The whole picture...

It's not always so easy to distill one's life into single categorical "good" or "bad" judgements. It's true that being in A-Fib makes everything harder, but it also doesn't have to keep me on the sidelines.

Never give up

After many months of trying to 'dial-in' my blood pressure, it looks like we've figured out the right med, and it's proper dose!

After a big spike in weight, I drilled-down & saw a nice turn.

Breakfasts & lunches are still pretty damn solid! Whole30 delivery for lunch ain't cheap, but it's damn good, and perfectly on-plan!

Not much to say today

Yesterday, we attempted a Cardioversion.

It failed.

My weight bounced up to where it was 30 days ago! I ate hot dogs IN THE BUNS.

I'm exhausted, sweaty, out of breath, and simply just bone-damn tired.

Tired of the fight. Tired of being hungry. Tired of people assuming I'm a lazy piece of shit.

Tired of being tired...

...and another thing...

I may be back in A-Fib, but progress continues!

I'm doing a little more cooking & food prep, doing some good Whole30 lunch options downtown, and I'm down to 443lbs. (May 1st I was 475)

I’ve done worse ...

The key, as always, is prep!

My Whole30 lunch & 7 Greens Salad, combined, were $50! Those are both GREAT options, but ain't gonna be no long time success commin' if I'm burnin' that kinda cash!!!

Well, shit ...

It's not an official diagnosis, but my my $0.99 iPhone App tells me I'm back in A-Fib.

Crap, crapper, crappity crap!

This just makes everything harder, more complicated, and adds a shit-ton of expense. Ugh! And things were going so well!

No big huge stressor event to kick me over this time. I just spent a week busting my ass with sweat dripping from my nose - but all that felt good and WAS good!

Was it too much caffein? Too much processed lunch meat? Too few vegetables?

No ... while I've always felt caffeine was a risk factor, the Cardiac Doc's disagree. They feel alcohol is a big contributor, and admittedly, I've had (maybe) four beers in the last two & half months.

Seriously!

If there was a trigger (and it could be totally random), my money is on the Sudafed I recently started taking due to the onset of my Autumn Seasonal Allergies. The irony is that crap didn't even really help!

Now I have to go back to the Doc, he has to run an official EKG (no iPhone apps there!), then I have to be on blood thinner for at least 30 days, then we check me in for a weekend, keep me on constant monitoring in the Cardio ward, load me up on the new Meds, and then give me the big reboot shock to get me back in rhythm.

That'll be a shockingly (pun intended)expensive weekend, and if past experience is a good guide, due to new insurance from my new job - I'll have all new deductibles - and in the end I'll owe about 5k.

Just in time for the holidays, and the end of year reset on deductibles!

Yeah! Winning!

Gained while on-plan with high activity

So, it was 'break week', where wife & kiddos are on the annual educational vacation. I was working from home, with many to-do lists & goals to accomplish.

Gained two pounds. Ugh!!!

The only thing I wasn't doing: logging my food. So, we'll be back on that train this week! Back in the office with a good walk to & from the train - and a big ole salad for lunch.

Tonight I need to prep a batch of egg muffins...and hopefully that'll get the success train chugging again!

Dumb, adorable, stupid little dog

Clyde's entire life (nearly 12 years) has been peppered with 'episodes' of high tummy acid, causing him to maniacally gulp, lick, and eat - to the point of not noticing or caring that other things are happening. He swallows so much air that his belly gets distended, and he burps & barfs an awful foamy mix powerful enough to make me consider owning a cat.

The danger, and often repeated visit to the Vet, is what he ingests during the episode. In an early episode, he ate a wood base-board. He ate carpet a few times, a wooden dog crate once, and several plush toys. I learned (the hard way) that he could never, ever be left alone outside his crate, no matter how well behaved or housebroken he was. I learned (the hard way) he could never ever have anything in the crate with him. I learned (the hard way) he needed to always be in a metal crate.

His episodes were unpredictable. He might not have one for a year, or even 18 months, but it'll come. The next one might be later that day, next week, or months down the road.

I never figured out a trigger, never found a pattern, never had any way of predicting or preventing it.

Most Vet's would listen to my description of symptoms, shrug, and give trite, meaningless advice - clearly thinking the issue was all in MY head.

My greatest fear was always towels. He once shredded one legthwise, and started trying to swallow a 3 foot long strip! I was convinced that one day he'd choke himself. So, I was vigilant.

Then ... we got Cyrus. Cyrus didn't have any of these issues, but since we always put Clyde in a crate, Cyrus went too. But I thought it'd be ok to give the skinny boy a towel!

Leave it to Clyde! In his most recent episode, he managed to stealthily spit out the Pepcid AC, I gave him, and he acted fine enough in his crate that I left him unattended, thinking the worst was behind us. Little did I know, his episode flared up, and the little booger managed to grab a corner of Cyrus' towel! He pulled it through, and managed to eat about 2/3 of it - which you can see in the picture above, (what the Vet removed during surgery), in the dog bowl.

Poor guy is recovering...

You know it’s good when the dogs beg for it

So, today was a fun day, on the road with Fiat Friends. Lunch was off-plan, but relatively low-volume. Sweet Potato fries at dinner were a "best of bad" option, but breakfast & late-dinner were SOLID. 2800 calories, 156g of carbs, and just over 5k mg of Sodium. So, room for improvement, but all things considered, not too bad!

How it's done

From May 1st through August 3rd, I lost almost exactly 30lbs!  2.3lbs a week!  

You can also see I've cut my average daily Sodium intake by 40%!

How?  By paying attention every damn day!  

I can't always immediately log my food, so I try to take pictures of everything I eat.  That way I can catch up at the end of the day.  Everyday I'm reading, researching, and listening to podcasts.  It's a constant, ongoing process, and make no mistake, I have a LONG way to go!

I fact, if I loose 10 more pounds, I'll be at my previous high, where I started my fabulous weight loss in 2014.  It may feel like a well worn path, but I learn something each time I pass this way.  When I get back down to 300lbs, that'll finally be an unfamiliar neighborhood, a place I've not seen in decades.  I was "almost" there in 2015.  I'm leery of making goals, since The Gods of Fate & Destiny so enjoy laughing at me; and weight loss is funny - you just have to do all the right things and let it come off at the pace it chooses.  

However, it'd be cool to combine a few things.  In May of 2021 I will cross a personal Rubicon, into territory unknown - I will have outlived my father.  It'd be great to honor him with hitting a goal weight by then.  If I'm going to outlive him, I may as well be the best version of myself, which bless his heart, he never doubted.

That's 22 months, or 94 weeks to loose 200 lbs.  Thats 2.13lbs per week, for nearly 2 years!  My knee jerk reaction is that's INSANE.  I "know" I can't do that each week - sure, some may be a good bit more, but I'm going to stall & hit plateaus.  That's just how it goes.

…but it'd be cool, wouldn't it?  And a damn big challenge has always been fun!

On-Plan Excess

Totally on-plan today, yet I came in at 3300 calories, 130 net carbs, and 4,000mg of Sodium!

I've gotta figure out the reality of how to get through 4pm to 8pm without turning into Cookie Monster