goals

220.8

Down a few more pounds. 🙂 Still haven’t started back exercising but plan to this upcoming week. Just don’t think I should start running again until I get the weight under 190.

So I’ll be hitting the weights, elliptical, and possible biking to get my calorie burn on.

Heading to Gulf Breeze today for Rachel’s mom’s 60th birthday party, but neither of us want to stay the night so we’ll be heading back after the party. So looks like there will be a lot of driving in my near future.

223.0

Today is my brother’s birthday, so here’s a shout out to Dave – “Happy Birthday Bro!”

So I’m down about a half pound since Tuesday. I finally spoke with the Orthopedic Surgeon’s ARNP about my knee damage. The good news is that are no tears. No meniscus tear, no ACL tear, no MCL tear…. The bad news is I have Stage 4 Cartilage damage and osteoarthristis in there. What’s that mean? It means my knee is pretty much screwed and there’s not too much anyone can do about it. Fortunately for me, my knee doesn’t hurt too bad currently. When I turn or twist a certain way, I do get a little jolt of pain. It’s a little painful to bend down as well. The ARNP found it odd and surprising that I have as much arthritis in that knee as I do for only being 40 years old. She thinks that there was some sort of traumatic event that damaged it years ago and it has finally progressed to this stage. Although I cannot recall any traumatic events leading up to when I hurt it playing basketball a few weeks ago.

So what are my options? As far as treatment, if it starts hurting, they suggested possibly doing cortisone shots. If it finally gets to a point where that no longer helps, they suggested having the doc scope it and see if he can “clean it up a little” which may give some temporary relief. Ultimately I have arthritis and it will continue to be a problem until a knee replacement (way down the road) ever happens.

So now the question is … What can I still do physically? For starters and priority #1, lose weight. ARNP says for every 1 lb of body weight I have is equivalent to 4 lbs of pressure on each knee. So I’m about 50 lbs overweight. That’s 200 lbs of pressure crushing on my knees. Lose the weight, extend the life and comfort of my remaining knee cartilage. How can I lose weight? Besides diet, what exercises can I still do that won’t damage the knees any more than I need to. The ARNP says they are giving me no restrictions. And to let pain be my guide. If I want to run (a great way to lose weight as I’ve seen) go for it. But I tried running down my driveway a couple of days ago and it was a little uncomfortable. In fact, I haven’t really gone for a run since August 27th according to my Map My Run app. Wow.  Rach thinks I should stick to low impact cardio exercise (swimming, biking, elliptical) until I get he weight below 190. Then ease back into running and see how it goes. Rick suggests taking Glucosamine to help with the cartilage damage. Both of which are good advice that I think I’ll heed.

Can’t wait to begin exercising again though. Feels like it’s been forever.

227.8 – MRI Today

About the same weight as yesterday. Admittedly we were out running errands and decided to eat Jimmie John’s for dinner. Thinking the sodium in that meal caused me to retain a little water and hence the .2 lb weight gain. Or it could just be my scale which tends to fluctuate its readings a little here and there.  Nonetheless, the onus is strictly on diet today.

I’m having an MRI on my right knee today. I hurt it playing basketball down in Gainesville 9 days ago. Landed awkwardly, kind of buckled. It feels tight and though it’s not really hurting continuously, when I walk it often locks up which shoots pain down the front of my leg from my knee to my foot. It also hurts to kneel down on that knee, so I’m really worried that surgery is going to be my only option. Guess I’ll find out in a couple of days when the doctor has a chance to review my MRI.

It has been depressing not being able to run or use the elliptical at YouFit. The weather has cooled things down outside and now it is so nice outdoors – it’s the perfect time to do some running before the harsh, colder winter air moves in and I won’t want to even step outside, much less go running.

Edit: MRI completed. Now I play the waiting game until I hear the news from the doctor
wpid-IMAG0156.jpg

227.6

Down nearly a pound from yesterday by simply monitoring what I ate. My goal for the next few months is to lose 12lbs per month, which equates to 3lbs a week. It would be a lot easier to obtain if my knee wasn’t messed up and I could do some cardio. But it is what it is and I must make the most of it.

Another thing I want to see is to no longer see a weight gain on the scale whenever I weigh in. It can remain the same or be less, but I’m going to try to avoid seeing that number go up ever again. I believe proper nutrition week be the key. More now than ever since I cannot do any cardio exercise.

224.2 – more of the same

This morning’s weigh in, 224.2.
About where I was on Monday.

Hurt my knee while down in Gainesville. It may be pretty bad. Have X-rays scheduled today. Meeting with an orthopedic surgeon tomorrow. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst. Definitely unable to do any cardio currently. Knee hurts in about three different places. Sometimes it buckles on me. Sometimes it locks up on me. Either way, it sucks and doesn’t help my cause.

225.4 -Weigh In
image

Cleaning it up! This morning’s breakfast – Eggs, Oatmeal, & Water. Check out my nutrition under the Diet Hawk link

My weight is surprisingly high this morning. I’m not surprised that it’s up, but am surprised at how much. Yesterday I was up to 223.6. Why is my weight so high? I have to disclose that I haven’t been trying to hard lately. Back to half-assing things – diet, exercise, dedication… I went for broke on Monday and had Panda Express for lunch. I added up the calories based on their website nutrition to see exactly how bad it really was…. Wow it was really bad. Over 1700 calories! just for lunch! I only have around 1750 total daily calories allotted to me. Last night we had pizza and soda for dinner. Nothing but crap…

A major problem that I have is that I have a “Perfectionist” attitude. You’re probably thinking, “Some one with a perfectionist attitude would strive for perfection and lose weight, not gain it” right? My problem is that I’m all-or-nothing, which is bad. You see, I can eat well in the morning, maybe even eat well for lunch, but if I screw up and eat something crappy later, then my mind thinks “Oh well, today’s shot – You might as well eat whatever you want and don’t exercise because it won’t matter. Try again tomorrow.” It’s what kept me fat for so many years.

In addition to that, I’m heading back down to Hogtown this weekend for the Tennessee/Florida matchup for a guy’s weekend with my buddies Rick and Will. I know, as it always is, this weekend will be rife with beer, chicken wings, and who knows what else. Yes, it’s going to be hella fun, but then my brain goes into overdrive again…” Hey you’re going down to Gainesville for guy’s weekend. You’re going to ingest a shit ton of calories. Why even worry about getting back into shape and losing weight until that weekend is over.” It’s quite defeating.

Rick and I spoke about it. He uses logic – “eat well until that weekend, then get back at it afterward. That way you only have one bad weekend.” (I’m paraphrasing here). As much as the devil on my shoulder tries to justify my weak ass approach to procrastinating, I can’t win this argument. Remember… Tomorrow Never Comes. There will always be something else coming up. I must persevere. So I’m forcing myself to clean up my diet, even if it is just for the next couple days before Guy’s Weekend.  I restarted Focus T25 (a Beachbody Fitness Program similar to Insanity) on Monday, but I haven’t run in three weeks! Three weeks! I can’t believe it. My wife started a new job recently and she’s working longer hours. She’s pretty tired at night, so we don’t always see eye-to-eye about me leaving for an hour to run the neighborhood while the kids are still awake. I have to work on getting them to bed earlier or simply sacrificing sleep and running late at night like I used to. I must get that type of dedication back.

By the way, for those of you who have noticed me calling Gainesville “Hogtown” every once in a while but don’t know why… here you go.

Hogtown_Settlement_Historical_Marker_jpeg

Hogtown. Click to enlarge pic.