A Dad’s Journey to Better Health

I got lost in myself. The easy answer is the meds I am on. Me energy level isn’t worth shit and I am in pain a lot of the time. Those two together make a recipe for depression, which leads to not giving a shit, which leads to not watching my cal intake, which leads to not losing weight at best and gaining weight at worst.

I have found that I function a lot better and have more positive energy if I get a full eight hours of sleep in per night. Now that may seem easy, but for me it isn’t. When I am on shift I work for twelve hours and am off for twelve. It takes me half an hour to get to and from work (one hour round trip), so that makes thirteen hours of no me and family time. Now if I were to add in eight hours of sleep that gets me to twenty-one hours of no me and family. I have to get up one hour before work to do the triple S before work while the family is sleeping. That gives me a whole two hours hours of family time, which most times does not work out, due to activities and other family obligations, so I end up using at least another two hours. Which puts me at six hours of sleep. I could do this as a young man, but add into this mess the rotating shifts from nights to day and days to nights and it makes for one zombie like dad.

So what do I do? I try and get eight hours when I can and get at least six when I can’t and hope that I get more eight hour times. I have to really work on this. I also need to keep watching cals, even when I am not in the best of space.

I got some good rest this weekend and weighed myself. I gained another six pounds. It is time to stop the slippery slide, so I am. As I write this I am on track and have my evening planned out to stay on track. So this is one day. It is a start. Tomorrow will be another and I will tackle it then.

Well I have had a set back this week. I gained some weight back. Five flipping pounds! I am pretty sure it is due to the new meds I am on for my blood pressure. They have knocked me for a bit of a loop. I am more tired than before. I was told to expect that initially. Also have been having a really hard time with appetite. I crave more than before! I know part of it is also water, I’ve been retaining more.

It has thrown off my sleep. I used to sleep six hours and be fine. Now I am sleeping eight and forcing myself to get up. This does not help the exercise because I work a twelve hour shift. When you throw in two hours for commute and shift turn over that leaves 10 hours. Take out the eight for sleep and you have two. Take out shower time and general slap the kid, beat the wife time (for those that don’t know me, yes I am joking) I barely make it back to work on time for my next shift. Hopefully I can get this straightened out.

One of my foods that has helped keep me in line when I just can’t stand it I’m not supposed to eat as much of, bananas. I know it is crazy and they pack more cals than many veggies, but a banana usually stops my hunger. Many of the veggies I salted with potassium salt (because sodium is the one that increases BP), but now I am not supposed to use potassium because the meds I am on cause me to retain potassium. No salt makes the veggies WAY to bland, some aren’t too bad. I love veggies, but I prefer them salted. Now what I was using to satisfy me no longer satisfies. It is very discouraging.

Whine done… time to do something about it!

When I got home the AM from work my shoulder was killing me, so I took some Vicodin and a muscle relaxant that the doc gave me an passed out hard. I was woken up by my phone at 2:30pm. I had set my alarm for 3:00 so I could get up and get a walk in before work so it was no super big deal. It was my wife asking if I would like to meet her dad and his wife. This was a total shocker for me. We have been married 14 years and I have never met her dad! He and my wife have been estranged for a very long time. I only talked to the man twice and it was on my dime. Once just before we got married, to invite him to the wedding (which he didn’t come for) and once when my son was born to let him know he was a grandpa.

They were passing through town on vacation and decided to drop in and say hi. Of course I got up and went to meet them! I have been wanting this rift between he and my wife healed at least to the point where they talked more and my son got to know his other grandfather some. They were nice people and it was a very pleasant afternoon. Most of the friction between them was left over crap from the divorce of my wife’s parents. It wasn’t pretty from what I could glean over the years.

The bad part of the afternoon was no walk, and we went out to eat. I didn’t over indulge, but I would have felt better with a lighter meal. I had an 8 oz. steak, steamed rice, streamed veggies, and corn bread. Oh well the company was good and I really did have room in my calories for the day. I just have to be extra careful for the rest of the night, which will be hard as I am at work watching computer screens and I tend to get nailed by the snack cravings. I generally handle those with veggies and some fruit. I will stick with the veggies tonight, till lunch and have a light lunch.

I really have to get up early enough to walk tomorrow. So my goal for the next 24 is drink at least 80 oz. of water, eat light, get at least six hours of sleep, and walk my two mile rout around the marina. One day at a time! I just gotta do it one day!

I got off work this morning after a 12 hour shift at 6:00 am. I’m used to it after so many years, though the first night of shift is the hardest. Today; however, I had to stay up for my son’s soccer game at 9:00 am. I am his coach and I love it, but it is hard when his games or practices conflict with my normal sleep time, like this game. It was a good game. I didn’t do much coaching other than team lineup, because today was silent Saturday. Silent Saturday means the coaches have to sit and watch the boys play with no interaction, other than to clap. You wanna talk about hard!

Anyway I got home and to bed at 11:00 am and slept till 4:00 pm. I had to get up to get ready for work and get some dinner before I had to be to work at 5:30 pm. So now I am here at work tired and bored. Not a good combo to keep munchies at bay. I’ll do alright and have some veggies to satisfy that munchy urge, even though it really doesn’t quite knock it out like a nice family sized bag of tortilla chips and a large jar of salsa does.

Got up early enough that I could get my walk in before work. I did my usual 2 mile walk around the Sparks Marina. It was a good one. I averaged 3.5 mph, which is a brisk pace.

I have been working on taking it faster trying to get closer to 4 mph, but have only managed to eke out 3.7 mph. I am thinking of lengthening the walk since I can’t seem to get my speed up there, but I am usually strapped for time and it’s nice to get a workout in, in a little over half an hour. I’ll just keep plugging away at it, listening to some fast paced ’80’s rock on my ipod to help speed up and keep it interesting.

I went to the doc today to have him look at my shoulder (I strained it pretty bad a few weeks ago and it still is aching). While there I checked in as usual through the nurse with BP, weight, you know the drill. Well for the last year I have been borderline hypertensive and this time my BP was 150/100! 

All of this this after losing 35 pounds and eating way healthier for the last three months. The doc decided to start me on meds (Lisinopril) to lower it. The meds he has me on are pretty nice (he said) with few if any side effects. The biggest one being a cough for 1 in 20. He told me that I may lose enough weight and get off of them, which is a good thing, but that I may have to be on them from now on. This is not a huge surprise. Both my mom and dad were hypertensive, as were three out of four of my grandparents. It was not so much a matter of if as a matter of when.   

I still have hope of lowering it enough with diet and exercise and am going to continue on that path regardless. Like I said I have lost 35 pounds so far. My big downfall is exercise. It is getting better, I am walking more and more, but there is still room for improvement.

I turned 40 on June 14, 2009. The day after which I assessed where I was in my life, as most newly minted 40 year olds will do. I found myself lacking, again as most 40 year olds do. Where I found myself lacking was not in the monetary field (this is important, but not in my view one of the greatest achievements of life), the family area, or in my relationship with God. I found myself lacking in the area of my health. I was 380 lbs and in pretty bad shape. My son was 10 and though I stay active with him it was getting harder to do. I want to live a LOT longer and be there for my son and any future grand kids and I want to be happy in my longevity.

Long story short I decided to start eating better, counting my calories, and increasing my exercise and activity levels. So far so good. I am eating better and counting my calories quite well. My exercise stil needs work, but it has increased (it’s pretty easy to increase when you start from zero. As of this date I have lost 35 lbs (am now at 345 lbs) and am on my way to losing more. I am also shrinking. I measure my BFP (Body Fat Percentage) by tape measure and have dropped 4.15% (am now at32.15%).