1000 Days & Counting

It was 1000 days ago - according to Pam- that I had my thorocotomy and changed my life. Prior to that I was in the denial program that so many are in right now.

I was sick and didn't even recognize it. All of the doctors said that I must have had pneumonia to get the infection in my pleura that led to my left lung being mostly collapsed, but I didn't feel sick. I'm confident that I would recognize the illness now though.

I got there over time. I was pretty active when I was in my 20's. I biked and used to love a good pickup game of basketball. I got to where I would go to scary neighborhoods because the games were better, but I quit that when too many people said they were going to get a gun to settle on court disputes. Somewhere along the line life got in the way of activity and I got sick.

I became a really good cook and found all of the tricks to jack up flavor without thinking about the fat and sodium content. I also didn't think about alternatives to the "cheats" I was employing to jack up flavor. I didn't ask myself "Should I" I only asked "Can I?"

I found myself drinking more I suppose as we could afford to. Four nights a week sometimes at Moctezuma's drinking 4 or more Margaritas on the rocks that had to be 6-800 calories each with huge amounts of sugar to go with tons of fried food so I could get my fats as well.

The bigger you get the less you do so the spiral down continues. More jacking up of food flavor becomes necessary as you continuously overwhelm your taste buds with fat and salt and sugar to the point where you salt stuff at restaurants. That stuff already has high sodium content.

So there I was in the 270 pound area. I didn't get on the scale much when I was big because I am not a huge fan of despair, but when I started going to the Doc-In-The-Box they weighed me all the time and that was where I started.

I was sick from just after Christmas 2009 until the surgery at the end of January so I lost some weight along the way. It turns out most of what I lost was mass from laying around sick for a month, but I was 15 pounds lighter when I got released.

The rehab included walking which is now more of an obsession for both Athena and I. The side benefits have been a new love for the out of doors including hiking, snowshoeing and a renewed love for biking.

I am a way better cook now than I ever was before. I can actually taste things properly so I can add what is necessary and not too much of the wrong things. My mind and skin are clearer and I have a more hopeful and optimistic view on life. I still struggle with trying to find good first when dealing with other inhabitants of our planet - particularly other drivers - but I am trying. It can be hard to unlearn 50 years of biases and reactions.

So here I am 1000 days later with 20 pounds or so left to lose and a ways to go to become who I will become, but change starts with the simple statement "I will" and everything else follows. That's the update for now.

Be very well and more soon....