Mental and Physical Health and Wellness Track, 2022

[Ensign Steve]

I had an okay April, I think. I was at about a 50% with eating okay and exercising, at maybe a 75% of not drinking. I didn't lose any weight, but I am feeling close to comfortable where I am. The weather is getting so nice and the flowers are blooming, but it's still hard to drag myself outside a lot of days.

I'm having tons of life stuff. I landed a job but I don't start for 3 weeks. I'm on legit vacation. We took the train to the city yesterday and had a day at golden gate park. We rode a ferris wheel, walked visited the japanese tea garden, had dinner at the beach, and saw a show. It was a great day.

At home we have the house and the puppies and no complaints.

[Ari]

I have eaten the flesh of the evolved Dinosaur again!
(Also Jurassic park my ass, the first cloned dinosaurs would be eaten)

Well ok, I’m vegetarian but the last year or so I’ve cut out both Milk and Eggs due to intestinal discomfort, which doing so seems to have solved. However there was seemingly a protein I was getting from those that I am no longer getting except in pinto or black beans. I have tried all sorts of combos, different protein sources and it’s really come down to pinto and black beans that are the effective replacement, nothing else, and a lot of them at that. (In another thread I may post about gas reducing beans).

A friend/ex stayed for a week (also probably a post in another thread eventually) and I didn’t get a chance to tend to and boil the bean regiment once the cooked ones ran out, switching to quite a bit of tofu. And again, I started to feel the lull that beans then helped.

So I decided being so shackled to whatever the hell is in beans was not going to do, and broke down buying some children’s chicken dino nuggets. It’s been a few days now since I’ve been eating them and I’m not feeling any lull so I’m thinking I’m now a vegetarian augmented by chicken nuggets.

[viscousmemories]

I'm still doing the Bright Lines weight loss food plan (down 36 pounds) and maintaining my routine of 'morning pages', reading, and piano practice each morning. Still doing pilates twice a week but no other real exercise.

[specious_reasons]

Multiple topics, all somewhat related to mental health and fitness.

I arrived slightly later than normal at work today, partly due to bad timing with traffic. I can't get too mad. I have a plan and I didn't stick to it. I stayed at home later because a few things I ordered arrived this morning and I wanted to try one out.

I had my eye on a milk frother for coffee reasons, but what triggered the purchase was another possible function. I have been mixing ground ginger in water to give the water flavor and because I love ginger, but the ground ginger doesn't mix well. I realized this might work well for my ginger mixing, and so I had to try it out this morning. The results are promising - there seemed to less undissolved particles left in the water.

In the same package, I had new headphones. I destroyed my latest set of in-ear earbuds by jumping in the water with them in my pocket on our last vacation. Considering I ruin earbuds on such a regular basis, and how often I switch devices, I bought earphones with an old fashioned 1/8" plug. These will be for my laptop, Nintendo Switch, and phone (when my BT headphones are charging). I'm also looking for cheap BT headphones, because it's too costly to replace expensive headphones every 6 months.

Finally, I discovered "planking" as a lower impact alternative to more traditional exercises like sit-ups. I learned about it from The Atlantic magazine, of all places. Planking seems to meet a lot of my needs for low impact, easy to perform exercises that improves my core strength, which I definitely need, so I'm excited to get this into my daily routine.

[Ensign Steve]

I'm doing pretty great right now. It comes and goes but the last few days I've been pretty up.

I had a pretty great month. For most of it I was unemployed but had already accepted a job offer, so I had literally my longest vacation since I was 15 years old. I started with the day in the city, like I already talked about last update in this thrad. One evening we had 2 friends over, and bey cooked food on the grill, and they brought their dobie (rottie?) puppy to run around in our back yard. We put the babby pool out for her, which was awesome as our puppies are not even interested in water so they never use it.

I went on vacation to mom's, and of course we did tons of hiking and tons of drinking, because those are our two speeds. I stopped at the outlets and Marshals on the drive home and got some more clothes that fit and a pair of Doctor Marten boots. I also got a kettlebell and some stretchy resistance bands.

I did the stuff I talked about doing in my home office, and finally hung up my Star Trek posters that bey got for me 12 years ago (he got them from think geek, that's how long ago it was) that have been living in a cardboard tube the entire time. You bet your ass that's all you see front and center when I video conference: my big head and four vintage-style Star Trek posters for TOS episodes that I definitely need to revisit before I get called out for fake geekery. I also have my nice recliner next to my bookcase, for break times, and my personal and work computers on separate desks, for separation of powers.

I started work beginning of last week. I have been taking the train to the office on Wednesdays and working from home the rest of the days (so today is my second day in the office). They were supposed to go back to work on May 16, at least 3 days a week, but then my entire team got exposed to Covid so they went back on lockdown for 10 days and I wonder if I'm ever going to see them. I'm excited about my new job, and my home office, and the train, and just having a huge weight of anxiety not on me anymore.

I've been taking long walks and short runs, not as much as I would like but not zero amount either. I am really making an effort to appreciate the nice trails in my neighborhood, and the nice weather (hot though it may be), and how at present the sky is not choked with wildfire smoke.

I'm drinking too much alcohol, eating too much sugar. My custom user title and avatar aren't so much lies as aspirational right now. My weight is the same as it was 2 months ago, which is fine. It's just data, no judgement. I am still being really consistent with my journal, so now what I have is a written record of "what I put into my body has a direct correspondence with happens to my weight" which, DUUUUUHHHHHH.

But also I have been drawing and coloring a lot, which is so fun. And I set myself goals/tasks like "finish lego ninjago build" and "get pedicure" and "post to " so I get to check off my TODO list with things I want to do anyway.

[Ensign Steve]

Puppy tax, I had to post this one from my phone.

Also the proverbial bowl of cherries my life is trying to be. Courtesy of the tree in our backyard. YAY

[slimshady2357]

Mmmmmm free cherries

May went well and I lost another 5 lbs, bringing the total to 25 for the year. I cut down a couple more small things and that seemed to make an impact. It didn't even seem like that difficult as I'm now used to the other cuts I've made earlier in the year.

June is probably going to kill the New Year's resolution as I'm going to Canada for 2 weeks to see family and friends. Historically I'd pack on the pounds on such a trip. I plan to do more exercise and try to eat less of all the yummy foods I can't get here, but there will be backslide for sure. I'll have a week before and a week after the trip to try to offset that backslide and still lose even 1 pound to keep the resolution going, but I'm not all that hopeful. Still, as long as I get back on track in July, I won't worry too much about it.

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

I did the stuff I talked about doing in my home office, and finally hung up my Star Trek posters that bey got for me 12 years ago (he got them from think geek, that's how long ago it was) that have been living in a cardboard tube the entire time. You bet your ass that's all you see front and center when I video conference: my big head and four vintage-style Star Trek posters for TOS episodes that I definitely need to revisit before I get called out for fake geekery.

Please be so kind as to identify the TOS episodes.

[Ensign Steve]

I'm planning to do a whole poast about it in another thrad. Am I full of shit? Let's find out.

[Ensign Steve]

Is it mania yet?

I'm in Los Angeles. On the spur of the moment I drove down last night after work (got in about midnight). My BFF and her family are here on vacation, so I came down to crash their shit. I'm laptop-working on the hotel wifi while they chill and do tourist stuff, and I'll hook up with them some more later today.

I'm having a good time and I'm glad I'm here, but also I am like "Why the fuck am I here? Can I just do that?"

[Ari]

Based on recent experiences, are you speaking so fast the beginning of every word almost trips on the last? Cause that’s a clear sign at least.

[specious_reasons]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Is it mania yet?

I'm in Los Angeles. On the spur of the moment I drove down last night after work (got in about midnight). My BFF and her family are here on vacation, so I came down to crash their shit. I'm laptop-working on the hotel wifi while they chill and do tourist stuff, and I'll hook up with them some more later today.

I'm having a good time and I'm glad I'm here, but also I am like "Why the fuck am I here? Can I just do that?"

Yes. The guy sitting to the right of me is working in office this week, but he's working at a open desk - he normally splits his time between Utah and San Diego. He's visiting a friend in the Seattle area, so he's sleeping in his camper van and coming into the office.

A couple people I know took advantage of Air BnB and worked from different locations in the US for a month or two.

Two weekends ago, I worked from a hotel room in Lake Chelan while Mrs. Reasons went to a conference. As long as you can work productively, and your company doesn't care, why not work from a hotel room in LA?

...as long as it's not actually mania. It's fine.

[Kamilah Hauptmann]

Friends don’t let friends use WebMD.

[Ensign Steve]

June was pretty great, mental-health-wise. I had my spur of the moment trip to LA at the beginning of the month, which was amazing. I had only planned on 2 days but ended up staying for 4 because it was going so well. Birthday and pride weekend at the end of the month, also great. Pretty good in between.

I really like my job so far, but I'm doing that thing where I work straight through from wake up until late at night with only little breaks. I'm not exercising, I'm not stretching, I'm not giving my back or my shoulders or eyes a rest. It's not sustainable, I know, but for now I'm just trying to ramp up quickly and make impact right out the gate. I'll either back off at some point or I won't. C'est la vie.

I'm eating a little less junk and drinking a lot less alcohol now than last month, so there's that at least. Also still faithful to my journal, which was the #1 goal.

Weight-wise, I'm still maintaining. I lost about 25 pounds from October (when I started this thread) through March, and then I've been at about the same since then. While still very overweight, I'm more comfortable than I was at the start. I can tie my shoes and wipe my ass, but I'd be nervous to try to fit in a Southwest Airlines seat. But air travel is so fucked up right now that I don't think I'd want to try it regardless.

Anyway I bought myself even more clothes for my birthday, so I'm super not in a hurry to get much smaller right away. Or so I decided to keep telling myself.

[vremya]

I went back to WeightWatchers (or WW as their calling themselves these days). I know it works, I just have to actually do it.

I haven't been following WW perfectly, but so far I've been eating less processed food and I feel better. I have more energy, not a ton more. Not having a car means walking more, and being outside helps my mood a ton.

[viscousmemories]

I'm still following the Bright Line Eating weight loss food plan and have lost a little over 45 lbs. now. My two sisters who are still doing it have lost ~50 and ~30 respectively in roughly the same time frame. One of my sisters is "all in" on the plan, meaning she plans all her food, journals, participates in regular group chats with other members, etc. but I haven't found a need for all that. I went through all the "boot camp" videos that are part of the program and occasionally look something up in the books or on the website, but for the most part I just follow the food plan.

There is this concept of "landing the plane", which is basically guidance for how to handle it when you start nearing your personal goal weight. The idea being that you want to slow and eventually stop your weight loss as you reach your goal weight. They classify my weight loss as "super-fast" (~3 lbs a week) so because I am only ~15 lbs from my goal I need to slow things down pretty significantly.

One of the signs they say to look for is starting to get more hungry in between meals. I started experiencing that a couple weeks ago so last week I added a protein serving to my breakfast and lunch. That worked like a charm. I stopped being so hungry in between meals and still lost .8 lbs last week. So this week I continued with the modified plan, and if I still find that I'm losing ~1 lb a week I'll stick with it. More than that and I'll add more food, less than that and I'll probably give it another week before deciding whether to cut or not.

Anyway this is definitely the first diet I've ever been on where I'm not just counting the days until I can go back to eating the way I used to. I literally have no desire to do that. Granted there are some specific *foods* I miss, and that I will probably resume eating at least occasionally (fried chicken, ramen, etc), but as a rule I believe I can and will stick to having reasonable portions at reasonable meal times and not snacking, binging, etc.

[slimshady2357]

The NY's resolution has been blown. As anticipated a 2 week holiday to Canada caused a backslide in June. Ended June up about 5 lbs, which is better than a normal holiday. I did manage to walk more and eat less of the yummy foods, but no where near enough to lose weight in June still.

Back on the grind now. My goal now is to lose that 5 lbs and at least another 10 before the end of the year.

[Ensign Steve]

What's up, healthnicks? Checking in for the whole month of July, I would say it was a mixed bag, but for the last 7 days I really quit screwing around and focused on doing my routines, habits, self-care, etc., whether I felt like it or not. I did have a virtual appointment with my doc and got my meds refilled for the first time in a long time.

I also signed up for personal training sessions at the Crossfit. The trainers keep being like "you've done this before, right? yeah it shows" and at first I thought they might be blowing smoke, but they keep saying it, and this morning the guy made me use a real bar instead of the PVC pipe, because my forms were already correct, so I guess not blowing smoke after all.

Anyway, I feel good. Totally fucking sore of course, but just moving and stretching muscles that I haven't used in a long time feels really good.

[viscousmemories]

I'm still in the fight! My weight had plateaued through most of July as I made various tweaks to the plan to try to "land the plane" (as mentioned previously), but my most recent tweaking resulted in a 3.4 lb loss this past week so I'm pretty happy about it. I'm now under 200 lbs for the first time since my 20's, I think.

I don't know if I mentioned it but I cut piano practice from my morning routine somewhere along the way because I just decided I don't want to do it anymore. I spent most of my life thinking that if I just learned the basics I would find that I was some kind of a natural musician and beautiful works would come flowing out of me. What I found is that after several years of daily practice I was able to do a half-decent job of learning simple tunes which I forget as soon as I learn another one. Just not very exciting.

I added a 2.5 mile "brisk walk" (avg 3.5-4 mph) to my daily routine a couple weeks ago, and that has been going well. I actually look forward to it which is very strange for me. Still doing the daily journal entry, catching up on forum and blogs, and reading for a minimum of 30 minutes each day (see non-fiction thread for books I've read).

[slimshady2357]

I am also still in the fight :-)

July was good (ish) in that I lost all the weight I gained on holiday and now I'm starting again in Aug. Still hoping to lose at least 2 lbs a month so I can end the year down another 10lbs.

We have a rowing machine now and I'm trying to use it as often as possible, but I still need to build up the right muscles as they tire quickly it seems.

[Ensign Steve]

Happy end of the month!

I'm doing pretty well. I've been leaving the house at 5:30 am to walk to Crossfit 3 days per week. I'm already noticing improvements in my balance and flexibility. Strength and endurance will come in time. Consistency is key.

My weight is the same, which is expected. I was alcohol-free for most of August, until I went to my cousin's birthday last weekend, followed by mom coming to our place for her birthday. We do like to party in this fam.

I went and got a massage, and the therapist said I should see a chiropractor about a couple of my cervical vertebrae (I don't remember the exact number) and I was like, um... Maybe? I have an appointment with my PCP in October, so I'll ask her opinion then. It's also going to be my first physical since 2014, so look at me, taking care of my health despite having a totally rational mistrust of doctors.

[Ari]

IMO chiropractors are legitimate when it comes to manipulating your spine so that it’s not pulling or pinching things, and most of what they do could probably be replicated with a foam roller, and some stretching.

[Sock Puppet]

A chiromaniac helped me get through my pinched neck nerve. I credit the physical therapy for having the greatest impact, but of all the other shit I tried, including an orthopedic specialist, the chiro took 2nd place.

[Ensign Steve]

Is physical therapy something you do to yourself or something somebody does to you?

[JoeP]

Originally Posted by Ensign Steve

Is physical therapy something you do to yourself or something somebody does to you?

You want the philosophy thread.