I can relate, my brother.

One of the things we did to "make things easier" on the trip to New York this year was to pack many of the items into two large plastic bins. Even with that, we still had a lot of little separate items, because those are easier to stuff into the odd bits of space in a RAV4. it was just a matter of a few steps, carrying them from the house into the garage to load into the car.

We didn't unload the entire car until we got to our vacation rentals. One of the bins held electronics, many with built-in batteries. That bin I didn't want sitting in the car in the summer sun, so it always came into the house or the motel with us at each of the three stops before we got to the Finger Lakes. Motels are great because they have elevators and luggage carts. Mitzi's daughter's house was great, because her son-in-law, Ian, carried it up the stairs and into the house for me.

But, unlike in years past, we couldn't park near either of the houses we rented in Trumansburg and Geneva, so I had to carry each box some distance from the car to the house, usually involving at least a couple of stairs.

My back isn't what it used to be, and it can get "jacked up" (sorry, Jack) pretty easily. So I was always careful to take my time and keep the load as close to my body as I could. Seemed to work. I got a couple of twinges right after each time, but no spasms. (Gratitude.)

At this moment, I find myself feeling much more motivated, more "serious," about losing weight than at any time in the recent past. I'd been making some progress earlier in the year, but kind of went off-track in New York because, well, ice cream.

But when we were gardening, or whenever I bent over to take a closeup of some flower or bug, I could feel my lower back starting to spasm. Often I'd stop trying to get a photo, just because my back hurt and I was worried I'd wind up with a bigger problem. And with the garden, you don't always have the luxury of just "giving up," and I'd end up spending the rest of the day in the recliner.

So far, nothing has put me down for days, but it can ruin a whole day and has.

Plus, I find that getting on the floor or the ground, and back up again, assembling cabinets or kayaks, is so much harder with this spare tire I'm wearing.

I have to believe that my issues might be significantly reduced if I could get 30 to 40 pounds off and strengthen my core overall.

So I'm trying to eat mindfully, (No ice cream since we've been back.) and exercise regularly.

Having just written that, I took yesterday and today off. It's possible that I may be attempting to do too much with the trekking poles and Nordic walking. When I used to train for marathons and half-marathons, I always tried to listen to my body. This can be tricky, because sometimes it's not your body, it's really your mind telling you to go easy. I'd go out for a run, not "feeling it" at all, and end up turning in a really good time. But other times, I'd know to reduce the mileage or the pace, and I'd be the better for it the next time. And back then, I never trained every day.

Nordic walking feels like something I should be able to do every day, but maybe not right away? Maybe I should just alternate days so I can do something every day. I think I'm going to try and do consecutive days this week, weather permitting, and see how I feel by the end of the week. May not be a representative sample, because I suspect Monday and Tuesday may be rained out, though walking in the rain probably never kills anyone. Well, not often anyway.

I need to figure out a sustainable mix of activities so I can do something every day. I haven't ridden my bike since we got back, so that needs to get back in the mix.

But this place in New York has me kind of excited. I figure I have maybe a decade of good mobility left if I can get this weight off. Less if I don't. I want to be able to get out and do stuff while we're up there, though sitting on the front patio watching the sun set sounds appealing too.

And that's to say nothing of being prepared for extreme weather events. I used to mock guys I worked with who owned several firearms and talked about how much ammo they'd stockpiled, when the biggest threat to their physical safety was their diet.

First things first and all that.

Oh, and as an aside, I had my blood pressure taken when I did my last blood donation just before we left for vacation, and most recently, on Friday when I went in for a wellness check or whatever. Both times, 110 over 70-something! I've never been on blood pressure medication, but it's never been that low. It's usually high-120s, low 80s.

Two data points don't make a trend, but it's encouraging. I suspect it may have something to do with my diet. These days, I eat a lot of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries. I have black beans and spinach nearly every day. My go-to snacks are "deluxe" mixed nuts and carrot chips with hummus. The berries are expensive, and I'm privileged to be able to afford them. I have the berries in plain Greek yogurt with some honey. I'll add walnuts when I think of it. Most recently, I've begun adding them to store-brand raisin bran (lower sugar and prices than the premium brands). Skim milk.

I also drink a lot less beer. Alas.

It's become clear that we're not just feeding ourselves, we're feeding an entire microbial ecosystem in our digestive tracts, which are responsible for a lot of the work necessary to maintain good health. So feed 'em the good stuff, I guess.

Cardio seems okay, and the kidney's still working. If I can just get some weight off so my back doesn't let me down, I might just enjoy my final act in this divine comedy.

Anyway, sorry Jack. It's amazing how small a thing it might take to get our backs to go out on us. Hope it recovers quickly.

Originally posted at Nice Marmot 08:44 Sunday, 4 August 2024