Blog

It’s 8 AM, raining, and I have to give a presentation today on RESPs. Unrelated to diet/fitness. No as much as you’d think. I totally ran out of supplies yesterday evening. And I had to rush out to a walk-around Kits Secondary to meet teachers. Totally worth doing.

All I could muster for dinner was grilled cheese and tomato sandwiches for my son and me.

Oops. Wheat. Lack of Time + Lack of Supplies = Wheat.

Today is not going to be much better. Pizza is on the horizon!

For some reason, pizza makes me think of Toronto.

My conclusion is that if I have not worked out enough during the day to truly need wine and ibuprofen at the end of the evening, I’m doing something wrong. The yoga crowd says not to work through pain, but they have never experience Ford family hamstrings. If Satan really knew about my hamstrings (and those of most of my relatives with the surname Ford) he’d put those same hamstrings on all those coming to Hell.

The ride around Stanley Park was wonderful yesterday on the last day of summer. Check out the link. Sadly someone crashed her bike over the seawall at low tide. I rode by the gaggle of first responders and did not know how bad it was until I saw the local news. (Story here bc.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=956805) It was unclear to the reporters and me how she got from the bike lane, over a curb and then over the seawall.

A sobering set of circumstances. Ride safely everyone!

The whole hernia thing was anticlimactic. ‎ Short answer: come back in 6 months.

Longer answer: His view is that my weight caused it and my exercise and weight loss revealed it. Important note people: being a lard ball can give you a hernia. Once in lard ball form, trying to add tons of fitness will make the hernia stand out. Literally. However, the doctor does not think my exercise regime is risky. He wants me to finish my weight loss and stabilize the weight so that when he does operate, we’re not at risk of a sudden weight gain that would stress the repair or a sudden weight loss that would loosen the repair. Both scenarios are apparently undesirable.

The unknown here is trying to figure out what my stable weight is. I’m working (like a relaxed snail) toward 250 but we won’t know if that’s “it” until I’m actually there.

Also, another trick with the hernia belt … you’re supposed to put it on lying down when the muscles are in a normal position. Crazy, hey?‎ Too obvious for me.

So, who knew that you’d have to work out really hard and diet to prep for an abdominal operation? Sheesh. This was supposed to be simulated prep for a role in a superhero show!

Start of week 3. 85 days to go. The numbers are so-so in the chart below. The weather, a cold and scheduling conflicts are not helping.

Today I see the surgeon about the hernia. Hopefully a path forward will be the result of this. It would also help to know how far I can push myself in my current condition. The advice and information around this are inconsistent.

Wish me luck!

Green Lantern joke: it’s darkest night out at 9:15 AM when I’m writing this. Big rain storm hit Vancouver. So, it’s a public transit and then hopefully a walk home day.

I’m feeling a bit nervous as there’s still a whole day left for the surgeon’s office to cancel my consultation regarding this dumb hernia. I was clever yesterday when unloading the truck for Carolin’s youth orchestra. There were other helpers who took the timpani up the stairs. Hah. I of course had to stay behind and guard the truck, right?

I managed to re-supply at Safeway with pre-cooked chicken. I bought ground beef which I turned into my mushroom/olive stew. Maybe this Friday I can do a proper Costco run. I can buy double the chicken (if I cook it) for the same price.

There’s a lot going on and I need to focus.

In contrast to yesterday’s pouring rain, it’s gorgeous today. What’s boggling my mind in diet/fitness is that despite eating at a pub for brunch yesterday and enjoying steak, eggs, hash browns and sour dough toast and then in the evening having sushi, my belt and pasts feel looser today.

My muscles are sore due to an intense yoga class and the hernia/stomach area was not happy, but the carbs should have inflated me like a helium balloon, but heavier.

I still don’t have proper meat supplies so I have a challenge going into this week.

Holy cow is it raining. As I write this I am in a dry Starbucks on the North Shore. Why? I volunteered to drive the equipment truck for the Vancouver Youth Symphony Orchestra. Why? Because my daughter plays for them. Still, why, you might ask. With many children’s organization you can pay to not volunteer or you can volunteer. By driving the truck I am done with volunteering for the year.

I have no luck with flat tires. Yesterday I found a ruddy sharp carpentry screw in my rear tire when I was about to ride home. A trip to a bike shop at Robson and Cardero was required.

I also had a cunning plan to buy meat supplies on the North Shore today and wouldn’t you know it … no Costco in either North Vancouver or West Vancouver.

Driving around in a UHaul van in this crap weather is ill-advised. Well, I have a lot of work to do and there’s a lot of coffee where I am.

The scratchy throat is not helping. The weather has been fantastic for riding so I’m seeing pretty decent number for the week. The weather may make this a different story next week.

I’m in a danger zone because I’m out of my meat supplies and I have a commitment this weekend that will make obtaining and preparing such thing much more difficult. I need to come up with some sort of plan that won’t cost me the moon.

Finally took my BP and pulse. I didn’t like the number. But I was unable to concentrate enough to relax. I went to bed earlier than normal. However, my body woke me up after the same number of too few hours that I’d had all week. Grr.

Breath and focus. One step at a time. Mind over matter. Bladders aren’t full; they’re distended. Socks aren’t lost; they’re in between places. Diets don’t fail; it just that overweight people gain weight. D’oh!

I really should create a top 10 list of classic easily-repeatable diet mistakes.

Yesterday:

Mistake 1: Run out of meat supplies at home

Mistake 2: Hold off eating at a normal meal time in order to wait for others (in this case wife and son) to arrive.

Mistake 3: Eat your son’s leftovers (which had wheat) because a) you paid for it and b) you are still hungry due to Mistake 2.

They didn’t put the word “die” in dieting by accident.

I really have to take my BP and Pulse tonight. Things have been busy and stuff like this takes longer than you think. And I made a wheat choice this morning because I was at Starbucks having a meeting involving my volunteer work and I was unwilling to lose more sleep and bang around the apartment just to have a “legal” meal.

This is the reality of diet/fitness. I had a slightly shorter ride because our Smart Car had lost both headlights and that had to be dealt with.

And I might even lose more riding km due to having to meet my daughter at an eye appointment.

• Automobile maintenance
• Volunteer commitments
• Child health care
• Day job attendance

Do you see this stuff on mainstream weight loss programs?

It may be small and not noticeable to the outside world, but I felt the positive effects of yesterday’s diet/fitness efforts. That will have to do.