First week back

Beside the broken pinky toe, life almost seemed normal for once. Oh, and if you are wondering, I regularly destroy those toes so this is a normal pain I suffer with. Any who, while talking to one of my gym friends, I realized that it has been nearly 3 months that my world has been out of whack. June 1st was the concussion and things haven't been right since. That is a quarter of the year wasted (by that I mean being unable to progress with my goals). It has been very hard to deal with being forced to basically do nothing to say the least. But today the gym friend said something to me that gave me a glimmer of hope that life is returning to normal. She simply said, "You look so much better today." I think it was mostly a comment about my post-virus appearance because she also comment on how I have a much healthier color in my face and that even though I was back on Monday she could tell that I was still pretty worn down just by how I looked. I couldn't agree with her more, Monday and Tuesday were real struggles at work and at the gym. Even though I took it real easy at the gym both of those days, I felt really worn out and weak. That feeling carried on into work both evenings. However, as the week progress I definitely felt stronger and today was a real solid workout.

Following today's workout I weighed in and the scale showed 255. That is an 8 pound gain from last week's drained/dehydrated weigh in. I'm not upset at all with that result, mostly because I expected it to happen. My hope was to contain the amount gained as my body craved all those lost calories. To be very honest, I didn't eat very well most of the week. I've had some odd periods of feeling jittery and having shaky hands so I've add more sugar because it almost seems like a low blood suger thing and I'm wondering if it's a residual effect from the illness. I've never had this sort of problem and my blood sugar tests have come back just fine so I don't expect it to remain an issue as I get healthier. Hopefully, I can get my crap together and get the eating routine back on track next week. 255 is a good place to start from, I lost 9 pounds since the "Reloading" most of that due to the sickness, but I'll take the jump-start and role with it.

What a crap-tacular two weeks

There isn't a whole lot to report this week, yeah I know I said I was gonna report every week but I was way to sick to sit up long enough to post last week. If you have caught any of my posts on Facebook, then you know that I was sick, and I mean REAL sick. It all started when I got home from work Friday night two weeks ago; when I went to bed I was exhausted and not in a normal way. During the night I began to get what I describe as the chills, I was cold and shaking even though I felt feverish. This kept me awake most of the night and when I finally fell asleep it was lights out and I woke up late Saturday afternoon. When got up that next day, I was very wobbly and would get light-headed within minutes of standing up. So spent most of the day and the next couple of days laying in bed with fevers, clammy sweating spurts, headaches, etc.

Several doctor appointments, blood tests, one ER visit, and two weeks later I am starting to feel better. Unfortunately, there is no real lead as to who the culprit was that sent me through two weeks of hell. Blood tests and chest x-ray have removed Lyme Disease and Pneumonia as possibilities and the test on West Nile Virus is still pending. I am returning to the family doctor for a follow up, Monday, on the latest round of blood work, with the possibility of going to an infectious diseases specialist to follow.

The "tongue-in-cheek" good news is that I weighed in at 247 at my last doctor appointment. SO I have lost 15 pounds in two weeks and I'm only 5 pounds away from my previous low. I call it joking news because I know that it's a false loss. I was sick and not eating, I had no appetite and was probably a little dehydrated so that number will likely increase as I get better. I have already noticed that my appetite is returning slowly. With any luck I can keep it to a low 250 until I regain my strength and get back into the gym.

Being hurt or sick is really starting to wear me a little thin. I'm trying to stay positive and I keep telling myself that I'll get back to my routine soon, but it really feels like someone is standing over me and just clubbing me with a bat every time I try to get back up from each one of these ordeals. I don't know what's next, I've been emotionally crush, physically broken and now sick as hell there's not left to attack.

The Project: RELOADED

After FINALLY getting medically cleared last Friday, and another trip to OCMD, it was time to get back on the horse that is Project Downsize Duff. Unfortunately, with that medical clearance came the inevitable return to work, BOOOO work. I've decided to rename the blog because it's how I see this new chapter of my journey (and it's a cheesy rip-off of the Matrix's second movie title). I have strayed from my path and need refocusing. More to the point, I am going to go back to writing every week so it is kind of like I am starting over, except I'm sixty pounds lighter this time. I do not know if it is mere coincidence or not but since I went to randomly reporting on my progress things have slowed and regressed. Yes, I have the concussion to thank for two months of inactivity, but that doesn't explain me filling the back seat with fast food bags over the past couple of months. Maybe this blog really was keeping on the straight and narrow by forcing me to account for my progress or lack of it every week. Without out this outlet, maybe I drove by a McD's and thought "Meh, who care's if I gain a pound or two this week I just won't write about it and they'll never know." Well, I have let myself go sideways for long enough so I've reloaded the project and plan to begin anew. The goals and promises are the same, I'm gonna lose 100 lbs and I'm gonna tell you all about it. Hopefully, it helps us all stay focused on our future.

So The Project: RELOADED got off to a slow start, I totally overslept Monday morning and missed Spin class, but never fear I did manage to get to the gym and do a little of what I do. I am still in caution mode at the gym. As per the advice of the neurologist I am avoiding heavy lifting, there is too much of an internal pressure build up when going heavy and the last time I tried to lift more than light weight I got really woozy (medical term :D) and spent that next day feeling bad. So no 1000 lb leg presses for a bit longer, instead I am trying to concentrate on light weights and controlled range of motion type stuff. Also as much as I can handle, I am trying to get back into my full cardio regiment which is mostly Spin-Run-Spin. I was so happy to get back into my cycling shoes and into class. It was great to see the familiar faces that I had missed over the last two months. Now I'm not gonna lie, I felt out of shape real quick, and needed to back off a lot more than I thought I would in order to get through the class. This should have been expected but it still did dent the ego. I believe that I had become one of the stronger riders in the classes I attend and it was hard to believe that on two months off took that much away. Maybe I'm being a little too hard on myself.

It was definitely a little more difficult getting back into my routine than I had thought. Between the continuous battery lifting at work and my trying to get back to normal gym levels, I managed to wear myself down pretty quick by mid-week. I assumed that I could get back into my routine quickly but I guess it's gonna take a little more patience than I had hoped. From a diet stand-point I did pretty well going back to my 6 meals a day eating routine. I had a couple small cheats but they were more because of the lack of energy I felt from maybe overdoing things.

As a result of this decent restart I managed to drop 2 pounds from Monday morning when I weighed in after Spin today. My current weight is 262, which makes for a total loss of 60 since the beginning. Yes, I have gained 20 pounds since the beginning of May, but we're not gonna look back and bemoan these past three months. Much of what happened was out of my control so we won't mention the gain anymore. I'm 42 pounds from the my goal, let's restart there!