Tag Archives: health

Working Out Again

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Sometimes I can’t think of some dumb, nerdy shit to write about so I just want to give an update on something else. I’ve been trying to work out more again and this has taken the form of going on more walks as well as using my under desk pedaler more often. My legs have been feeling better, like they feel more energetic if that makes any sense. It’s like they’re constantly asking me to let them kick through something.

I’ve neglected my arms so they get much more achey these days when I have to lift or exercise them. I’m going to be working on that so that I can get them back into punching shape. Not that I want to be able to punch people but there’s nothing quite like having a bad day and then taking it out on the bag. Better than taking it out on a person, anyway.

As for my belly, I’ve started doing daily bicycle crunches and my word they hurt. I know that’s where I got most of the air in my spare tire and I also know that crunches alone aren’t going to fix it. You have to do everything so that my body will start pulling from other fat sources to power me. I added bird dogs, push ups, jumping jacks and this weird cross leg thing to my daily workouts as well. If I do nothing else, I do that.

I’ve kept up with the beet juice from a different post and that led me to a very interesting doctor’s office visit. With my newfound vegetarianism, came an unexpected side effect, intense internal gas in my stomach. I had a doctor’s appointment and told my doctor about this. She mentioned that eating healthier does lead you to have more gas. It was like having your dentist praise how well you floss. I rode that high for a few days.

She told me to stop the beet juice for a week to see if that fixed things. It did but she wanted me to continue it because of how healthy it was. It was then that I learned what the issue actually was. The night before my doctor’s appointment, I had realized I had forgotten my daily beet juice so I drank it and went to bed. That was the issue, the gas in the beet juice had nowhere to go. So it just made my tum-tum all upset. Since then I’ve been using the beet juice basically as a pre-workout drink so that I can keep it moving through my system. It’s really helped.

I haven’t seen any results because why would I? This has only been like three days. It’s like that baboon said to Bojack Horseman. “It gets easier every day. But that’s the trick, you have to do it everyday.”

I Slipped into Vegetarianism

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I’ve been trying to lose weight and eat healthy. To that end, I adapted the lunch that I take to work to be cucumber slices, an apple, blueberries and strawberries and chicken salad with cucumber and onion. The chicken salad goes on top of a handful of spinach.

Then I took a look at the amount of cholesterol in chicken and I was like I can’t truck with this. I don’t want to go out to no lame-ass heart attack. I’m trying to exercise more by going on walks and getting back into swimming, more on that one later. Anyway, the amount of cholesterol in chicken was ridiculous so I decided to look into alternatives.

I found the vegan food section and decided to take a risk on that. I bought the chorizo crumbles, which showed zero cholesterol and a small amount of saturated fat and decided to make a meal out of it with corn, black beans and pickled jalapenos. I add chipotle, cayenne and a different chipotle with roasted garlic as I saute it altogether. It’s delicious. I add guacamole, salsa and hot sauce as well. The chohula stuff, I think that I was recently shamed for using Frank’s. I had bought it out of Frank solidarity.

Anyway, I also have veggie burgers for two dinners during the week. That’s a little treat I have for myself. I love French fries but I don’t want to eat them because they’re terrible for me. So, like a lot of things I’ve found an alternative. I cut up a potato into slices and saute that with a little oil and boom you got a nice French fry like thing.

The rest of the week, it’s salads baby. I used to make my salads only with spinach but it’s kind of limp and boring. I started adding some hearts of romaine lettuce to give it some of that crunch. Throw in some sliced tomatoes, shredded carrots, shredded cheese, fake bacon bits, onions, pepita seeds and with about a teaspoon of low fat ranch dressing. I don’t like too much dressing on my salads because it just gets drowned.

It’s been a fun little journey. I definitely feel like I have more energy and I’ve lost some weight. I’m about to start a new thing where I drink a cup of beet juice. Never had a beet in my life but I heard that that’s good for heart health and gives you a nice little energy boost as well.

I’m not exactly sure why I wrote this. Maybe I wanted to give you an update on where I’m at. I don’t think I want you to follow me on this if you don’t think you have any health problems. I also don’t want to force anyone to be a vegetarian or vegan. This has just been a fun little venture. I didn’t think that it would be this easy.

Starting With a New Therapist

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Brain stem! Brain stem!

It’s been a while since I did a post about mental health so let’s talk about something that’s going on in my life. I started with a new therapist last week and I think that were going to be able to work together really well. I had several really great individual and group therapists in the past. They did amazing work and I have nothing but gratitude for them.

I started in therapy when I was 21, so that’s 19 years in therapy. When I hit 42 I’ll have spent more than half my life in therapy. I say that fact not because I think it’s depressing or that I’ve failed in some way, it’s because it’s just that a fact. I’ve made an effort to maintain some sense of self care. I do it because it makes my life so much easier. To have a release valve for all the things that make me angry or scared. To have someone tell me that I’m fucking wrong when I’m wrong and celebrate me when I have a success.

My first therapist, David, when I saw him at 21, I came in and told him that I felt broken. That I was born without the pieces that make other people happy. That I didn’t know how to do this and I didn’t think that I could ever be truly happy or okay.

He wasn’t that much older than me, being a grad student himself. But he listened to all of that and he didn’t judge me for it. He told me that he didn’t think he could fix me, which I told him made me question why I was there but instead it was because I wasn’t broken. Just that I needed some help and that the two of us would work together to help me with my pain. He couldn’t make it disappear forever but we could get it to such a point that I barely felt it. I hope that wherever he is, he’s doing well. I hope all of them are doing well.

I know a lot of people are scared of therapy or have misconceptions about it. But as someone whose been in the trenches for two decades and is showing no signs of stopping, I have to say that it’s made my life markedly better.

One Year Later

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I started this blog and meant to update it every day of the week and have off on Saturday and Sunday. I managed over the last year to do a little over half of the days. I think that’s pretty good.

I’m not going to give an excuse for why I haven’t posted more. Instead, I’m just going to explain where I was this last year and why I won’t have the same problems that I did this year.

When I started this blog, I had just started a new job. I was nervous the entire time. Because of my anxiety I was constantly on edge that I was going to be fired. I had just moved into my first solo apartment. It took me a minute to figure everything out on that. I’m still realizing that I’m lacking in certain things here and there but I just pick them up and move on.

In short, I spent the last year dancing as fast I can. But now, my feet are below me. I’m established. I have a schedule that I can keep to. It feels good to be in this position. The chaos that this last year was has left me now feeling strong and capable. I want to spend this coming year getting back into shape and really focusing on my writing. I think that I’m going to be able to do it and I have the drive to do so.

Stick it out here and we’ll go on this journey together. Happy New Year, my friends.