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.