The Transformation Journals

Well here it is. The week I have been waiting for.  Headed out of town to Atlanta for four days of R and R, or debauchery if you prefer.  No school.  No work.  School starts back the first week of June and along with it a better mindset and focus on trainig and diet.  I really have been on the edge of burnout with all the things going on at work and the heavy load at school.  Again, not blaming it all on those but that did contribute to the stress.  There just was not enough time and unfortunately gym time took a back seat to school and study time.  I feel the effects of that and if I had done things differently I may have been able to arrange things better.  I didn’t and it is behind me now.  No regrets and time to move forward.  This almost feels like a New Year’s resolution and in a way I suppose it is.  The course of study I am about to start is 12 months long.  Two nights a week with lab/clinicals every other weekend.  Still working 12 hour shifts and working every other weekend.  Yes weekends are going to be non existent for a while. 

I haven’t mentioned it anywhere in my blog about my course of study.  For all my healthcare friends and visitors, or anyone who stops by that might be interested, it is a bridge program to RN.  The course was initially designed for LPN transition to RN but this year the school is allowing Paramedics and Respiratory Therapists to enter.  There is a class that we had to take before hand that dealt mostly with nursing theory, skills validation, and nursing thinking (insert nursing diagnosis and care plans here).  Along with a few prereqs I had to retake because they were too old, A&P I and II, Microbiology, with Human Growth and Developement tossed in on top.  So, if all goes well 12 months from now I will have my ADN and be getting ready to sit for boards.

Thats all for now.  Time to finish packing and head out.  More later.
As always, be well and safe.

This has nothing to do with anything, but in the mood I am in today I thought I’d share one of the daily "Thoughts of The Day" I get in email.

"He was a bold man that first eat an oyster."
Jonathan Swift

For what it’s worth, there it is.  Enjoy and be well.  ~!~

Found another pic BS (before surgery).  I am not sure when this one was taken.  I am guessing late 2004 to mid 2005.  It could be older than that but I know it is no older than 2003.

So I am answering some of the questions on the profile page and one of them is about to grunt or not to grunt while lifting.  Do I?  As stated, we all have a time where one slips out.  You’re working really hard and getting tired.  Been doing max weight to failure.  Running on pure desire.  On that primal level, in "the zone" if you prefer.  You force out the one last rep, the one that truely is to failure, and emit this grunt, growl, scream.  It happens.  No worries or complaints from anyone.  On the other hand you grunt, drool and slobber with every rep.  More so on the ones you cheat by using momentum to do them.  No thanks.  It’s not all that.

 I am reading Dave Draper’s news letter, and had recently looked through Bill Pearl’s Keys to The Inner Universe and it strikes me.  I look at the illistrations in the book and read Dave’s words about "the Dungeon" and realize I miss a dungeon gym.  Do not get me wrong, I like my gym.  It is small, clean, and 24 hour access is a great benefit with my schedule.  Sometimes a bit too small if a lot of us are trying to use the free weights at the same time.  It is not a "health club" with a juice bar and daycare.  Those are great for people that need them and that is what gets them to the gym and they use the gym not just the daycare and juice bar.  I do miss the "feel" of a dungeon.  Free weights everywhere, stacks of iron plates to load on bars and machines.  Yes even the machines require you to load on the steel, not just move a pin to change the weight.  Now a good dungeon is clean and safe.  I am not talking about a dank, dark, and dirty pit.  You know what I mean.

So now I suppose we get to the real reason I am writing this.  I am at the gym.  There are just a few of us in the free weight area.  One of them is a grunter slobberer.  He swings the dumbells and crashes the weight stacks down on every rep.  He is using the cables to do some pulls downs and cross overs, I step to the Smith machine and he says he is using it.  Okay, I’m flexible, I go to the dumbell rack, no worries.  So then he moves over there too.  Plenty of room.  Someone else steps up to the cables and guess what, he says, "I’m using them".  He is looking in the mirror and flexing and posing and running around the room like a squirrel guarding it’s stashed acorns.  Don’t get me wrong.  Nothing wrong with checking yourself in the mirror, but it can go to excess.  Especially when added to the hording, grunting and slobbering.  And leaving your used plates and dumbells scattered all over floor.  After a bit, I just give up and move out to the machine area and finish out there.  I prefer to use free weights but I can still get a good workout using the machines.  Luckily, I have not seen him since, and hopefully won’t have that problem again.

 Okay, sorry to talk about anyone, but I feel better now.  Sorry for that too.  As always, more later.  Be well.

Posted some new stats.  Something is obviously wrong with the shoulder stats, as in I messed up on the first measurement.  I doubt I have put on two inches in 26 days.  Especially with everything else going down or staying the same.  So I will just use today’s as a starting point as I double checked it.  One stat that is not there is the circumference of my head.  Started at 24 1/4 and is now 23 or 23 1/2 (insert fat head jokes here).

I know what your are going to say.  Changing a goal after setting it just a couple weeks ago.  Perhaps.  Not changing it now, just re examining it.   When I was thinking about a number, the weight I wanted to obtain, I thought of what half my weight was before.  Being able to say I lost 50 percent body weight, impressive.  And the jokes, "I’m half the man I used to be".  *L*  However, goals are supposed to be realistic, and is this one so?  Muscle is more dense than fat so as I add muscle my weight will go up, in theory.  My pants are still getting looser, to the point that I think I am down another size.  I need to take another set of measurements for an update.  Factor in that once I have the excess skin removed (more on that in the bariatric section later) I will lose (and I am making an educated guess here) 20-30 pounds.  I have been floating between 215 and 220 for a couple weeks now.  As I said, not changing it just some ponderings.

Well, there are the mug shots.  The one is from Oct 2005.  Two years before the surgery but is how it was in Sept 2006 when I had the procedure.  The second is from summer or early fall 2007. 

I notice from the counter that a few folks are stopping by.  Thank you for those who have. Thank you in advance for those who will in the future.

Summer 2006.  I’m 390 pounds and starting to develop some health issues that I don’t like.  Blood pressure creeping up, irregular heart beat, blood glucose levels on the high side of normal.  Sleep apnea, which I have more than likely had all my life but exacerbated by the excess weight.  After some research, talking to my doctor and meeting with a surgeon, and a whole lot of soul searching, I decide to have gastric bypass surgery.  I will have more information on that in a separate section of the blog.  I am hoping to make frequent entries in the blog in an effort to keep myself motivated.  To share information with others and perhaps even help someone considering or going through what I did.  As it stands right now I plan on having sections for training, supplements, bariatric, and this general section.  More to follow so feel free to leave a note or send me an email or IM.  Until next time, be safe and well.