Category: Plan C

There’s a good news story on the fitness front I forgot to tell. On Thursday when I rode home from the Chiropractor, I was on Beach Ave and to connect with the Burrard Bridge bike lane, you have to ride up Hornby Street. For those of you familiar with that area of Vancouver, this is a steep block. According to Google Maps it’s 150 m with a 12 m elevation gain. In the past when I tried this block, it was a for sure dismount halfway through.

On Thursday, I dropped the gears way down and hit Hornby from Beach on a right hand turn and just pedalled and pedalled and made it to the top. Yes, I was winded, but nothing like in the past.

Message: if you’re looking for changes in your fitness after protracted trying, you may need to try something you haven’t in a long time and see what happens.

Oddly, I just noticed I only have 10 days left in Plan C. I guess I better plan for Plan D ’cause I know I ain’t done.

Now, no one wants to hear about one’s physical problems, but what the heck. This is a diet/fitness blog entry.

Yesterday was a good day. I did a gym work out and I included stair master and battle ropes, so I was feeling pretty good. I rode home via the Chiropractor and she worked on my annoying hip. It’s funny because after and adjustment you sometimes think, “Did this do anything?” However, in this case the hip was feeling quite open.

Could I have found the solution set of physio, physio homework and chiropractic? It was karate night so I realized I was feeling rather tired. But I wanted to see if I could do the class and keep the hip in the location the Chiropractor put it. And maintain the postural elements of each move such that the stupid, lazy, gone-on-vacation glute muscles could actually help.

About 15 minutes before the end of the class, I was lying flat on a table asking my right leg, where it connects to the glutes, to relax. It was on fire and the message from the leg was “Get off me.” I think I was semi-catatonic for about 5 minutes.

Upon returning to the class, I realized my stomach hurt. It took a 15-minute rest period at home for that to settle down. Of course I wondered all along, “Jeez, is this the time to ask to be driven to Emergency for the hernia?”

It wasn’t until today I knew why rest was the answer, not the hospital. Your hernia is strangulated when there is a sharp pain when you cough and you can’t apply pressure to the hernia without sharp pain.

I think my name of this diet, “the hernia diet” is appropriate.

Sore from Yoga. I did the trick where I asked the glute muscles to actually frigging pitch in for once. Quelle surprise. I felt more stable in poses like Warrior I. Very similar to the experience in karate. Now all I need is the hip muscle that seems to be the only member of the family doing any work to actually dive in.

Diet-wise I’m slipping a bit. Carbs sneaking in. The bastards. Must resist … However don’t resist going to Pasksville and clicking on something!

What about Wednesdays? Today is a yoga class day and that’s fine. Except I can’t do wide leg forward folds or triangle poses. The hernia during these poses seems to want to jump out like a xenomorph from Alien.

I worked on the glute muscles yesterday in that I wondered if they could be activated better during karate. Yes they can but only if I imagine — when doing a block for example — that I’m bringing my leg tighter into the leg socket. This opens the hip, tightens the glutes, and stretches (surprisingly) my quad.

The problem is that the glute turns off and goes on vacation the moment I stop concentrating.

Who wants to think about one’s own ass that much? Sheesh.

Time for a drink in Vancouver.

The weather fooled me and I rode my bike anyway. I hope it clears up before I have to ride home. Hopefully a trip to the gym will happen where I can work on trying to wake up the recalcitrant right gluteal muscles. Apparently there are three of them. Bummer.

I’m not sure what’s happening to my step count. It’s off from the Mutant Diet Average.

And I just got off the phone with the doctor’s office. 8-9 month wait for a consult with the hernia surgeon. Good grief.

Yesterday I kind of flipped the bird to the rice restriction and had sushi. Still too hungry. Today I was at a physio and dentist appointments all before 10 AM. The locked up hip joint can be released with stretching and needles but it does not stay that way.

Now I have two new exercises and a promise to stab me with more needles in two weeks. How can a guy who grew up in Toronto in the 1970s have a weak right glute muscle? Honestly.‎
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Yoga yesterday was intense. Of all the teachers, the dancer-style yoga teacher on Sundays seems best at delivering intense hatha classes. But it would ‎have been more intense had I not been compensating for the damn hernia. According to the physiotherapist the lack of ab muscle integrity is aggravating the hip. Great.

‎Oh well. That’s why Plan C is called the hernia diet. There was no way this was going to be easier with an abdominal injury.

At first I was thinking Plan C, the hernia diet, was feeling the same as the original Mutant Diet and Plan B. Not so. I have never eaten left over salad a) ever and b) during the late night news.

WTF? I am much hungrier this time. And, given I can’t really force the exercise as much due to my friend the hernia, I can’t really attribute hunger to added exercise.

And I am noticing body changes in some of my least favourite lard storage locations. I wonder if and how this will show up in a couple of weeks on the weight and % body fat numbers.

OK. Yesterday was a lot. The Stanley Park ride (please see my article with 20 pictures) was OK because I had to stop and take pictures along the way and type notes into my Blackberry. But I think the hernia hated the stopping and starting more than the actual riding!

When I arrived home, Catherine and Tim had just cleaned the kitchen and I said no I can’t make a mess of that. At Vera’s Burger Shack, I did avoid the bun but could not resist the fries and pop. Although I did donate 1/2 of the fries to C & T. I was far hungrier than I realized and the cravings were far more intense.

I have a hard time imagining battling a real addiction like tobacco, opiates or Netflix.

Today I can share the new workout Victoria has designed that reduces the risk of me blowing my hernia wide open. The sugar cravings are brutal, honestly. And I suspect generally as a society we treat this as weak-mindedness as opposed to an organic chemistry. However, when faced with no tools other than will power, what else do you do?

The workout below involves a lot of machines. The “drop set” means that when I do a normal set of 15 reps, I then lower the weight and do another 15 really fast. At first this seems pointless, but 5 reps into it, you feel the burn.

OK. Real work awaits.

Day 2 was a hungrier day. I weakened at the crucial 2 PM time. I have these power bars that just don’t taste good enough to overcome chocolate madness. I think this should be an actual medical condition where all sense is thrown to the wind when the Chocolate Need grabs you.

However, I did notice the loosening of skin, especially around the neck, which comes when the carbs are dramatically reduced.

Today is the initial weigh-in and I plan not to look at the numbers. Situational stress is making me feel a bit Eeyore-ish and the addition of potentially depressing numbers won’t help. Of course at the end of the 21 days all will be revealed.

I also find out what kinds of new exercises I can do to build strength with (I hope) low risk of ejecting my hernia.