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Posts Tagged ‘Health’

Health Report for March 2011

No Comments » Written on March 25th, 2011 by
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Last week I was in to see my doctor. There’s been some question about “protein levels” in a previous blood screening a few months back, and so we did a follow-up. Yeah, nothing particularly alarming, but he wanted to up my levels of B12 and D3 (vitamin D3 in particular being the new darling of the vitamin research world).

While I was there, I asked him about the pain I’ve been having in my left arm, which my Pilates instructor diagnosed as tendinitis. He agreed, performing his own rudimentary and direct test of this hypothesis by applying pressure just forward and around from my elbow and asking “does this hurt?”

“Yeah, it does, and you can stop now,” was my reply. At which point we kicked around likely causes (I suspect the curl exercises I’ve been doing in Pilates) and my options to either let it heal (a long, slow process) or go in for some steroid injections to deal with the pain while I let it heal.

Unless it becomes worse, I’m foregoing the shots. The pain is minimal most of the time. On the downside though, there are times when I seem to have almost no strength in my left hand, limiting what I can carry or lift. I’m starting to think of my left arm as my T-rex arm, comparatively wimpy and useless, but good for waving around. And so it goes.

In other health-type news, I’ve put back on some of the weight I’d lost. Part of this can be blamed on succumbing to various yummy treats at the Lunacon parties (damn you, Ian!), but only part. My exercise regimen also took a hit in the last couple of weeks from conflicting appointments and travel. I need to get back the Improved Nutrition and Exercise horse and resume my slow decline in mass.

And that’s about it Health-wise. I’m still hitting the gym several times each week, doing four miles on the machines when I’m there, and I’m also having my ass kicked by the Pilates instructor twice a week. Time will tell if the miracle D3 does anything for me when I head back to my doctor’s in about four months for a new blood panel or two. Till then, the goal is to continue with eating better and less, and moving more.

What is this Sleep thing of which you speak?

1 Comment » Written on February 28th, 2011 by
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Most of my life I’ve found that I’m good with six hours of sleep. I rarely feel the need for more, and in fact I’m not usually able to “sleep in” even when circumstances allow.

More and more frequently though, I am waking up in the wee hours of the morning. Sometimes it’s because I need to pee. Sometimes because my wife has smacked me in her sleep. Sometimes the wind does it. Sometimes it’s a leg cramp. Sometimes someone in a dream taps me on the shoulder and tells me to wake up.

Whatever the reason though, that’s usually it. I’m awake. And when I try to return to sleep my mind fills with little details. Things I need to attend to at the DayJob that morning, or plot complications in a novel I’m writing, or logistical minutia in someone else’s fiction that I’m publishing, or health plans, or dog plans, or travel plans, or weird grammatical constructions in Klingon, or some damn thing or other.

The point is, I don’t fall back to sleep. I’m up, and that’s that, and too bad that it’s 4am. Up is up and that’s all there is.

Today was another such start to the day. Ugh. Not a good way to start the week, but there you go.

Monday. Again. (A Health Update)

No Comments » Written on January 24th, 2011 by
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What with traveling, weather, and a general lack of interst, I didn’t get to the gym much last week. That’s not a habit I want to promote, so dark and early this morning I was out the door and on my way to the Y. Ugh.

At 6:00 a.m. I was on the road. The car has a temperature display and as I drove I watched it drop from the brisk 24 degrees that the car had been at in the garage  all the way down to ZERO by the time I reached Ambler.

I put in a bit over an hour on the elliptical this morning for a grand total of four and a half miles moved and 800 calories burned. A good beginning to the day.

I’m still fat, but I feel stronger than I can ever remember feeling, with improved posture and flexibility (thank you, Pilates!). My blood pressure is down where it’s supposed to be. My blood sugar is down where it’s supposed to be. My weight, well, it’s plateaued again, but I’ll keep working on that. I continue to eat little refined sugar or bread, though I have loosened up from my previous zero tolerance policy. Quantity continues to be an issue, but with the stress of the last novel off my back I’m managing that a bit better too.

All in all, my life is extraordinarily good. Hoping you are the same.

Getting Fitter

No Comments » Written on January 3rd, 2011 by
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For 2010, Valerie and I had memberships to the Plymouth Meeting Community Center, which features a small workout room and a very nice pool. Although I continued to swim once or twice a week, most of our exercise came from using the elliptical machines in the workout room. The PMCC has three of these machines, with a limit of only 30 minutes of use if someone has signed up and is waiting. This became more and more of a problem for us. I was content to use a treadmill (of which there were about a dozen), but Valerie only wanted the elliptical. This frequently meant having to wait for a machine to free up, which potentially played havok with my getting-to-work-on-time schedule.

On the last day of 2010 we visited a nearby YMCA. It’s a brand new facility. It’s freaking huge! And they have about 20 ellipticals. The pool doesn’t have as many lanes, but the jacuzzi and sauna are better. Plus, they have more classes, and Valerie claims she’ll take some of them and get to socialize thereby. We’ll see.

We plonked down a year’s membership (sneaking in at the 2010 rates and having the “joining fee” waved, which made me very happy). And then we worked out, racing away on the ellipticals for the better part of an hour. A good way to end the year.

On Saturday morning, I was reminded of that adage “Begin as you intend to continue” and so while Valerie was at her morning meeting I went off to the gym. Since I had no time limit, I used an elliptical for an hour, doing a bit over four miles. Then I hit the pool for another quarter mile (I normally do half a mile, but that’s instead of walking). I was feeling beat. Later, back at home, I shoveled snow from the driveway to avoid the hazards of an icey drive when the snowmelt refroze. And still later, I took Gej for a walk. Ooof. Too much exertion for this Lawrence in one day.

Sunday I rested.

Today, I hit the gym hard, going a bit over an hour and putting in four miles on the elliptical before heading to work from there. We’ll see how long I can keep this up. As my endurance builds and my weight declines, I’m hoping I can get back to my personal best of a few years ago and manage five miles in an hour.