Tag Archives: Muscatine Community Y

Catching up with Dear Diary

This phone booth in New Boston, Ill., came in handy Sunday at the end of a 20-mile windy ride from Muscatine. Of course the picture was taken with an iPhone, which has helped make phone booths obsolete.

This phone booth in New Boston, Ill., came in handy Sunday at the end of a 20-mile windy ride from Muscatine. Of course the picture was taken with an iPhone, which has helped make phone booths obsolete.

After awhile, these blog posts tend to take on the feel of public journal entries. And I’m OK with that, because a lot happens in my life that I don’t write about here.

Such has been the case in the past few days. Friends and others have said things — sometimes just simple offhanded comments — that have really made me think. In fact, I’m not sure I’ve processed it all yet, but it ought to make for some interesting blogging if — and when — I figure it all out.

In the meantime, Dear Diary, it’s time to catch up on the simpler stuff.

A week or so ago, I wrote about some ongoing efforts at self-improvement that included scheduling visits with my doctor and dentist. Well, I’m supposed to meet with Nate Olson, my new dentist, on May 28, unless he can get me in sooner.

But I met Friday with Dr. Mike Maharry, who, for the purposes of full disclosure, is a Facebook friend and reader of this blog. Over the past few years, I’ve come to think of Mike as a friend — Facebook or otherwise. It made for an interesting and, I thought, pretty honest visit. (For what it’s worth, it gives me confidence for the dental appointment because Nate is someone else I’ve come to regard as a friend.)

But let me get to the point: I was worried mainly about my blood pressure and other issues I thought might be related.  On Friday anyway, my BP was 134/90, which, maybe isn’t the greatest, but it could have been worse, too.  According to the doctor, it wasn’t bad enough to put me on BP medication. At least not for now.

Instead he:

  • Told me to regard sodium as my enemy and said I should — for starters  — try to lose 5 percent of my body weight.
  • Gave me the book, Am I Hungry by Dr. Michelle May, and told me to read it.

As I mentioned, he sometimes reads this blog, so he said: “I know you’re a reader. You might benefit from reading this.”

It’s too soon to tell, but so far I think the book teaches a valuable lesson — one I’d have to agree with May is astonishingly simple, but definitely isn’t easy.

I’ll keep you posted, Dear Diary.

More follow-ups:  Nearly two months ago, I blogged about my goal to start lifting heavier weights at the Muscatine Community Y. Then, I farted around for the better part of a month before I got serious. But in the past month, I’ve been a regular.  And Saturday, I did the same workout I did on March 12, when I really started hitting the weights at the Y.

Even I have to admit I’ve made some progress — enough to keep me coming back to the weight room.

This particular workout consists of three sets of five repetitions of the bench press, squats and dead lifts.  The total amounts I lifted for each were:

Lift                                             March 30                 March 12               % increase

Squats                                       735 lbs                       575 lbs                   27.8

Bench press                             635 lbs                       525 lbs                   20.9

Dead lift                                    675 lbs                        450 lbs                  50

And that brings me to this …

Saturday, I thought it was pretty cool to lift heavier-for-me weights. I was especially pleased with my efforts in the Muscatine Community Y’s Kevin Garrison Squat Rack and at the dead lifts.

But then came Sunday and my first real outdoor bike ride of the year — a  20-miler to New Boston, Ill., in some challenging 20-25 mph crosswinds. It gives me just a little apprehension to realize RAGBRAI is only 111 days away.

Yikes. Someone, please pass the Icy Hot and the ibuprofen. I’ve got to get ready to ride again and soon.

A sure sign that summer is finally just around the corner.

A sure sign that summer is finally just around the corner. This was taken Friday at The Brew in Muscatine. I didn’t get to ride with them, but I did show up in time to take the photo.

Working to reach ‘after’

After.

After.

Before

Before

In search today before going to the gym for motivation to keep working out and trying to eat better, I found Weight Mirror. It is a visualization tool to help show people what they might look like if they lost (or gained) weight.

So I plugged in a photo that was taken  of me on Wednesday. And then I ran it through Weight Mirror, which says this is how I might look if I look if I lost another 40 pounds and then kept it off.

And then I decided to try it again.

workout

Before.

After

After

Definitely, there is less chin and neck in the doctored after pictures, which is all the incentive I need for today. So as soon as I post this, I’ll be heading to the Muscatine Community Y to throw around some weights.

And I’ll keep working to watch what I eat. On that front, I’ve worked hard in the past two weeks to not eat anything after 8 p.m. I wrote recently about my bad habit of emotional eating. Since then, I’ve learned from friends that many of them share this problem, which, for me, seems really to be a problem at night. I’ve been reminded of what it’s like to wake up hungry after a successful night of not eating after 8:00 so, I think, it’s helping.

Also this week, I took some big steps, for me, in the effort to improve my overall health. I scheduled an appointment with a Muscatine friend, who usually reads this blog and just happens to be a medical doctor. I’m to see him next Friday. It’s been awhile since I’ve been to a doc and I just need to get checked out.  I’ve been thinking about it ever since watching “Chow Down” the other night. It was even more effective than before and after pictures when it comes to pushing a fat guy to keep trying.

And while I was making appointments, I called another friend who just happens to be a dentist. Well, first, I call his mother. She is also a friend and a dental hygienist. It’s been even longer since I’ve been to a dentist, but I’ll be plopping down into one of Nate Olson’s chairs on May 23 and May 28 unless there is a cancellation and I get called in sooner. Or unless I chicken out.

The latter could happen.

I’ve always had an irrational fear and dislike for dentists. But I’m tired of worrying about my teach. I’m also tired of being embarrassed by them. My teeth have always been dark — mostly likely because of the tetracycline my mom was given when she was pregnant with me. I’m hoping Nate might have some suggestions on how to give me a slightly whiter smile — one that might match the dimples my mother also gave to me.

In the meantime, I’ll keep plugging away at reaching goals I’ve set for myself.

poster

Old picture offers needed encouragement

Newer mugA picture, it seems, really is worth more than 1,000 words.

For better or worse, the picture at the right is me.  The other picture was me perhaps 15 years ago. I don’t remember exactly when the old picture was taken. My wife found it this weekend while she was going through some of her things.

I needed to see it.

You see, about 15 years ago or so, I tipped the scales at 360 pounds, the heaviest I’ve ever weighed. Since then, I’ve whittled away a little at a time. Sometimes my weight has bounced up and down, but I’ve never eaten my way back to 360.

really old mugStill, I’ve been really frustrated lately with my inability to reach and maintain my goal weight. To do this would mean finally resolving my issue with food, the thing to which I turn whenever I feel angry, anxious, sad, stressed or frustrated. It can be a vicious circle.

Adding to this frustration is the fact that my blood pressure has crept up. It’s just high enough — and has consistently stayed there long enough — that my doctor is going to want me to start taking meds the next time I see him. I’m sure of it.

My inability to fix this myself really angers me, which only makes me want to eat more. And not being able to stop this kind of emotional eating — even when I know I’m doing it — frustrates me even more.

But seeing this old picture was a good reminder of good changes:

  • First of all, why didn’t someone — before I finally figured it out on my own — sit me down and say: Chris, buy some clippers and shave off what’s left of your hair. It will look better. It can’t look worse. Trust us.
  • That beard didn’t look nearly as good as I thought it did.

More importantly, the Chris in the red shirt couldn’t have ridden a bicycle 100 miles in a day or 3,000 miles in a summer. He wouldn’t have even tried. He was a pretty sedentary guy.

If nothing else, that is no longer true. As I write this, my butt and shoulders are sore from the weights I lifted Saturday, which included:

  • Bench press — 3 sets of five repetitions with 205 pounds.
  • Squats — 3 sets of five repetitions with 225 pounds.
  • Dead lifts — 3 sets of five repetitions with 225 pounds.

Today, I led an indoor cycling class at the Muscatine Community Y. Monday, I will lead a group fitness class.

It’s hard to know where you want to go if you forget where you’ve been. I needed the reminder of that old picture. It will help motivate me to keep going forward. And to never give up.

The alternatives aren’t pretty.

 

 

 

A real pain in the butt

Gluteus

Forgive me for grumbling, but it’s been the kind of day when the damn car wouldn’t start AND it had a flat tire.

So I’m a little slow in tending to the blog. Like I said, please forgive me for grumbling. But also please allow me to continue …

It just could be that I’m slow today because I’m sore enough to make walking fast out of the question. To be direct: My butt hurts. (And, yes, I’m posting this picture in a blatant attempt to attract readers. Besides, no one wants to see my butt.)

If you didn’t know, the  gluteus maximus is the human body’s biggest muscle. And I feel every ounce of mine today after doing squats Thursday at the Muscatine Community Y with much heavier weights than normal.

… Thank you for waiting a bit longer to receive this blog post. I just took a 15-minute walk to see if I could loosen up some. It helped a little, but not much.

But I did set the goal of eating better and lifting weights more often and with heavier weights. So I have no one else but myself to blame. And the soreness shouldn’t last forever anyway.