldn't have a lot of pain from the procedure and shouldn't require any prescription pain killers, BUT, I would know he had gone to work on my jaw.

Again, he kept that promise.

Woke up this morning feeling as though I was kicked in the side of my jaw, but NO pain at all from the socket.

Now that's behind me, I can't wait to get out for my first walk in a while tonight.

Scale shows MAJOR downward trends.... that's always nice!

More to come on that front!

Meds kicking my ass

Well, the new BP meds are taking a toll. I am sooooooo lethargic and sleepy. I have had some dizzy spells as well. It's to be expected, the side effects pretty much read as I have been having them, without the nausea thanks be to god.

BP was actually low this morning, 111/84. I am guessing that my body needs to reach some sort of equilibrium over the next few days.

Haven't walked in the last two days, just too damn dizzy and lethargic to do it, likely not that safe to be on the road like this.

Well, that's about it for now....

Foiled again.....

Just back from the Doc's....

Well, another medication on top of my current one. The BP has greatly improved, but he was still a little concerned about my diastolic number. Its peaked a couple of times over 110 in the past week and we really need to get that number down as well. he was very happy with my systolic pressure, it's pretty much right where we need it to be. So, it a ACE inhibitor for me for the next month at least. End result? No gym... grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.... getting very very frustrated about that actually, I'm not going to lie. Oh well, again folks, keep your fingers crossed for the next visit in 2 weeks. He said that if everything is in line then, well, he wouldn't commit, but he said it would be very likely. I need to get in there...

Sorry no Monday Mass Day yesterday, the day came and went without me even thinking of it..lol... I am down to 289 on the Docs scales though. More like 291 on my scales. I am sure that the Doc's is more accurate, but since my scales are the ones I started on, they are the ones I will continue to use as my guide.

So here's the current tally...

August 25th Start weight ??? - we figure anywhere from 310-320
Sept 8th - 301 lbs
Sept 15th - 297 lbs
Sept 22nd - 296 lbs
Sept 30th - 291 lbs - change of -5 lbs, 90 to goal

Total loss - 310-320 - 291 = 19-29 lbs

Not bad, not bad at all...

Here's a record of my Blood Pressure following the D-day reading of 210/111

Sept 24th -
10:20 am - 120/94
3:05 pm - 119/100
9:45 pm - 128/101

Sept 25th -
9:40 am - 130/102
11:18 pm - 128/84

Sept 26th -
9:30 am - 127/84
2:30 pm - 132/91
9:30 pm - 122/89

Sept 27th
10:00 am - 126/86
3:30 pm - 132/90
1:30 am - 129/101

Sept 28th
10:00 am 132/100
4:00 pm 129/97
11:00 pm - 135/101

Sept 29th
9:30 am - 123/91
11:45 pm - 126/94

As you can see, it is dropping and leveling out. Though there are some flucuations in there. It's interesting to me to note that my BP seems to be higher on the weekends. lol... Gabe .... that's all I am saying is Gabe...

Sorry for the ABSOLUTE lack of pictures, there is NO excuse. I will endeavor to get some posted very very soon.

That's about it for now, back to the grind with me!

There's eye openers, then there eye SHOCKERS!

Well...

Ahem...

So, we bought a new scale. I was in error, I was not 285 as I thought, but in actuality I must have been around 310-15 or so. I know I have lost weight in the past two weeks, I can tell, Dee can tell.... so I figure 310-15 is a good guess. I don't need to guess anymore though... nope... I am a svelte and trim 301 lbs.... hey, that's not bad, it's only heaver than a new born elephant, or a year old cow, or 3 Andy Dicks...

All joking aside... I'm not floored anymore, I am getting used to the shocks that keep assaulting me in regards to my weight, health and appearance. I am once again struck though by how damn easy it is to fool yourself into thinking you are something you obviously aren't, and trust me, it was VERY VERY easy.

So, 301 lbs ( important to get that 1 lb in there ), only 121 to go, thats 10 lbs a month, 2.5 lbs a week and exactly 365 from today I will be a totally different baby elephant, I mean, MAN... yeah...

I am joking because I know I can and will do this, it will have ups and downs, peaks and valleys, but in the end the changes will be made and the transformation will be dramatic, this I promise you. I can further promise that in 730 days from now I will look even better as my promise to myself to be in better shape at 40 than 20 will come to fruition.

Now, on to the very very ugly... the pics.... please folks.... not for the weak..



Pretty bad huh? I was kinda floored by these pics. Again, at the risk of sounding like a broken record here, I had NO idea that I was this bad. Again, I knew I was bad, but this bad... nahhhh... Well, yes, it IS this bad. It will NEVER EVER be this bad again.

Now that I have these done and posted, I am taking great comfort in knowing that the next ones will be better, and the ones after that, and the ones after that and so on and so on... Time to skin this pelt!

Health Update

Well.. I had a return visit to my Doc this morning for a blood pressure check as well as review the results from the blood work I had completed a week or so ago. Bad news first, my blood pressure is still up. This is a cause for concern of course and I will admit I was more than a little disappointed to see that. I actually felt as if I might have made some progress on that front over the past two weeks and in fact when I took my BP myself at Wal-Mart a couple of days ago it had shown a significant drop. Doc informed me that BP is elevated in the morning and a crappy nights sleep might have contributed to it as well, however, if it remains high next visit in two weeks, then blood pressure meds will be likely administered.

Now, I can't say the high BP was a shock, given my weight in conjunction with my family history, it just sucks when you think positive movement is being made and you find out that in actuality, no movement has been made... on that front anyway.

On to the blood work.

I will now admit a HUGE fear of mine prior to getting the blood work results was cancer. No real sane reason for thinking anything might be wrong on that front, but the nugget of doubt was firmly placed in my mind, and like an oyster, it just grew and grew and grew.... happily, no such thing... My overall levels were perfect, iron, red blood cell count etc. etc. with one unsurprising blip. My cholesterol. Its not off the charts, not even in the HIGH risk bracket, but it is elevated. Now that being said. My blood work was taken prior to two weeks of good eating and exercise, so who knows. We have new blood work on the calendar for 3 months time. I am confident that the cholesterol will be in check at that time.

Hmm... there was supposed to be good news with the bad....lol...

Oh, I guess the fact that I am 100% on track, getting my gym membership this week, haven't felt any desire to cheat or lapse at this point is a good news item...lol...

Dee is going out today and picking up a bunch of cooking supplies. I am increasingly disgusted with the amount of sodium I am taking in, all while trying to avoid it. Sodium my friends, is everywhere and in everything, its just plain crazy. For example, I like plain water, but sometimes I like a flavoured water for a change of pace. This morning when I left the Doc's I dropped in the grocery store to pick up my lunch ( grapes, broccoli florets and a friggin Lean Cuisine sodium bomb) I bought a bottle of Aguafina Flavour Splash... guess wat? SODIUM... 170 mgs of the friggin' stuff. So, anyway, we are going to be doing a little cooking, packaging and freezing in order to get the closest to unprocessed as we can and hopefully that will help alleviate the sodium fiasco.

That's about it for now I guess, I hope you guys who are reading this like the new blog layout, I like my banner, everyday its there as a reminder of where I was, where I dropped, and what I screwed up and let slip. I will be changing out the last picture in the banner from time to time as I evolve, so it will be an interesting thing to keep your eyes on.

Hope you all have a good Monday!

Tidbits

My son is a demon spawn.

He was eating Chocolate Chip Pop-Tarts. And he was insisting I have one.

"Come on Daddy," he said, " You know you want one.."

"No thanks Gabe, Dad isn't eating that stuff anymore.."

"But it's full of chocolate, it's goooo-oooooood."

"I bet it is Gabe but daddy had his breakfast."

"But you want it don't you, it's yummy!"

Demon... demon... DEMON... lol... I persevered though, whew....

I DO love Pop-Tarts though... heh

I've missed blogging, as you might be able to tell from the frequency of my posts. I enjoy it, it motivates me and keeps me honest. I also missed just talking, telling a story, weaving a tale and reviewing it way down the road to see how full of shit I was at any given point. Not looking for lies, when I say full of shit I mean how confident I was in one thing or another only to not see it come to fruition. It's why I am being cautious with my goals this time, and a little guarded about my progress. I will get back to where I was and better ( by better I mean better in the cardio department, I am going to be biking this time, mainly because I want to be able to share that with my boys ), but I am not going to obsess and nitpick each and every milestone along the way. I used to do that, and I was also a camera whore. I'll take pics, but I won't be doing it as often and to the frequency I was in the past.

But yeah, back to missing blogging. It's like putting on an old comfortable sweater and being surprised to find it still fits. I slip into blogging mode that easily and with the same amount of comfort. If anything, I have to really watch myself to make sure I take the sweater off from time to time so it dosn't start stinking up the joint or wearing thin you know. Yes yes, I do like me a good anaology from time to time lol. It's also nice to see I have some returning visitors each day, means that some of you are enjoying this enough to come back each day, and thats satisying to me, and rewarding. My hope is as we progress that some of you may feel comfortable enough to take part in the comments section, ask some questions, take me to task on any of the more isiotic things I might say...

Shifting gears...

Was watching X-weighted last night. I generally enjoy the show if for no other reason than to see the looks of joy on peoples faces at the end of the program. However, I am more and more becoming a little miffed with the draconian measures the show takes. It's almost as if they treat these folks not at adults who have made a positive lifestyle change, but as hardened criminals who have pleaded guilty to the crime of obesity and must now pay the price. It obviously works, for the most part, but sometimes the extremes seem, well, a little extreme to me. Hey, god knows that maybe that kind of constant vigilance might have kept the weight off of me, but I am a firm believer, and it worked to at least TAKE the weight off me, that you MUST allow yourself a treat occasionally, and that you MUST make a gradual adjustment to ease in, other wise, lapses can and will happen. Just my opinion...

Said something to Shane today that I think will become my motto...

"I must learn to not only be excited about the journey, but I MUST be every bit as excited about the destination"

Before pics.... kinda... lol

What a great day! Got up this morning after a wee sleep in, a real treat for us let me tell you. Started in on some dishes, had a little breakfast ( mini-wheats and skim milk ), and went out and mowed the lawn. Now, I know its not much of a mile stone, however, 3 weeks ago when I mowed the lawn I actually had to take a break a couple of times, it was long and the mower was bogging down... same this time, it's been mega raining here and today was actually the first time I got a chance to mow the lawn. Well, not a problem, mowed the whole thing AND racked it and didn't feel like I needed much of a break at all. Little steps people, little steps...


Anyhoo... the reason for this post, beyond the lawn mowing thing, was that Dee took a couple of pics of Gabe and I when we were raking. I look huge, well, the reason being, I AM huge, but I look happy, and I don't look worn out and for now I am ok with that. Thing is it will serve as a decent before pic for now. When you have the mass to lose I do clothed pics can show as much as semi-nekkid ones. I figure come X-mas I'll have enough mass gone to start in on the shirt off pics and start tracking the progress on a finer scale.

Wow, that was painless...lol... kinda

Measurements addition

Just found some of my old blogs from 4 years ago. I thought, and I was right, that I had some measurements in there from what I am now calling my pinnacle, the period of time that I was at my best prior to the fulcrum swinging back to the condition I now find myself in... I don't want to beat myself up over this much more, but just for my own benifit here they are...

First, from March 2002...

Neck- 15.5 '
Chest- 46 '
Waist - 40 '
Left Upper Arm un-flexed - 12 '
Left forearm - 10
Thigh - 23' (both side)
Calf - 16' (both side)

Not bad... this was 7 months into my transformation. Sadly I don't have any measurements from the very start, this was 100 lbs later...

Now, from Feb 2004

Neck- 16 '
Chest- 44.5 '
Waist - 34.5 '
Left Upper Arm un-flexed - 13.5 '
Left Upper Arm flexed - 15.75 '
Right Upper Arm un-flexed - 13'
Left Upper Arm flexed - 15.25'
Left forearm - 11.5
Right forearm - 11.5
Thigh - 22' (both side)
Calf - 16.5 (both side)

I could seriously cry...

I'll be happy to get back to the first lot, be happier when I am closer to the second lot.

Label reading and sodium

Well, after our walk this evening Dee and I went to Wal-Mart to pick up a few things. We ended up just cruising the aisles and reading the labels on a bunch of stuff. At first blush, sodium is EVERYWHERE and in EVERYTHING. In large amounts. In using my FitDay food calculator I was noticing a fair amount of sodium and was wondering where the heck all that crap was coming from, the sort answer is EVERYWHERE. Crazy...

We ended up in the cereal aisle. Now I am a HUGE fan of Vector Cereal. It's marketed as a healthy alternative, a meal replacement even, and supposed to have a ton of wholesome goodness in it... well, you know what else it has, a BUCKETLOAD of sodium! 365 mgs of the stuff to be exact, and thats before you add the milk, which by the way has, you guess it, sodium as well! What was even more surprising to me was when I compared the Vector to a kids cereal. You would expect the kids cereal to have not so much goodness and more calories via sugar. Surprise, not so... the kids cereal had half the calories in the same serving, only 25 mgs and the actual nutritional values were much the same. Crazy, and then, shreaded wheat... top dog by far, more fibre, no sodium and low calories. Needless to say the shreaded wheat was what came home with me!

Lesson to be learned? Read labels, understand that what you may believe about a food and whats in it may be very far removed from the truth.

The holy shit aftermath...

Nada...

After brewing over it and really feeling kinda freaked out, depressed, pissed off and a gambit of other emotions, the wife, the kids and I loaded up and went for a 3.8 klick walk around Quidi Vidi.

Thing is, it's a number, a horrible one, but it'll never be that high again... all it will do is look even better once I take this crap off...

Anyhoo... just a shortie to say that I am not letting that hinder or depress me in the least... time to move on and take it all off..