.--. .--. .--. .--. .--. .--. .--. :::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\ ' `--' `--' `--' `--' `--' `--' DATE : 2020.02.08 TIME : 12:34 AUTHOR : SNOWCRASH@SDF.ORG MOOD : CONTENT TITLE : LONG BREAK LOOK-BACK .--. .--. .--. .--. .--. .--. .--. :::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\::::::::.\ ' `--' `--' `--' `--' `--' `--' Well it certainly has been a while since I have written a phlog. This was not intentional I can assure you, rather an unfortunate side effect of an overly busy life. So what have I been up to? How have I been feeling? Let's get into it shall we. We should start with health and fitness. Last year I found myself in the precarious situation of having gone 9 months (3 x 3 month fasting bloodwork sessions) with an A1C (average blood glucose for 90 days) of 9.4-9.5. For those that are not diabetic, let me just say that its a terrible score, even more so for someone who was already on multiple diabetes medicines. I am fortunate that my doctor is a straight shooter who doesn't pull any punches, I was looking at having to go to injectable insulin, which was a hard "Fuck No" from me, and a wake up call to make life changes which I did. I went on a low-carb keto diet and started walking my dog. He was a big fan of this decision and continues to be a great walking partner. After three months on keto my A1C was down to 4.9 (really fucking good) and my other bad cholesterol numbers were down as well. A big win for sure. But one thing those first three months really taught me, more than any other time I have gone on diets it how important it is to change habits and mentally how I view food. The brain is a highly elastic computer, but it is resistant to change. My brain loves carbs, it adores pizza, basically if its bad for me I love to eat it, I get pleasure from eating bad food, and this can often be a challenge. If I am stressed, depressed, run down etc. and am looking for some comfort, food has always been my go to release. I realized then that this really had to change or any results I would find now would eventually get undone as they have so many other times over the last few decades. I still stuggle with these old habits. When I have a cheat moment, and I do occasionally have them, usually on things like birthdays or holiday's I have to be especially aware of how much I let myself eat. I am not to a point where I will just stop, it's like those habits are still there just under lock and chain. So that's definitely something I will be working on for a while to come. In November I was turning 50 and had a bunch of money I didn't know what to spend it on, and my wife wanted to get me something nice for the big decade birthday. I decided to pick up an Apple Watch. At that point I think I was 50 lbs down and really was interested in seeing if it would help me continue with my fitness motivation. I am happy to report that it has made a huge impact. In December I missed out on having a perfect fitness month (closing all the move/exercise/stand rings each week) by one day due to travel. This sucked but I ended up getting it in January! I am just a few days now away from hitting my 100 move ring close award. For those not familiar with the Apple Watch it sets a daily goal for you that is depicted by three concentric rings, the idea is to close all three rings each day. The stand goal is to stand and move around once every hour for one minute for 12 hours (easy). The exercise ring is to get 30 minutes of active exercise a day, either from actually working out or being active doing other things where your heart rate is raised. The move ring is set to a daily calore burn goal that you set each week. I started out at 300 calories a day but quickly moved up to where I am now which is 1000 calories a day. I've been really surprised how motivated this has made me. I recently had my second 3 month fasting bloodwork and I am happy to report that my A1C went from 4.9 to 4.8 and my cholesterol is even better. My doctor decided to take me off two of my prescriptions which is great. I am really hoping that as I continue to lose weight that I can eventually keep reducing the number of prescriptions I need. Speaking of weight, as of yesterday I have now lost 78 pounds. I am roughly 40-50 pounds to my goal weight of 190-200. I could not be happier. Activity wise I am now jogging 3 miles per day. I think if I continue to do my diet and keep exercising that I might be able to make my goal weight before next Christmas. This is really motivating for me because losing weight is directly tied to the goal I set for myself when this all started which was to go for a solo backpacking trip once I got to my goal weight. I have used a CPAP machine for the last 18 years because of my weight. If I can get the weight off it is very likely that I will no longer need the CPAP machine (or at least be at a point where if I don't use it the number of episodes I have are minimal) which is key to being able to go backpacking. So we will see how it goes. All I can do is take it one day at a time. That's all for now. I am anxiously awaiting an old Thinkpad T60 to be delivered today. I snagged it off ebay for $35.00! Looking forward to putting OpenBSD on it and learning BSD. Talk to you soon! -Snowcrash