And Now a Word From our Sponsors...

Before I go on, there is something I just had to share with you...

I was at the gym the other day while the manager was talking with someone about a workout tool called the Shake Weight. She encouraged me to look them up on YouTube - I did and found a few videos that I found absolutely hysterical. They're from the Ellen DeGeneres show and feature Ellen's Demo along with spots by Queen Latifah and Kayley Cuoco. Check them out - this helps set-up nicely what I want to talk about in my next post.

To balance that one out, I have to share what I think is the absolute best diet plan I've come across and comes courtesy of Tim Ferriss' book called Four Hour Body. I have to say I'm not all of the way through the book, yet and am not sold on everything Tim has to say. But the diet plan is a real gem - I recently got to the point where I hit a plateau in terms of weight loss, but in the 10 days since I started this plan, I've lost 8 lbs. It takes some creativity and discipline to stick with, but I have to say I'm never hungry and feel like I'm shrinking every day. Here's the summary of that section. Enjoy!

Getting My Head in the Game

In my previous post, I described an experience I would not have been able to have five months ago - at least not without considerable agony and risk. In early August of this year, I decided to make a choice to change my life for the better, specifically in the area of heath & wellness. At the time, I knew I was a mess - overweight, working in a big job with very high stress level, poor diet, very little exercise, terrible posture, struggling with old injuries that were exacerbated by my busy life, etc. I had done nothing to change this. Then, I had a wake-up call in the form of two separate doctor visits that occured about a week apart.

The first was my 40-year-old physical (that I'm now supposed to repeat now every three years, much to my dismay). The bad news was that all of my tests came back absolutely normal - everything was in order, blood test and urinalysis showed everything was in tolerance. Nothing to see here. What makes this bad (according to my doctor anyway) is that most of the health risks you face later in life are genetic and my dad's medical history reads like a who's-who list of all the bad things that can happen to you. Dad's had a stroke and heart attacks as well as struggles with high blood pressure and diabetes to this day. So the doc's message was that, even though there was really nothing I could do to affect the genetic cards I've been dealt, I needed to do whatever I could to lower the associated risks. Most importantly, I needed to be around for my family, he reminded me (as if I needed that). And he told me I needed to lose weight (I was at 223 lbs) - whereas women are more conscious about their bodies, most men, he said hide that gut under loose clothing. So, I thanked him for his time, put on my big-***ed shirt and left. Ouch...

The second event involved a visit to my chiropractor. I was involved in a pretty serious car accident a number of years ago and walked away with fractured vertebrae as a result. This led to arthritis and scar tissue setting in throughout my neck and back, dealing with chronic pain and stiffness as well as occasional numbness in the hands, headaches, etc. Things like stress, travel and cold weather took their toll as the pain went from nagging soreness to debilitating at times. I've tried a variety of pain-management techniques from meds to injections to accupuncture to physical therapy to massage to, as I mentioned, chiropractic. I found that narcotics are the easy answer - they work great on reducing the pain to managable levels and seems to be the default treatment doctors rely on these days. In Europe (where we lived for a couple of years before relocating back to Seattle in February), codeine in particular is easily available over the counter. And NHS doctors love narcotics as much as the US doctors, or so it seems. While they work great, they can have devestating long-term effects on your body, mind and soul so at some point, you just have to stop. But more on that in a later post. Chiropractic care was the next best thing in pain management, for me anyway. Maybe took a couple points off of the "1-10 pain scale, with 10 being the worst pain imaginable", so would bring me down to maybe a 3-5 depending on the day. After several months of treatment, the chiro wanted to reduce me to once every couple of weeks and I told him that wasn't enough. By the time I got a week out, I knew I was overdue. He said that we needed to back them off and get my body to the place where my core was strong enough to hold the adjustments. They say, "change happens when the pain of staying the same exceeds the pain of change". Yeah, I was in that place.

So, I made a very simple, yet extremely powerful decision to change the game - to commit to a healthy lifestyle involving a proper diet and exercise, a commitment of reducing stress and raising energy levels, a commitment to do whatever it takes to manage the pain in a natural way. I believe it starts with a solid decision, because there is a heckuva lot of work required to follow through and without a firm (stubborn?) decision, I knew I didn't stand a chance.

I'm now weighing in at 188 lbs - 35 lbs lighter than when I started five months ago. I've lost two full sizes and could likely come down one more. Though I'll never be "ripped" (darn genetics!), I've gained a good bit of muscle weight along the way and you can certainly see the difference. I've gained strength, endurance and flexibility, too - effectively doubling the amount of weight I'm using in most every exercise at the gym as well as able to make some pretty serious hikes and still survive in one piece. I've been able to handle stress in a much better way - with more energy during the day and the ability to sleep soundly at night. And you know what? I'm experiencing much and much less pain, too (though don't imagine it will ever go away fully). 

I know I'm only five months into my journey and still have a long way to go. It is certainly too short to qualify as a complete life change - only time will tell if I stick with it, I suppose. But I'm more determined than ever and having some fun with it too. My hope is that this blog will keep me inspired, help track my journey and maybe help others along the way.

Stay tuned for my next post, Basics & Bull***, Part 1... hope you enjoy!

Mountain 1, Dave & Jazz 1

Early this morning, Jazz and I took off east on Hwy 2 toward Steven's Pass in the Central Cascades, in search of the trail head that would lead us past Bridal Veil Falls and up the base of  Mount Index to the banks of secluded, picturesque Lake Serene. This wasn't our first mountain hike - our inaugural run was actually last weekend as we spent the day trekking up to the summit of Mount Si in nearby North Bend, WA. And for those of you who aren't in the know, the "Mount" in Mount Si stands for MOUNTAIN - as in, four miles more-or-less straight up and back. Holy Switchback, Batman! 

Border Collies absolutely love the outdoors and all it took was one word - "go" to get Jazz up and stretching by the front door. So, despite the very crisp (27 degree) early December day, some serenity apparently sounded very good to her as well. We were first to arrive at the trail head and just after 9AM started off across the frozen parking area toward the mountain. The trail skirted a fast-moving stream as we made our way along the slow (but steady) incline toward Mount Index, through groves of moss-covered old-growth trees and younger evergreens. We crossed the stream several times before the trail began snaking it's way south, covering the ups and downs of the rolling hills that lay in the shadow of the peak.

At a mile and a half in, we were working hard and I had stripped layers down to my fleece - I noticed the perspiration that had sweated through was now lightly frosted, a testament to the fact that though I was quite warm, it was still very cold. Of course Jazz covers twice the amount of ground I do on a hike like this, running well ahead and then back again as if to say "hurry up!" Not sure how she does it, but she does it. I debated whether or not to take a detour and make the steep incline up to the falls. I ultimately decided to do it, since the biggest point here was to exercise - despite the memories of how I felt coming off of Mount Si last weekend. It was well worth the 1/2 mile ascent as I got a sweet view from the base of the falls out east over the Cascades and ended up sitting there for twenty minutes before trucking back down and continuing on toward Lake Serene.

Shortly after that, we dropped down into a small valley, across a well-made timber bridge and up the other side as we started to encounter scattered patches of snow and ice. Unlike Mount Si, where the last 3/4 mile was all snow and ice, this was intermittent which was good. I slid back down Mount Si last weekend and didn't want a repeat performance here, which was in part why I chose this lower altitiude hike in the first place. The trail got very steep all of a sudden and continued straight up for the remainder of the trip (gaining 1500 feet in 1.5 miles, or so the guidebook tells me). It was steeper and more rocky of a climb than Mount Si was, or at least so it seemed with countless switchbacks and imbedded stairs along the way.

After some time, it started to level off, at least some, as the trail that originally made its way eastward turned west and steadily climbed up the side of the mountain. Despite the effort it took to get there, the views were tremendous and I snapped a few pictures with my iPhone to send off to Red. By now, we entered a pretty established snow-field and it got pretty treacherous in places. We continued on another half-mile or so before coming to what seemed to be a frozen waterfall. There was a raised footpath that crossed it, but the path itself was under packed snow, which brought me to a painful dilemma. I could tell I was getting close to the lake, but after last week just didn't want to deal with the slow-going, slippery route I was facing the rest of the way. A half mile of this was enough already. Anti-climactic, I know. For those of you keeping score, that makes it Mountain 1, Dave & Jazz 1.

We carefully crossed back over the snow-field, but it was dicey in places where we had to cross sheets of bare ice and even Jazz slipped (the first time I'd seen her do so). At this point, the trail was startlingly close to the precipice and the thought of plunging down hundreds of feet crossed my mind more than once. We made it back across safely though and were able to quickly start our scramble back down the mountain. We stopped at a fallen tree, which caught my attention on the way up as a good picnic spot. So, Jazz and I sat there and rested, splitting a turkey sandwich and some chunk ham I got from the market earlier along with a bottle of water before carrying on. We ran into a couple about halfway down that was on their way up. In tennis shoes and leather jackets, they were even more ill-prepared for the journey than we were and decided to turn back also. They mentioned there was supposed to be an old mine around there somewhere, but we ended up making our way back to the parking area together.

I'd like to get back there - maybe next spring - and find that mine as well as make it to Serene. On the way up the mountain, I thought about how I'd like to be making the climb with Red and maybe, depending on how things work out, we'll get the chance to do just that.

Now to quote one of my favorite comedians, Ron White, "I told you that story, so I could tell you this story".  To be continued... in my next post.