Steps!

I spent most of my day naked, and I never clench the pedometer between my buttcheeks, so whatever steps were taken have been unrecorded.

The pedometer sits at 600846 for 112 days.  I'm naked again, so I'm resetting it for tomorrow.

In recent days I've felt like I could run 2 miles instead of just 1 mile.  But I didn't, because I shouldn't push myself too hard.

Tonight, however, was the either night, I've done a whole week of miles.

By the time I reach half a mile I was pretty much done.  I have no idea how I finished an entire mile, but I did.

Today was not a great day.  I wonder if it was my dinner.  It had a lot of sour cream, which is bad for me.

Steps?

In the past 111 days I have taken 596608 steps.  There is a little less than 2 hours to go today, so I might get some more in.  That looks like 5375 steps per day.  Not great.

The past week, starting on Sunday August 3rd, I have gone out for a one mile run each day.   Not fast, but continuous.  I haven't been lifting though, or swimming.  This is better than I've been able to do in a very long time.  I'm having no weird health problems.  In retrospect, I'm fairly convinced now that all the weird health problems I had been having which weren't obviously related to my leg are also related to my leg.  So many things got better once they finally removed the metal.  My ongoing problems with my inflamed lungs, for instance.  At least, I don't think my lungs are inflamed anymore.  The symptoms that made me bring it up to the doctor on two different visits are certainly gone now.

I sort of think I should work hard on 10000 steps per day for a while.  On the other hand, running a mile a day has taken a tremendous toll on me.  I can run my mile, but after that I'm staggering around and feeling quite bad.  It's getting better though, slowly but surely.

Fasting is in the news

My pedometer says 269157 steps over 50 days.  Over 5300 steps per day average.  My weekends probably contribute to it being low, as I'm often wandering around my house naked and not recording my steps.

Things with that metal out of my leg are amazingly good.  So many things are less painful and less stressful to do.  Turning left, for instance.  I had high hopes that I'd jump excitedly into exercise, but my body is definitely worn down by the past four years of pain, and the past year especially.

I lifted weights a week ago, a 45 pound bar, and it hurt badly for most of the week.  I lifted weights again last night, another 45 pound bar.  Nothing hurts yet, and I'm hoping I mostly don't hurt this time around.  I really thought I would be walking more, but I'm not.  I'm just lazy.

I've been eating a lot.  Far more than I'm used too.  It's bad.

A little more than 12 years ago, I read this: http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2002/mar/09/restandrelaxation.shopping

It changed my life.  I stopped drinking Pepsi.  Since then I've had one gulp of Pepsi Throwback, a few years ago, just to see what it was like.  When I was a kid my family drank a lot of soft-drinks.  My father used his business license to buy them.  Every week the Coke man, the Pepsi man, and the 7up man would pull their semi-trailers up to my house, and wheel in cases of soda.  As a child, I drank Coke, my mom drank Pepsi, and my father drank 7up.  Then, of course, came the new Coke debacle, and Coke Classic.  I was a Pepsi drinker after that.  When I quit Pepsi cold turkey I was probably drinking a 12 pack of cans a day.  I had to drink a Pepsi just before bed, or I couldn't sleep.

I've always liked fasting.  I feel good when I fast.  I feel really good.  Eating makes me feel bad.  But I love to eat, and I don't know why.  I only have the self control to eat nothing or to eat everything.  I can't find any middle ground between the two.  I've never fasted for more than four days.  I personally think, based on what reading I've done, that four days is safe enough.

http://www.universityherald.com/articles/9814/20140608/fasting-for-at-least-3-days-could-rejuvenate-immune-system.htm

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/fasting-for-two-days-could-regenerate-the-immune-system-according-to-research-9506168.html

There are more articles out there than just those two, and they are all written about the same one paper.  There are, of course, the crazy fringe fad diets that are all over this.

I've never really thought of fasting as a path to weight loss.  Cutting calories and burning more calories are the path weight loss, and fasting is more of a spiritual kind of thing.

Officially, I'm fasting now.  I ate yesterday, so it doesn't really feel like it yet.  I plan to fast until Wednesday.  Wednesday morning, Supermart should have fresh USDA Organic raspberries for me to buy, and I can't fast through those since I asked them to order them for me.  Two days is a good amount of fasting.

Death

Not really relevant to this so called "blog" but ever since high school I've always had nightmares of girls choking or burning me to death.  I had one last night, and it woke me up.  When I woke up I was sleeping on my stomach, with my head jacked up on three or four pillows so that my neck was really kinked.  And I had vomited.

As terrible as it is to have those nightmares, waking up from one into a reality where I'm still choking and can't breathe is a totally new kind of horror to me.

My ankle is finally fixed.  I'm supposed to be getting better.  Really, I am getting better.  But setbacks are upsetting.

I Swimmed

Yesterday I went swimming.  I forgot to count laps, and so I stopped swimming laps pretty quickly.  Instead, I just treaded water.  It's simple, and easy.  I was also able to swim more than half the length of the pool underwater, despite not having swum in quite a while, which is further than any recent attempts in the past year.

My odometer has missed a lot of walking, so it's not very accurate.

I still have pain in my ankle, but not the really bad pain.  It doesn't hurt to walk, or swim, or lay on my left side, or have a cat step on me.  I can touch my leg by my knee and it doesn't hurt as all.  I have every hope the remaining pain will clear up. My right foot is injured worse than my left at this point.  Something got onto the bed of my sandal.  Something sticky that irritated my foot.  I couldn't scrub it off well enough to make the sandal wearable after several attempts, so I simply bought new sandals.  The bottom of my foot is still red and tender, but it is clearing up quickly.

Saturday

Saturday, I hiked to here:

That's about 2k from where I started walking, and at an elevation of 2412m.

Once I got there, I hammocked.

And I hammocked in style!

I feel highly motivated

Having my ankle fixed after so many years of pain and misery is a little like being really optimistic about my future.  Actually, it's a lot like that.

I weighed myself two days ago.  In pounds.  I was about 262 pounds.  Not great, but also down a little from a week or two ago.  I sort of not want to post things like that because I'm ashamed of how heavy I am right now.  On the other hand, maybe the shame will motivate me to do something about it again.  TWO HUNDRED AND SIXTY TWO POUNDS.  I should probably use a real unit system, and post in kilograms instead.

My steps are at  19791 steps since I reset it.  About 4947 steps per day.  Given how much I sit lately, I'm still somewhat happy.

A long time ago, mostly for curiosity, I tracked the odometer on my bicycle every day.  I should get an odometer again, and start tracking that as well.  Maybe it will motivate me to ride my bicycle more.

I should have a silnylon poncho today.  It should be smaller than my rainpants and rainjacket, so I'll be more likely to keep it on me, and it should accommodate my  backpack under it, unlike the jacket, so my bag will stay dry.

A Hike!

I went a hike last night.  It was just about 1 whole mile of rough, but mostly flat, terrain.  Today I was stiff and sore, and very tired.  I assume the recent ankle surgery has a lot to do with that.

I need more goals!

It's been more than a week now.  I'm still sitting a lot.  I need to go back to standing, but I'm uncertain about that.  Probably next week, when the surgery is two weeks old, will be a good time.  I get the stitches out Thursday of next week.

I need more build-up goals.  Goals to build me up to my other, more difficult goals.

1) Weightlifting needs to happen again.
2) Hammock on top of the mesa in Water Canyon.
3) Climb up and out of Copper Canyon again.
4) Trek from South to North Baldy.

ONE WEEK OF FREEDOM!

I'm a few hours shy of one week of freedom.  I had surgery a little after noon on Monday of last week.

Within a couple of days the hives that have covered my body since they put the plate in nearly four years ago cleared up.  My ankle hurts, but it gets better every day.  I can only imagine that when my ankle is healed that it won't be in constant pain.  It's been sore and inflamed since 2010, and that has definitely stopped as well.  I accidentally bumped it today, and while it hurt (recent surgery) it wasn't nearly the deep bad pain that it would have been last week through the past few years.

My pedometer reads 374805 steps in 71 days.  1357 of them were taken so far today.  Roughly 5729 steps per day.   And now it reads 0 steps.  So today is going to look a little light.  This whole week has looked a little light, really, since I don't walk much and spend my time laying down and wincing in pain.
                                                                                                                                            
I need to get back to this project, Death By Mountain.

My blood pressure has been very bad in the past month or so.  I didn't feel bad, so I was assuming that it high because everytime I had it measured I was at the doctors office, and being at the doctors office makes me livid.  But I measured it myself not at the doctor, and it was still bad.  I've put on a lot of weight in recent months.  Weight is bad.  That needs to come off.

Goals:
1) Float from Escondida to San Antonio.
2) Visit Devils Elbow again.
3) Visit Turkey Creek Hot Springs without breaking my leg.
4) Try again to take up running, but succeed this time.

John Brook's has been selling me grass-fed USDA Organic beef.  It isn't as good as what I can drive to Albuquerque and buy at Whole Foods, but it is half the price and doesn't require me to drive to Albuquerque to buy it, so it's definitely a great deal, and I'm very happy.  On the other hand, John Brooks isn't doing well on getting in USDA Organic berries, so trips to Albuquerque are still needed.

Goal 1 has become ever more complicated, but I shouldn't give up.

Goal 2 might be stupidly hard.  Normally it would be a one day in-and-out, but a flash flood last year scoured the upper canyon and destroyed the lower canyon.  Devils Elbow is probably intact, but I've heard from a witness that the way there is a treacherous wasteland of debris.

Goal 3 is scary.  But I want to.

Goal 4 has been tried several time since breaking my leg.  It has had many crippling setbacks.  But all those setbacks probably originate from that plate, and the plate is gone.

I have a pair of non toe-shoe barefoot shoes.  I think I like them.  I stepped on a cholla the first time I wore them though.  That kind of sucked.

I suppose I should mention my inflamed lungs.  They aren't inflamed anymore.  They were inflamed, probably, from September through January.  I got really sick in September, and I just never got better.  I often have lingering coughs, though, so I didn't think much of it.  But it kept lingering.  In December a doctor figured it out.  It got better pretty quickly.

Better and Better and Better

Over the weekend I went to the swimming pool and I got in and I swam 550 meters before stopping for a short rest.  I swam 1000 meters all total again, with minimal downtime.  The pool was filled with lap swimmers, and no open swimmers, so they never started open swim, so I didn't do any water treading.

Since my last update I have more than 84430 steps.  I say more than, since I kept walking after I updated, but reset it the next day.  Those steps are lost.

I haven't ridden my bicycle much in months.  But as of last week I on it again and while the first day was hard, I quickly got in the feel of things.  My strength is improving rapidly.

Lifting has been very hard.  But with my newfound sense of feeling good, I think it shall continue again.

My impression is that last year was pretty much a wash in terms of my health.  Finding out towards the end of the year that my lungs were inflamed appears to be the turning point.  Once that started to get better, everything got better.

I'm feeling highly motivated to get back to doing things I like.  Such as biking, and hiking, and trying again to return to running.  And I want to float down the Rio Grande from Escondida to San Antonio.  I've never done it.  I've gone whitewater rafting in the Taos Gorge, but never a leisurely float.

So much failure

I show 922685 steps over 168 days.  That's pretty good I guess.

I still have pain.  I don't have as many bizarre side effects.  Lots of pain.

Months ago I gave up trying to exercise because of the pain and complications.  My health has gotten worse as a result.

But now I'm trying to give up trying to give up.  A week ago I felt good enough ride my bicycle a few miles, something I hadn't done in months.  I've gone swimming twice.  Today, for 1km and then I treaded water for 30 minutes.  I had intended to tread water for 60 minutes, but it was boring.  Really boring.