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March 2nd – Day 61 – Ignite!
Well, I did it. Tuesday night I took the stage (in star trek uniform no less!) and did a lackluster presentation to a at times focused and other times loudly distracting crowd at Ignite Denver number 6 at The Rackhouse Pub. I was nervous, but I did acceptable. My subject matter was solid but I hadn’t prepared enough to go solo without a notecard or paper in my hand. Thus, it suffered. Some of the good lines were lost while others were lost in the noise from the bar crowd. I made it through without fainting or stroking out so I call this one a win. I met one or two people and got to have some fun while doing it.
You’ll find seven (yes, 7!) photos below of me in various stages of my presentation. Enjoy! The video is coming as soon as they upload it to the youtube channel.
Feb 1 – Day 32 – TITANIC!
You know what’s great? Finding people you haven’t talked to in awhile and finding them on a similar journey. One such person is an old friend and her name is Jenn. Jenn and I survived going to the same high school (GO LITTLETON LIONS!) and after awhile drifted apart. Like everyone else you never talk to again I forgot about her a little more each day. Somehow she ended up on my friends list in Facebook again and it’s where I found her doing something similar to my project. Her focus is a little more direct. She’s counting down to the end of Nursing School and in doing that is writing about her experiences. I’ve bookmarked her site and will be catching up with her adventures. I encourage you too as well since nobody should ever make such a long walk alone.
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Jan 17th – Day 17 – Failure To Launch
I’m not sure how to articulate my feelings this evening, but I can honestly say if you ever need someone to take the “let’s be friends” speech bullet for you, I’ve been trained to the point of being a Jedi Knight in that category. I figure I’ll keep getting this speech until eventually some lucky gal out there says, “Let’s be more than friends” and I’ll totally have a second stroke in surprise. I figure the second stroke will lessen my right side a little more so I’ll actually break even somehow.
Jan 2nd – Day 2 – Keeping Pace
I love weekends. This weekend is a bit of a bittersweet moment because after being on vacation for nearly two weeks I’m dreading the return to work. I’m a glutton for punishment so I’ve been checking my email. Bad idea. I fear that when I return I’m going to need roller skates to get everything done that needs doing. I’ll survive to see another day. Work isn’t the end of the world or me but it’ll definitely push me to the limits in the New Year. I’ve struggled how to balance and work with the stress that the job throws down on my shoulders and I’ll admit that on more than one occasion I’ve failed miserably. Handling stress and the load of work that presents itself is both a struggle and a blessing. Without all that I’d never learn. I’d rather learn by dealing than having a job without challenge.
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Resolving to be Resolute in 2010
2010 is just days away and it’s that time. The time to try and come up with something or anything that will help me be a better person over the next 365 days or so. The time to ask myself if I do indeed want to simply be the same as I was this year or do I want to take a flying leap into the unknown?
I think this year calls for a flying leap. The years are growing on me and within the next two years I’ll be dangerously close to turning thirty years old. As thirty is a stones throw from forty I figure I should do everything I can to be the man I want to be this year. It’s an effort to look at my future through a very long lens.
As I grow older I see the benefits of changing habits and life choices. As a stroke survivor this line of thinking is magnified thousandfold. With the risk of a second brain malfunction hanging over me in the wings I’ve got to take the reins on the horse of life and make it my own. The time is now. It all starts here. And I can do it.
Lose it or Die – Day 12 “Back in the Saddle”
Man. Working out is hard. Gosh.
I only did 15 minutes today because I felt lazy. Yes, I admit it. I’m lazy at times. With my exercise I’m just terrible. Mind you the excuse my mind was saying as I pressed the red “Stop” button is that my body needs to build up endurance. So instead of forty five minutes, I’ll simply do twenty.
Somewhere my mind developed a…mind of its own and took over my body. I walked out after such a short workout and somehow the brain managed to overrule the heart and get me home and plopped into my comfy office chair.
In some countries (and one universe) The Comfy Chair is a torture device.
My comfy chair is not however and it is quietly holding my glutinous muscle in a resting position.
I’ve come to accept the fact that this week will probably be hell for my body and me as I get used to working out on a regular basis again. I’m aware there will probably be angry words bouncing around my cranium as the muscles, tendons and everything else burns with intensity of a thousand and one suns.
But it will be worth it. If I can keep to this (and I shall endear to do so!) I can start losing the weight and my “man boobs” will quietly fade away into the night rather than screaming at me every morning when I see them in the mirror.
They scream. I throw up a little in my mouth. Fun for the whole family.
So what happened in twelve days of not doing anything to prevent my death at an early age? I lost one pound somehow and have felt pretty fat over the last week or so. So, this will be me throwing my rebellious body and mind onto the machines and like Darth Vader torturing it until it gives me what I want.
And there will be no one to stop us this time!
Lose it or Die – Day 1 “Back on the Horse”
I won’t lie to you. There’s a deep seeded part of me that knows full well the next week is going to be the most painful week in a long time. You see back in the day (read: three months ago) I was going to the gym nightly. Getting my excercise on. Then I fell off the wagon, hit my head on a few rocks and lazily got up and walked the other way.
When it comes to excercise walking away is the worst thing you can do. I was getting up on my endurance and I was looking and feeling better. For the first time in ten years I was happy with myself. I was doing better at work, at home and just about everywhere. Coming to a dead stop was a death knell to my progress.
I worked out today for about an hour and it felt good. I burned around 450 calories or so. I know that I’m going to feel this in the morning and I can guarantee you that tomorrow when I go into the gym I’m going to have that first fifteen or so minutes where I curse everyeone around me silently because getting back on that machine is like asking someone to hammer all your appendages at once with extra effort on your lungs and heart. It’s the euphoric rhythmic harmony that forms when your body is warmed up and suddenly everything is firing at once on all cylinders and you’re sweating to the oldies.
And loving every minute of it.
Today I weighed 220 pounds. I worked out for an hour and burned 450 calories on a running machine. Tomorrow the adventure continues. Onward!
Lose it or Die!
You want to know how bad it’s become? I weigh a shocking 230 pounds. I’m 5′11. That’s unreal to me.
I’ve struggled with my weight for a long time and most of it was even pre-stroke. It started when I went overseas to the Philippines and found myself eating to excess. When I came back I simply continued in this habit. It’s become worse in the last year as I’ve gone back and forth with my gym membership and moving into a new placed coupled with job stress.
I’m not happy with how I look and I’ve got to double down. Every month I go without getting back on the train is another month where I am living unhealthy and threatening my future with all kinds of potential maladies. It’s time. I’ve got to lose it or I will most certainly leave this earth earlier than I ever intended. Combined with my stroke, sleep apnea and everything else I can’t do what I’m doing anymore.
So every day I’m going to blog about what I did to avoid the acceleration of my doom. Some of it might be funny. Other times it’ll be heartbreaking. And some of it will probably be boring. But it must be done. My future depends on this.
Returning
Well hello everyone out there on the internets. It’s been a while since I sat down to write something of substance that qualifies as a “post”. I blame vacation for the last two week but the other months? I have no idea. I could blame writers block or my busy as a bee life. I could. But I won’t. I’ll be honest.
I’ve lost my rhythm. I’m not sure how but it’s gone. I know there’s plenty to write but my focus has been on other things. Things that mattered for a little while but didn’t have the same payoff as writing does in my life. I’ve got my priorities mixed up and now that I’ve thrown all 52 cards are in the air I’ve got a chance to pick it all up again.
I’ve got to get back to exercising. My weight ballooned before I went on vacation and I didn’t help matters over the two week period as I traveled, ate and traveled. There was more eating in there as well if you haven’t guessed. I’ll be blogging about that struggle as well.
The other is my faith. I need to focus back on God again and my relationship with Him. I’ll detail this more in future blog posts as I get back in His Word.
I also need to get out more. I need to find someone to spend time with. I’m on the “Eharmony Plan” and working through that is interesting. I’ve already been knocked out of a round 1 and threw myself back in to Round 2. We’ll see how that goes.
All in all I need to push myself. With God, with my body and with this place. I have to start owning my future and all that it entails.
More to certainly come on this.
1 year 1 month and 4 days
That’s how long it’s been since my stroke.
Today was the first day that I actually felt as if I had returned to myself pre-stroke. It’s not been easy. I have a schedule book (seen here) that I’m using to keep track of my day and my tasks. My workout regimen has given me 12 less pounds since I began on March 25. I feel better each day. I can do more each day. Without question, I’m doing much better than I was six months into the stroke.
I was able to do so much yesterday that for the first time, I felt as I had done my job and put everything I had into what i was doing. It was an odd moment where I realized this, but it felt as I had actually accomplished something beyond my regular day to day existence. I had made a difference in my life in so many smaller ways that suddenly the big picture was no longer cloudy but becoming clearer.
I start it all again today and hope to continue this upward climb.
Tally ho!
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- Half hour to go until #wwedenver starts. Going silent to enjoy the show. Still hoping for a @realkellykelly shout out ;)
- Some kid was just doing Shawn Michaels "sweet chin music" in line. Tempted to give him an Edge Spear. #wwedenver
- @JustinCasias1 I keep forgetting about the colesium show. I missed it due to work.
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Live from the 303 by Aaron DeLay is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. -
