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Health & Life Update

Health? I’m still alive. I have a doctor’s appointment in a few weeks to discuss my bloodwork results. It could be bad news. Not that I fear the announcement of some deadly disease, but things like cholesterol levels, A1C, etc. Since October of last year, when my dad got sick, I have been off my diet and exercise. I haven’t been able to get back on track all this time. I have been sort of busy.…

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A New Year

I have no resolutions except to live my life the best way possible. I am a saxophone player, so I practice. I want to stay healthy, so I try to eat right and exercise (as usual). I want to be someone people can count on as a friend, a dad, an uncle, or a brother, so that’s what I will strive to be. I feel different this year. I have no parent alive to call or talk to when I need to. I still have…

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Merry Christmas and Goodbye

I’ve been in Texas for a little over a month. I had a few days with my dad while he was able to talk. Then he got weaker. He had already stopped eating. When I got here he was in the hospital. I believe he knew he was dying. He wanted to go home. He absolutely refused to go to a rehab/ nursing facility. We brought him home where we sat with him as he made the transition. He passed away last week…

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Nights With Alzheimer's

My dad becomes very restless at night. He cannot get out of bed unassisted, but he is constantly trying to get up in the middle of the night to get dressed. The other day, he kept saying he needed to find a job. He spent his whole life working. He always had a job and worked until he was at least 75. I don’t exactly know what goes on in the mind of an Alzheimer/dementia patient at night, but he…

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Caring for My Dad

0440: I woke up to my sister screaming my name this morning. She was trying to get my dad into the shower when he passed out. He had become dead weight. We got him out of the shower and opted for a warm sponge bath. He seemed out of it for a while but seemed back to normal. We got him cleaned up and back in bed. The reason for the shower was diarrhea. We ended up changing the bedding before…

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My Dad-Life of the Elderly

Wednesday, Oct 29. I have not posted in a while. I have been okay. However, I have been having a few pain issues with my back and especially my left foot. I may have a condition known as Plantar Fasciitis, where the band of tough tissue connecting the heel bone to the toes becomes irritated or inflamed. It is not a pleasant feeling. 😟 It hurts when I lie down and wake up in the mornings.…

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So That Went Well (not)

It was Labor Day weekend! What was I thinking? 🤔 My family is one fantastic bunch of people who love to enjoy themselves, and when I am with them, I jump on the ride! My son What can I say? A good time was had by all (Me!). My son, his grandmother, and I left Pensacola, FL, Friday morning. We dropped Mawmaw off in Louisiana and headed for Texas. The closer we got to our destination, the more I…

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The Challenge of Eating Right While Traveling

My daughter was “winged” yesterday. She is officially a naval aviator! I drove to Pensacola, Florida, for the ceremony. I am retired from the enlisted Navy, and my daughter is a Navy officer. I got to pin her wings at the ceremony. My family and I are very proud of her. My son is working on his master’s degree, focusing on Homeland Security and terrorism. He seems to thrive in this subject…

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Breaking the Under-Eating Cycle: Strategies for Sustainable Caloric Increase

So, I think I have been under-eating. Consuming no carbs and getting plenty of protein and fat is so satisfying that I am rarely hungry. However, I need to eat more! According to the app I’m using to track my macros, my current weight indicates that I need to consume around 2763 calories daily, and that’s a -14% deficit to reach my goal weight sometime next year. At most, I have only been…

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A Battle To The Death

For the past four weeks, I have avoided sweets, high-carb foods, and processed foods, and because of that, I have lost a few pounds. For months, I had not been consistent. I kept going off diet and gaining and losing the same weight over and over. It has been more difficult than I remember at the start of this journey. I got off plan when I visited my Dad in Texas, and once I returned to South…

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My Battle Against Sugar Cravings

This week’s weather has kept me out of the gym. Planet Fitness has been closed because of tropical storm Debby, off the coast of South Carolina and Georgia. Planet Fitness is in Monks Corner, where there was a tornado a few days ago. The tropical storm caused the tornado, which caused quite a bit of damage at a car dealership and Arby’s. I suspect that Arby’s won’t be opening for several weeks.…

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Overcoming Guilt and Pain: My Journey to a Stronger and Healthier Self

I had another great workout today. Yesterday, however, I had another sugar binge. I also didn’t go to the gym because of back pain. Thinking back, I felt guilty for not going. That made me feel like a failure, which caused me to give in to my sugar cravings. Then, feelings of shame reared their ugly head. That could have derailed me today, but I skipped breakfast and went to the gym. Yesterday’s…

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Making Progress: My Journey to Overcome Obesity

So, I started the year morbidly obese according to my weight and BMI (Body Mass Index). At the beginning of January, I weighed approximately 260 pounds. I’m only 5′ 6″ (smallish frame). Those numbers give me a body mass index of 42 (morbidly obese). It makes me sound like some disfigured circus sideshow. space According to the BMI chart, a normal weight for my height (it doesn’t differentiate…

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Using Fat For Fuel

I have been working to remain on the zero-carb diet for approximately six months. Although I only sometimes succeed, I usually don’t have carbs in my system. Conventional wisdom says that without carbohydrates, you won’t have enough energy to move, let alone a workout. I have not had any problems with energy. I started the diet around January 22. About a week later, I started walking for an hour…

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Morbid

As I said at the end of my last post, I am coming to terms with how I look and might appear to others. I began to see it a few months ago. I was encouraged to take pictures, “before shots,” to be shown after my success. However, taking the photos and viewing them have made me very self-conscious about my body. It looks disgusting to me and I can’t imagine it looks any different to anyone…

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My Struggles/New Doctor

My posts are getting farther and farther apart. It doesn’t mean I’m not working to achieve my goal. I have had some struggles. Sugar addiction is a real problem. Once I end up on a binge, it is very hard to get myself under control. In May, I visited my dad in Texas for a couple of weeks while my sister was out of town. My dad needed someone to stay with him while she was gone. Having to make…

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He Worked In Literal Hell

I am in Texas with my Dad again. He will be 86 on his birthday this year. He has glaucoma, a slight bit of dementia, and some weakness, which I attribute to old age. I know there are people in their 80s who are not as weak. However, they didn’t live the life my father did. My Dad is uneducated, so he has had to take whatever job he could get to take care of his family. And he was more than…