01-25-12 – Just another day

I’m having a bit of a crazy week at work this week.  The last two days,  it’s just been one problem after another.  Is there a full moon this week?  Maybe it’s that massive solar storm that hit the planet the other night!  Having a crazy week at work is a good thing, though, and do you know why?  Because I’m getting a paycheck, and not an unemployment check!  Anything could be worse, right?

This hasn’t been a good week on the back pain frontier.  Tonight, it’s a little better than  it has been the last two days.  I’ve been taking some herbal supplements lately.  One of them is myrrh tablets, as in gold, frankincense and myrrh.  It’s supposed to be a natual anti-inflammatory.  I had run out, and just got a new supply today.  Could it be that the myrrh tablets are helping more than I thought?  I don’t know, but I guess I’m going to keep taking it for the time being. 

I attended my Weight Watchers meeting today.  I attended by phone, because I wasn’t physically there.  I belong to a Weight Watchers @ Work group, and I’ve been telecommuting quite a bit lately, so I just connect to the meetings by phone.  It’s not as good as being there live, but I got a good idea out of today’s meeting.  Our leader said, “Did you ever eat something really fattening, like french fries, and they aren’t really that good, but you eat them anyway, and afterwards you wonder why you wasted your points for that”?  And I, personally, have done that on many occasions, such as last weekend, when I had a mediocre order of fries, but ate them anyway!  I’ve done this with egg rolls, also, another one of my weaknesses.

But, like I said in my post the other night, it’s one day at a time, one hour at a time, one moment at a time.  Last Saturday was not a good day, but it’s in the past, and I can learn from it, but I can’t do anything to go back and change it.  Today, on the other hand, was a pretty good day, at least as far as my food intake goes.  My pain was pretty bad, but, if I take off some of this weight, I’m sure the pain level will improve.  Granted, I’ll never be completely pain-fee because of the arthritis and spinal stenosis, but I just want to be able to live a more normal life than I am right now.

Back a long time ago, when this blog was called “Reduction Road Odyssey”, I had a page called my “I Want” list.  I took this page off when I revamped the blog over last weekend, because there are some items on there that are not motivational, because I’ve discovered that there are some things on the list that I really don’t care about being able to do.  I’m in the process, however,  of updating this “I Want” list, so look for it to be added as a page to “Atherton’s Shack” sometime this weekend.  Stay tuned . . . . .

 

01-23-12 – The American Dream

I discovered this video on youtube a while back and I decided to share it here.  It’s a short, animated documentary film which provides a brief history of the Federal Reserve Bank and the havoc it has brought to the economy over the course of the last century.  It’s called The American Dream.  If you like it, consider sharing it with others.  And consider supporting the filmmakers who made this terrific, educational and entertaining film.  Here is the link – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tGk5ioEXlIM&feature=youtube_gdata_player

01-23-12 – Hello, I’m back!

I guess this is kind of like a “Hello, World” post since I’ve been absent from this blog for almost two years now.  I really wasn’t planning on it being this long, but it’s the procastinator in me.  I kept putting off and putting off getting back to it.  But, here I am. Better late than never, as they say.

I decided to rename the blog.  It is now called “Atherton’s Shack”, instead of “Reduction Road Odyssey”.  It’s still the same URL, but whereas “Reduction Road Odyssey” was dedicated almost exclusively to weight loss, “Atherton’s Shack” is going to be about whatever I feel like writing about.  If you were a “Reduction Road Odyssey” reader, I will still be doing posts on weight loss, but I’m also going to delve into other topics.  If you want to know where the name “Atherton’s Shack” came from, you can read my ‘About’ page.

This first post is going to be about weight loss, so here we go.  I have been struggling with weight problems for almost all of my life.  About a decade ago, I really started ballooning up in weight, even though I was already overweight.  I ended up weighing in excess of 400 pounds, and I haven’t been able to get back down below that mark.  I’ve been a member of Weight Watchers for almost 3 years now.  At first, I had some success, losing 54 pounds.  But then, things started falling apart, as they tend to do, and I reverted to a lot of old and bad habits.  I’ve gained back about half of the weight that I lost initially on Weight Watchers.  So, weight-wise, things aren’t too good right now.

I sometimes wish that the weight was the only health issue I’m facing, but it’s not.  I don’t want to get all whiney here, but I have some fairly significant back problems, as well.  I have degenerative arthritis in my back, plus I have spinal stenosis.  Obesity, arthritis, and spinal stenosis makes for a bad combination.  Trust me on this!  I get sciatica-type pain shooting down both sides, and my back creaks and pops every time I move, so I have a lot of daily pain as well.

Over the past year, the pain has gotten to the point where sometimes it’s just almost unbearable.  I’ve lost a little weight, then gained a little weight, then lost a little, gained a little, and on and on.  So, I need to get the weight loss going consistently in the down direction, since that’s the part of my trifecta of problems that I have the most control over.  That’s one of the reasons I’m starting up the blog again, to get some cyber-support!

There have been times over the past year that the pain has been so bad that I’ve missed work because of it.  More recently, I’ve been working from home quite a bit, because it’s easier, although it does get lonely, because I live alone.  There have been a number of times when the pain has literally brought me to tears.  Of course, I don’t cry in public.  After all, I am a dude!  Boys don’t cry, right?

So, what I’m going to do is go back to what was working for me when I had my initial success on Weight Watchers.  Somehow, it’s gotten removed from my mindset, but I’m going to put it back in.  It’s really quite simple.  It’s one day at a time, one hour at a time, one moment at a time.  We can learn from the past, but we can’t go back in time and change the past.  And 5 seconds ago is already in the past.  And we certainly can’t go forward in time and try to control the future.  The only time we can control is right here, right now.  So, that’s what I’m going to get back to, and I’m going to exercise some of that control over the present moment right here, right now.  I feel hungry right now, but I know I’ve had enough to eat today, and I know the hunger is psychological, not physical.  Plus, it’s midnight here where I am, and that’s a bad time to eat.  So, when I get done with this post, I’m just going to go to bed, and that’s that.

I will be doing regular updates on my health and weight loss efforts, but probably not every day.  Instead, I will write about whatever I feel like writing about in that moment.  In this moment, I felt like writing about my health and weight issues, so that’s what I did.

I would love to read any comments that anyone might have, but please do me a favor and keep them positive.  I will probably delete any negative comments.  I already get enough negativity from the recesses of my own brain.  Beliwve me, if mentally beating up on yourself was a professional sport, I’d be a multi-millionaire by now!!  If you absolutely must yell at me, and can’t control yourself, then go ahead, I can’t stop you.  I can press the ‘delete’ button, though.

OK, I guess that’s enough for tonight.  It’s way past my bedtime, anyway, seeing as I have to work in the morning.  So, once again, Hello, World, I’m back – welcome to “Atherton’s Shack”!

02-28-10 – Going on sabbatical

This is going to be my last post for a while.  I’ve decided to take a break from writing this blog.  Not that I’ve been doing that much writing anyway.  I find that I don’t really have anything new or different to say.  I’m getting tired of getting that feeling of deja vu every time I write a post.  It’s like I’ve already written it before.

I thought that I would try to freshen things up by calling this “The Year of Paul”, but that hasn’t really worked.  It’s not that I don’t want this year to be better than last year.  I do.  I just can’t escape the fact that every post I write is a variation of a post that I’ve written before.  I have no new ideas.

I’m not really a great writer, anyway.  That, combined with the deja vu feeling, makes every post feel like a chore.  So, Reduction Road Odyssey will be going dark for a time.  I’m not sure for how long yet.  It may be for one month, it may be forever.  So, until my next post, whenever that may be, take care and be well.

02-17-10 – Weight Watchers Update

Well, I guess it could have been worse.  I was pretty sure i was going to have a gain this week, and I did.  1.2 pounds.  I was very close to another 5 pound increment, and now I’m a little further away from it.  It’s still acheivable by my weigh-in next week, but only if I can manage to stay on track.  That’s the ticket.

I also need to get to the fitness center and get on the treadmill a few times between now and next week.  So, I know exactly what I need to do, I just need to do it.  Wait a minute, have I written this before?  I’m getting a feeling of deja vu here.

Of course I’ve written this before!  Or at least something similar.  And, I bet I’ve written it many times!  I guess I need to keep reminding myself.

02-15-10 – I did it again

I did it again.  The same thing that I’ve done so many weekends before, a total breakdown of my willpower.  I didn’t track anything I ate, and I probably consumed more fat than I would in an entire week if I were sticking to plan.  All I can say is that I’m not looking forward to weighing in on Wednesday, because I don’t think it’s going to be pretty.

I have to get back on track, but it seems whenever I have a bad weekend, making it through the next week seems that much harder.  I don’t really have a choice, though, because I have to keep going,  I had a really good stratch for several weeks, but the last few weeks, even before this weekend, just haven’t gone as well.  I have to get some mojo going again.

That’s really all I have to say tonight.  That about tells the story in a few words.  This week will be a better week, though.  It has to be.

More snow!

I know I just whined in my last post about being sick of winter, but here in Delaware, we got hit again last night and today.  The total for this storm is about a foot, and it hasn’t stopped yet.  That means that between the weekend storm and today’s, we’ve gotten about 3 feet of snow in less than a week.  I’m reay to go to the Caribbean!

Conditions here are so bad that my company actually shut down today.  That’s the first time I can ever remember that happening.  I’ve had “You can leave early because of the weather” or “You can come in late because of the weather” but never “We’re shutting down because of the weather”.

I was going to log on and get a little work done anyway, but then we had a six-and-a-half hour power outage, which pretty much eradicated any ambition on my part to work, especially since the temperature in my apartment went down by almost ten degrees during the outage and I ended up walking around wearing my winter parka!  After power was restored, my heat cranked on for a full two hours without ever cycling off.  The temperature’s back to normal now.

OK, enough about the weather.  I obviously didn’t get to my Weight Watchers meeting today.  I’m not sure whether I’ll be able to attend another meeting before the end of the week, so I may not have a weigh-in this week.  If not, I’ll just have to wait until next week.

As far as the plan goes, I’ve been doing alright on points, but I haven’t been doing a good job of getting in my fruits, vegetables and dairy.  I’ve been getting too much starch and too much fat, so I have to pay better attention to the healthy stuff.

That’s it for tonight.  I hope that wherever you are, it’s sunny and warm!!

I’m ready for Spring

I know it’s early yet, but I’m ready for Spring.  As a matter of fact, I’m ready for Summer, too.

I live in the state of Delaware, where we normally don’t have large accumulations of snow.  I’ve been living here five years now, and there’s only been one snowstorm in that time that brought in over a foot of accumulation.

Until this year, that is.  This weekend, we had our second huge snowstorm of this winter season.  In December, we had a storm that brought in 17 inches.  This weekend, we had another huge dump.  I’m not sure what the official tally is yet.  Some estimates are 2 feet.  I was outside this afternoon to clean off my car.  I don’t think we got that much, but it’s definitely more than 1 foot.

I guess I better really start socking money away so I can afford to retire to a warm climate some day.  I’m no longer going to make fun of all the Seniors packing into Florida and Arizona, because maybe I’ll be joining them someday!

The Year of Paul – Day 34

I had my weigh-in and Weight Watchers meeting today.  I’m now down a total of 54.2 pounds.  Whoo-hoo!!!  That means I’m getting close to another 5-pound increment.

That reminds me that I still haven’t purchased my reward for hitting the 50-pounds lost mark.  It’s going to be a special heavy-duty task chair to use at home so I don’t have to continue sitting in this uncomfortable dining room chair whenever I’m online.  I have to start looking for a good chair.

In other events, I’ve managed to haul my butt to the fitness center at work twice this week to do the treadmill.  I still haven’t started any additional exercises, but I have upped my speed and my time on the treadmill by a little bit.  I guess I’m going to take it slow so I don’t get burned out and stop going.  That’s it for tonight, I’m going to bed early.

It’s simple, but not easy

Losing weight is a very simple thing to do.  All you have to do is burn more calories than you consume.  Period.  That’s it.  All there is to it.  Exercising is simple, too.  All you have to do is move your body, and do it enough to burn calories.  Incredibly simple.

It’s not easy, though.  This journey I’m on to lose a lot of weight and to get healthier is without a doubt the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life.  I’m not looking for any sympathy or pity here, but if you’re reading this, and you’re struggling with, or have struggled with, weight issues, then you know what I mean.  Simple in concept does not equate to easy in reality.

I know that when I’m on track, I lose weight, and I feel better.  Since I’ve restarted my weight loss counter in May 2009 (when I joined Weight Watchers) I have lost about 50 pounds.  I’ll know exactly how much tomorrow when I weigh in.  I KNOW IT WORKS!  But I keep running into roadblocks along the way, as I’m sure we all do.  It’s called life, right?  Sometimes, I can plow through the roadblock, sometimes I end up taking a detour.  Detours happen, but the key is to get back on the road quickly.

Before May of last year, I had a detour that lasted nine months.  I’m not kidding.  It took me nine months to find my way back to the road.  Since then, the longest detour I’ve taken has lasted about a week-and-a-half.  And the evidence is clear.  About 50 poounds lost.  Since I have such a large amount to lose, my journey is still in its opening act.  Every weight loss effort I’ve made in the past has never gotten beyond the opening act.  This time, it will.  I don’t know yet how many acts are in this play, but there’s definitely going to be more than one.

Roadblocks happen.  Detours happen.  I suppose if it were simple AND easy, it would be pretty boring.  Boring is no good, so it’s simple, but not easy.  That’s the journey, at least for me, and that’s life.

I’ll try and remember to post tomorrow night with my exact weight tally.